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Ovation's "Southern Uncovered With the Lee Bros." aims to show viewers a side of Southern cuisine they've never seen before. Things like ocean aging of wine. That's right. Take a few cases of your favorite Napa Valley cabernet or chardonnay, drop them down to Davey Jones' locker and let nature take its course for six months. Then retrieve, uncork and serve with the entree of your choice. "Certainly from a marketing angle, to add a layer of barnacles to the outside of the bottle does wonders in the restaurant environment for padding the check," quips Matt Lee, who with brother Ted hosts the food and travel series that premieres Sunday, June 14. "Just add another couple of hundred bucks right there if you've got a barnacle on that bottle. "But functionally, it's about achieving a consistent temperature," he continues. "It's basically like a cave down there. It's a constant 53-54 degrees. There's a certain amount of turbulence. Like, the cages they put the bottles in do actually move around slightly from side to side. And so the wine we tasted out of the ocean-aged wine definitely tasted different from a brother bottle that was aged on land. We were surprised. We came into it very skeptically but there is a difference." As the title suggests, the half-hour series goes to such cities as Dallas, Atlanta, New Orleans, Louisville, Ky., Asheville, N.C., and Charleston, S.C. (the Lees' hometown and where the ocean aging takes place in the premiere episode), as the Lees endeavor to explode stereotypes by introducing viewers to the people, places and dishes that define the South. "I'm not sure Atlanta's at the top of everyone's vacation list, nor Dallas," Lee says, "but for us they represent some of the most exciting food cities to visit today. ... "But then again, the other thing is highlighting smaller Southern cities like Asheville and Charleston and Louisville that have such rich culture and such long historical links, they're just very rewarding to visit and we're hoping to show just by demonstrating just how deep you can get into it pretty easily and really have some rewarding and fun food and beverage experiences." What book are you currently reading? "It's 'Breakfast' by George Weld. It's actually a cookbook, if that counts. But he's a guy who grew up in Charleston and made his career up in New York sort of doing a pop-up in a hot dog store." What did you have for dinner last night? "I had rotisserie chicken, salad from the garden and potato salad from probably the grocery store takeout. I was at a friend's house and his mother sort of catered dinner (chuckles). But it was delicious." What is your next project? "We're pretty excited about doing a live show for the first time. We're developing sort of more from a theatrical point of view the kind of cooking demonstration that we usually do for small audiences for a much larger audience, about 250 or 300 people, in Louisville, Ky., June 19 and 20." Sampling the unusual and the unexpected on 'Southern Uncovered' BY GEORGE DICKIE The Lee brothers Sampling the unusual and the unexpected on 'Southern Uncovered' If you don't know what to make of Tom Hardy as the screen's new Mad Max, remember that many people had the same feeling about Mel Gibson when he originated the role. The role of the vengeful warrior in a post-apocalyptic world made Gibson a global star, and while it isn't likely to be as defining for Hardy – known for his work with filmmaker Christopher Nolan on such films as "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Inception" – "Mad Max: Fury Road" does a solid job not only in reviving the premise, but giving it a freshness, particularly impressive because that's accomplished nearly 40 years later by returning director George Miller. Max still has plenty of reason to be mad, seen right from the outset as he's the captive of a sinister, strangely masked mentor (Hugh Keays-Byrne, also of the original movie) of young toughs (one played by Nicholas Hoult). Eventually, Max finds an unexpected ally in one of the enemy's main deputies (Charlize Theron, dressed down to the point of sporting a prosthetic arm). She's had it with the boss, and not only does she demonstrate it by her own betrayal of him, but also by taking five of what he cherishes most: his wives (represented by Zoe Kravitz and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" alum Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, among others). Of course, the bad guys are in hot pursuit, thus making for the frantic trip down "Fury Road." And frantic, it truly is. "Mad Max" and its first sequel, "The Road Warrior," made their reputations on their simple approach of bountiful action in grim surroundings ... and even though there's a lot more available to him now in terms of film technology, some of which he does use here, Miller wisely sticks to the basics and lets the plethora of human and vehicular stunts do much of the talking. He also continues to guarantee that "name" performers won't have it easy in this world. As with Tina Turner in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," Theron gets her share of rough stuff to dole out. It's another daring performance from an actress who won an Oscar for one ("Monster"), and it's fun to get this reassurance that she's still so willing to get down and dirty. There's been a whole generation since the last time Mad Max saw action 30 years ago, and even if "Mad Max: Fury Road" isn't the long-range franchise-reviver its makers likely hope for, it gets the basic job done as the man who started the series stays true to it and supplies what followers will be looking for. Three decades later, that's a real accomplishment. Tom Hardy BY JAY BOBBIN 'Mad Max' gets a furious, visceral revival Page 8 June 15 - 21, 2015

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