The Southern Fork (Stephanie Burt)

Here in South Carolina, we’re a little over a week from the end of oyster season. Come with me to experience the setting of Bowen’s Island Restaurant this time of year. Roll down your windows to the sound of cicadas as you pull the car off Folly Road and wind back to the edge of the water. Once you’re out and climb up the steps to the second floor, suddenly, it’s hard to escape the view. Marsh grass and water are set on fire in a ribbon of rose gold, winding through sea breezes and the air thick with the scent of fried seafood. But you’re not alone taking in the scene, you’re with probably 50 or so new friends who you are soon waiting in line alongside you, deciding the menu long before they’re at the front to order. This is where Robert Barber and his daughter Hope Barber McIntosh call home, a James Beard America’s Classic restaurant, and they let us inside their world a bit, no shucking oysters required.

You know, I was probably one of those people who at one time just assumed that Food & Wine’s former editor extraordinaire Dana Cowin was a dash of Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada mixed with someone who would never stand over the sink to eat a ripe tomato sandwich. I was so  wrong. That was before I got to know her through FAB Charleston, a women’s conference focused on education and inspiration for the hospitality industry. Dana was open, engaged, she laughed easily, and basically is exactly the sort of person I’d love to have dinner with, and she’s returned to the conference every year since, getting to know those of us who do as well. You, of course, can hear her on Speaking Broadly on Heritage Radio Network, but this week, I get the distinct honor to ask her the questions, and she illustrates how a blend of curiosity, focus, and having a happiness intention can keep you afloat even when you’re floating away from a dream job to your next calling. 

There’s a lot of bad news coming out of Washington, DC these days. Hear about the city, and it’s easy to feel negatively. But that’s the opposite reaction I have when I think of this city, full of vibrant restaurants, and one of the best places to start your day, or take a lunch, is just over the line in Arlington, VA. Bayou Bakery is a slice of New Orleans helmed by chef/owner David Guas, someone who’s just as happy pulling an espresso shot and greeting guests by name as he is deftly laminating dough or creating a chocolate ganache with just the right sheen. He started his career at the prestigious Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, he’s penned a James Beard finalist cookbook, and had some TV fun as the host of the Travel Channel’s American Grilled, but through it all he’s remained a loyal participant in Who Dat Nation. And he makes one of the best beignets this side of Cafe Du Monde.

In times like these, it’s good to go back to the garden, and with school back in session, that’s exactly where some children in Birmingham, AL are headed. Jones Valley Teaching Farm is located in the city’s downtown, and its patchwork of small, urban farms within a single community is reshaping the stories and futures for those nearby. Amanda Storey is the Executive Director of the farm, where she’s been an enthusiastic advocate, volunteer, and employee for 10 years — four of which have been spent in her current role. Her passion for the connection between food and community began in her early career, and like me, she sees food through the lens of the people it touches. In a place where weeds once grew in abandoned lots, Jones Valley Teaching Farm is growing hope and imagination for a different future.

Steph shares details of The Southern Fork Residencies Summer Tour. 

Oxford, Mississippi isn’t an easy place to get to if you’re accustomed to interstate highways and direct flights. Just the name of this town conjures a rich layer of images: SEC football tailgates, blues music wailing across big cotton field skies, and Faulkner, of course. But layered in all of this is also a hopping culinary scene, and one of its epicenters is Snackbar, a taste on the plate of a South that is even more layered than the town. That’s because it’s helmed by Vishwesh Bhatt, the 2019 James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: South. Vish is a man who cooks from his own heart, and that means using Indian flavors and Southern ingredients, and most of all keeping in mind that the restaurant business is a people business, focusing on fostering talent in the kitchens and regulars in the dining room who become friends. You might also catch him as part of the popular SFA dinner series, Brown in the South, or as I did, at a guest chef dinner.

Vishwesh Bhatt has been a part of Chef John Currence’s City Grocery Restaurant Group in Oxford, MS since 1997. He started off as a prep cook at City Grocery and worked his way up to Executive Chef at Snackbar, where he has developed a menu that intertwines both Southern and subcontinental foodways. His new cookbook, I Am From Here: Stories and Recipes from a Southern Chef, celebrates and explores this intertwining of cultures through his own unique personal lens, and it was masterfully photographed by past guest Angie Mosier. Vish was Southern Living’s 2019 Southerner of the Year and that same year won James Beard Foundation Best Chef: South. I wanted to catch up with him on his debut week before it took months for our paths to cross, but as is sometimes the case in the life of an independent podcast, my fancy remote recording equipment went wonky because of our respective locations, so we resorted to an old fashioned phone call. It was nevertheless a wonderful conversation, as you’ll soon hear.

Right now, one of the main conversations in America around food is about the cracks and the faultines in the meat industry, and by extension, the idea that while it’s hard and illness is an epidemic, we must force workers by decree to keep working. This assumes the validity of the system, and I’m about to suggest that we’re missing the idea of questioning things that have become institutionalized. I also know that it’s overwhelming to look at ideas we have around it if we have no solutions. But we do have places to begin to explore solutions. I’ve enlisted farmer, butcher, author, and teacher Meredith Leigh to help us have a discussion. Her Ethical Meat Handbook is in its second edition, and if you’ve chosen to consume meat, then Meredith’s exploration and guidance of our relationship to eating animals is sensible and approachable, and she wants to help you begin to take your power back when it comes to feeding you and your family. 

If you’re from the South, the pizza tradition here has usually centered around game night, movie night, study groups, or volunteer dinners, with big boxes lined up on a table sitting out long after we’ve all finished eating. It’s often good, but not really a Southern Fork subject. However, the following discussion is not about that kind of pizza, but something a lot more transcendent, at least if you’re like me and love carbs. Kyle Jacovino of Pizzeria Vittoria in Savannah, Ga. is a dedicated Neapolitan pizza practitioner, and his attention to technique is something I taste in every bite. He honed his Southern cooking chops under famed chefs Linton Hopkins and Hugh Acheson, but Pizzeria Vittoria is all his -- his passion, his sweat equity, and his attention to detail, and he consistently makes some of the best pizza I’ve ever had.

Hi y’all, It’s Stephanie, I’m excited to share with you another podcast you should check out through this episode of The One Recipe from APM Studios. 

On The Southern Fork I've talked to a lot of people about their food and their recipes. Pretty much everyone who cooks aspires to have a clutch of recipes they can make their own. The ones that we send to friends because we know it’s going to work every single time. The One Recipe is about building that library, one recipe at a time. Host Jesse Sparks, Senior Editor at Eater, talks to chefs and gifted cooks from all over the world about their One and the story behind it. 

This episode features Award-winning culinary historian Toni Tipton-Martin and her one recipe: a Blackberry-Ginger Bourbon Smash, the perfect drink to end dry January. Here is The One Recipe. 

It’s a bit disconcerting when you step off the elevator for your first visit to The Punch Room at the Ritz Carlton in Charlotte, NC. First, it’s not on the rooftop or penthouse floor, something I was expecting, but on a random floor. Secondly, other than a small host stand outside what appears to be a usual hotel suite, there is no indication you’re walking into a public establishment at all. But open the door, and there’s no doubt you’re somewhere special, that exclusive VIP experience that really delivers beyond the velvet rope. This room full of luxurious details is the everyday office of Bob Peters, who at once is bartender, host, front of house manager, and magician. Peters won the best bartender award for global Ritz Carlton a few years ago, but sit in this room for any length of time, and you don’t need to know that award to witness -- and taste -- the magic. He uses dry ice, he sets aflame, he infuses, carbonates, dehydrates and coaxes chemical reactions, all with delicious results. It’s up close magic, and an empty glass set in front of you signals your show is about to begin. Let’s see if he can let us know any tricks behind the treats.    

Travis Milton is a familiar figure in Southern food, having been featured in press from Tasting Table to Atlas Obsura, talking up the goodness of heirloom vegetables, whiskey, and the power of a piece of streaky pig meat in a pot of beans. But he’s more than a stereotype of the Appalachian region that raised him. This chef, born in Castlewood, Virginia, honed his modernist cooking skills at WD-50 in New York City, has staged in kitchens from San Fran to D.C., and garnered much success cooking in Richmond, Va. But to him, he couldn’t capitalize on his culinary traditions in a region outside of the one that taught him. So he’s come back to Southwest Virginia and had some stops and starts with projects and partnerships, but now seems to have settled at the growing Nicewonder Farm & Vineyards in Bristol, VA. He’s opened Taste Wood-Fired Kitchen -- an open-air restaurant in a barn close to the property’s greenhouses -- and his hearth-based restaurant, Hickory, is currently under construction. 

There’s something of a relaxed grace about Florence, AL. It’s approachable, artistic, yet with a definite deep South accent, and Odette, a restaurant nestled in an historic storefront in its downtown, is the culinary embodiment of that aesthetic. That style comes from owner Celeste Pillow and Chef Josh Quick, who’s been at the helm since it opened in 2013. Although Josh didn’t grow up in the town, his personality and style of cooking seem completely at home here. He came to Northwest Alabama by working at the Marriott Shoals, a popular hotel in the area, and before that, earned his culinary training through an American Culinary Federation apprenticeship at Walt Disney World. At Odette, his focus is on American food with Southern and International influences, and through the years, he’s earned the trust of loyal regulars, so he gets to be creative with the ever evolving menu. He’s earned my trust too, with one bite of crispy catfish in a flavorful broth, and I’m already ready to visit again.

