In Renowned rooms and gardens, we showcase historical homes, zooming in on a prominent room at each attraction. At Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville, Tennessee, we take a closer look at the kitchen.
Belle Meade Plantation was a home often bustling with people in the racehorse industry; it had more than 5,000 acres devoted to raising championship Thoroughbreds.
“Since horse racing was the most popular American sport in the 1800s, Belle Meade’s extensive entertaining and hospitality legacy would rival any home in the South,” says Director of Group Sales Mark James. “The kitchen was the heart of the mansion. It is at these well-worn hearths that the traditions of outstanding Southern cooking were laid.”
The kitchen staff won numerous awards for its blackberry wine and strawberry cordials in those times, and the traditional recipes are still made at Belle Meade. Guests can take culinary tours and taste those award-winning foods and wines and see the home’s original kitchen space, where visiting presidents and Civil War generals once had their food prepared.
For more information, email James or go to bellemeadeplantation.com.
Top photo by Belle Meade Plantation
Support for Courier articles provided by:
Cheekwood Estate & Gardens
History Colorado
The Huntington Library
