Admittedly, I don’t know too much about the lives, pressures and influences on a professional chef, but Scott Peacock’s stated reason for leaving Watershed seems unique.

He isn’t taking his talents to a more popular food city or trying out for Iron Chef.  Instead, he’s leaving the Decatur restaurant so he can capture a disappearing folk culture.  From a recent Access Atlanta interview…

But his project, where he crisscrosses his native Alabama talking to its most senior residents about their stories and memories revolving around food, seems pressing. One interview subject passed away before he could record her on film, making Peacock realize what a “narrow window of time” he had to complete the work.

He’s been in talks with Alabama Public Television and the Sundance film festival and has shown early cuts to select viewers.

“It’s starting to catch on. My goal is to have 100 interviews by the end of the year. I have 35 now.”

Now, such a project certainly can’t hurt Peacock’s professional career, either from an inspirational or public image standpoint.  But make no mistake, capturing interviews of the southern foodways is no walk in the park.  It’s a taxing and difficult undertaking, and something you really need to have a passion for to pursue.  These days it seems that documenting folklife is most often reserved for freshly motivated graduate students.

Anyway, best of luck to Peacock on this new chapter.  I’ll be very interested to see the results of his labor.