Charleston Wine + Food is a multi-day wine and food festival that takes place the first full weekend each March, and I have covered it as a media person, and/or participated as talent for all of its going-on 18 years excepting one. The following interview took place live in the midst of the Culinary Village at this year’s festival, and I’m sharing it now because I already have the 2024 festival on the brain. Not only is my behind the scenes planning well underway, but tickets go on sale to the public on October 19. I lovingly call it my Super Bowl, because it is, and the connections and education from it seeds much of the work I do. One of those relationships is with Alyssa Maute Smith, my conversation partner here and the festival’s Executive Director. Alyssa, a native Charlestonian, stepped into the Interim role in April of 2022, having successfully served as the festival’s Marketing + Communications Director for 6 years, then in 2023 was officially granted the title. There’s no mistaking the energy of Charleston Wine + Food, and Alyssa's enthusiasm for the work and for this community she calls home is a good compass for its future. And I’m proud to call her my friend.

It takes close to 1200 bees to make a 16-ounce jar of honey. Each one of those bees, through its choice of flower nectar, contributes to the unique flavor profile of a honey, a profile that can vary season to season, even if the location of the hive remains the same. That unique character -- the literal taste of a place -- is only preserved if the honey arrives to your kitchen pantry 100% raw, and for many cooks and chefs in Alabama, some of the best tasting and highest quality raw honey is produced by Eastaboga Bee Company. Beekeeper Justin Hill comes from a long lineage of farmers, and when he took up keeping bees a few years ago to diversify his farm, he really got bit by the beekeeping bug. He’s now one of the largest honey producers in the region, and you can find Eastaboga Bee Company honey on some of the best menus in the state. It tastes like sweet, liquid sunshine on the rolling Alabama fields in summer, pure liquid gold.

Restaurant work is hard work. It’s long hours, hot cooking into hot clean up over a dishwasher steaming with every round, and then there’s the service, the planning, the ordering, the management, and the bill-paying. But that game becomes even harder when you’re the only one playing it. Angie Bellinger of Workmen’s Cafe on James Island, SC, is a one-woman show of soul food greatness tucked into a small white building just off Folly Road where the sound of beach traffic mingles with semis whizzing past. Even now, long after development, there are fields just around the corner where cicadas shed their skin on long blades of grass, and when the breeze is right, you can still catch a whiff of the salt air over the Stono River. From butter beans to fried chicken, pork chops to collard greens, Angie’s known for it, but it may be the spirit of care she puts into her cooking that keeps the door bell ringing more than anything else.

The forecast said rain and wind in earlier December when I went out on the Chesapeake with the men of Wild Divers Oyster Co. But the day instead dawned very clear and calm, though still cold, and as Nick Hargrove and Derek Wilson boated us out to an oyster bed close to the dock, shore birds flitted across the sky and the sun sparkled across the water. Then Derek suited up, dove down and soon Nick pulled up a basket filled with big, briny oysters hand selected from below. Those oysters, beyond the few we ate, are distributed to restaurants across Maryland, including the high-end establishments of Blue Point Hospitality Group helmed by their friend Chef Harley Peet, but for these two, it’s more than just a bivalve-- these oysters are a connection to their home and to a tradition they are working hard to carry on. There isn’t a “boater’s kit” for oyster diving, so a lot of their equipment is one-of-a-kind or things they built, and with it, Nick and Derek are forging a unique life for themselves and their families as well.

Hanna Raskin, food editor of The Post and Courier in Charleston, SC, is one of the most respected food writers in the country. She’s written for many publications, from Garden & Gun to Cooking Light, won many awards, including from the James Beard Foundation, but it’s her restaurant reviews that seem to get the most buzz, from her time at the Seattle Weekly and the Dallas Observer to her current tenure in Charleston. Here in this city, her work has been at times highly controversial, and has spurred backlash, but that’s a testament to how many people take her publication and her opinion under serious consideration. While I don’t always agree with her, nor she with me, I do not in any way condone the attacks on her person. Writing -- and food -- is a conversation, and Hanna is smack dab in the thick of it. 

A California girl now living in New Orleans, Joy Wilson, known more on the internet as Joy the Baker, never tires of the alchemy of baking at home. In 2008, Joy started a blog to share her indulgent, comforting, yet approachable recipes in her little corner of the internet, and the path since has been super sweet. She’s a baking instructor, a three-time cookbook author, editor-in-chief of the Joy the Baker magazine, and she’s been featured in numerous publications, including Food52, NYMag, TheKitchn, Better Homes and Gardens, and Country Living. Through it all, Joy proves baking is not about all the latest gadgets and high-tech gizmos, but about stepping into the kitchen with a monster sweet tooth, a curious attitude, and a willingness to practice coaxing something beautiful out of the oven.

If you’ve ever been on untapped, rate my beer, or otherwise thought about standing in line for a beer release, then listen up, beloved beer nerds, this episode is for you! Cameron Read is the Director of Brewing Operations for Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company in Charleston, SC, and so yes, he just might have what many consider to be a dream job. Edmund’s Oast is becoming a force in brewing in the US, not only with its connections to get rare and special releases for the restaurant, but now through its own beer since recently adding a canning and bottling operation. But the following isn’t a chat about the business side, but about brewing, from gauges and yeast to the creative process of building flavors and what Cameron likes to call “dialing in.” From brewing in his apartment before he was of legal age to consume it, to these days running a 30-barrel system, he still closely guards the creative process that got him there -- making beer.

Let’s be honest. Many of us forget about soup kitchens or homeless meal programs until the holidays, when we might consider volunteering or donating resources. But Chef Angie DuPree thinks about that kind of work every day -- it’s her job. She is the Culinary Trainer Director at One80 Place in Charleston, SC. Angie not only coordinates a food rescue program that helps serve 500 clients a day at the shelter, she uses the food that comes in the door as part of a training program to get her clients ready for a new chapter in their lives -- one in a commercial kitchen. It takes patience, humor, vision, and lots of knife skills to do what she does, and she does it all with grace and one of the best laughs in the business. She took the knowledge she had in a catering business -- and with the help of innovative management -- is using it to transform her 10 square feet of the world.

Think an egg is just an egg? Think again. While professional cooks, and especially pasta chefs and bakers know the power of a perfect egg, most of the rest of us are still in the dark as to the differences between the ones on sale and all those other ones that are free range, or organic, or even gathered from a neighbor’s coop. That was the case for Jeremy Storey too of Storey Farms on Johns Island, SC. He was a chef at Chicago’s elite three-Michelin-star restaurant Alinea, and until he traded in his apron to become a farmer, he’d never considered what makes a perfect egg. That’s been his mission these last eight years, and it’s won him some of Charleston’s most discerning culinary customers, including past guests Cynthia Wong of Life Raft Treats and Jason Stanhope of FIG. In fact, you’ll see Storey Farms on many a Lowcountry menu, and even in my fridge. Once you have a Storey Farm egg, there’s no going back.

Chef Lisa Marie White is someone who dares to change. During a pilgrimage in her late 30s on the Camino de Santiago in Europe, she remembered her love of baking and decided to pursue it with a professional passion and scholar’s heart. She’s baked all over the country, from Domenica and Willa Jean in New Orleans to The Thompson Hotel in Nashville, and she’s now brought her unique style and talent to Biscuit Love in Nashville, a sensational spot you’ve heard about before way back on Episode 19. Lisa Marie prefers to be behind the scenes, but I persuaded her to the mic because her knowledge -- and that pastry passion -- is always a sugar high. 

Chris Shepherd of Underbelly Hospitality in Houston, Tx. is one of the best chefs cooking right now. He’s had numerous accolades, from Food & Wine magazine to the James Beard Foundation, and Robb Report named him the best chef in the world. Creatively, he has a curiosity that keeps him learning, a confidence to say what he feels, and a heart for the people he’s cooking for and with, along with the producers who are growing the product he’s using. So, you know, prime Southern Fork material! This interview was recorded in February during a guest chef cooking stop on his cookbook tour, but now he’s back in Houston, using all his creativity and hussle to keep to-go and takeaway going in the midst of this crisis, and he’s using Southern Smoke Foundation, a foundation he created with a festival, to get more than half a million dollars in the hands of out-of-work food and beverage workers right now. In other words, Chris is a leader in his field, and he leads by remembering why he cooks -- to share, bring joy, and strengthen community. 

This weekend usually marks the annual Southeastern Wildlife Expo, or SEWE, in Charleston, SC where close to 20,000 folks descend upon the city to celebrate wildlife art and the sporting lifestyle. So in honor of that, I’m learning more this week about a great company, Manchester Farms Quail in Columbia, SC, that began as a venture by an outdoorsman who loved to hunt quail. That man is Brittney Miller’s father, and in 2005, Miller’s parents retired from Manchester Farms, and she took ownership of the 31-year-old farm and all aspects of the company, including customer relations, new product development, finance, production, marketing, and quality improvement. For Miller, keeping her father’s ideals, such as raising birds humanely without antibiotic feed, and keeping the idea of a family business in mind, are two things that she holds close to her heart, and you’ll find her quail on plenty of the best restaurant menus in the South. 

Host Stephanie Burt recaps Season 8 of the show, sharing the most listened to podcasts, her favorite bites of the season, and other details to keep the conversation going. Let’s Dig In.

