hunting trip inspires menu for Natchez Literary Celebration dinner

By

NITA MCCANN

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ &045; &uot;Thare were to Day Several of us went into the Swamp a Duck hunting.&uot;

So begins an entry in the diary of William Johnson, a free black and successful entrepreneur in antebellum Natchez.

In that entry, dated Nov. 11, 1836, Johnson describes in detail a hunting trip to Cypress Bayou, including the lunch they enjoyed and the game they killed.

But little did Johnson know that almost 170 years later, his descriptions of food would be used to create a meal for some of Natchez’s most honored guests.

An invitation-only buffet dinner prepared by Chef Regina Charbonneau will be held the evening of Feb. 25 at the antebellum house Stanton Hall for them and other Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration VIPs.

And in keeping with this year’s theme, &uot;Between Two Worlds: Free Blacks in the Antebellum South,&uot; Charbonneau will prepare a menu based on some of the foods mentioned in the Johnson diary entry described above.

Two of the NLCC’s co-organizers, Carolyn Vance Smith and Keith Whisenant, &uot;came to me and wanted to do an event Šin conjunction with the ingredients (Johnson) talked about.&uot;

Those ingredients range from duck and oysters to champagne and oranges &045; updated for the modern palate, of course. Therefore, Johnson’s separate mentions of chicken and champagne will become, on Charbonneau’s menu, chicken in champagne sauce volvent.

Johnson’s biscuit egg bread and &uot;a pice of good Bacon&uot; become butter biscuits with cured bacon. And beefsteak and claret, mentioned separately by the diarist, become beef tenderloin in claret sauce.

Other menu items will include apple chutney, fried oysters with savory sauce, crusty French bread with sweet cream butter, duck breast with orange-muscat sauce and cornbread dressing stuffed with mustard greens.

And of course, in a special homage to Johnson, clementine-orange bread pudding with whiskey sauce will be served for dessert.

&uot;Mr. Johnson loved his bottle of whiskey,&uot; Charbonneau said.

Overall, she added, the effect is a menu &uot;that felt old but yet updated at the same time.&uot;

The menu is in keeping with the overall theme of this year’s celebration, &uot;Between Two Worlds: Free Blacks in the Antebellum South.&uot;

During the event, to be held Feb. 23-27, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Raspberry and Mildred D. Taylor, award-winning author of &uot;Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,&uot; will be honored with Richard Wright Literary Excellence Awards.

Other VIPs will include Callie Khouri, whose screenplays include &uot;Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,&uot; &uot;Thelma & Louise&uot; and &uot;Something to Talk About.&uot; Khouri will receive the Horton Foote Award for Outstanding Screenplay Writing.

The awards will be presented in a ceremony Feb. 26.