Flavors Unknown

Ted Lee – Home Cook and Writer

The Lee Brothers Credit Ovation TV

Ted Lee from the Lee Brothers: “we grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. It's a very particular region of the south. So we didn't know a lot about eastern Kentucky or the panhandle of Florida. And so then this other phase of our lives, with magazines paying us to go to different regions of the south that we didn't know. To write about them was so exciting. We learned so much because remember, we don't have a southern grandmother. We grew up in Charleston, but neither of our parents grew up there. So we had to learn everything about southern food from somebody else's mother or grandmother.”

What we covered in this episode

Ted Lee from The Lee Brothers is a home cook and a writer.
Him and his brother moved to Charleston, SC when he was 8 and his brother Matt 10.
They developed their orientation towards food during their childhood.
It all started with Boiled Peanuts in Charleston, SC and the Lee Bros. Boiled Peanut Catalog.
They published their first cook book “Southern Cookbook” in 2006.
Ted Lee talks about how to write a successful cookbook?
The most existing cookbooks today are personal cookbook.
The most critical element for writing a recipe cookbook is to invest in independent recipe testing.
“You can make money. Usually the book sort of breaks even, but it serves every other aspect of your business.”
The Lee Bros. developed a cookbook writing workshop in Charleston, SC called “Cookbook Boot Camp”.
Ted described the 6 seminars of the curriculum: “Finding a Voice”, “Defining you Kitchen Vision”, “Keeping your Material Fresh”, “Creating a Test-Kitchen Practice”, “How you are going to Tell your Story”, and “Marketing & Publicity”.
We discuss about Charleston being one of the main food travel destination in the US and the food from the Low Country.
Ted Lee introduces their new book called “Hotbox” about catering and tells many stories linked to their experience in the catering industry.
Listen to the full podcast to learn more cookbook writing, the low country, and the behind the scenes of the catering business.
Link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcast http://bit.ly/Ted_Lee

Submitted questions from podcast listeners

How do you make pimento cheese?

The cheese in a pimento cheese is usually typically an orange-colored sharp cheddar cheese. I use a white cheddar, really aged with some age on it with seems almost crystalline structure which makes it so delicious. I also used Poblano. The Poblano peppers are roasted and then pickled. And it is just a completely different but familiar flavor. It is like green chili pimento cheese. I use cream cheese and mayonnaise in it, which is sort of controversial. Some people only think it's only mayonnaise, but I like the combination. There are so many different spins you can do on pimento cheese, but that one with the extra sharp cheddar and roasted pickled planters is extraordinary.

What is the difference between Low Country, Gullah, and Soul Food?

There's a lot in common between the cuisines. You mentioned Gullah Geechee cooking, low country cooking and soul food. I would say they all have their origins in the migration of enslaved Africans to North America. That's the origin of those things. And you can see this in a dish that's sort of a classic low country dish like red rice. You can see the sort of connections to the West African joloff rice. It's a huge influence.
I would say that what's important is to get away from defining them or defining them as sort of oppositional. But finding the proximity, and especially finding a chef who can guide you through that, through their personal experience, either through a book or by meeting them.

What is the difference between a chef and a caterer?

It's so different. Very rarely are you cooking things to order. So if you are doing a gala with six hundred people who get served filet tenderloin or lamb chops, those proteins should be seared in a deep fryer the day before. Just to get the color on them and then killed down in the walk in. And then it would be moved to the venue in a transport cabinet which, once on site, is turned into a hot box, all the food pulled from it and transformed using sterno and sheet pans into a warming oven. And so it's a completely different practice than what restaurant chefs are used to. It’s always most plated dinners at simultaneous service. So you're really building a kitchen that's meant to serve out the first course. The second course and the third course, all the same plate within 15 minutes, instead of having the bell curve that a restaurant has over the course of the evening where the orders come in.

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The great thing about cookbooks is there can be all kinds of them and as long as they are of quality, and the recipes tested, they will find an audience.

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You can make money. Usually the book sort of breaks even, but it serves every other aspect of your business.

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The most exciting books that are being done today are the most personal book. The ones that really are from an accomplished cook who's telling about how who they became resulted in the food they serve and why people love it.

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The Chefs today are more in tune with telling stories about themselves and their ancestors, where they've come from, where they're going, and really situating their own kitchen practice between the past and the present and the future.

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There is no visibility because they're working in special events catering. It's all designed to focus attention on whoever is being celebrated. The people behind the scenes are not the story.

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