Vern’s in Charleston, SC represents the culmination of Daniel and Bethany Henize's years of experience. They have worked in lauded restaurants around the country, including the now-closed Charleston institution McCrady’s, as well as Animal, Jon & Vinny’s, and Gjusta in Los Angeles. Located in a quaint corner building from the 1880s and named after Daniel’s grandfather, the menu emphasizes of-the-moment seasonal ingredients and shareable plates. The wine program focuses on small producers with organic and biodynamic practices, and glasses clink all evening in a dining room that feels like a relaxed dinner party at a chef’s residence more than one of the hottest restaurants to open in the city in the last five years. The love that this couple has for an industry that has been through the wringer recently is evident, and their commitment to excellence already at Vern’s provides hope that the art of dining out and dining well has staying power.

“Supply chain” is a buzz phrase right now, but let’s not forget that one, there isn’t just “one chain,” and two, that it’s not a faceless thing -- it’s people. Mark Overbay of Big Spoon Roasters in Durham, NC was inspired by the unavailable supply of peanut butter when he was stationed in the Peace Corps, and it led him down plenty of paths to sweet success. Big Spoon’s philosophy is based on the belief that food matters when it comes to health, happiness, and the well-being of our planet, and that planet includes all those who are working to produce his product. Simply by doing what they love, the company, which Mark named in homage to his dad Gary, has created numerous product innovations, including being the first to incorporative creative ingredients --from chai spices to freshly toasted coconut -- in nut butter recipes, being the first to offer membership clubs, and currently still the only nut butter company with a completely transparent supply chain. Big Spoon Roasters is available in close to 800 US retail outlets, and Mark? He’s still eating peanut butter on the daily. 

When Ashley Christensen of Raleigh, NC, stepped behind the podium at the James Beard Awards almost two weeks ago to receive its Outstanding Chef Award, she was ready to accept that medal and give a heartfelt speech. Her attitude wasn’t pompous or flippant, but almost an “ok then, let’s do this … together.”  And in many ways, that’s how this outstanding chef has approached her work, going all in, learning the craft, celebrating the ingredients of her beloved North Carolina region at Poole’s Diner, Death & Taxes, and more, and practicing paying attention to the building of a community, of a company, and of the chefs who work around her. She’s found her medium -- food -- to express her vision of kindness, comfort, and connection, but there is also a relentless striving for excellence that informs her work. This isn’t a chef who is going to rest on her laurels; she’s just getting started.

Few restaurants have made a more significant impact in the Southern culinary landscape in such a short amount of time than The Grey in Savannah, Ga. Housed in a restored 1938 Greyhound Bus Terminal and led by co-partners Chef Mashama Bailey and John Morisano, The Grey at once challenges and comforts with every plate of food that is served. Bailey’s seasonally shifting menus are always delicious and at once feel familiar yet deeply rooted in her own varied culinary influences, and the space itself -- once segregated -- fills with a diverse crowd who are there not as a quick stop but for the main event of an evening. The restaurant was named Eater Restaurant of the Year for 2017/18, Bailey won Best Chef: Southeast in 2019 from the James Beard Foundation, and that same year, was also a featured chef on an episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table. In 2020, they pivoted like the rest of the industry, and added luxury yurts to a courtyard space for dining, and this year has seen the release of their co-authored book, Black, White & The Grey. 

I’ve always been a sucker for pharmacies, apothecaries, and perfume counters. I just can’t get enough of those little bottles and the treasures and tinctures they hold, so part of the fun of visiting a craft cocktail joint for me is looking at all the bottles at the bar. Bitters are always present, but in recent years, the number of brands of these somewhat mysterious concoctions have exploded, and Craig Rudewicz of Crude Bitters and Sodas in Raleigh, NC, is making some of the best. He started building bitters while working at a restaurant, put some sweat equity into his new business at local farmers markets, raised additional monies through Kickstarter, and these days distributes country-wide  and teaches cocktail classes too. The bitters go beyond the normal flavor profiles, and our conversation goes beyond the normal too, jumping from alcohol laws to Leprechaun Stew. Join us for a ride on what I call “the bitter train.”

There are some people you just want to hang out in the kitchen with. Ali Rosen is one of those people, and she knew the kitchen was where she belonged from a young age. If you’re in NYC then you’re lucky enough to get a window into her kitchen life on her TV show on NYC Life, Potluck with Ali, and the rest of us can spot her regularly on the Dr. Oz show in her role as “food investigator.” She has a cookbook, a vibrant life full of family and travel, and she’s a native Charlestonian, so I wanted to learn how growing up Southern and being an inquisitive food lover had shaped her life. What results is a classic kitchen chat (although we actually sat in the living room for some quiet), where her passion for cooking and learning is infectious. 

Chef Rob McDaniel is an Alabama native. He grew up in Hayleyville, graduated from Auburn, sharpened his cooking skills at ‘Bama standbys Jim N’ Nicks and Hot & Hot Fish Club, and was the longstanding chef of SpringHouse at Lake Martin. So a couple of years ago, when he told me he was opening a place of his very own in downtown Birmingham, named Helen after his granny, I knew it was going to be good, and I knew I had to visit. His passion for Southern foods, foraging, and sustainability informs his culinary style and is showcased through his dedication to simple recipes enhanced by flavorful ingredients. McDaniel is a five-time James Beard Foundation nominee for Best Chef: South , and he makes the best tomato pie I’ve ever had outside of the Carolinas. Taking a precise chef’s eye to Southern classics is what he does best, and he’s interested in his next chapter as restaurateur.

Vaucresson Sausage has been a true flavor of New Orleans since 1899. Vaucresson’s Sausage Company is a third-generation, family-owned business in the 7th Ward of the city, and its current caretakers are Vance Vaucresson and his wife Julie. They’re well-known members of the community but especially visible each year during Jazz Fest when patrons que up for their famous, fresh sausage po-boys. Vance is not only keeper of the family recipes, but a steward and ambassador of New Orleans culture as well, and that includes being a jazz singer. Music, food, and community are forever entwined in this city, and the spicy bite of his distinct sausages shows up on restaurant menus, in home kitchens, and at the just opened Vaucresson’s Creole Cafè & Deli. It’s the next chapter in this family legacy, and just like a good jazz riff, it’s all about keeping the notes flowing and making it work through improvisation and perseverance.

If you’ve been out and about in Charleston,SC, then most likely you’re familiar with Home Team BBQ. But since it’s a place with multiple locations (including outside the state), those spots are  almost always busy, and they probably have your game on the TV and your favorite beer or spirit in the glass, it’s easy to bypass the idea behind it all. And the idea was simple. Chef Aaron Siegel trained at the Culinary Institute of America then cooked in fine dining kitchens for many years, and he wanted to apply his culinary training to comfort food and barbecue. And what happened was a Gamechanger, and I’m not just talking about that Home Team frozen drink. Aaron himself had to learn to build a business beyond just the food. 

Dooky Chase’s Restaurant opened its doors for business in 1941 in New Orleans. What was initially a sandwich shop and lottery ticket outlet in 1939 blossomed into a thriving bar and later a respected family restaurant in the Treme neighborhood. Founded by Emily and Dooky Chase, Sr., the restaurant soon became the meeting place for music and entertainment, civil rights, and culture in New Orleans. In 1946, Edgar Dooky Chase, Jr. married Leah Lange Chase. Later known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, Leah Chase would introduce one of the first African American fine dining restaurants to the country by transforming that sandwich shop into an elegant restaurant serving her signature Creole cuisine in rooms that were decorated with an ever-expanding collection of African American Art. Chef Chase passed away in 2019, and today Dooky Chase’s remains family owned and operated with Stella Chase Reese helping usher the iconic restaurant into its next chapter. This stopping place for locals and celebrities too, from Jay-Z to Jesse Jackson, consistently serves all with Creole classics such as gumbo, red beans and rice, and stuffed shrimp. Stella says that her mother believed a bowl of her gumbo would bring anyone good luck, but stepping through these doors for good food and great company is luck enough for many of us.

Charlotte, NC is one of the fastest growing metropolitan cities in the United States. While the city has always looked forward, it was actually founded before the American Revolution and the site of the first US Mint. But in the past two decades, the intense growth and the addition of a light rail system have brought immense changes citywide. In the middle of it all, the Nguyen family has been feeding its community, one Bahn Mi sandwich at a time. From homemade beginnings to a cornerstone business of the Asian Corner Mall, Le’s Sandwiches and Cafe now has another new chapter of its own. Tuan Nguyen has taken over the business from his parents and is carrying on their legacy, despite the closing of the mall that is slated for imminent demolition. Le’s has a beautiful new streetfront building on Sugar Creek Road, and they routinely sell out of everything they can make. Le’s Bahn Mi #6 was voted one of the best sandwiches in Charlotte by QC Magazine, they have been featured in The Charlotte Observer, and the restaurant was the subject of an oral history published by The Southern Foodways Alliance. 

Other episodes you might enjoy: 

Dayna Lee: Comal 864 (Greenville, SC)

Don Trowbridge: Trowbridge’s (Florence, AL)

I had one of the best fried fish sandwiches I’ve had in a long while recently at Shabazz Seafood in Savannah, Ga. Whiting is fried crispy hot to order, and it’s sandwich with a stellar reputation in Savannah.  But, this take out spot that opened its order window in 1989 hasn’t been known much outside the city until recently. That all changed when it was featured this year on Netflix’s Fresh, Fried, and Crispy, and that happened because Kalifa Shabazz, who grew up working with her parents after school, found a place for herself in the business and a calling for her new profession when she began doing social media for the restaurant. Mom and Savannah Alderwoman Estella Shabazz and dad Yusuf Shabazz are community leaders, and Kalifa’s already thinking about how she can support the community further. 

