The Southern Fork

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)  

When I first spoke with Chef Michael Toscano in 2017, he and his family were just getting settled in Charleston with the opening of Le Farfalle. Now, seven years later, the chef seems as if he's truly settled into a new rhythm between NYC and the Lowcountry. He and his wife Caitlin currently have four restaurants: the aforementioned Le Farfalle, da Toscano in New York's Greenwich Village, da Toscano Porchetta Shop in Charleston, and Fugazzi, a small spot inside Charleston's Revelry Brewing that serves what Michael calls unauthentic Italian-inspired American food. The last two are decidedly casual, a new turn for a chef that's been anything but when it comes to his career. He was a sous chef at Mario Batali's Babbo by the age of 21, was nominated three times for Rising Star Chef by the James Beard Foundation, and opened his first chef-owned restaurant, Perla, in 2012, which made Esquire's Best New Restaurants in America list. He's always pursued his passion for cooking, but now that passion is a team sport, where he looks to grow and support the rising stars in his own restaurants as well as the farmers he loves to work with. And one way he does that? By topping soft, crusty focaccia, fresh out of the oven, with all sorts of delicious things.  Other episodes you might enjoy:  Michael Toscano: Le Farfalle (Charleston, SC) Craig Richards: Lyla Lila (Atlanta, GA)  

Deborah Freeman is the creator of Setting the Table, a multi-award winning podcast exploring Black foodways and culinary history that in 2023 was honored by the International Association of Culinary Professionals as “Podcast of the Year.” She's also a colleague in the food writing world, with contributions including to Eater, Condé Nast Traveler, and Garden and Gun, and is the food editor for Richmond's Style Weekly. We sat down via Zoom to talk about her most recent project, Finding Edna Lewis, a new docuseries for Virginia Public Media that explores the life of the Black female trailblazer who was a celebrated chef and author. As a proud Virginia native, Deb champions Virginia foodways and the power of personal history as a through line in food that can teach us about ourselves and connect us to our ancestors. It's something that Edna Lewis' work illustrates and the kind of work Deb is doing in the world, too; therefore, here's another Southern Fork sustenance conversation, diving deep into the foundational “why” when it comes to the power of food.

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  

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)  

Columbia, SC's Main Street architecture still has much of the charm of a mid-century movie set. There are jewelry stores, restaurants, hotels, and gift shops in buildings that range from the turn of the 20th Century to modern day. Tucked in among the hustle and bustle is Lula Drake Wine Parlor, which eight plus years ago was just another dusty building awaiting renovation. Now it is a gilded lily that comes alive at night like the culinary theater it is. Sommelier Tim Gardner knows his role as the lead actor, greeting guests in a well-tailored sport coat or sliding behind the bar to offer a taste of champagne with a twinkle in his eye. The crowd fills all available seats as plates of pasta roll out of the kitchen and dusk tucks in the windows at the front of this long, narrow space. In a city that still often struggles to know its own culinary personality, Lula Drake is a self-assured wine parlor with a true welcoming air. In 2023, it was nominated for Outstanding Hospitality by the James Beard Foundation, and this year, not only was it named one of the “Friendliest Places in the South” by Southern Living, Lula Drake won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine Program. It all comes back to Tim's love of wine and interest in inviting more people to love it too, and that goes way beyond the liquids in the bottles behind the bar.    Other episodes you might enjoy:  Erin Eisele & James Alford: Cork & Cap Bottle Shop (Aiken, SC) Sarah Pierre: 3 Parks Wine Shop (Atlanta, GA)  

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)  

