Thirty years ago I visited my first cousin in Virginia. While hanging out with his friends, the discussion turned to popular movies of the day. When I offered my two-cents on the authenticity and social relevance of the movie “Billy Jack”, one of the boys asked in all seriousness, “Do you guys have movie theaters down there?” To which I replied, “Yep, and we wear shoes, too.”

Just three years ago, my wife and I were attending a food and wine seminar in Aspen, Colo. We were seated with two couples from Las Vegas. One of the Glitter Gulch gals was amazed, amused and downright rude when I described our restaurant as a fine-dining restaurant. “Mississippi doesn’t have fine-dining restaurants!” she demanded, as she snickered and nudged her companion.

I fought back the strong desire to mention that she lived in the land that invented the 99-cent breakfast buffet, but resisted. I wanted badly to defend my state and my restaurant with a 15-minute soliloquy and public relations rant that surely would change her mind. It was at that precise moment that I was hit with a blinding jolt of enlightenment, and in a moment of complete and absolute clarity it dawned on me – my South is the best-kept secret in the country. Why would I try and win this woman over? She might move down here.
 
I am always amused by Hollywood’s interpretation of the South. We are still on occasion depicted as a collective group of sweaty, stupid, backwards-minded and racist rednecks. The South of movies and TV, the Hollywood South, is not my South.

My South is full of honest, hard-working people.
My South is colorblind. In my South, we don’t put a premium on pigment. No one cares
        whether you are black, white, red or green with orange polka dots.
My South is the birthplace of blues and jazz, and rock-and-roll. It has banjo pickers         and fiddle players, but it is also has B.B. King, Muddy Waters, the
Allman Brothers, Emmylou Harris and Elvis.
My South is hot.
My South smells of newly mown grass.
My South was the South of “The Partridge Family”, “Hawaii 5-0” and kick the can.
My South was creek swimming, cane-pole fishing and bird hunting.
In my South, football is king, and the Southeastern Conference is the kingdom.
My South is home to the most beautiful women on the planet.
In my South, soul food and country cooking are the same thing.
My South is full of fig preserves, cornbread, butter beans, fried chicken, grits and catfish.
In my South we eat foie gras, caviar and truffles.
In my South, our transistor radios introduced us to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at
 the same time they were introduced to the rest of the country.
In my South, grandmothers cook a big lunch every Sunday.
In my South, family matters, deeply.
My South is boiled shrimp, blackberry cobbler, peach ice cream, banana pudding and
 oatmeal cream pies.
In my South people put peanuts in bottles of Coca-Cola and hot sauce on almost
everything.
In my South the tea is iced and almost as sweet as the women.
My South has air-conditioning.
My South is camellias, azaleas, wisteria and hydrangeas.
My South is humid.
In my South, the only person who has to sit on the back of the bus is the last person who
got on the bus.
In my South, people still say “yes, ma’am”, “no, ma’am”, “please” and “thank you”.
In my South, we all wear shoes … most of the time.

My South is the best-kept secret in the country. Please continue to keep the secret … it keeps the idiots away.


Duck Confit Nachos

2 tablespoons clarified butter
1/2 cup     yellow onion, small dice
1/4 cup red bell pepper, small dice
1/4 cup green bell pepper, small dice
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 cup duck confit, rough chopped into small pieces
1 1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, grated
1 sweet potato
cottonseed oil for frying

In a medium skillet, heat clarified butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and peppers. Sauté until vegetables are soft. Add garlic and Creole seasoning. Cook for two minutes and remove skillet from heat. Transfer sautéed mixture to a plate and allow to cool in the refrigerator. When mixture is cool, place in a mixing bowl with the duck confit and pepper jack cheese and mix thoroughly. This step can be done a day ahead.
Heat oil to 350 degrees on a deep-fat thermometer.

 Peel sweet potato and slice into paper-thin potato-chip-like slices. Pat dry and fry in oil until crispy but still bright orange. Drain well on paper towels to help chips stay crispy. This step can be done 30 minutes before serving.
To make nachos, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place sweet potato chips one inch apart on a cookie sheet. Top chips with 1 heaping tablespoon of duck mixture and place in oven. Cook until cheese is melted and nachos are warm.