Join us in the bookstore for the celebration of Robert F. Moss’ newest book The Lost Southern Chefs: A History of Commercial Dining in the Nineteenth-Century South and a presentation on 200 years of Charleston fine dining!
Please join us in the bookstore as we welcome Robert F. Moss to the podium for a talk on The Lost Southern Chefs: 200 Years of Charleston Fine Dining and his latest book on the subject! Robert is the Contributing Barbecue Editor for Southern Living, Restaurant Critic for the Post & Courier, and a frequent contributor to publications including Serious Eats, Early American Life, Garden & Gun, and The Local Palate. His most recent book, The Lost Southern Chefs: A History of Commercial Dining in the Nineteenth-Century South, fills in important gaps in the history of Southern food by telling for the first time the full story of restaurant, hotel, and saloon dining in the South, and his talk will draw upon the material in the book to tell the story of restaurant dining in Charleston from the 1820s straight through today. Robert is one of the most important Southern food historians, and he is an expert storyteller so this is sure to be an informative, engaging and entertaining talk! Refreshments and some tastes of Charleston cuisine will be provided. This is a FREE event, but RSVPs are encouraged; please email rsvp@buxtonbooks.com to reserve your spot!
About Robert F. Moss:
Robert Moss is a food writer and culinary historian based in Charleston, South Carolina. He is the author of Southern Spirits: Four Hundred Years of Drinking in the American South and Barbecue: The History of an American Institution. He is currently the contributing barbecue editor for Southern Living and the restaurant critic for the Post & Courier in Charleston.
About The Lost Southern Chefs
In recent years, food writers and historians have begun to retell the story of southern food. Heirloom ingredients and traditional recipes have been rediscovered, the foundational role that African Americans played in the evolution of southern cuisine is coming to be recognized, and writers are finally clearing away the cobwebs of romantic myth that have long distorted the picture. The story of southern dining, however, remains incomplete.
The Lost Southern Chefs begins to fill that niche by charting the evolution of commercial dining in the nineteenth-century South. Robert F. Moss punctures long-accepted notions that dining outside the home was universally poor, arguing that what we would today call "fine dining" flourished throughout the region as its towns and cities grew. Moss describes the economic forces and technological advances that revolutionized public dining, reshaped commercial pantries, and gave southerners who loved to eat a wealth of restaurants, hotel dining rooms, oyster houses, confectionery stores, and saloons.
Most important, Moss tells the forgotten stories of the people who drove this culinary revolution. These men and women fully embodied the title "chef," as they were the chiefs of their kitchens, directing large staffs, staging elaborate events for hundreds of guests, and establishing supply chains for the very best ingredients from across the expanding nation. Many were African Americans or recent immigrants from Europe, and they achieved culinary success despite great barriers and social challenges. These chefs and entrepreneurs became embroiled in the pitched political battles of Reconstruction and Jim Crow, and then their names were all but erased from history.
This is a free event but RSVPs are encouraged through RSVP@buxtonbooks.com