'King of Lowcountry cooking' shares tips on cuisine with a Southern accent

"I hope that someday I will be remembered for helping people everywhere understand that Southern food should be considered among the most revered cuisines of the world." So starts "South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations" (Artisan, $40), the chef's recently released cookbook.

It's his second. The first, "Heritage," won the 2015 James Beard award for best American cookbook.

The chef that the Wall Street Journal dubbed "the king of Lowcountry cooking" forged his considerable reputation at Husk, the landmark Charleston, S.C., restaurant (with branches in Nashville, Savannah, Ga., and Greenville, S.C.) that celebrates Southern ingredients and heritage. The Virginia native is now working to open a restaurant in Nashville that will focus on the flavors and traditions of Appalachia.

In a recent conversation, Brock discussed his pantry secrets, the wisdom of gardening and the allure of buttermilk.

Q: How did you get away from viewing the South — and, by extension, Southern cooking — as a single, homogenous entity?

A: We're still discovering the nuances of all these microregions, and just how diverse and important they are. Sometimes I think we forget how young we are as a country. We still have lots of room to grow, and lots of history to make. The South has the oldest history, as far as cuisine is concerned. Think about eating food in New Orleans and in Asheville, North Carolina, and how different those two experiences are, and you start to recognize the role that geography plays.

Q: Does that explain why the book features four cornbread recipes?

There's a practice that's pretty common in the Lowcountry, where you take the night's leftover rice and fold it into the next day's cornbread. Carolina Gold rice in cornbread is amazing. But in the Smoky Mountains, [ham and bacon producer] Allan Benton is king. At his house, I'll have cornbread with bacon cracklings in it.

Q: How did farming change your approach to cooking?

A: I spent most of my childhood in my grandmother's garden. It was two acres, which I suppose lots of hipsters these days would call a farm. That was my life growing up. That planted the seeds for appreciating where food comes from, and eating with the seasons, and understanding how vibrant food can be just after it's harvested. It wasn't until I planted my own garden — an acre — that I developed a whole new appreciation for how difficult it is, and how much wisdom comes out of it.

Q: What role has canning and preserving played in your life, and in your cooking?

A: My grandmother's basement was a wonderland of Mason jars. I can close my eyes and see it, crystal clear, and smell it. Her entire basement was essentially a cannery, and it was so cool. She was always putting food in Mason jars, or eating food from Mason jars.

At the restaurant, there's a team that is just working on the pantry, curing and preserving, anything we can do to expand the flavor profiles of our indigenous ingredients. We take it further than my grandmother. We're using more scientific equipment than she would have used. But it's the same principle: capturing the essence of something wonderful, saving it and then using it sparingly.

Q: The book has a great user's guide to nine country-ham sources. Is there one that you would recommend for a country-ham novice?

A: I always believe that it's better to start with the simplest forms and then start moving to the more intensely aged hams. It's a progression. If I had to pick the simplest, I'd would say it's Broadbent's (broadbenthams.com). They've been around for 100 years, and they haven't changed the way they do things. It's salt and sugar, and it's really simple.

Q: There's a cheeseburger recipe in the book. What is your path to cheeseburger nirvana?

A: To me, what makes a great burger — whether it's a thin patty, which is my favorite, or a thicker patty — is concentrating on getting the most intense crust possible, on one side. You don't have to get it on both sides, although it's fantastic if you can. That's why Shake Shack is so great. You can go any one of their locations, anywhere in the country, and there's always a crust.

A: Having multiple restaurants — and writing cookbooks — has taught me the importance of writing accurate recipes. Where I come from, people take pride in not writing anything down, and not using recipes.

When I'm working, I always have someone there with me who is actually recording everything that I'm saying, and measuring everything to document each quantity. While I'm cooking, I'll say everything that comes to mind. Every thought, every decision, it's a stream of consciousness, and it all gets transcribed.

Q: Why is buttermilk a favorite ingredient of yours?

A: Because it hits so many different marks. It has a little umami, along with sourness, acidity, creaminess and fattiness.

Q: Yet I noticed that you skip the common step of dipping chicken in buttermilk before frying it. Why?

Q: What are some common mistakes made with cast iron cookware?

A: This is going to make people angry, but I think there's so much bad cast iron out there, so much that's poorly made. That started in the Great Depression, when the recipe for cast iron started to change. Before that, the idea of seasoning a cast-iron pan never even existed. There's one American company that does know how to make it the right way: Butter Pat Industries (butterpatindustries.com). Yes, it's more expensive. But divide that cost over three generations, and then it's pretty cheap. Because it's going to last forever.

Q: Where would you steer a beginning cook, in terms of recipes?

A: It's important that it's easy. The shrimp and grits dish, it's one pan, so there's limited cleanup, and it's just so delicious. And it tells the story of one of our most iconic chefs, Bill Neal of Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

He was one of the first chefs to say, "This simple, rural dish is worthy of a white tablecloth restaurant." It was in the New York Times, and I think a lot changed after that piece was written.