 In 1988–89, he wrote a syndicated food column for the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" and other southern newspapers, and in 1996 he was a senior correspondent for "The Tennessean", Nashville's morning daily.In 1997 he was a senior lecturer in American Studies at the University of Texas in Austin.In 1999, Egerton was one of the founders of the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) in the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.