Ronni Lundy (born 1949), is an American author and editor, whose work focuses on traditional Southern American foods, Appalachian foods, and music. Her books include ''Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken: The Heart and Soul of Southern Country Kitchens'' (Atlantic, 1991), and ''Butter Beans to Blackberries: Recipes from the Southern Garden'' (North Point, 1999). Her book ''Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes'' (Random House, 2016) won the 2017

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is an American non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City. It was named after James Beard, a food writer, teacher, and cookbook author. Its programs include guest-chef dinners to scholarships for asp ...

's Book of the Year Award. She was a founding member of the

Southern Foodways Alliance Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) is an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, dedicated to the documentation, study and exploration of the foodways of the American South. Member-funded, it stage ...

and, in 2005, edited ''Cornbread Nation 3: Foods of the Mountain South'', the organization's occasional

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

of the region's best food writing. She has lived in Albuquerque, Galisteo, Los Cerrillos,

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, and

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

; and in the mountains of North Carolina.

Biography

Lundy was born in

Corbin, Kentucky Corbin is a home rule-class city in Whitley, Knox and Laurel counties in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 7,856. Corbin is on Interstate 75 and US Route 25W, about hal ...

in 1949, and grew up in the

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

area. Her hometown of Corbin is where the Indiana native Harland Sanders developed his recipe for

Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's s ...

. In ''Shuck Beans'' (1991) Lundy wrote: "I was born in Kentucky and Colonel Harland D. Sanders was not, so you can believe me when I say that I, not the Colonel, know the secret to making honest fried chicken." Lundy was a pop music editor at the

Louisville Times ''The Louisville Times'' was a newspaper that was published in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1884 by Walter N. Haldeman, as the afternoon counterpart to ''The Courier-Journal'', the dominant morning newspaper in Louisville and the common ...

and the

Louisville Courier-Journal The ''Courier Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), and called ''The Courier-Journal'' between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017, is a daily newspaper published in ...

in the 1980s and early 1990s. She focused on Americana, covering the likes of John Hartford,

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana (music), Americana genre ...

, Sam Bush,

Dwight Yoakam Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and filmmaker. He first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album ''Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.''. Yoakam had considerable s ...

and

Bill Monroe William Smith Monroe ( ; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass". The genre takes its n ...

. She also wrote about food and became a restaurant reviewer as the Louisville restaurant scene blossomed during the early 1990s. Lundy's first book, '' Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken'' (1991), combined her interests in music and food. It includes interviews about favorite foods with coverage of country and bluegrass performers. Lundy has written about musicians, travel, small farms,

community-supported agriculture Community-supported agriculture (CSA model) or cropsharing is a system that connects producers and consumers within the food system closer by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an altern ...

, heirloom seeds, culinary traditions, and the "joy of eating". Her work has appeared in ''Esquire'', ''Gourmet'', ''Bon Appetit'', ''Cooking Light'', ''Eating Well'', ''Sunset'', and ''Copia''. Her stories have twice been finalists for the James Beard Award, and ''Butter Beans'' was a finalist for the International Association of Culinary Professionals cookbook awards. In 2009 Lundy was the recipient of the Southern Foodways Alliance's Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award. During the award ceremony, John Egerton said she and Elizabeth Sims helped build a culinary renaissance in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...

, but Lundy has noted that this is not accurate, her involvement in Asheville's dining scene has been insignificant. She was also the editor of a short-lived online food magazine, The Zenchilada.

Publications

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References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lundy, Ronni People from Corbin, Kentucky Writers from Louisville, Kentucky 1949 births Living people American food writers Courier Journal people Writers from Kentucky American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American women