Over more than half a century as an editor at Knopf, Judith Jones became a legend, nurturing future literary icons such as Sylvia Plath, Anne Tyler, and John Updike. But although I was an English major, I first learned of Judith Jones years later, when I realized that Edna Lewis, M.F.K. Fisher, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, James Beard, and, most famously, Julia Child, all had the same editor -- her. Judith celebrated the art and pleasures of cooking and culinary diversity, and in the process changed the way Americans think about food. Sara Franklin's new book, The Editor, is a highly anticipated biography of Judith that details her astonishing career, and it is my suggestion for a perfect summer read. Sara is a writer and editor in her own right with bylines including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Nation. In this conversation, we delve into the nature of serious cookbooks, the art and craft of recipe writing, and the cultural significance of writing about food. Sara writes and teaches at New York University's Gallatin School for Individualized Study, so this conversation with me was via zoom from her home in Kingston, NY.   Other episodes related to this one: Jacques Pépin, Chef, Author & Television Personality (Madison, CT) Southern Fork Sustenance: A Conversation with MacArthur Fellow J. Drew Lanham about SC Barbecue & Beyond

Rice was South Carolina's first great agricultural staple. Before the American Revolution, it had already made South Carolina the richest of the 13 original colonies, and Charleston one of the richest cities in the world.  But it did so on the backs of enslaved skilled laborers, most of whom had been kidnapped from the rice growing regions of West Africa. For hundreds of years, they and their descendants built earthworks, tended, cultivated, harvested and processed rice all by hand in remote locations in the subtropical forests and swamps of the Southern US coast. After the Civil War, the cultivation of rice dwindled but was still part of the culinary culture of blacks and whites alike. However, little by little less flavorful rices began to take over the table and the variety, Carolina Gold, threatened to disappear completely. But of course, that's not the end of the story, but the beginning of another one. Close to 20 years ago, a rice revival in South Carolina began and Rollen Chalmers was right in the middle of it, applying his knowledge and equipment used to grade land for construction to rice field engineering. He, you'll hear, is bringing the cultivation of rice full circle in his family with Rollens Raw Grains in Levy, SC, which was just recently featured in the Washington Post. He's gone from experimenter and researcher to rice farmer, and in the process has helped once again bring Carolina Gold Rice to tables across the world, and taught plenty of other farmers how to engineer fields so they can grow it too.  Other episodes related to this one: Glenn Roberts: Anson Mills & AM Research (Columbia, SC) Southern Fork Sustenance: A Conversation with MacArthur Fellow J. Drew Lanham about SC Barbecue & Beyond

Shaun Brian Sells started life in a two-person tent surrounded by plantation ruins in the flats of Coral Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands. It was in that environment where his love for cooking began– by roaming and foraging through the valley, fishing off his dad's sailboat and cooking for up to eight siblings at a time. Those challenges became the source of his inspiration. At Cudaco on James Island, SC, he brings that inspiration full circle, celebrating sustainable seafood practices and the creativity of the kitchen. Cudaco is part seafood market, part wine shop, part catering, and part casual restaurant with my favorite fried fish sandwich in town and also caviar in the cooler. Shaun's passion is educating guests about lesser known seafood species and how to make them delicious, and since he also serves the wholesale community, his seafood shows up on some of the best Charleston tables too. Shaun was named one of Zagat's 30 Under 30, he's an alumnus of the James Beard Foundation's Boot Camp for policy and change, and a former Senior Chef on the US Virgin Islands Culinary Team.

Adrian Lipscombe is a native Texan, a chef, an urban planner, and a civic activist, though she prefers the term catalyst. In 2016, she moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin and opened Uptowne Café, a gathering place and a space for her to explore the synergy behind her Southern upbringing, Midwest ingredients and African American culinary history. In 2020, she founded the 40 Acres Project, which seeks to preserve the legacy of Black agriculture and foodways through the purchase of Black owned land. She's also a founding member of the Muloma Heritage Center, a non-profit exploring the African Atlantic influences in American culture, she serves on the board of the Edna Lewis Foundation, she's cooking at festivals and events all around the country, and today, was featured in NY Daily News for an upcoming Juneteenth Celebration with the James Beard Foundation. Adrian currently lives in Austin while pursuing a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. And yes, her intelligence and enthusiasm for life is an understatement.   Other episodes related to this one: Dr. Howard Conyers: BBQ Pitmaster, Distiller, & Rocket Scientist (New Orleans, LA & Manning, SC) Southern Fork Sustenance: A Conversation with MacArthur Fellow J. Drew Lanham about SC Barbecue & Beyond  

