Potlikker Captures Snapshot Of Arkansas Food

BENTONVILLE -- The Southern Foodways Alliance and The Hive at 21c Museum Hotel will bring the Potlikker Film Festival to Arkansas for the first time.

Potlikker Bentonville will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at The Hive.

At A Glance

Ticket Information

http://www.brownpap…">Tickets for Potlikker Bentonville cost $75 and include food, drink and film.

Source: 21c Museum Hotel, Bentonville

At A Glance

Potlikker Bentonville

Four Arkansas chefs will be paired with four Arkansas farmers to create dishes made with fresh ingredients for Saturday night’s Potlikker Film Festival.

The food will be prepared by:

• Matt Bell of South on Main, Little Rock

• Travis McConnell of Butcher and Public, Little Rock

• Bill Lyle of Eleven, Crystal Bridges

• Matt McClure of The Hive, 21c Museum Hotel

The food will be provided by:

• Cody Hopkins of Falling Sky Farm

• Sue and Rusty Nuffer of Armstead Mountain Farm

• Jeremy Prater of Cedar Creek Farms

• Roman Rios of Rios Family Farm

Drinks will be by:

• Andy Coates of Ozark Beer Co.

• Mountain Valley Spring Water

Source: 21c Museum Hotel, Bentonville

Southern Foodways Alliance "documents, studies and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the changing American South," according to its website. It's a nonprofit organization based at the University of Mississippi.

The documentary is the group's most important work, said Melissa Hall, assistant director. The organization seeks to tell the stories of "unsung heroes" of Southern food, she said.

One way to do that is to host film festivals. The first Potlikker was held in Atlanta in 2007. The alliance has held Potlikkers throughout the South including places in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee and the Carolinas. The events have also been held in San Francisco, Washington and New York.

The organization uses those gatherings to tell stories about the people in the region who are making Southern food culture possible, she said.

Four Arkansas chefs will be paired with four Arkansas farmers to create dishes made with locally produced food on Saturday.

For the first hour, guests can enjoy food and drinks while learning of the relationships of farmers to chefs and consumers, said Matthew McClure, executive chef at The Hive.

Foley's Van will provide live bluegrass music.

At 7 p.m., the short films "Fish Ribs in Little Rock" and "Ovens are for Pies," showcasing restaurants in Little Rock and Hot Springs respectively, will be shown in the main gallery, according to the event's website. Both films were made by Joe York, a filmmaker who frequently works with the Southern Foodways Alliance.

York documents artisans, chefs and culture icons who "speak to the masses," McClure said. The restaurants in his films aren't high-end, fancy places but unique and accessible, he said.

Many times people will say the alliance preserves Southern food culture since it has nearly 1,000 oral histories and close to 75 films, 50 of which were made by York, Hall said. But she doesn't like the word "preserve" unless it's in the context of "delicious jams and jellies."

"We're not gathering these stories to hold them in the past and tell a story of the South as it was," she explained. "What we try to do is offer a snapshot of Southern food as it is."

The goal of Saturday's Potlikker is to grow awareness of what's going on in the culinary scene in Arkansas, McClure said. It will focus on Arkansas food in general, not just High South Cuisine, though there are many similarities. Both are a creative take on locally grown food, he said.

"This is getting into the cultural definitions of what Arkansas food can be," McClure said. "I'm humbled that (the Southern Foodways Alliance is) coming here and helping us tell our story."

NW News on 08/08/2014

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