I’m not a spicy food wimp, but neither am I competitive spicy food  eater (you know the type, right?), so I love a little kick on my scrambled eggs or in my chili,my collard greens, or my noodle bowl. Through the last few years, Red Clay Hot Sauce, made right here in Charleston, SC, has become more and more my go-to for just that. This company, which began when Geoff Rhyne was chopping chiles in the kitchen at The Ordinary is now growing and showing up in way more spots than just my fridge, so I wanted to go beyond the bottle and learn more. What I discovered was a family man with a passion for creativity who is carving (and cooking) his own path. 

How I think about food has evolved over the years, and that’s changed how I cook as well. These three Charleston folks: Ann Marshall of High Wire Distillery, Kevin Johnson of The Grocery, and Bob Cook of Edmund’s Oast, are some that inspired me onto my current path of eating local, cooking better, and practice instead of perfection in the kitchen, so I revisit three of my earliest interview subjects to chat specifics.

Years ago when I worked at The Local Palate, one of my first fancy meals as a staff member was at 610 Magnolia in Louisville, KY, helmed by Chef Edward Lee, and I can remember that the anticipation of that evening was like a holiday gift waiting under the tree. Lindsey Ofcacek was the general manager and wine director of that restaurant before she shifted gears within the restaurant group to helm the LEE Initiative, which had a mission of addressing issues of diversity and equality in the restaurant industry and empowering female chefs in Kentucky. After March 15, Lindsey hit the ground running in another big shift when her organization began providing direct food aid in what quickly grew to 19 partner cities nationwide. How does a mobilization of this magnitude happen from a few independent restaurants? Well, restaurant folks are used to working “on the fly,” and the LEE Initiative is supporting not only those in need but restaurants and farmers through their efforts, too, proving what the power of partnerships and participation in change can promise.  

Chef Kevin Mitchell of the Culinary Institute of Charleston in Charleston, SC, has professional interests that far exceed the confines of the kitchen. Disciplined and driven, he earned two degrees from the Culinary Institute of America and went on to hone his craft with hands-on experience at restaurants including Sun Dial in Atlanta, Seldom Blues Supper Club in Detroit and the MGM Grand Detroit Hotel. In 2008, he joined the faculty in Charleston as its first African-American chef, where he still teaches, but beyond the classroom, throughout the years, he’s created special events that honor black culinary ancestors, been a SC Chef Ambassador, and now, along with Episode 65’s Dr. David Shields, has co-authored Taste the State: South Carolina's Signature Foods, Recipes, and Their Stories. At 51, Kevin is as passionate as ever about scholarship, inspiration for the next generation, and the perfect way to debone a fish.

What if two of the 21st century’s largest problems: rising seawater levels and excess carbon dioxide, could be leveraged into next generation sustainable agriculture? That was the daunting research question that Sam Norton posed when he was in graduate school, and what eventually grew into Heron Farms in Charleston, SC. Heron Farms’ most recognizable product is the Charleston Sea Bean, produced in the hydroponic farm right off Meeting Street Road without any natural sunlight or freshwater. Chefs and home cooks -- including me -- have taken to it as a salt alternative, especially as a finishing salt type garnish, but it’s by no means the only thing happening at this cutting edge company. From intense data collection and analysis methods to experiments that can help astronauts on space stations eat better, the humble, deliciously edible sea bean collecting seawater in its cells with every tide is just the beginning. 

Zachary and Hannah Welton started their great adventure together working in Charleston, SC’s celebrated Husk kitchen before they decided to settle on another coast – the Yucatán. Their time spent living and working in southern Mexico – specifically Hartwood in Tulum – solidified their love for wood burning ovens, bright and bold flavors, and plenty of fresh produce. When they returned to the Lowcountry, they began wood-fired pizza pop-ups around Charleston and quickly garnered an intense cult following for their pizza and pastries made with locally-sourced, seasonal ingredients. They’ve kept the catering and pop-up side of the business but also recently opened  Weltons Tiny Bakeshop on Upper King Street, where their ethos continues, focusing on seasonality and thoughtful sourcing to create naturally leavened, European-influenced pastries and breads. Charleston’s next culinary chapter is upon us, and Hannah and Zachary, two of this class establishing the city’s current culinary personality, are only just beginning to show us what they can do.

Most food tours in the US involve quick stops at multiple restaurants, but in Charleston, SC, there is one that is very unique, led by a chef and certified tour guide with a passion for the history of Lowcountry foodways. Undiscovered Charleston is the brainchild of Forrest Parker, a chef whose restaurant tenures include Opryland, Louis’s, the Old Village Post House, and Revival. A former 2016 South Carolina Chef Ambassador, Forrest has a cookbook collection that spans 3000 volumes and three storage units, and that’s not including his extensive collection of old restaurant menus from the Holy City. He weaves history, architecture, and plenty of good food into this intimate walking tour that ends in lunch, and it’s rated the #1 most popular food experience in the world on TripAdvisor. Walk a morning with Forrest, and you realize that his encyclopedic knowledge of Charleston restaurants past and present is directly connected to the city streets themselves, and he’s weaving his own story into those old cobblestones with every tour. 

What does it mean to really have a culinary collaboration? Circumstances prompted Chefs Brandon Carter and John Benhase to join forces in a kitchen as the world was asking “What does the future of restaurants look like?” Their spot, Common Thread, is attempting to answer that question with every service. Located in Savannah, GA, in an 1897 home that was once the gift of a Prussian hat seller to his second wife, inspired work by architect Kevin Rose realized a modern restaurant vision without disregarding its original bones and nooks and crannies, and made it into a setting for the two chef’s love of hyper-local, hyper-seasonal cooking. That’s the same idea that Carter cooks from at FARM Bluffton, the small-community sister to this restaurant in Bluffton, SC. Benhase, who cooked under Chef Ford Fry in Atlanta before moving to Savannah to helm Starland Yard, brings a steady organizational and ultra-creative hand. This restaurant is all about relationships -- with the seasons, with the producers, with the guests, and with the team -- and that focus is something that is only going to get stronger.

My trip to Cornelius and Davidson, NC, was a trip down nostalgia’s lane. As a native Charlottean, I’d spent time at the lake growing up, and one of my first writing gigs was as a features writer at Lake Norman Times, so when I went to visit Joe and Katy Kindred at Kindred and Hello, Sailor, I was having all the feels checking out my old stomping grounds. But that was just the beginning -- friend and chef Craig Deihl, from the recently closed Charleston, SC faves Artisan Meat Share and Cypress, is now the CDC at Hello, Sailor, and then there was the calabash shrimp on the menu, the fried bologna sandwich, and oh, the hushpuppies. It’s a wonder I held it together for this interview. But it’s more than just about me and my memory lane here. Kindred, and now Hello, Sailor, are hot restaurants, and not just in the Queen City area, but with people such as the James Beard Foundation, Bon Appetit, and Eater. These restaurant teams craft a 360 experience that is grounded in exceptional food in laid back settings, and I am here to attest that the meals I had this day are two of the best I’ve had in a year of eating. And these people make me laugh, as you’ll hear in the following.

If you didn’t already employ them to make a take-out dish this week for your Thanksgiving table, chances are you’ll probably meet some friends at some point at a restaurant during the holidays to celebrate. There are 15 million people working in the hospitality industry in the United States, and 63% of entry-level restaurant workers identify as female. But among those in restaurant leadership, that number is closer to 38%. The Women Culinary and Spirits Program of the Lee Initiative, based in Louisville, KY, has a goal to elevate more women into leadership positions within the industry, with the mindset that doing so increases equity and diversity. Mentees are experienced professionals in the early-to-mid stages of their food and beverage careers and are ready to take the next steps towards becoming industry leaders. Sous chef Taylor Jarvis of Nicewonder Farm & Vineyards in Bristol, VA is one such mentee, and this year, she was paired with James Beard winner and Top-Chef alum Chef Nina Compton, whose restaurants Compère Lapin and Bywater are in New Orleans, LA. We dig into their experience and their insights on the industry,

Come with me to a valley in Eastern Tennessee filled with fresh mountain air and grass-filled pastures where cows wander and graze all day. This is the birthplace of the cheese of Sequatchie Cove Creamery, one of the South’s foremost cheesemakers, whose Dancing Fern cheese wowed the American cheese community -- and beyond -- when it debuted in 2012. Located 35 minutes northwest from Chattanooga, this creamery is the brainchild of Nathan and Padgett Arnold, who work to capture the unique taste of this place through raw-milk cheese production, a passion that Nathan pursued when he left the cove to apprentice for a time in the Savoie region of France. I’ve been sampling their selections on Southern restaurant menus for years, and not only is it addictively delicious, it’s produced through 100% solar power in a sustainable facility right on Sequatchie Cove Farm. You might never get the chance to make a visit this magical place, but one bite, and it’s as if you can feel that mountain sun as it moves across the valley.

There’s a small island off the state of Georgia called St. Simons, full of salt marshes and sandy beaches, and on that island is Southern Soul BBQ, named three years in a row as Reader’s Choice Best Barbecue for Southern Living. You might never get there for a visit, and although that would be a shame, it doesn’t mean that the food won’t come to you at some point. While pitmaster Harrison Sapp tends to the smokehouse on the island, Griffin Bufkin and Mark Hanna hit the Southern food festival circuit as the “Stew Crew,” stirring up big pots of Brunswick Stew and a rollicking good time in many a city, so I caught up with them recently at Charleston Wine + Food to learn all things about this iconic Southern stew from a couple of men who have perfected a recipe for it. Whether or not you decide to stir the pot, listen in for some South Georgia fun.

