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Georgia Cooking Schools

In Georgia, you have plenty of dining choices, from fresh seafood to southern vegetables to lip-smacking barbecue. Especially if you're near the coast, look for roasted or fried oysters, boiled shrimp and boiled peanuts, and she-crab soup.

Coastal restaurants often feature grilled or fried local seafood and cornmeal hush puppies. Southerners eat tomatoes with salt and pepper for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Their barbecue is usually pork or chicken. Brunswick stew contains both, and a bit of anything else that's handy. A typical meal may include three or even four servings of vegetables from the nearest farmers market. You might see butter beans, creamed corn, okra, yellow squash, turnip or mustard or collard greens, cornbread, blackeye peas and -- definitely -- a large platter of sliced, vine-ripened tomatoes. Locally grown melons are tasty dessert choices.

You can't travel around Georgia without coming across some variation of the state's four big crops: peaches, peanuts, pecans and Vidalia onions. For the freshest and juiciest peaches, follow the Peach Blossom Trail along Highway 341 from Jonesboro to Perry from mid May to July. Or stop in Fort Valley during the fourth week of June for the Georgia Peach Festival and try peach cobbler, peach preserves and peach ice cream. Side trips along the state's highways will give you a chance to stop at roadside stands for fresh fruit and produce during the late summer and early fall.

Georgia is steeped in black culture, from the Gullah people of the Southern coastal region to icons of the Civil Rights movement to today's urbane hip-hop generation. But nowhere is African-American influence more evident than in the foods Georgians enjoy. A culinary tour of African-American eateries is a gastronomic delight.

There is no question that Southern cuisine is seasoned with African-American flavors that stimulate the palate and soothe the hungry soul. Scrumptious, crispy southern fried chicken, spicy lowcountry seafood boil, and soothing, oh-so-sweet peach cobbler are just a few of the gastronomic delights created with an African-American flavor.

Today, professionally trained African-American master chefs in gourmet restaurants and upscale eateries have added new flourishes to the old standards like collard greens and blackeyed peas while their counterparts, highly skilled country "cooks" continue to work their homespun magic in small kitchens and neighborhood cafes across the state.

Georgia Cooking Schools
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