Eat Your Vegetables with Chadwick Boyd
Quite a while ago I had the chance to interview Chadwick Boyd when he came to Macon for the Historic Macon Design, Wine, and Dine fundraiser. And, sadly, life has been so busy for me as of late that I’m just now getting the interview up!
But before we talk about that, let’s address how his presentation on vegetables is still with me now? Because of Chadwick, I now want to use Sriracha in EVERYTHING. Everything. He made the most amazing cauliflower seasoned with Sriracha and other items…. but I won’t give it away since he just had a book come out. (Which y’all should go and get.) But let’s go ahead and get to what we talked about, shall we?
The funny thing was the last interview I had on my iPad app was not actually one I conducted, but one I recorded for my friend Tess with In Fine Feather blog. She got to interview Hugh Acheson and I was lucky enough to tag along. I mentioned this to Chadwick and he said “[Hugh] is so smart and simple and I have a lot of respect for him. He’s been such a champion for vegetables and I think I the true way and has been one of the…. trailblazers is not the right word…. he’s just been out there talking about vegetables and helping to get meat and vegetables equal time on a plate and I just really appreciate that.”
SBV: ” There’s a lot of really interesting things happening with the food movement these days, it’s got to be really interesting for you, can you tell me about that?”
CB: ” I think what’s really interesting is that I’m a very visual person and we really do eat with our eyes and I think what’s really interesting is about food right now is that we are using all parts of our foods. Which means from a color standpoint our plates are more colorful, there are more textures now in the foods that we eat. Katie Lee was on The Kitchen talking about root to peel, which means that we’re using skins more now in our cooking. I love the texture that brings to [items]. I think creativity is celebrated more. We’ve got now a few generations now that have come up watching food television, I think that is fueling more creativity. We’ve got more foods available to us now. The Fresh Market here in Macon has got awesome foods. So I think people’s interest and desire to be more creative is a really great thing.”
SBV: ” Let me backtrack a little bit, I’m sure we’ve got some people here who aren’t familiar with you. Tell us how you got started in this?”
CB: ” In a very short way, I came up through a family of storytellers and food producers. And loved the stories that were told when we sat down at the table. We didn’t have a lot of money but we did spend a lot of time at the table. I was a creative person, I was in to acting and always loved the story behind that. And ended up working in journalism and PR and had the opportunity to work with the earliest teams of Food Network. I realized that I have my own story to tell.”
SBV: ” That just supports something I’ve always said, something that’s very unique about the South is that our stories are enveloped in everything we do. The way we cook, the way we dress, the way we decorate our homes, everything.”
CB: ” I think it’s like a cast of characters, right? Everything has it’s own ticks and interesting parts to it. And everything has a story. So, we made shaved broccoli salad [today] but it was a vehicle to tell the story about my grandfather sitting down at our kitchen table carving off hunks of broccoli stalk. So it’s much more about than the food itself.”
SBV: ” You do know that the guy who invested Crisco is from Macon?”
CB: ” I did not know that! How did I make it through Leadership Georgia and not know that?!”
SBV: [laughing] ” Haha- the guy who invented Crisco is seriously from Macon and his house is on College Street and someone ins renovating it now. AND another cool part about that, Tennessee Williams stayed there and based Big Daddy [from Cat On a Hot Tin Roof] on the guy who bought the house [from the person who invented Crisco].”
SBV: ” So, to switch gears a little bit, I’m the mother of a six year old and a five year old-”
CB: ” Awesome!”
SBV: ” Thank you, and they sometimes are really funny about their vegetables. You talked a lot about your niece and nephew, any tips?”
CB: ” You know, it’s one of those things that I really scratch my head about because I- I’ll be honest I really think a lot of that is environmental. I think it’s hearing other people around you who don’t necessarily embrace vegetables because kids are inherently curious and I never had anybody growing up that was not a proponent about vegetables, it was just part of what we ate. And I come from a pretty simple family. So I kind of feel like it’s what kids are hearing around them. And not their own tastes. One of the things that I do know it that when you involve kids in cooking, they are more likely to eat what they make. Because they’re proud of what they do. It’s one of the things I love to do with my niece and nephew. But I’m also not opposed to using things to get kids to eat them, because when they discover on their own that they like them it doesn’t matter what the people are saying around them. So making Brussels Sprouts with bacon, if that’s what it takes then use it.”
I hope y’all have enjoyed this interview- that took me a whole 3 months to write up! Be sure to follow Chadwick Boyd on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