Diego Campos, Executive Chef at CAMP, Modern American Eatery, works the chef’s counter like a pro in this Greenville, SC restaurant, chatting and visiting and not looking at all stressed that he and his team are making multiple complicated dishes for multiple tables. He’s just the latest to rise through the ranks of Table 301 Group, a restaurant group with more than 10 restaurants that’s been highly influential in changing the flavor of Greenville’s restaurant scene. The company often takes its growth cues from the passion of its chefs, and some have gone on to eventually buy their restaurant from the group and become a chef-owner. Diego joined Table 301 in 2013, and through the last decade has developed his own techniques and culinary style. CAMP originally opened under Chef Drew Erickson, but with Diego, Mexican flavors and preps are shining brightly on the menu, often with exceptional execution. It’s a mirror for the exceptional creativity and exceptionally bright future for this Greenville chef.

The following is a travel journal entry recorded on location and delivered to you the same day. I hope you enjoy this mini-installment from the road during my Southern Fork Summer, and look for a regular full size interview to drop this Friday. 

Charlotte, NC has a love affair with fast, casual food. Maybe it’s the brisk pace of the banking world or the sprawl of roads that make commute times long but whatever it is, the city doesn’t shy away from standing in line and ordering counter service. One of its favorite spots is Yafo Kitchen, which has multiple locations and is brought up by Charlotteans almost every time I visit with phrases like “Have you had their hummus?” or “I just try not to go more than once a week.” And that’s because of Shai Fargian, Executive Chef and Partner at Yafo, who began this local chain with a dedication to making Charlotte fall in love with Middle Eastern food. Originally from Israel, Shai’s cooking lessons began when he was a child alongside his grandmother. He served in the Israeli Army for seven years, eventually rising to serve as an Operations Officer leading a brigade of 2000 people. After retiring and enrolling in college, he began cooking in kitchens, moving through the ranks there too, then moving to the US, where Shai worked in New York City under restaurateur David Burke. In 2015, he and his wife Sharon moved to Charlotte, and in 2016, Yafo was born. Shai sources locally whenever he can, applies his love of operations to his culinary creativity, and as for that hummus? It’s made in house, and the restaurant serves 180 gallons of it a week.

Many restaurants in America are a family business. But how do you be “you” in a business that you didn’t build? For that discussion, we keep the BBQ train going again this week with Amy Mills of 17th Street Barbecue in Murphysboro and Marion, IL. We met up at the recent Firebox BBQ event on St. Simons Island, GA, and although it’s often that we see each other on the road, she doesn’t stop much these days, between appearances on The Food Network’s BBQ Brawl to book publicity for Praise the Lard to getting a bbq sauce factory up and running. Beyond the Bon Appetit’s Best Ribs in America, I think she makes the best baked beans I’ve ever had, and she’s highly aware of the weight of a legacy yet also feels the creative urging of a natural communicator. We always enjoy talking.

Usually, host Stephanie Burt interviews a culinary maker, but for the season finale, she hogs the mic. It's a roundup of lessons, best bites, places you should visit, and thoughts for the coming year. Cheers to 2019, and let's dig in. 

Judith Winfrey is one of the most respected voices in the Southern foodscape. She’s spent a lifetime in food, from working in various positions in restaurants, to running a meal kit delivery business for five years, to being the COO of Linton Hopkins’ Atlanta-based restaurant group.  She is the co-founder of both Wholesome Wave Georgia and Community Farmers Markets, has been recognized as one of Atlanta Magazine’s 500 Most Powerful Leaders, and by the New York Times as a “Woman Who is Changing the Landscape of Leadership.” All of that is evidence that when she’s building something new, it has the strong ribs of research and real world expertise at its core. Since 2008, Judith and her husband Joe Reynolds have co-owned Love is Love Farm, a certified organic farm growing a diversity of vegetables and fruit through soil-based agricultural practices. In 2018, Joe and Judith came together with a group of ambitious, experienced, and educated young farmers: Monica Ponce, Russell Honderd, and Demetrius Milling, and they bonded around a shared vision to farm collectively. Beginning in 2021, Love is Love Farm converted to a worker-owned cooperative and began farming on 70 acres in Mansfield, GA on land they will ultimately own through The Working Farms Fund. All that might sound somewhat heady and theoretical, but it is grounded in good Georgia soil and the love of good food.

I have a passion for sustainable seafood, and it’s been both an important subject here on the show and the subject of many of my written pieces throughout the years. When I first interviewed Sammy Monsour in 2020, I discovered that we shared this passion, and I’ve watched as he has really blossomed into a chef leader on this front. Therefore, when I first heard that he and Kassady Wiggins, his wife and beverage director partner, wanted to write a cookbook about Southern seafood, I encouraged them to go for it. What has resulted is Salt & Shore: Recipes from the Coastal South, filled with stories, sips, and plenty of recipes and photographs that will make you long for sea breezes if you’re missing them. It’s a vibe, something that Kassady and Sammy excel at in their restaurants, which include the now-closed Preux & Proper in LA -- that gained a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2019 -- and Joyce Soul & Sea, also in LA where they teamed up with founders and operators, Prince and Athena Riley. Joyce was named a “Southern oasis in LA” by LA Times food critic Bill Addison, and the Carolina natives bring Southern flavors to both the food and beverage programs. They are living bi-coastal these days between LA and Charleston and dreaming of their next project. Me? After this conversation, I’m dreaming of hushpuppies, so I’m glad there are two recipes to choose from in their book. 

Other episodes you might enjoy: 

Sammy Monsour: Preux & Proper (Los Angeles, CA)

Eric Montagne: Locals Seafood (Durham, NC)

Roosevelt Brownlee lives on the curve of a quiet street in Savannah, GA, the tall stalks of okra in his vegetable garden just visible from the side drive. It’s one of many such streets in the port city, and only a few minutes from the old City Market area where he spent his earliest years. But in between those two Savannah addresses, Roosevelt has traveled the world, from France to Africa, the Caribbean to Denmark, cooking for everyone from Muddy Waters and Stan Getz to Nina Simone and the Rothchild family. His fried chicken was famous in Europe, his family’s red rice recipe honed and tweaked in chateau kitchens. With every deviled crab and pan of mac and cheese, he brought comfort and sustenance to jazz musicians hungry for a taste of home, and at the same time, introduced countless newcomers to the joys of good Southern cooking. Although he’s cooked for much of the last two decades in Savannah kitchens, he’s mostly retired now, though every so often you can see him at special events in the Lowcountry, big hotel spoon in hand, stirring a pan or a pot of something. If that happens, make sure that you get a taste of what he’s cooking. Remember, it’s the true stuff of legend.

Other episodes you might enjoy: 

Mashama Bailey & John Morisano, The Grey and The Grey Market (Savannah, GA)

Adrian Miller, Author and Soul Food Scholar

Around 2.5 million visitors make the trek to Hilton Head Island, S.C. each year, and a portion of those at least, have made it a family tradition to rent homes on the island for holiday gathering, which is a smart idea when sunshine and palm trees are the backdrop for Santa instead of snow. Andrew Carmines of Hudson’s Seafood on the Docks (locally just referred to as Hudson’s) has been a part of this seasonal rhythm his whole life, growing up on the island and in the family restaurant he now operates. Local fishing and shrimping boats dock right at the restaurant on Skull Creek, and Andrew farms local oysters, making Hudson’s one of the freshest and most seafood-centric spots on the island. The breeze is fine, the drinks are cold, and there’s plenty of seating on the patio with friendly service ready to share some Lowcountry flavors.

Visit Maison in Charleston, SC any night it’s open, and there’s a definite vibe -- one that pays homage to the best of classic Left Bank Parisian creativity without the slightest hint of nostalgia. That’s a delicate balancing act, but Chef Vandy Vanderwarker accomplishes it through sheer will and his passion for a cuisine he’s loved since he watched chefs on television as a child. He continued his interest in cooking throughout college, and when he graduated, attended The French Culinary Institute in New York. After working in a series of restaurants in New York City, he moved to Charleston where he refined his style, including as Chef de Cuisine at The Ordinary, then opened Maison three years ago. It’s the home of sweetbreads with black trumpet mushrooms, galettes of shrimp and stone crab, and plenty of pomme frites, which I suggest ordering with a side of escargot. 

With Labor Day behind us, a bit of a break in the high humidity, and college football on the television, it’s evident that fall temps are around the corner. This time of year, my mind doesn’t turn to pumpkin spice, it turns to all things pasta. Craig Richards of Lyla Lila in Atlanta, Ga. is a true pasta professional, having learned the craft under the renowned Lidia Bastianich, working with her and her restaurant group in Kansas City and Pittsburgh before moving to Atlanta to cook at La Tavola. From there he eventually became the Executive Chef of Ford Fry’s St. Cecilia and the VP of Culinary for that restaurant group, honing his pasta making skills and unique cooking point of view every step of the way. Lyla Lila is the first restaurant of his very own, and it welcomes diners with a warm hospitality and plenty of pasta deliciousness. Come back into its kitchen with me, and learn all the specifics about the art, and the science, of my favorite fall food.

The following is a travel journal entry recorded on location and delivered to you the same day. I hope you enjoy this mini-installment from the road during my Southern Fork Summer, and look for a regular full size interview to drop this Friday.

Eric McClam likes tractors. He also likes building things such as chicken coops and flame weeders (really, check out that gas-fueled homemade contraption in the picture!). Farm manager and co-owner of City Roots Farm in Columbia, SC, Eric gave up a life in architecture to transform a plot of land in the Historic Rosewood neighborhood with his father.

