Scott Peacock

Scott Peacock (born 1963) is an award-winning chef of American Southern cuisine.

Early life

Scott Peacock was born and grew up in Hartford, Alabama. Southern Cooking and Gulf Coast seafood were his earliest culinary influences. Food was picked, cooked, and eaten fresh. He also developed a love for French cooking through Julia Child's popular television series and decided to pursue a career as a chef.

Career

Peacock began his career as pastry chef at Tallahassee’s The Golden Pheasant. From there he moved to the Georgia governor’s mansion where he worked for two governors over four years. A trip home to Alabama for his grandmother’s funeral led to a bite of lemon chess pie, brought over by a family friend, which reawakened his interest in traditional Southern cooking. Shortly thereafter, a national magazine planned to feature one of his menus, and he sought the advice of the doyenne of Southern cooking, Edna Lewis, an African-American chef who moved to New York City from Virginia and had become a legend in culinary circles. Miss Lewis advised Peacock to cook something Southern. Thus began not only a successful redefinition of Southern cuisine, but a lasting friendship and collaboration.

Following his years at the governor’s mansion, Scott Peacock became the founding chef of Atlanta’s Horseradish Grill. From there he moved to Watershed restaurant, also in Atlanta, which was co-owned by Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, and others. He left Watershed in 2010 to devote his time to writing and documentary film.

Collaboration with Edna Lewis

Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis first met in the late 1980s. Their mutual devotion to and appreciation of Southern cooking led to a deep bond. Together they wrote The Gift of Southern Cooking (Knopf, 2003). Lewis spent the last six years of her life living at Peacock’s Decatur, Georgia home. As Peacock remarked, “She’s my best friend. The least of what I’ve learned from her has to do with cooking.”

Biscuit Experience

After leaving his Watershed restaurant in 2010, Peacock relocated to Marion, Alabama – a small town in the heart of Alabama's Black Belt region – for a quieter lifestyle. In Marion, the chef has renovated the kitchen of an antebellum mansion, known as Reverie, for use in teaching his "Biscuit Experience". The Biscuit Experience is an intimate, small-group workshop that seeks to teach the "fine art of traditional Southern biscuit-making".

Peacock's Biscuit Experience is a half-day session in which participants learn how to make the biscuits that popularized his hit Atlanta restaurants. Peacock grows many of his own ingredients and boasts that the rare strands of wheat that he incorporates in his recipes create a unique flavor profile. In 2018, Food and Wine named Peacock's biscuit recipe as one of the "40 best recipes ever published".

The chef hopes that his Biscuit Experience will draw people from around the country to the Black Belt, a region of Alabama with a rich history.

Publications and awards

Scott Peacock’s recipes have appeared in a number of publications including: USA Today, Atlanta Magazine, Cooking Light, Southern Living, The New York Times, Bon Appétit, Wine Spectator, Food & Wine, and Gourmet. He has also been a frequent guest on television, including The Today Show, Martha Stewart's Martha, Good Morning America, and The CBS Early Show.

The James Beard Foundation awarded Scott Peacock "Best Chef in the Southeast" in May 2007.

Since February 2009 Scott Peacock has been a contributing editor and columnist for Better Homes and Gardens magazine.