Although Charleston, SC, has changed a lot, it is still one of the cities in the US with a decidedly European feel. Many parts of it are very walkable, there are cobblestone alleyways and al fresco dining, and lingering over a meal is absolutely encouraged. One of the best places to linger this time of year -- or anytime really -- is Malagón Mercado y Tapería. Juan Cassalett is the executive chef and co-owner, and although he grew up in Tennessee and Colombia in South America, his family is originally from Spain. Malagón is a slice of Spain in the Holy City. There's jamon hanging from the rafters, a Spanish wine list and a mercado filled with Spanish groceries, but the Lowcountry shines through too in the seasonal dishes created with local ingredients. The restaurant has been featured in multiple publications, including Forbes, Charleston Magazine, and Conde Nast Traveler. Juan is married to Jill Mathias, executive chef/co-owner of Chez Nous, where he was the sous chef for 5 years.   Other episodes that are related to this one: Jill Mathias, Chez Nous (Charleston, SC)  

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  

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.

Passion for your work can give you energy to do more than you ever dreamed you'd have time for. That's the case for William Dissen, chef of The Market Place in Asheville, NC, which this year, its 45th in operation, was named a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation. William began honing his skills through study at the Culinary Institute of America and in various kitchens, including the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, and the beloved but now closed Cypress in Charleston, SC. In addition to another restaurant venture, Billy D's Fried Chicken, he has a big life outside the kitchen as well. He's a member of the U.S. State Department's American Chefs Corps, a “Seafood Watch Ambassador” for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, on the board of the University of South Carolina's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, and now, a cookbook author with Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South. Granted, it's an unusual title for a man who always seems on the go, but because of his style of cooking, he's always looking to nature and the seasons, which tell him to slow down and notice. It's a practice he actively cultivates. Take one bite of his food, and that's evident -- there's a point of view and a grounded ethos behind every dish.

Jael Skeffington is the co-founder and CEO of French Broad Chocolates in Asheville, NC. What started in 2006 as a chocolate passion and a cafe in Costa Rica with her partner Dan, has grown to 85 employees, a Chocolate Lounge & Boutique in downtown Asheville, and an experiential Chocolate Factory & Cafe. French Broad sources the finest cacao from farmers and producers in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Perú and transforms it into 50 tons of chocolate a year. They sell not only their bean-to-bar and craft chocolates online but also to wholesale partners, and they directly wholesale chocolate to other artisans, from chefs to coffee brewers, Her in-house products have won numerous Good Food Awards, and in short, Jael's world is chocolate-fueled, fueling community, a life full of flavor and connection, and the delicious potential in every day.

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. 

Despite the bio I'm about to share, I think Ray Isle is one of the least pretentious people in the wine world today. He grew up in Houston, and he learned to see wine as an adventure, an adventure that's taken him all around the world. Ray is the longtime executive wine editor for Food & Wine as well as the wine and spirits editor for Travel + Leisure. He writes Food & Wine's monthly “What to Drink Next” column as well as regular feature articles for both magazines. His writing has also appeared in Departures, Wine & Spirits, Time, The Washington Post, and many other publications, and he's been nominated three times for a James Beard Award. His new book is The World in a Wine Glass: The Insider's Guide to Artisanal, Sustainable, Extraordinary Wines to Drink Now.  

Augusta Road in West Columbia, SC, isn't a storybook setting. Strip malls are lined up down the road, flanking a Wal-Mart and a sprawling old school U Haul campus. But just keep going and turn off the road at the Aldi and there's a  summer camp style building tucked in some trees and a modest BBQ sign. That's when you know you've reached the city limits, City Limits BBQ to be exact. Owner and pitmaster Robbie Robinson grew up in nearby Red Bank, SC eating his fill of SC Midlands BBQ. While living in Houston in the early 2000s, he acquired his first Texas-style offset wood smoker and began his journey to unlock the subtle mysteries of smoking meats. He's been serving the people of West Columbia for eight years, including the last year in this building on the edge of town, a town that he is representing this year as a James Beard Foundation finalist for Best Chef: Southeast. Every time we visit, we end up at the smokers, where we get down to the business of conversation. And I invariably mispronounce chicharrons, which you'll hear here. I'm working on it, I promise.

