Log in Subscribe

Putting on a Southern dinner party

Normandy author releases new cookbook

By DAWN HANKINS - dhankins@t-g.com
Posted 2/26/22

Two long-time Tennessee restauranteurs, David Hazelwood of Normandy and David G. Smith of Nashville, have retired from days of serving pounds of fried chicken, salads and cakes in their respective restaurants. But as of this year, one might venture to say maybe they are certainly still involved in food.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Putting on a Southern dinner party

Normandy author releases new cookbook

Posted

Two long-time Tennessee restauranteurs, David Hazelwood of Normandy and David G. Smith of Nashville, have retired from days of serving pounds of fried chicken, salads and cakes in their respective restaurants. But as of this year, one might venture to say maybe they are certainly still involved in food.

The two Davids have just published a new cookbook together, “Cooking Southern: Recipes and their History.” With all the historical research they’ve included, it turned out to be almost as time-consuming as a restaurant. But in the end, both will attest that culminating the thousands of featured recipes was a life experience.

Smith stated in the new book, “David H and I are cooks first and foremost and restauranteurs second, so we totally appreciate the benefit of a good recipe.” The Nashville cook realized early on from his family that “carelessness does not produce a good dish.”

So, they were careful to research and properly assign all measurements to their recipes. It obviously paid off for the Smith family, because their Satsuma restaurant stayed open in Nashville from 1917 until 2004 and was much loved by the lunch community.

How did the name Satsuma come about? It’s a type of mandarin orange. But Smith’s family originally named the restaurant from their Mississippi heritage. The co-authors set out to highly flavor the book with recipes from many generations in the South.

They’re not looking to get rich off each $20 cookbook, which is a really good bargain, based on retail cost for such a large historical volume. There’s something more to it all; they value one another’s interest in food, life and family love. After all, Smith introduced Hazelwood to his wife, Claudia.

Now Hazelwood prepares for his book signing at the Shelbyville-Bedford County Public Library on Saturday, Feb. 26, from 10 to 11 a.m.

He and Claudia would go on to operate the historic Cortner Mill Restaurant on the Duck River for 27 years. Though he’s from Kentucky, Hazelwood said Bedford County will always be their home. So local residents will get a first-hand chance to gaze into or purchase, “Cooking Southern.”

The friendship of Hazelwood and Smith is also intertwined into each written page. “It was and is our essence as a people . . . the Southern personae.”

Hazelwood often ate lunch at Smith’s establishment, Satsuma Tea Room, which has a long-standing history dating back to 1918 on Union Street in Nashville. Their eventual years of friendship enveloped and surrounded by what else but food.

The Normandy restauranteur said recently that it was therefore just in the soup for them to eventually to co-author such a cookbook.

“This is actually my third cookbook,” says Hazelwood. The first was in honor of his beloved Cortner Mill, which he says was a natural.

The next was “Miss Lizzie’s Heirlooms,” which is currently out of print. Hazelwood has also authored a book about animals and people, “Animals Who Own Us”.

As for “Miss Lizzie’s Heirlooms,” Hazelwood has another interesting story about how it came to fruition. He discovered a box of old books which had been passed down to him by his grandparents from Kentucky.

“I let them sit around forever. When I finally got into them, I found a little memorandum book. It had over 50 of my grandmother’s recipes, handwritten with a dull pencil. I thought, ‘whoaoe!’ That’s why the heirloom title. I felt like I had been given the prize piece of household furniture . . . better than that, because of all the smells and tastes associate with it.” He says that’s of course imagery but isn’t wonderful to think about it.

Call it fate or just a blessing at their point late in life. But one thing’s for certain, Smith and Hazelwood continued to find likeness in their upbringings, though reared hundreds of miles apart.

“He and I talked about . . . we could boil down our old cookbooks, with all the gravies and sauces spilled on pages [and] who knows what that might taste like. It might taste wonderful.”

Hazelwood mentions how the latest Southern cookbook came about. It was about the same time he was reading over his granny’s recipes that friend Smith found a box of historic recipes from Satsuma restaurant. They were astounded, Hazelwood said, of all the recipes their families had written on note cards and on the back of envelopes. They believed they’d found a treasure trove of Southern recipes-many which they proudly assembled for publication for the very first time. That’s where the core of the new cookbook started—from a lifetime of love of family, friends and restaurant guests. The rest is history.

The endeavor took them 5 years. Hazelwood admits that such a publishing venture is not for the faint of heart. He talks about the history behind okra and other types of soul food, which hits at the core of the story behind the book. He doesn’t try to cover up history but honor it by printing recipes—tried and true and beloved by many generations. Some recipes had a pinch here and a pinch there. Now that was challenging to put into measurements, but, never altered.

For the two Davids who spent their lives in restaurants, “Cooking Southern” is even much more than a collection of historic recipes from previous centuries. The nearly 600 pages probe deeper into the development, they say, of the Southern lifestyle—all of which we’re a part. There are also several local cooks included in this huge book—a few who’ve passed on. They include: Ethel Leverette, Isabel Woodlee, who was the proprietor of the Saddle Restaurant in Bedford County for many years, Claudia Hazelwood, Barbara Troxler, Mary Hart, Jim Long, Bettie Bean and Jane Cortner.

For those who’ve followed the Hazelwoods and dined with them for many years, they have 52 recipes inside the book which can be ordered at www.amazon. com/Cooking-SouthernRecipes-Their-History/ dp/1734830522 or by picking one of up Saturday at the library.

So, here’s our Southern party—one filled with a lot of hard work, passion and of course flavor! We appreciate Smith and Hazelwood allowing us to reprint some of the recipes, like Ann Cox’s yummy Chocolate Pistachio Cake and the old Southern favorite, Short’nin Bread.

Recipes

Ethel Leverette pg 86

Dressed Eggs (Appetizer)

Main course Jim Long’s 164 Vegetarian Stroganoff

Roast Leg Lamb

(Palate cleanser)

Isabel Woodlee 91

Cucumber and Onion Salad

Pecan Biscuits

Dessert Choices

Raspberry Royale Sauce pg 466 over Old Fashioned Pound Cake pg 384

Lemon Chiffon Pudding from Satsuma

Mention of the Pistachio Cake (yum) and, Short’nin bread