To listen to him tell it, though, he didn’t “give up” much of anything, but is learning and living the farm life and transforming a community in the process. Listen to him explain microgreens, hear me giggle like a school girl when he says the phrase “fish poop,” and generally go down to the urban farm with us!

It was a packed Friday night event of the 30A Wine Festival in Alys Beach, FL, and I expected to see a tired and slightly frazzled Chef Drew Dzejak “in the weeds,” to use an f&b term -- he had a line where people were waiting close to 40-minutes for his grilled goodies. Instead, I came upon a chef giddy with delight in the moment, eager to share how good everything was tasting, and who looked as if he could be serving up burgers in the backyard to friends instead of hungry ticketholders. That’s the beauty of Drew’s cooking -- it has an exuberance about it, and at his current flagship restaurant, Caliza, located on 30A along the Florida Gulf Coast, you’ll taste his joy for combining Mediterranean, and now Peruvian flavors, with fresh, local seafood. He’s cooked at some of the fanciest places in the South, from the Inn at Palmetto Bluff to the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, but he hasn’t lost the down-to-earth approach he learned growing up in the shadow of Disney. He’s a family guy at heart, that family extends to his restaurant staff and guests, and you can taste it in every bite.

Seems everyone has made New Year’s resolutions. This year, my little mini suggestion in this mini episode is to pay attention to your ice. Yep, you heard me. Ice. It can mean the difference between a perfect cocktail and one that is too watery (or too strong), and it adds to the allure of a perfectly made drink. Jayce McConnell, beverage maestro of Edmund’s Oast in Charleston and co-host of the Pocket Liquor podcast took some time to break it down for me. Thinking beyond the beverage and beyond the glass can really add class to your cocktail game in 2019. And choosing the right ice for a glass is much easier than some of the other resolutions on your list, so put one on your win column and listen in. I can almost hear that ice clinking in your glass now …

A holiday weekend is upon us, and plenty of children are going to be on the hunt for hidden eggs. On that note, have you ever heard of Easter Eggs in video gaming? Well, it’s a secret feature that when found, unlocks a whole new level, a special delight, or added bonus. You have to go hunting for them, and if there are Easter eggs in the world of whiskey, then chances are Bill Thomas of Washington, D.C. knows all about them, or is on the hunt. He’s the whiskey mastermind behind Jack Rose Dining Saloon in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood of D.C., and it’s a restaurant and bar that houses more than 2,500 bottles at any time for the pouring. His encyclopedic knowledge of whiskey comes from a passion for enjoying it, the people who put great craftsmanship and care into the making of it, and from watching new stars rise in the business. Are you interested in how to build a whiskey bar beyond the corner store selection? Then listen on.

Anne Quatrano has helped steer the trajectory of Atlanta’s dining scene for more than two decades through one simple principle—showcase local ingredients prepared with precision and presented artfully. She’s won numerous James Beard nominations and awards, is very committed to the industry through her presence on boards and with culinary non-profits, and her restaurants: Star Provisions, Bacchanalia, W.H. Stiles Fish Camp, Floataway Cafe, and Pancake Social, all serve Atlanta in different ways, but all deliciously. Beyond all the professional accolades, though, she’s also an inspiration to other chefs in the kitchen, teaching young chefs in her organization how to excel and sharing her tireless passion for cooking and community.  

Chef Dave “Smoke” McCluskey, an official member of the Mohawk nation, has spent more than 30 years in the culinary industry, in everything from fine dining kitchens to catering gigs to even organizing and hosting boucheries. Those are traditional gatherings centered around communal hog butchering that also offer a space to celebrate local foodways, and swap knowledge, stories, and seeds. It was at one such gathering that he was gifted some corn, and from that came Corn Mafia, his research, education and micromilling project to explore native foodways. He’s participated in many food festivals through the years, including in 2022, when he hosted a cooking demo as part of Virginia Tech’s Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation. He partners with South Carolina’s Congaree Milling to produce small batch products, from hominy to masa, which he primarily sells via word of mouth. Dave currently lives in Augusta and is the Chef de Cuisine at the Augusta Mariott Hotel.

Tomorrow is the last service of The Refinery, a Tampa, Fla. restaurant that has been pushing the boundaries since 2010. At the helm of it for its entirety has been Greg Baker, a chef also pushing the boundaries, who’s been nominated for five James Beard awards, whose retirement from his kitchen was announced in Food & Wine, but who’s also written extensively about the pitfalls of the industry, from its taxing affect on mental health to his piece called “A Pissed-Off Tampa Chef Explains The “Farm To Fable” Controversy.” It pissed a lot of people off, especially ones who use the names of farmers but don’t build relationships with them. Still, what I see in Greg is a passion for the language of food, so much so that there is often frustration when so many of us don’t get it, or worse, simply don’t care. This is a chef who trying to tell you something through cooking, and as he retires The Refinery this weekend, he’s readying for his next course.  

The creativity of cooking goes beyond what we place on the plate. I don’t know about you, but the main thing I miss about eating out right now is the full experience of it that I remember. I love to watch the movement behind the bar, see chefs wiping plates at the pass, hear the cocktail shaker shake and listen to the general sounds of a restaurant. And I miss being transported for a moment away from my daily life. Alex Lira’s restaurants and cooking have always done that for me. It’s obvious with one look at his plates that his execution and skill is on point, and that’s even before I take a bite of shaved short rib at Estadio Charleston. But it’s his mindfulness of the experience of dining out that I think makes him very unique as a chef, and while he’s waiting to re-debut Bar George in all of its fun and funky glory, he’s found a creative way to bring the party this summer.  

Food can make you feel at home, no matter where you are, and when I walked into Hatchet Hall, located in Los Angeles, I immediately had a sense that this was my kind of place. The best Grandma parlor decor with a hefty dose of taxidermy, hearth cooking, good whiskey, food cooked from a sense of history, and you know, one helluva whole fish, and suddenly I forgot about the thousands of miles I was away from my front door. Chef Brian Dunsmoor, a Georgia-born cook who studied at Johnson & Wales, delves deep into history to create something distinctly forward thinking; he’s striving to build a fuller and more broad idea of what we consider “American food.” And he’s doing it without modern equipment, just modern thinking. 

On a cool, misty morning when the trees were bright green with their first flush of leaves, I rounded a corner on Route 215 in the NC Mountains and arrived at one of Sunburst Trout’s rainbow trout farms. Pristine water flowed continuously into multiple holding ponds, which held different sizes of trout with plenty of room to move around and swim. Here, in this storybook cove, these beautiful fish have grown for generations just downstream from the Pisgah National Forest. Wes Eason is the third generation to raise trout at Sunburst, which was founded by his grandfather in 1948, and the company preserves Appalachian food traditions, including the value of necessity. Morsels of trout that are too small for filets become smoked trout dip or trout jerky, and the roe of harvested fish is preserved and sold as trout caviar. Many of the chefs featured on this show include Sunburst Trout Farm products on their menus, and that was exactly how I discovered this iconic North Carolina business years ago. 

Jacques Pepin’s Southern Fork episode referenced in this show: https://www.thesouthernfork.com/episode-206

In the world of food and drink, we often need guides. I know I do, and that’s also one of the most wonderful things about the culinary world -- if you approach with curiosity instead of a know-it-all attitude, there’s so much to learn, and connection and community is just around the corner. Sarah Pierre, owner and operator of 3 Parks Wine Shop in Atlanta, GA, is one of the foremost guides and tastemakers for the growing focus on wine in the Southeast, and during the 9 years her store has been open, it’s become a hub for education, all those feel good neighborhood and shop local vibes, and of course a hefty pour of fun events. Sarah graduated from Georgia State University with a science degree, but she always gravitated towards the hospitality industry and worked front of house and in management at many ATL standbys, including Bacchanalia with past Southern Fork guest Anne Quatrano. 3 Parks Wine has been named one of Wine Enthusiast’s 50 Best Retailers in the US, and we talked after she led session at Gather Round festival at the Epicurean Atlanta hotel.

Coast Brewing has been making high-quality beer in the South Carolina Lowcountry for so long, it’s easy to take the availability and the quality of its beer for granted. It’s sincerely become part of Charleston, just as its former taproom -- really a few taps on the side of a walk-in cooler -- became sort of a community hub for a pint and a chat. That availability, quality, and community has been the driving force for co-owner Jaime Tenny, who along with her husband David Merritt, have just been head down, making beer, selling beer, and helping welcome and anchor a growing beer scene in the state for more than a decade. But as any entrepreneur knows, all that day in, day out hussle to support and build a business carries its own price and then some. After many challenges, Coast is poised on the edge of a new phase, about to open a new taproom and production building later this year. And that’s worth raising a pint to.

One of my greatest quiet joys is cooking from a well-written cookbook on a weekend night, music on the bluetooth and new scents and tastes filling the kitchen. My favorite cookbook that I’ve cooked from this year is Latinisimo: Home Recipes from the Twenty-One Country of Latin America by Sandra Gutierrez. Sweeping in its scope, it is an encyclopedia of the home cooking of Latin America today, and each of the hundreds of recipes is approachable and very doable for a cook like me. I’m not surprised. Sandra -- who grew up in Guatemala City but has lived in Cary, NC for decades -- is the former food editor of the Cary News, an historian, professional cooking instructor, and author of four cookbooks, including this latest. She is considered one of the top national experts on Latin American foodways, and she has a heart for the home cook. Sandra has been awarded the Les Dames D’Escoffier M. F. K Fisher Grand Prize Award for Excellence in Food Writing, and her work has been recognized as part of the permanent FOOD exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. 