According to Saveur magazine, Border Food is defined as Mexican food with a distinct identity —influenced by the cooking of Chihuahua and Texas, but with a number of little twists. Because Texas is so large and diverse, it's a more nuanced label than the overarching Tex-Mex, and one surprising spot that it is celebrating with abandon is in Greenville, SC. Dayna Lee is the chef and operator of Comal 864, a petite spot with a big heart and a smoking hot flattop. With her clear vision of the food of her childhood and a combination of grit and introspection on her own life path, she's gained some well-deserved attention, from being named of Eater's "18 Essential Greenville Restaurants" to a nomination as a 2023 James Beard semifinalist. Originally from South Texas and specializing in Mexican American cuisine, she began her work in a series of brewery pop-ups, teaching herself to channel homesickness into cooking and making more room for others at the table along the way. Last summer, I had the chance to eat my fill of tacos at Comal on a hot June night, and I've been wanting to sit down with her ever since, so we finally got the chance to record at this year's Charleston Wine + Food Festival. The only thing missing? More tacos.

Chef Nikko Cagalanan was born and raised in the Philippines. After immigrating to the states in 2011 and working as a nurse, he found himself inspired to pursue cooking with the desire to share his passion for Filipino food. He moved to Charleston, SC in 2018 and began Mansueta's, a series of pop-ups in the city and the region that helped him hone his craft, his culinary point of view, and build his community, and he's never looked back. His restaurant Kultura opened in 2022 and was promptly named best Filipino Restaurant in SC by Food & Wine magazine. Then he won on Food Network's Chopped. Next, Kultura was named one of Eater's Best New Restaurants in America. And earlier this week, Nikko was named a Finalist for Emerging Chef by the James Beard Foundation. So I'm far from the only person who thinks that his cooking is a special combination of skill, consistency, and a quality that is infinitely welcoming and delicious. He's very clear about the foundation of his work -- community -- and it shines through in everything, from chef collaborations and local sourcing to occasional impromptu signalongs in the restaurant if a Beyonce song comes on the sound system.   

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.   

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.

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.

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.

 Although The Southern Fork Summer Tour is over, we still have a few weeks together, and the weather has started to turn in much of the South. I don't know about you, but soon after I feel that first cool breeze, I can't wait to have a plate of barbecue. Maybe it's because in my North Carolina childhood, barbecue “stands” as it were, popped up at church parking lots and auxiliary halls each Autumn, using good food to raise money for good causes, but no matter where I am this time of year, I'm thinking about the combo of time, smoke, and the skill of a pitmaster to create this iconic Southern food. The South is full of barbecue styles, each with throughlines of technique but different nuances, and unlike a barbecue purist, I love them all. So in honor of the Fall Equinox, today we dive into the archives for some barbecue inspiration from three who know their way around hot coals: Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson in Decatur, AL, Tuffy Stone, the Professor of Barbecue, out of Henrico, VA, and Hector Garate of Palmira BBQ in Charleston, SC. Full episodes: Chris Lilly: Big Bob Gibson (Decatur, AL) Tuffy Stone: Professor of Barbecue (Henrico, VA) Hector Garate: Palmira BBQ (Charleston, SC)

