What does traditional Southern cooking, and traditional Jewish cooking have in common.  One word.  BEIGE!

I was in the Great Smokey Mountains over the weekend, visiting the part of my family who settled there many years ago.  My sister-in-law is a world-class cook, so I knew I was in for some yummy home cooking.  I rarely taste home cooking any more.  It's just me at home.  And I've taken to referring to my kitchen as that room with all the white stuff that I used to be in all the time.

The first time I ate at Coco Lezzone in Florence, it was at the invitation of film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who knows a thing or two about Italian cooking:

(1) He created the gourmet Italian DDL Foodshow Emporiums in New York and Beverly Hills about 20 years ahead of their time,

(2) His lovely granddaughter Giada, with many of her family’s recipes and great charm and skill, has become a best-selling cookbook author and very popular Food Network chef, and,

(3) He is Italian and always has been.  

We were in Florence because that’s where Hannibal was being filmed, and Dino asked my wife Elizabeth and me and some others working on the film to join him at Coco Lezzone for dinner.

It was the day after Christmas, we’d had too much sugar and a fair share of post-modern stress so, it was probably a bad idea to try to go “sale” shopping. 

We couldn’t even get into the parking lot at Saks, it was 5 of 11 and the 70% discount ended at noon and neither of us had even had a cup of coffee.... (I sometimes think my daughters and I should wear signs around our necks that say “Please feed before attempting to interact with us.”) 

And then sort of Saks was off the table but we were already out and we poked our heads into a shop on Melrose Place which was too expensive and besides the point and Anna said she just wanted to go home.  Neither one of us had really had coffee.

“No, let’s take a walk,” I insisted.  “We’ll find someplace to eat.”

Just as you would seek out a noodle shop in Tokyo, Japan, or enjoy a mole in Oaxaca, Mexico, a trip to Savannah, Georgia has to include at least one meal of classic Southern cooking.  And although Lady and Son, Paula Dean’s tourist Mecca, gets most of the press, a more authentic experience is down Jones Street.

Mrs. Wilkes has passed away, but her family and staff on Jones Street are carrying on her tradition.  You still sit at big round, oak tables with strangers.  You still take your own dirty plate, silverware, and glass to the kitchen door, bussing your place at the table.  And you still will be treated to the bounty of good, simple, flavorful, southern style food.  Although Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House has been renamed Wilkes Dining Room, all the food is still served boarding house style in bowls and platters on the tables.  There is no menu. And no one leaves the table hungry.