Other episodes you might enjoy: 

Southern Fork Sustenance: Talking Cookbooks and Editor Judith Jones with Author Sara Franklin

Diego Campos: CAMP, Modern American Eatery (Greenville, SC)

Christian Hansen's journey in cheesemaking started as a hobby while working for Dell in Austin, TX.  His instant passion for the craft was grounded in part by a sense of ancestral connection because his grandfather and great-grandfather both operated creameries in Christian’s native Denmark.  In 2015, he left behind the corporate world to open Blue Ridge Creamery in Travelers Rest, SC. His cheeses were pretty quickly some of the best being produced in the region, and his work has been featured in Men’s Journal and Huffington Post Taste, and of course, on my table on occasion. As an artisan, he has a unique point of view, but understands the classics too, and I’m excited to taste whatever he cooks up. 

There was a time when how good Rodney Scott’s family barbecue was, was pretty much a locals secret. Unless you were lucky enough to meet him at a food event or lived in Hemingway, SC, you probably didn’t know about him, that is unless you were the kind of people who roadtrip for good food. So yeah, you and me. Chances are, if you’re listening to this podcast, you’ll drive for good food, right? Anyway, the chorus of praises for this barbecue pitmaster have been steadily rising, and word began to get out in a big way, including on TV with Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern. Then Rodney fulfilled his dream of opening a restaurant of his own last year in Charleston. As for the food, it’s simple perfection, made with love, as he continually preaches. His smile can light up a room, too, and on Monday evening, he proved that when he stood on stage in Chicago to accept the James Beard award for Best Chef: Southeast. A few days before he jetted off to those awards, I caught up with him at his restaurant to learn what he’s learned in the last year. In true Southern Fork style, we ended up recording in the cab of his truck in the parking lot. Anytime he’s in the building, he’s either working or people are literally standing in line to talk to him, so outside is where we found some time and quiet.

This week’s episode is a bit of a departure, but something very personal to me and essential to how I approach the varied work I do. I have been drawn to having deeper discussions about the nature of food and how we think about it, so I wanted to let you in a little to my behind-the-scenes by bringing this into the show once a quarter or so. Those of you who subscribe to the newsletter might find a somewhat familiar tone in these “Southern Fork Sustenance” episodes, which will be conversations with thought leaders that explore the deeper bedrock upon which The Southern Fork is built. Shane Mitchell, a writing mentor of mine as well as a colleague, is my first guest to walk us into this kind of conversation. She is the author of Far Afield: Rare Food Encounters From Around the World, an editor-at-large at Saveur, a six-time James Beard nominee for food writing with three wins, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Prize, and her work has appeared in everything from Travel + Leisure to Serious Eats, with a significant part of her most recent articles a series called Crop Cycles for The Bitter Southerner.  Although she currently makes her home in New York State when not on the road, she has 325 years of deep family roots on Edisto Island, SC.

This Labor Day weekend, let’s talk about the work of restaurant building. Dalton Espaillat is a native of the Dominican Republic and moved to the Charlotte NC area when he was 15 and then began learning English. Today, he’s one of North Carolina’s fastest rising entrepreneurs, taking the success of his first restaurant, Three Amigos Mexican Cantina, and using those lessons to build 17 locations of fast casual concept Sabor Latin Street Grill, which serves street food from El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia. His newest restaurant baby, La Caseta, is inspired by the diverse staff of the company and their collective family traditions, but it’s his perseverance to see problems as puzzles instead of panic buttons that illustrates that true entrepreneurial spirit.  

Elizabeth Heiskell was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, a land of sky to the horizon and rich soil bordered by the Mississippi River. Although her culinary journey really started in her childhood kitchen, it took a professional turn at the Culinary Institute of America and from there, she’s taken that love of cooking in many directions, from an instructor at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, MS, to farmer, caterer, bloody mary mix creator,  Today show contributor, and cookbook author, which means she rarely sits still, even for this remote interview, where you can hear a few sounds of her sorting silverware. Her newest cookbook is Come on Over!: Southern Delicious for Every Day. 

In 1850 Sawyer Hayward came to New Orleans from the West Indies to start in the cotton business but soon expanded to source other items, including beans, which were prized by the large population of Caribbean immigrants. Vince Hayward is a descendant of Sawyer and the CEO of L.H. Hayward and Company, founded by his great-grandfather in 1923 to sell red beans in the famous old French Quarter Market in New Orleans. Those beans, named Camellia Beans after the favorite flower of the wife of L.H. Jr., have long since taken up permanent residence in the heart and culture of New Orleans as the star of red beans and rice. Currently, the beans are sorted and packaged at a facility which the company first moved into in 1974, in the nearby suburb of Elmwood, and many of the employees have been a part of it for more than 30 years. Take a bite of a well-made batch of red beans and rice, and you know there’s much more to the humble Camellia bean than meets the eye.

Pastry chef Andrea Upchurch has inspired classes of pastry cooks through her tenure at Cypress, Magnolias, and Blossom downtown, and she’s now leading a team to sweet success at The Obstinate Daughter and Beardcat’s Sweet Shop on Sullivan’s Island. As a mother and a manager, she spends a lot of time thinking about how best to balance her professional pursuits, her team’s needs, and her family’s well being, a juggling act that is present in many a professional kitchen.

According to the most recent data from the USDA, out of the 3.4 million farmers in the United States today, only 45,000 are Black. Deep in the maritime forests near the Edisto River in Dorchester, SC, Marvin Ross of Peculiar Pig Farm is one of that number. He started the farm in 2009, farming 15 acres of the 100 acres that his grandfather, Thomas Henry Ross, once farmed. It’s where Marvin follows the tradition he was taught of raising and rotating hogs on wooded lots, allowing them to graze and forage, then supplementing what they find with heritage grains. This sustainable method of farming not only allows the pigs to live their “pig-ness” instead of being confined and crammed in huge lots, it also results in exceptionally flavorful meat. Some of the South’s best restaurants -- including many whose chefs have been guests on this show -- serve Peculiar Pig Farm pork, from The Grey in Savannah, GA and Butcher & Bee in Charleston, SC, to Curate in Asheville. Marvin is standing on the foundation of family and community tradition and at the same time is forward-looking, focusing on everything from growing the diversity of livestock on his farm to cooking and catering with his own products.

Sheri Castle was born in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and she’s always been at home in the kitchen and the garden out its back door. She wrote her first recipe at age 4, studied English at The University of North Carolina, and through the years has combined her passion and knowledge for cooking with an innate storytelling gift. She develops recipes for publications and restaurants, teaches at culinary schools, collaborates on books with chefs and personalities, she publishes her own books, and now hosts a television show, The Key Ingredient on PBS North Carolina. Sheri is a calm guide in the kitchen, and that comes from a rich foundation of research, contemplation, and curiosity. She is a scholar of Southern food among us, always inviting us to the table for a good meal.

Greenville, SC is not only a food-focused destination, it is a place that celebrates the active life through its parks and most notably, its Swamp Rabbit Trail, a 22-mile walking and biking greenway that connects the city to nearby Travelers Rest, SC. About halfway between the cities, close to mile marker 31 is the Swamp Rabbit Café & Grocery. Mary Walsh, along with her co-founder Jac Oliver, began the business in 2011 to provide easier access to local, responsibly grown and sourced food in the area. Neither of them had entrepreneurial experience or had run a grocery store, but they shared a passion for local farmers and artisans and wanted to connect them with people who had an affinity for quality food. Through the years, they’ve become a powerhouse in the South Carolina food system and have built a brand synonymous with a healthy, active lifestyle. The cafe and grocery is a joyous place filled with bikers stopping off the trail, children playing in the playground, people grocery shopping, tables filling up with a hungry lunch crowd, and fresh breads and pastries coming out of the ovens on the regular.

When Chubby Fish in Charleston, SC is closed, there are dark blue velvet curtains in the windows that obscure a view inside. However, when 5 p.m. comes, those curtains are opened and Chef James London and his team are ready to serve a lot of hungry diners. They come for all things seafood, a variety of fish and shellfish prepared in a variety of ways, but always with an eye for balance and a respect for the product.  The restaurant was named one of Bon Appetit’s Best New Restaurants in America in 2019, and I’ve also included it the last two years in the Best Restaurants in Charleston for Conde Nast Traveler. James attended the French Culinary Institute and has cooked in San Francisco and New York, but the waters and the dining culture of the South Carolina Lowcountry keep his creativity fresh and keep me coming back for another Chubby Fish experience. 

When I typed the name “Kevin Gillespie” in Google, one of the suggestions that came up was Top Chef Kevin. How cool is it if that’s your nickname? But if you just know Chef Kevin Gillespie from Bravo’s Top Chef, then you only know half the story. He’s a chef’s chef, building community behind the scenes, cooking great food out of his growing number of restaurants in Atlanta, and a scholar of technique and Southern culture, which is evident in his writing. His family of restaurants: Gunshow, Revival, Communion, Cold Beer, and Old Reliable, are under a parent company he calls Red Beard Restaurants, and right now, Red Beard Family Meals are one of the hottest to-go tickets in Atlanta. We recorded this during the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, a time that now seems super distant, but his passion for his staff, his craft, and the future of both spurs him on. 