Alabama native Scott Peacock is a James Beard Award-winning chef and one of the foremost authorities on American Southern cuisine. He might be best known for his work at Watershed restaurant in Decatur, Georgia, and his partnership with culinary icon Edna Lewis, but his recipes and writing have appeared in numerous publications as well, including The New York Times, Better Homes & Gardens, Gourmet, Food & Wine, and Bon Appetit. Although I was very aware of his reputation, it was through one of those recipes that I first personally encountered Scott, since I believe recipes well-written by one and well-executed by another become a sort of strange collaborative alchemy. Soon we connected further over the familiarities of food, common friends, and special Southern locales, and one such place for Scott is Marion, Alabama—the heart of Alabama's Black Belt region — where he has opened the historic kitchens of Reverie mansion for the Black Belt Biscuit Experience. These intimate, small-group workshops on the fine art of traditional Southern biscuit-making are built on his celebrated biscuits that have been on the covers of Gourmet and Food & Wine, and which Food & Wine named one of their 40 best recipes ever published, but the class is as much meditation as it is method. I could think of no better baking and conversation partner to end this year's Southern Fork Summer Tour, and here he invites us deep beyond ingredients and techniques into the art of presence, the commitment to a creative path, and the power of passionate attention to detail.  

Despite the name, I was still so unprepared for how very clear much of the water is in the Crystal River region of Florida. From snaking like a teal ribbon around trees and under bridges, to reflecting clouds like a salty mirror, on the day I went out on it, our boat sped closer on its glassy surface to a horizon already dotted with other anchored boats. Every year, fishing folks make the pilgrimage to this area of Florida to dive for bay scallops, and for those who grow up in the region, scalloping season is a cultural tradition, and usually one that begins as soon as a child can swim. Katie Jo Davis, owner of KD Outdoors Fishing Charters, remembers taking naps in the fish box on a boat before she could even walk. She's been fishing and scalloping these waters her whole life, and after 6 years in the U.S. Army, worked as a fishing guide in Canada before making her way back to her home waters. Bay scallops are the more petite cousins of sea scallops, the common “scallops” that show up on restaurant menus, but commercial harvest of bay scallops is prohibited in Florida, so one of the easiest ways to taste this very local delicacy is to catch them yourself. Captain Katie Jo knows just where to find them.

In 1905, Saloon Columbia in Tampa, FL officially became Columbia Restaurant, a place helmed by Casimiro Hernandez Sr. where cigar workers in Ybor City could rest and enjoy Spanish and Cuban food, or snag a sandwich to eat on the job. Through the years, the restaurant grew to envelop the entire city block, and today, the family-owned landmark is Florida's oldest restaurant and the largest Spanish restaurant in the world with 15 dining rooms and 1,700 seats. Andrea Gonzmart Williams is the great-great-granddaughter of Casimiro Hernandez Sr., and she began working at Columbia at the age of 10 by doing filing in the corporate office. She continued working in various positions through high school and then after graduating from the University of South Florida, joined the family business full-time as the fifth generation of the 1905 Family of Restaurants. She is actively involved in the day-to-day operations of not only the flagship Ybor City location but also the other Columbia Restaurant locations in Florida, the Columbia Cafes at Tampa Bay History Center and Tampa International Airport, and other restaurant concepts within the company. But the Columbia isn't just a family tradition for those who work there and grow up in the business; it's also a traditional place of celebration for countless Florida families throughout the last 117 years.

Rocca, located in the Tampa Heights neighborhood of Tampa, FL, is Chef Bryce Bonsack's love letter to the family who he worked for and lived with during his tutelage and pilgrimage in Italy. Showcasing fresh handmade pasta, mozzarella pulled tableside, and dry aged meats, Bryce creates an ever changing menu influenced by both classical recipes and modern techniques. A Tampa native, his culinary background includes multiple years of experience working in two Michelin-starred New York City restaurants -- Blanca and Corton -- and Rocca is his first restaurant as chef and owner. It received the first and only 10/10 rating from Tampa Bay Times' restaurant critic, and most recently, Bryce followed in his mentors' footsteps when Rocca received a highly coveted Michelin Star from the Guide in 2023, as well as a Bib Gourmand. The vibe is lively, the seasons and the local bounty are always represented on the plate, and the service is some of the best I've ever had. But the pasta? The pasta is magic.

