In the early 19th-century American South, meals were not divided into starter-main-dessert but were organized around a master meat (almost always pork) served alongside cornbreads, garden vegetables slow-cooked with bacon, and whiskey. At The Hermitage, a large table was set where everything arrived together: you helped yourself to your fill, in the spirit of Tennessee hospitality. The plantation's slaves cooked these dishes — a truth that history must not silence.

Corn in all its forms — mush, griddle cake, grits — and pork, raised then salted and smoked on the plantation, form the foundation of this cuisine. It is the alliance of the Indian (corn, gift of the peoples he would displace) and Europe (the pig) on Tennessee soil.