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Oct 25, 2010
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Coming Soon: Scott Peacock's $500,000 Edna Lewis Memoir

By Anna Stockwell
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Coming Soon: Scott Peacock's $500,000 Edna Lewis Memoir Credit: Christopher Hirsheimer
Alabama-based chef Scott Peacock has signed with publishers Clarkson Potter to write a memoir about the time he spent learning from and caring for Edna Lewis, "the Julia Child of Southern cuisine," Publisher's Marketplace reports. The book, tentatively titled An Uncommon Friendship, will tell the story of Peacock's long friendship with Lewis, who was more than twice his age, and with whom he co-authored The Gift of Southern Cooking in 2003. As Lewis grew older, Peacock became her caretaker, living with her for six years in her family home in Unionville, Virginia until she died at the age of 89 in 2006. Lewis was the granddaughter of a former slave, and her cooking and well-loved cookbooks are often credited with reviving the genre of Southern cooking as an admirable culinary pursuit. We're looking forward to reading this memoir about the extraordinary friendship between Lewis and Peacock, who were nicknamed "The Odd Couple of Southern Cooking" when they first started cooking together in the early '90s. An Uncommon Friendship is slated to publish in the fall of 2012, part of a "major deal" (that's an advance of $500,000 or more!) with Clarkson Potter that also includes the 2013 cookbook Scott Peacock's Alabama Kitchen.

For more on Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis from SAVEUR, see The Personal Touch and Watershed.

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Comments (3)

noAvatar
I'm not trying to nit-pick the article but Miss Lewis and Chef Scott Peacock lived in Decatur, Georgia during the last years of her life not Virginia. Chef Peacock was the executive Chef at Watershed in Decatur, Georgia during this time. My daughter was fortunate enough to have begun her culinary career at Watershed training under Chef Scott Peacock, Chef Steven Satterfield and Chef Billy Allin. She learned the secrets of Miss Lewis's biscuits from Chef Peacock. While Miss Lewis is gone now, her legacy lives on in these Great Chefs...and my daughter.
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After reading "The Gift of Southern Cooking", I am fascinated with these two chefs. Their unique relationship was inspiring, but their mission was much more inspiring! As an Alabama native, who is the same age as Scott, I believe in the cause of trying to capture authentic traditional southern cooking before those that remember how disappear. The technological age and the efforts of chefs to put their original twist on southern recipes, are causing the old ways of southern cooking to be watered down and changed. Change is good, but the old ways should always be remembered and Scott (as well as myself) are part of the last generation whose grandparents cooked the pure old traditional ways. Our parents of the sixties worked to escape many of the old foods, trying to become modern and fashionable. It is our responsibility to save the old recipes and traditions and I, for one, thank Scott and Edna for their work in this arena. I look forward to reading the book and even more forward to seeing the documentary that he has been working on. This documentary will save the remembrances of older southern cooks before they are gone! Wish I had been a part of it! Thanks!


Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock inspire me. I would like to read Chef Peacocks book.

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