The day dawns humid and the waters of Sarasota Bay seem like a glassy mirror reflecting a pale blue sky. There are the sounds of birds as well as the gentle lapping of water up against a boat, sure, but more often than not, those sounds are drowned out by the sounds of fishermen calling out to each other to set the lines as they dock, or the beeping of a refrigerated truck backing up to the loading dock, ready to receive a truckload of fish. This is just a day in the life for Karen Bell of A.P. Bell Fish Co, a seafood wholesaler that sits on the water of the aforementioned bay in the small fishing village of Cortez, FL. Since 1940, the Bell family has worked the docks, sorting, storing, and selling grouper and mullet, along with a variety of other seafood. In 1986, after completing college, Karen began working at the company and learning this male-dominated business alongside her father. Now 35 years in, she's a strong advocate and ambassador of the fiercely proud and independent Cortez community, including as a founding member of FISH, the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage, where she acted as the lead negotiator on the purchase of the 100-acre FISH Preserve east of the village. She's also the brains behind Star Fish Co., the dockside restaurant that's part of the A.P. Bell Complex, serving fresh catch, sea breezes, and some of the best hushpuppies I've ever had.

I've been covering food for close to two decades, and throughout my career, most of the high volume places I visit, and especially those in tourist areas, don't present menus that follow local seasons, feature local produce, or work with local farms. However, on Anna Maria Island, FL and neighboring Longboat Key, the restaurants of Chiles Hospitality Group: Beach House, Sandbar, Mar Vista, and Anna Maria Bake House, are a delicious exception. Beyond the restaurants, the company also includes Gamble Creek Farms, a certified organic farm in Parrish, FL, that supplies sustainable farm-to-fork produce to all of the restaurants, as well as composts the food waste from serving the thousands of tourists weekly. Zack Rasmussen and Natasha Ahuja are part of the leadership team of Gamble Creek, and both have extensive experience in permaculture design as well as an intense curiosity about the interrelatedness of the natural world. Begun in 2021, this 26-acre farm is still in its infancy, but a visit to Gamble Creek is already a kaleidoscope of flavor, mini ecosystems, and creative possibilities of how care for the environment and commerce can co-exist instead of being a forgone dichotomy.

Founded in 1959 by Inez Hill and Louise Hudson, otherwise known as Mama Hill and Mama Louise, H&H Restaurant in Macon, GA is a Southern institution. In the 70s, Macon was home to the newly minted Capricorn Records, and H&H fed many of the musicians coming through the town, though it is most famous for its founders' unique friendship with the Allman Brothers Band, where the story goes if the band was high they had to come in through the kitchen door. That friendship took Mama Louise on quite a ride that included a seat on the Allman Brothers tour bus in 1972 and lifelong friendships with Gregg and the rest of the band. After Mama Hill died, H&H was closed for a little while, but in 2014, the Moonhanger Group reopened the historic restaurant in cooperation with Mama Louise, and soon after Tangie Myers and Kayla Price joined the restaurant to keep its legacy alive with crispy fried chicken, fluffy biscuits, and all the collards they could cook. H&H was named one of the top five meat-and-three joints by the Wall Street Journal in 2016, and the small place is not only filled with people six days a week, but it's also decorated with photos and concert posters of some of the musicians the restaurant has served through the years.

Parnass Savang is a first-generation Thai American who grew up in his parents' Thai restaurant in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville. A Culinary Institute of America graduate, he came back to Atlanta to cook in some of the best kitchens in the city, including Kimball House, Staplehouse, and the now shuttered Empire State South. When he and fellow chef Rod Lassiter teamed up with dreams of a Thai restaurant, they tested menu items, built capital and a following by becoming one of the most exciting pop-ups in the city. In 2018 when they were still operating as that pop-up, Parnass was nominated as a James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef, and Bon Appetit named Talat Market one of the best 50 eateries in America. The two launched a Kickstarter campaign, raised capital, and what resulted is the brick-and-mortar coming to life of a comfortable and vibrant neighborhood restaurant that melds Thai technique and local Georgia ingredients. Last year, the restaurant was awarded the Georgia Organics Farmer Champion, and Eater Atlanta named it one of the “22 Restaurants we keep returning to.” Talat Market is located in the Summerhill neighborhood of Atlanta, which is adjacent to Grant Park, a location I erroneously reference as their home neighborhood in this interview.

