Few films pay homage to the gustatory pleasures in life, the camera caressing each morsel with an almost erotic fervor: “Eat Drink Man Woman.” “Like Water For Chocolate.” “Avalon.”
As an aspiring filmmaker, George Tillman Jr. saw all of them, committing the sensual images to memory. So when it came time to craft his own film, “Soul Food,” which was filmed in Chicago in 36 days last December, he knew that he wanted food to play a leading role in his quasi-autobiographical tale of three middle-class African-American sisters. The Twentieth Century Fox film opens Friday.
“I realized that food was actually a metaphor for bringing us all together,” says Tillman, a 27-year-old Columbia College graduate. “It’s about us communicating and being like family.”
Growing up in Milwaukee, every Sunday Tillman gathered with his grandmother, mother, six aunts and assorted uncles and cousins for a lavish dinner of soul food classics: chitterlings, macaroni and cheese, blackeyed peas, catfish, fried chicken, collard greens, candied yams, cornbread.
“Soul Food,” which stars Vanessa Williams, Vivica Fox and Nia Long and has a soundtrack from executive producer Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, tells the story of an African-American family that stays connected through the Sunday dinners of its matriarch, Mother Joe. When Mother Joe is hospitalized and the dinners cease, the lives of the three sisters and their husbands start to unravel–much like what happened to Tillman’s family when his own grandmother died.
In his family, males were banned from the kitchen, so Tillman never learned to cook. But he knew enough about food to know exactly who he wanted for his film.
“I wanted a food stylist who could represent my grandmother and how she cooked,” Tillman says. “I wanted someone who looked like her, dressed like her, cooked like her.”
He found that person in Freddie Petross, a Chicago caterer who heard about the job through a member of the film crew. After she aced her audition–cooking dinner for Tillman and the camera crew–Tillman hired her on the spot.
Filming was done around Chicago, in locations ranging from the Green Mill to the exterior of an Oak Park home to a luxe condo in Lincoln Park. But for the dinner scenes, Tillman reconstructed the interior of the Oak Park home in a grungy warehouse in Chicago’s Goose Island. A kitchen was built just off the set, complete with two stoves.
Petross would fry up catfish, chicken and salmon croquettes on location. She cooked more time-consuming dishes like collards and chitterlings in her home.
“I had to clean about 60 pounds of chitterlings,” Petross says with a laugh. “That alone took me three hours. Cooking them took over five. I was at it all day.”
Her hard work paid off. Her chitterlings kept disappearing, swiped by gremlins.
Petross, who had never worked on a film before, quickly learned that moviemaking is laborious. Shooting a single scene centered on one meal could take two days, which meant cooking the same meal over and over and over again. And because Tillman wanted the food cooked the old-fashioned way, Petross had to chop everything by hand on a cutting board. (Still, you won’t spot Petross’ hands in the movie closeups. Stand-ins for actors handled the food during filming.)
She also had to learn to burn food.
One of the sisters in the film, Nia Long, can’t cook, but keeps trying, much to the dismay of the rest of the family. So Petross experimented with different ways of destroying croquettes. First, she loaded them up with flour and an overdose of onion and then fried them until they burned. The result? Smoke that filled the set and hideous-looking croquettes that kept disappearing, just like Petross’ chitterlings.
Finally, Petross found a less hazardous way to burn the croquettes: She cooked them normally, and then tossed them in the broiler, where they burned to the perfect consistency.
No more smoke. Still, the croquettes kept disappearing.
Reportedly, Williams started gaining weight from eating the rich food in take after take. The plates had to be pulled away from Fox, who just couldn’t get enough of Petross’ food–at first. But by the end, Tillman says with a laugh, “Everybody got tired of soul food.”
“I have a much deeper appreciation for the movie industry,” Petross says. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s interesting and rewarding. But then again, cooking is a lot of work, too. But you do it and people enjoy it, and there’s your reward.”
MACARONI ‘N’ CHEESE
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Adapted from Vanessa Williams’ recipe.
8 ounces elbow macaroni
2 tablespoons each: butter, flour
1 teaspoon each: salt, dry mustard
2 1/2 cups milk
8 ounces shredded sharp
Cheddar cheese
2 ounces gouda cheese, shredded
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain; set aside.
2. Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add flour, salt and mustard; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in milk. Cook, stirring, until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Add 1 3/4 cups of the Cheddar and 1/4 cup of the gouda to white sauce. Stir until cheese melts.
3. Combine macaroni and cheese sauce together in greased 2-quart casserole dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses, bread crumbs and paprika. Bake until browned and heated through, about 20 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories …… 655 Fat ………… 33 g Cholesterol .. 105 mg
Sodium … 1,245 mg Carbohydrates .. 56 g Protein …….. 31 g
COLLARD GREENS
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
Cooking time: 2 to 3 hours
Adapted from a recipe from George Tillman and his mother.
3 bunches collard greens, cut into 1/4-inch strips, washed
2 ham hocks
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped
1. Heat large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add collards; boil 10 minutes. Drain; refill with fresh water.
2. Add ham hocks and salt. Heat to a boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer until greens and ham hocks are tender, 2 to 3 hours. Add jalapenos during last 15 minutes of cooking. Drain; season to taste.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories …… 95 Fat ………… 4 g Cholesterol .. 18 mg
Sodium …. 465 mg Carbohydrates .. 8 g Protein …….. 7 g
SMOTHERED AND COVERED CHOPS
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Cooking time: 25-35 minutes
Adapted from a recipe from actress Vivica Fox.
2 tablespoons butter
1 each, chopped: onion, green bell pepper
4 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 large pork chops
1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chicken broth or water
1. Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, mushrooms and garlic. Cook until onion is soft, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
2. Whisk together milk and egg in medium bowl. Combine 1/4 cup of the flour, seasoning salt and pepper in food storage bag. Dip one chop into milk mixture. Place chop in bag with flour mixture; seal and shake to coat. Repeat with remaining chops.
3. Heat oil in large skillet over high heat. Add chops; cook until browned on both sides. Remove chops and set aside. Stir remaining 2 tablespoons flour into oil in skillet. Cook, stirring, until mixture begins to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Whisk in broth. Heat to a boil, stirring; reduce heat to medium-low.
4. Add onion mixture and simmer 15 minutes. Add more broth or water to thin to desired consistency. Add chops; cook until tender and no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Season to taste.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories …… 495 Fat ………… 38 g Cholesterol1 .. 25 mg
Sodium ….. 710 mg Carbohydrates .. 16 g Protein …….. 21 g
SWEET POTATO PIE
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Yield: Two 9-inch pies, 16 servings
Cooking time: 35-45 minutes
Adapted from Brandon Hammond’s recipe.
4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, cubed
1 1/2 cups sugar, see note
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon each: baking powder, vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 (9-inch) unbaked pie crusts
1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place potatoes in large saucepan; cover with water. Heat to a boil over high heat. Boil until potatoes are tender when pierced with fork, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain.
2. Combine potatoes, sugar and butter in bowl of electric mixer. Beat until smooth. Add flour, condensed milk, eggs, baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Beat until well mixed.
3. Pour mixture into 2 prepared pie crusts; place on baking sheets. Bake until crust and top are golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Let stand until filling sets up.
Test kitchen note: If desired, use a combination of granulated and light brown sugar.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories …… 375 Fat ………… 16 g Cholesterol .. 50 mg
Sodium ….. 315 mg Carbohydrates .. 53 g Protein …….. 5 g
