DISPLAY: Museum of South's food in the works

By Michael Hastings
JOURNAL FOOD EDITOR

One of the South's preeminent food cities will add another attraction for food lovers beginning Saturday when the Southern Food and Beverage Museum opens its first exhibit in New Orleans.

The museum's goal is to help people discover, understand and appreciate the food and drink of the South.

"Right now, we are in the process of collecting artifacts and records," said Elizabeth Williams, the museum's president. "We really want to have a record of the food industry of the South. And I don't mean just commercial industry, but home cooking and everything."

Williams, a part-time faculty member in the University of New Orleans' Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, said that New Orleans is a natural choice for the museum, but that its scope will reach beyond the city's borders.

"New Orleans is a food city. People already come to New Orleans for the cuisine," Williams said. "But if you focus on one place, you don't tell the whole story."

Representing 16 states

The permanent collection and changing exhibits are expected to represent 16 states from West Virginia to Florida and from North Carolina to Texas.

The museum is in temporary headquarters and physically exists only in the preview exhibit. The museum plans to find a permanent home in New Orleans next year. Williams said she has been scouting for sites in the range of 35,000 to 50,000 square feet.

Plans call for a test kitchen for demonstrations and tastings and a research center for people studying the food and drink of the South.

"We are trying to form alliances with universities throughout the South that have Southern studies, or especially a culinary interest," Williams said.

"I'm hoping we can become a place of coordination of all the different things related to culinary matters."

The museum's mission includes study of the many cultures that have contributed to the South's culinary heritage; the farmers, hunters and fishermen who have produced the food; and the chefs, restaurateurs and home cooks who have helped bring the food to the table.

The museum also hopes to coordinate special events at such other venues as restaurants and theaters.

"Our idea is to not have just a permanent collection on display," Williams said. "Cuisine is a living thing; it's not static."

Plenty of drinks

The preview exhibit raises a glass to New Orleans' famous beverages - and its reputation as a drinker's town. Nothing less could be expected of a place whose best-known thoroughfare is called Bourbon Street. But the exhibit also will deal with such homegrown products as Barq's sodas, Luzianne tea and the Cafe du Monde's chicory-laced cafe au lait.

The exhibit, on display through August, also will include presentations and demonstrations of new beverages by local celebrities and historians.

Williams said that though fund-raising for a museum that doesn't physically exist is challenging, the response so far from corporations and individuals has been good.

"We've been very gratified," she said. "People say, 'What? You mean there isn't already a food museum of the South?'"

The preview exhibit is in the New Orleans City Centre, 1400 Poydras St. For more information, visit www.southernfood.org or call (504) 539-9617.

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