In the Carolinas where Andie MacDowell grew up, the meal isn't divided into starter-main-dessert but is spread out all at once on the table: a pillar dish (often based on grits or seafood), sides that are as important as the main, hot biscuits that serve as bread, a sweet drink served iced from start to finish, and a fruit dessert from the orchard. You help yourself, with family, on the porch.

Two pillars of Southern cooking: tangy buttermilk that tenderizes doughs and meats, and grits — coarse cornmeal typical of the Carolinas, the creamy base of so many dishes. The South Carolina peach, from the state nicknamed the "Peach State," completes this regional signature.