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.

Dan Weidenbenner moved to Greenville, SC in 2007 via Furman University. While there, he fell in love with the region and decided to stay, and then with the help of more than 50 volunteers, launched Mill Village Farms in 2012. The farm is located in the Greater Sullivan Community of Greenville and includes 30 garden beds, a 60-foot greenhouse, a commercial kitchen, and a produce-processing facility, and since 2018 has distributed close to 81,000 boxes of produce and provided 400 individual training opportunities for the neighborhood youth. Dan serves as the executive director of Mill Village Farms and the parent organization, Mill Village Ministries, and he is also a resident of the Greater Sullivan community.

Pardon me on this one, but it's true: we writers love a bookstore. I've heard many writers refer to their favorite bookstores or libraries as temples to reading, but one of the South's most significant spots for cookbook authors, M. Judson Booksellers in Greenville, SC, even kind of feels like a temple, situated dead center in the downtown district in a multi-floor historic building. It's anything but reverent inside, however. I think revelry is a more apt term, actually, with Ashley Warlick, book buyer and author of four novels, collaborating with Teryi Youngblood Musolf, chef, to bring books to life through the plate with Camilla Kitchen. They take the idea of a book event to a new level with food, wine, and plenty of conversation, and celebrate the love of reading and food that brings people together. Their affection for each other and what they do is evident in this animated conversation, and it's that creative energy that makes their events a coveted ticket in the city.

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.   

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.

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.

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.

We delve into BBQ again this week, not into its past but its delicious future. Up and coming pitmaster Hector Garate of Palmira BBQ is definitely part of the cuisine's next chapter. In Charleston, SC, he's creating sustainable farm-to-table barbecue with old school wood fire techniques and Puerto Rican Influences. He's in love with all parts of the cooking process, so much so that he often purchases whole animals to break down into the specific cuts he wishes to serve, and that meat he smokes in a custom cooker he built himself. Hector specializes in smoking beef cheeks, brisket, whole hog and house-made sausages, and partners with local farms for sourcing. As he builds momentum for his brick-and-mortar restaurant set to open this year, he is holding pop-ups and collaborations with other BBQ folks around the country and at home, and he routinely sells out. In short, he's on fire for the medium, and that passion shows in every bite.

J. Drew Lanham is a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship Recipient, an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, an ornithologist, poet, and essayist, and he's also a native of Edgefield, SC, where he grew up on lots of fresh veggies from the garden and the occasional Krispy Kreme doughnut from trips to Augusta. I first encountered him like many of you will today -- on a podcast, This is Love with Phoebe Judge to be exact -- and his joyful and accurate renditions of birdcalls sustained me through that dark spring of 2020 when the world was shut down and reeling. Since his work resonates with me so much, I invited him to chat about food, and when he accepted, he decided to read two never-before released poems on the subject. We dive deep into BBQ and SC Foodways here, as he invites us to consider the intersection of race, history, identity, and the very nature of language to name a thing, be it a pig or a person.

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.

Steph's first residency stop is ... NYC?! Let her explain why she's beginning a "Southern Fork Summer" by going North. 

If you visit Spotted Salamander Cafe in Columbia, SC at lunch any day of the week after 12:15, you'll be in luck if you find a seat. This restaurant, housed in a commercial building constructed around 1915, oozes charm, from its handwritten menu on chalkboard to its creaky wood floors to its old fashioned shrimp salad tucked inside an avocado half, and it keeps its guests charmed as well by creating food that pulls at all the Southern party platter heartstrings. In the kitchen and always dreaming of her own next meal is Jessica Shillato, who honed her cooking chops at the former Charleston location of Johnson & Wales, and who experiments with classic dishes that have a dash of her own expansive palate. In 2019 this creativity and excellent execution earned her a spot as a South Carolina Chef Ambassador, and this year, a semi-finalist nomination for James Beard Best Chef: Southeast. The cafe has a sister spot on Main Street, but Jessica's first love is still catering, and so there are always plenty of places beyond those business walls to sample one of her famous deviled eggs.

