Nashville Public Library
12/18/2004 - 1/2/2005
615 Church Street
Nashville, TN
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Contact: Seth Alexander
Nashville Public Library
Telephone: (615) 862-5755
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 3, 2004
CHEFS, AUTHOR TO EXPLORE BEATEN BISCUITS, GREENS
AND HOW TO CREATE COOKBOOKS AT MAIN LIBRARY
Food programs tied to Smithsonian exhibit Key Ingredients at library
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The library is cooking up special demonstrations on how to prepare traditional beaten biscuits and great tasting turnip greens, along with a side of how to design your own family cookbook, to go with its main course for December: a Smithsonian Institution exhibit on the American food culture and its history.
Key Ingredients: America by Food, which explores the historical, regional and social traditions that merge in everyday meals and celebrations, opens on Saturday, Dec. 18 at the Main Library. The exhibit examines the evolution of the American kitchen and the food industry through a selection of artifacts, illustrations and photographs.
Local chefs Martha Stamps, of Martha’s at the Plantation, and Carolyn Simmons, of Carolyn’s Homestyle Kitchen & Catering, will join cookbook author and Tennessean columnist Ken Beck in presenting three food-related programs the week following the opening of the exhibit, which will be on display in the library’s entry hall through Jan. 2.
Stamps will discuss and prepare samples of a distinctively Southern treat during “Beaten Biscuits: a Southern Tradition” on Monday, Dec. 20 at 11:30 a.m. in the library’s conference center. Whereas most biscuits are soft and light, the now somewhat rare beaten biscuit, which originated in the South in the 1800s, is hard and crisp.
The following day Beck, who has compiled several books on The Andy Griffith Show, including Aunt Bee's Mayberry Cookbook and Aunt Bee’s Delightful Desserts, will share tips on how to create cookbooks that can be both practical and historical, and how to do so by using a home computer, friends, family and a little ingenuity.
“Down-home Cookbooks Made From Scratch” is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 21 in the library’s conference center. Beck encourages those planning to attend to bring their favorite family recipes to share with others during a recipe swap that will follow his presentation.
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FOOD PROGRAMS, SMITHSONIAN EXHIBIT AT LIBRARY / Page 2
In addition to offering advice on how to put together family cookbooks, as well as cookbooks for fundraising groups, Beck also will share tips on creating cookbooks that are sure to be prized for more than just the recipes by including extras like photographs of people and places or ones taken during special events.
The final food program will focus on a time-honored Southern staple that can be a bit tricky to get just right. “The Secret to Great Greens,” a cooking demonstration devoted to turnip greens, will be presented by Carolyn Simmons in the library’s conference center on Wednesday, Dec. 22 at 11:30 a.m.
All three food programs, as well as the Key Ingredients exhibit, are free and open to the public. Parking at the Main Library, located at 615 Church St., is free for one hour with validation in the attached garage. Entrances to the Library Parking Garage are on Sixth and Seventh avenues between Church and Commerce streets.
Key Ingredients is part of the Museum on Main Street collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. The exhibit’s tour of Tennessee has been made possible by Humanities Tennessee. For more details about the exhibit visit www.tn-humanities.org/keying.htm.
Martha Stamps, an honors graduate from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), says that her cooking is influenced by the classical training she received at the CIA as well as by traditional Caribbean, Creole and Southern foods. In addition to running her restaurant at the historic Belle Meade Plantation, Stamps also is the author of four cookbooks, including The New Southern Basics, Fall Harvest and Spring Pleasures.
Ken Beck has been a feature writer and trivia columnist for The Tennessean for 27 years, and, in addition to The Andy Griffith Show, has authored several books on other television shows as well as movies. Despite compiling more than a dozen cookbooks during the past 15 years, Beck is quick to admit that he “cannot cook a lick.”
Despite majoring in accounting while attending Tennessee State University, Carolyn Simmons has been in the food industry for nearly 30 years. She started Carolyn’s Homestyle Kitchen & Catering, located downtown in the Sunday School Publishing Board National Baptist Convention building, in 1990 after leaving Atlanta the previous year to return to her hometown.
Call the Main Library at (615) 862-5753 for more information about the programs, or visit the library’s website at www.library.nashville.org.
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For more information, contact:
Hannah Miller
615-862-5814
hannah.miller@nashville.gov