About the Authors
Pat and Gina were a husband-and-wife team They hosted their own television show, and were the proprietors of the celebrated Memphis and Nashville eateries, Neely’s Bar-B-Que.
The Neelys’ have a down-home southern approach to cooking which has been their trademark from coast to coast. The Neelys are all about good food and good times and this can be see reflected in their cookbook. The Neelys share the delicious food they have been cooking up for years both at home and in their restaurants and with each recipe they share the history, meaning, and value behind the ingredients, the meal, and how it came to be.
Pat and Gina come from very loving families that dig deep into their roots and traditions. Their families have passed down meals from generation to generation and kept each tradition alive because that is what is of important to them. At the Neelys’, mealtime is family time. One of the most iconic and never strayed from features of nellys mealtime is the secret BBQ sauce which goes on almost anything from spaghetti, nachos, salad, you name it. The Neely’s have many family traditions and secret receipts that you will find in the pages of Down Home with the Neelys, that includes over 120 recipes.
The cookbook continues only “tried-and-true southern recipes” that have been passed down from one Neely generation to the next, including many of their signature dishes, such as Barbeque Deviled Eggs, Florida Coast Pickled Shrimp, Pat’s Wings of Fire, Gina’s Collard Greens, Grandma Jean’s Potato Salad, Nana’s Southern Gumbo, Memphis-sized Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Slaw, Get Yo’ Man Chicken, and Sock-It-to-Me Cake.
Background of Pat: Pat was born in Detroit, Michigan him and Gina dated in high-school in the 1980s are reunited after their 10th reunion and got married in 1994. Pat is one of brothers, they all opened a bbq restaurant in downtown Memphis with help from their uncle Jim. Pat enrolled in a 2 year McDonalds Management Training Program. They have two daughters: Spenser and Shelbi. Pat and Gina Neely each had been married once before.
In 1988, Neely and three of his brothers (Gaelin, Tony, and Mark) opened a barbecue restaurant in downtown Memphis, aided by their uncle, Jim Neely, a well-known Memphis restaurateur and owner of Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que. Jim’ Neely’s sister, Beverly Neely, is owner of Jay-Bee’s Bar-B-Que in Gardena, California, and her son, Curtis Williams, is the general manager. The brothers went on to establish their own reputations separate from their uncle’s.
Pat and Gina Neely, and partner Abraham Merchant, opened a New York City restaurant, initially called Neely’s Pig Parlor. The restaurant eventually opened in 2011 as Neely’s Barbecue Parlor.
About the Cook Book
This cookbook is a southern specialty cookbook published in 2009, this does not much affect the relevance of the book, it’s a modern book, and is specialized in the type of food which makes it easier for it to transcend time. It also works well because it was published in the 2000’s when books began to give more detail and instruction within cookbooks.
Accessibility and Audience
The Neelys work, laugh, love, and play just like ever other family, you can see it in the casual way they dress to the stories they share about their kids and family in their cookbook. The Neelys identify themselves a true down home southerners but hope to bring their cooking to families of all identities and classes. They offer suggestions of higher and lower cost ingredients and alternatives for those who do or do not have certain technology. Though the Neely’s do reveal that they transpired from lower class to middle class and it can be seen easily that they are most comfortable and relatable to the middle class folks. As for the reader or audience who might be entertained by this book, it is very versatile. It provides some brief history within the book that the average person might not know, but many of the recipes are so unique anyone, regardless of skill level would enjoy using this cookbook. Also, the instructions are so easily laid out and clearly stated that no one should have a real problem using the cookbook.
Identity Portrayed Within the Book
Roots, Race, geography: Grew up and planted their roots in Memphis, Tennessee. They present a lot of linkage between black culture and southern cooking within their food and family traditions such as they way they cook their greens, the involvement of the entire family in preparing the food, sharing recipes, the way meat is washed, marinated and or rubbed. They also hold a very close identity to Memphis and the community they have created for themselves there which has also made its way into the way they cook and inspired many of their Memphis themed recipes.
Food Ways (Link to Class)
History, tradition and culture are all important values when it comes to defining foodways. All three of those things are elements that can be found within the Neely’s cookbook. The Neely’s take advantage of their southern food heritage and traditions by using cast iron skillets, slow cooking methods, lots of pork and lard. They recommend hearty meat servings, include many starch heavy and fried recipes and cook most of their vegetables in oil or some type of animal fat. These are traditions taken from the african development of food when climates increase and pork became the only meat readily available. Many techniques that are recognized by southern culture were developed by africans. Southern culture revolves around an extremely closely knit community. They rely heavily and bond over food and the connections made from cooking.
How does this cookbook view health? : Health is most definitely not at the forefront. They focus on family, tradition, comfort and taste
References
Everything included in this presentation came from the cookbook and through analysis of the language within them and my own basic knowledge of southern culture from living in the south and watching their cooking show as a child.
Most informations came from paula deens foreword (viii) and Pat and Ginas introductions on pages 10,15
The informations for accessibility came from pages 32-50 and the informations for the recipe names and techniques came from all throughout the book.
Neely, Patrick, et al. Down Home with the Neelys: a Southern Family Cookbook. Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.