Craft beer is more than just a beverage, it's a culture driver. Each brewery has its own personality that's expressed through product and place, be it a neighborhood watering hole or concert venue or the place to play cornhole with your kids while you enjoy a pint. Resident Culture in Charlotte, NC, founded in 2017 by Amanda and Phillip McLamb, has a modern, welcoming style, in beer and design and the brewery gathering spaces, and it's quickly become one of the hottest breweries in the country. It's already received accolades that include “Top 10 Best New Breweries in the World” in 2018, one of VinePair's "25 Best Breweries in the Country" in 2022, and that same year, Amanda was the recipient of The VinePair 50 and The Charlotte Business Journal's 40 Under 40. When I'm in Charlotte and walk into either location, it's evident that there is something special happening at Resident Culture, and the brewing of seriously delicious beer is just the beginning.

The Dutch Fork is a region of South Carolina including Lexington, Newberry, and Richland Counties between the Saluda River and the Broad River where they come together in a third waterway, the Congaree. Named after the German settlers of the area who first started arriving in the mid 1700s, Dutch is derived from the German word deutsch. And one of the cultural remnants that remain in this region from its immigrant past is the affinity for onion sausage, a pork sausage flavored with spices and fresh onions that still graces Christmas tables and grills around here. There are a few producers in the region, and one of the most beloved is Rhoten's Country Sausage, made in Rhoten's Country Store in Old Town Lexington. Proprietor Wesley Rhoten made it through the pandemic by selling the sausage out of a drive-thru window, and so I took a drive over so we could learn all sorts of South Carolina history hiding in this linked sausage.

Steph shares details of The Southern Fork Residencies Summer Tour. 

Hospitality can be a nebulous thing, and while you know it when you feel it, what are some of its concrete elements and how do you create it and maintain it in a restaurant? To explore that question, I turned to two of the most hospitable people I know, Jerry and Krista Slater. Based in Athens, GA, they currently own two restaurants: The Expat and Slater's Steakhouse, one wine shop and bar named The Lark, and are in process to open another restaurant and a cocktail bar very soon. So they think about hospitality a lot. They've made a career of it, with Jerry working at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, and being one of the consulting creators for One Flew South in Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta. Krista, a painter and certified sommelier, worked for years in the wine and restaurant industry in the Bay Area before relocating to Georgia. You might even recognize their names from a beverage column in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, so to say busy is an understatement. But despite that, they are always intentional in creating their spaces and guest experiences, and they do it all with a dash of humor and goodwill for the larger community.

You know how some childhood foods become taste touchstones that live in a memory? Well, for brothers Nick and Peter Dale of Athens, GA, that taste was Ecuadorian chocolate. When they went to visit their mom's family there on vacations and holidays, there was just something special about that chocolate, something they could never quite taste outside of the country. And for a future chef like Peter Dale, that was the fuel for a creative journey. See in 2012, Peter was named The People's Best New Chef of the Southeast by Food & Wine Magazine, as well as a Rising Star Chef. He helped Hugh Acheson, who he worked with at Five & Ten, open Empire State South in Atlanta, and since then, Peter has become an Athens chef powerhouse, with The National, Seabear Oyster Bar, and Maepole. In the middle of all that restaurant work, in 2014, he and his brother Nick created Condor Chocolates, which imports Ecuadorian chocolate, then produces and sells bean-to-bar chocolate bars, truffles, sipping chocolate, gelato and a variety of confections. It's their homage to the birthplace of their mother, a testament to the sense of adventure that brought their Dad to her, and a celebration of that taste of Ecuador, home of some of the finest cacao in the world.