5 Questions with a Foodie: Kendra Bailey Morris

“5 Questions with a Foodie" is our new column in which we chat with a local foodie. This time: Kendra Bailey Morris, Richmond cookbook author, food, travel and recipe developer.

About Kendra Bailey Morris …

I’ve been a working writer for about 15 years. Currently, I write and develop recipes for Better Homes and Gardens and have culinary travel column with The Away Network (Orbitz).

Other publications that I write for include: National Public Radio, CNN's Eatocracy, Saveur.com, The Washington Post, AOL, the We Women's Network, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where I used to have a column called “The Accidental Chef.”  

I am also a cookbook author with Random House (Ten Speed Press) and recently started my own food, cooking and travel blog called “Fatback and Foie Gras: travels and eats with side of bacon grease.”
 
I’ve done a bit of media as well, from television to radio, including co-hosting a weekly home and cooking show called “Homemade Simple” for The Learning Channel and doing several radio podcasts for NPR’s “Kitchen Window”.

Got my MFA in creative nonfiction from VCU and studied French culinary arts at the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE) in New York. I also used to teach quite a few cooking classes for Sur La Table and Williams and Sonoma.

How do you define the term foodie and do you consider yourself one?

I was recently reading a blog post in the New York Times by Alexandra Jacobs called “Grass Fed Up” that rather brilliantly explores how, as she so eloquently puts it, “Foodie fanaticism is giving the rest of us indigestion.”  

According to Jacobs, the term “foodie” once only applied to a small group of individuals who, “…lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, lined up at the Silver Palate on weekends and occasionally roasted a chicken breast in a packet of aluminum foil with something peculiar, like raspberries,” whereas now, everyone seems to be a foodie in one sense or another.

The blogosphere is replete with blogs that offer all forms of restaurant criticism and commentary, culinary themes, recipes, cooking instruction—you name it. Food blogs were, for the most part, created by “foodies” who wanted to share their love (obsession?) of eating, dining out, cooking, whatever—the world clicked on their pages to read about what was eaten for dinner, cooked and photographed in full food-porn glory. As a result, the food blog world has grown from a couple hundred blogs to nearly 12,000 today (according to Technorati). One cannot begin to estimate the number of foodies who extend out from this number, either as blog lurkers or bloggers themselves.

In some ways, this explosion of foodie-dom has been good and, in some ways, not so good. For example, much good has come from people of all walks of life and finances finally educating themselves on the importance of sustainable/organic cooking and eating practices and the local explosion of farmer’s markets in the Richmond area has been nothing but a great thing. I love that I can now hit the Saturday market in town and find gorgeous artisan-made crusty bread and locally made goat cheese.

In my opinion, the not-so-great byproduct of such a sudden and large onslaught of foodies has been the unfortunate rise in culinary one-upmanship (or is it food elitism?) that seems to come along with the territory. For many so-called foodies, no longer is a plain ‘ole slice of chocolate cake good enough (and don’t even think of busting out the Duncan Hines), it must now be lavender-ginger-infused mini cupcakes or handmade salted caramels and they’d better be served with fair trade, hand-roasted coffee. And, don’t even get me started on food trends. I’ll just say this—when I heard that pimento cheese was trending for 2011, I nearly spit out my saltine.

Just recently, I got into a conversation with several nationally recognized food writers (and cookbook authors) regarding what one should do if invited to dinner at a non-foodie’s house and, God forbid, the host has put out a bottle of Kraft blue cheese instead of homemade dressing. Shockingly, this debate went on and on, with said writers arguing when and if, as the resident experts, they should step in to educate their host(s) on such a foodie debacle.  After we all agreed to disagree, I was left with one burning question: When the heck did this become a problem? When did we start trumping basic politeness for our own food-snobbish ideals?

So, to answer the question, “Do I consider myself a foodie?”—I have a food blog, I love cooking and eating and I write about it often as my sole source of income. So, does that make me a foodie, a food writer, blogger, all of the above? Honestly, I don’t know. All I know is that if any of you invite me over and put out bottled dressing, I sincerely won’t give a crap.

If you could pick the best components of a few Richmond restaurants to create one super fabulous restaurant, what would they be?

I’d take the laid-back, cozy, humble food scene that’s found in so many Richmond Fan joints and watering holes such as Joe’s Inn, Sidewalk Café and Davis and Main. Add in the wine list and little-bite apps from Secco (specifically the octopus); throw in some slaw-topped Benny’s BBQ; the Gruyere-topped burger and frites from Can Can; Ware Neck oysters on the half shell from The Boathouse (or Lemaire); roasted chicken (along with that mystery yellow sauce) from Chicken Fiesta; all the Belgian beers on tap and the grilled quail at Mekong; the sausage pizza from Mary Angela’s; the Peking duck from Mandarin Palace; the broccoletti and lamb shank from Mamma Zu’s; and one of Luke’s blue cheese martinis from the bar at Fleming’s. Oh yeah, add in the open kitchen from Millie’s along with, basically, every dessert they make. This isn’t too much to ask, no?

How did you get into food and cooking?

My love of cooking began at home watching and helping my mom and my grannies in West Virginia. We take food quite seriously in our family, with pretty much all of our activities revolving around mealtime in one way or another. All of the women (and quite a few of the men, including my father) are excellent cooks. From bread baking to canning, most of what I learned came from the family kitchen and it’s all totally homemade from the ground up.

However, I also did my time in restaurants (both front and back of the house), worked for a variety of catering companies and studied at the ICE before starting my own business, The Accidental Chef, which offered both public and private cooking classes, dinners etc. I also completed my bachelor’s in English and master’s in creative writing, so that’s where the food writing part comes into play.

If I were to ask your significant other or best friend what your worst “foodie” trait is, what would they say?

Territorializing the kitchen. I know I do it and it drives my husband nuts. Whenever he makes dinner for me, I practically have to be tied down so he can cook in peace without any comments from the peanut gallery.

Describe your perfect meals for one full day.

A full country breakfast with scrambled eggs, Mabry Mill grits, biscuits, sausage gravy, country ham and my grandma’s fried apple pies for dessert.

A dozen Rappahannock oysters (or Wellfleets) on the half shell with a glass of Pinot Gris. Then, maybe a lobster roll and fries or a really simple Salade Nicoise.

I love braised meats such as lamb shanks, crosscut shanks or short ribs, so maybe some slow-cooked beef or lamb served atop pappardelle with a ridiculous amount of Parmesan cheese. Perhaps there would be a simple salad of mixed greens, goat cheese and roasted beets in vinaigrette to start and a rich, creamy crème brulee for dessert with a glass of aged port.