People often ask me what my favorite food is, and I’ll answer, but for the most part, the answer is deeper than one dish or one ingredient. My favorite foods are the ones soulfully prepared, or another way to put that is prepared with heart, not from a place of purely commerce or transaction, but from a place of communication and connection. I think that’s a true X factor that comes through in flavor on the plate. So, it’s only logical that one of my favorite places to eat in the South right now is Garland in Raleigh, NC. Chef Cheetie Kumar has wowed and wooed me from the first bite at her table, her mix of Indian and Asian flavors with North Carolina ingredients at once comforting yet elegant alchemy. She’s been featured in The New York Times, participates in the popular Brown in the South pop-up dinners and has been at many a food festival as of late, but what I’m most excited about is how her work is only going to get better from here, work that I’m already ready for another helping of.

Do you ever consider going to Hilton Head Island, SC for a fresh-out-of-the-oven French baguette or a raspberry tart that’s perhaps gilded with gold flakes and filled with lemon curd? Maybe not, but you might want to reconsider because Hilton Head Social Bakery, with two locations on the island, has been baking that and much more since Chef Philippe Feret and his wife Marissa opened the bakery in 2016. Phillipe was an apprentice in his father's Paris bakery from the age of five, and he soon made restaurants his life, from the famous Parisian restaurant Taillevent, to New York City where he was enlisted to reopen Windows on the World in 1996. He subsequently served as executive chef at Tavern on the Green, The Regency Hotel, Cafe Centro and eventually owned his own restaurant and catering for 15 years. The bakery and his life on Hilton Head seems his most joyous chapter yet, using his father’s croissant recipe, and also letting his creativity, enthusiasm for new flavor combinations, classic recipes, and the artistry of sugar work fill the pastry cases daily. He’s embraced the island life and given up his chef’s coat for shorts and t-shirts in the kitchen, but he admits he still dons it for special occasions. 

It used to be that food trucks were incubators for emerging talent, but the last few years, with real estate prices skyrocketing and a pandemic rocking everything, that’s not always the rule. Caitlin Schumacher isn't an emerging talent -- she’s an established powerhouse in the culinary scene. She grew up in Chapel Hill, NC and graduated from UNC with a French degree, but after she started working at Magnolia Grill, she fell in love with the energy of the kitchen and decided to pursue her pastry passion. From there she worked at the beloved 20th Century Cafe in San Fran and most recently 6 years as Executive Pastry Chef at FIG in Charleston, that is, until she got the chance to buy a food truck last summer. She’s opened Girl Next Dough, a new business venture on four wheels with her dad John McCormick. She’s crafting breakfast and bakery dreams, from country ham and parmesan puffs, to fresh bagels, lemon blueberry danishes, and apple buns.

Many of us who are employed full-time might call what we do for fun away from work a hobby. But for Dr. Howard Conyers, the research and practice of BBQ pitmaster and now distiller is part of his life’s mission, much more than a pastime when he’s away from work. And what interesting work it is. At the age of 27, Howard earned a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in Aeroelasticity from Duke University, making him one of less than 20 African Americans in the country to earn this degree, so by day, Dr. Conyers is a rocket scientist at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Beyond his days of considering how to break the bonds of the earth’s atmosphere, he grounds himself back in the barbecue traditions of his youth (he cooked his first whole hog at 11 after all), and he aims to shine a light on the traditions of black BBQ cooks and the practice of whole animal barbecue in the South. He’s a mentor for Kingsford’s Preserve the Pit program celebrating Black barbecue culture; he was the host of a 2019 PBS Digital Series called Nourish; he’s been featured in the New York Times, Bon Appetit, and Southern Living, and now he’s taking his passion for storytelling and real-life practice into the world of moonshine with his new farm distillery, Backyard Distillery, in Manning, SC. 

Hi! Stephanie here. It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, but as we get close to Thanksgiving, I want you to know that I’m thinking of y’all, and I’m thankful for every one of you who listen to The Southern Fork. I’m working hard over here in the background making podcast plans and interview itineraries for 2024, but in the meantime, I wanted to share with you a little audio treat -- an episode of The Broadside from WUNC. Since you’re subscribed to The Southern Fork, you might like to check it out too, and this particular episode covers one of my favorite words: y’all and how it’s become a part of culture beyond the South. It’s a short listen for a big subject, and a perfect partner while you’re commuting this next week, or prepping those appetizers for your Thanksgiving table. I wish you all a great holiday and I hope you enjoy The Broadside.

I recently moved to a new neighborhood, and in a move, it becomes painfully apparent how many books one has. These days, I have multiple shelves of cookbooks, and many people have asked me if I’ll ever write one. The answer is not for now, as I don’t enjoy creating recipes nearly as much as making them. Sandra Gutierrez is completely different. A nationally recognized food personality, cookbook author, freelance food writer, and cooking instructor, her articles and recipes have been published in newspapers and magazines around the world. She is also one of those behind the scenes folks that makes this whole food world spin, yet super generous with her time too. We sat down in her home one lovely summer morning recently in Cary, N.C. and she opened up about her creative process in the kitchen. If you’re not planning on cooking tonight, beware; Sandra just might change your mind.

When it comes to bars in the US, I think we’re doing a disservice just culturally throwing up our hands saying “what can we do.” We’re in danger of losing a lot of creativity in our culture, and my case for that point is this interview with Alba Huerta, owner of Julep in Houston, Tx. Not only is the press she’s received over the years a case -- for instance, she was named Bartender of the Year in 2014 by Imbibe magazine -- her creativity, intelligence, can-do attitude, and focus on building a successful business are rarely matched. I hope this chat with Alba will help you empathize a little more with the current plight of businesses like hers. This is a lifelong career for her, one in which she consistently invests her talent, and she’s created a wonderful culinary experience at Julep blending hospitality and good spirits. 

Somewhere South debuts tonight on PBS, the second television show from North Carolina chef Vivian Howard. If you don’t know her, you should; she’s a force in American culinary culture, through her placemaking Kinston, NC restaurant Chef and the Farmer, and it’s growing number of restaurant siblings, to her first series A Chef’s Life, a television show that will not only go down as an Emmy-winner, but one of the best food shows in a generation. This interview was recorded before the current crisis halted the country, so the landscape for her businesses is shifting under her feet like it is for every one of my guests. Still, Vivian’s work aims to teach us how we are more together at the table than we often realize, and that’s something we’re going to need to remember now more than ever.

Cappie Peete knows how to spit like a lady. (Actually gender has little to do with it.) As the Beverage Director of the Neighborhood Dining Group, she is the youngest person in Charleston, SC to receive her Advanced Certificate from the Court of Master Sommeliers, and so that means an awful lot of tasting wines and then spitting discreetly into a bucket. If not, she’d be like the rest of us, thinking that fourth glass is the “best wine she’s ever had!” After looking up the audio pronunciation for “sommelier” (and realizing I’ve said it wrong every time before this recording), we sit down and chat wines.

Emile DeFelice is a man unafraid of opinions. As chair and founder of the Soda City Market in Columbia, SC, he helps transform a Main Street into a thriving market every Saturday morning, rain or shine. But that is just the beginning. This is the man who once raised pastured pork, who once ran for the SC Commissioner of Agriculture, and who doesn’t particularly like his home city’s current tagline. He’s passionate about a lot, thinks about a lot, and is not afraid to say what he thinks while occasionally taking a puff on a vape pen scented like cotton candy. And through it all, he’s helping a city decide what it thinks about its food sources, its farmers, and even its flag.

When it comes to creativity, some people have it in spades. Such is the case for Ann Marshall and Scott Blackwell, the power couple behind High Wire Distilling in Charleston, SC. Formerly of Immaculate Baking Company (yes, those chocolate chip cookies you see in the refrigerated section of your grocery store), their latest venture is small-batch spirits. As someone who really nerds out on the chemistry side of distilling, I'm fascinated how they are taking heirloom products and transforming them into some of the best spirits in the south.

Their Hat Trick Gin is really one of the best gins I've ever sampled, and so the first time I tried it, I became a fan. Through the years, I've gotten to know this couple and also become of fan of them as people. They're creative, fun, unpretentious, and they can throw a damn good party. 

I first met Chef Erik Niel one night in Chattanooga a few years ago when he visited our table at Easy Bistro and Bar. We’d just enjoyed perfectly pristine oysters on the half shell, and I was confused as we were in the heart of the Tennessee mountains. Who was this guy who was so passionate about seafood he built a restaurant around it, a restaurant a very long drive away from any ocean waves? What I discovered is a man passionate about the food of his childhood, a chef passionate about sourcing and staff education, and a Louisiana boy who has found a home in an up and coming Tennessee town. Other people are discovering his cooking too; he’s just been nominated for Best Chef: Southeast by the James Beard Foundation

You can tell that farmer Kathy McCaskill is good around baby animals -- just listen to that soothing voice. Her farm, Old McCaskill’s outside of Camden, South Carolina, started as a hobby for this homesick farm girl, but now it’s grown into a compound of sorts, with a sprawling farm house that serves as a home for she and her husband as well as a bed and breakfast, barns and hatch houses, pastures and gardens, a DHEC-approved kitchen, and even an old fashioned root cellar that seems more at home in a Laura Ingalls Wilder book. This once hobby farm has now become a centerpiece of the community, its children visiting during field trips, and its brides wanting an idyllic backdrop for their special day. But make no mistake, this is a working farm that raises a variety of animals for meat, so we get down to business talking about butchery and the business of animal husbandry.

We both feel it’s important to understand that meat comes from once living animals, so this conversation is far away from those grocery store Styrofoam containers.