Lexington Books Real Southern Barbecue: Constructing Authenticity in Southern Food Culture

This book examines how processes and rhetoric surrounding a specific food product-and food culture as a whole-shape the food appearing on our plates and how they impact people's health and market dynamics. The book takes an in-depth look at barbecue chefs and restaurant owners to triangulate the relationship between producers and their products. It explores the intersection of deindustrialization, commercialization, and changing health concerns as well as the changes in food culture, highlighting the need for producers to justify their positioning in response to commercialization and changing environmental laws and concerns. Finally, it analyzes the creation of authentic food products and questions how these products evolve over time in response to changes in broader society. Review Kaitland Byrd's Real Southern Barbecue is not your Grandpappy's nostalgia for the joys of chopped pork. Byrd recognizes that barbecue restaurants must operate on the illusion of authenticity - the idea of the rural South. However, she also realizes insightfully, surprisingly, and crucially that in the 21st Century, these establishments must meld tradition with contemporary values. Increasingly BBQ shacks must be healthy, environmentally-friendly, socially conscious, and operating within a modern economy. The balance is not always easy or comfortable. Relying on interviews with pitmasters, Byrd delights in puncturing our culturally-set illusions about Southern foodways. I was startled and delighted by Byrd's refusal to accept the myth of unchanging 'cue.--Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University, author of "Everyday Genius: The Culture of Authenticity in Self-Taught Art" About the Author Kaitland M. Byrd is lecturer in sociology at Virginia Tech.