Podcast appearances and mentions of sheri castle

Topic: Malcolm and Carol have welcomed several influential women on Deep South Dining in the past year. Women chefs, entrepreneurs, farmers, teachers, writers, and more. In honor of Women's History Month, we have compiled a few of those women into one episode!First, Carol Palmer and Chef Enrika Williams welcome Editor in Chief of Cook's Country, food and nutrition journalist, and James Beard Award– winning author of “Jubilee”; “Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice” and “The Jemima Code,” Toni Tipton-Martin, back to the show and first-time guest, Executive Editor of Creative Content for Cook's Country, a cast member of the Cook's Country TV show, and passionate Southern woman, Morgan Bolling, to the show to discuss their new book, "When Southern Women Cook." Then, Leigh Bailey joins the show to talk about Salad Days in Flora and its recent expansion news!And finally, we end the show with award winning food writer, recipe developer, cooking teacher, storyteller, and host of the Emmy-award winning show The Key Ingredient from PBS North Carolina, Sheri Castle. Host(s): Malcolm White and Carol Palmer Email: food@mpbonline.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Topic: Malcolm and Carol share an interview with award winning food writer, recipe developer, cooking teacher, storyteller, and host of the Emmy-award winning show The Key Ingredient from PBS North Carolina, Sheri Castle. Sheri talks about her life and career, her cookbooks and PBS television show, and the Southern Foodways Alliance's 2024 Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award. She discusses the aftermath and effects of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, and drops some wisdom about foraging, combining, and substituting ingredients. Malcolm and Carol also get Sheri's opinions on Appalachian cooking, barbecue, and, of course, mayonnaise!Guest(s): Sheri Castle Host(s): Malcolm White and Carol Palmer Email: food@mpbonline.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're so excited to bring y'all our grand finale for this first BATCH: a conversation with writer and TV host Sheri Castle as she talks us through her piece, “The Seven Essential Southern Dishes.” This is a good one y'all - it's the Bitter Southerner's second most read, discussed, shared and argued over story of all time. We're talking about highly contentious stuff here. Sugar in cornbread. Cream cheese in poundcake. Thank y'all so much for listening to this first BATCH of stories! We are so grateful for all of the feedback you've given us and time you've spent with us. We're taking just a few weeks to get the next BACTH of stories together; we'll be back soon! Original Story The Seven Essential Southern Dishes Credits Hosted by Kyle Tibbs Jones Produced by Ryan Engelberger Engineered by Kayla Dover, Thomas Sully Allen and James Phillips Featuring original music by Curt Castle Recorded at Tweed Recording and Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA and at James Phillips' studio in Old North Durham

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.

The guys sat down with , TV's budding new star on Here's what they learned; What you eat is who you are? Who is on Sheri's show? , , , just to name a few. Why, because a food show should be useful. Sheri is a living legend, tune into the episode and you will know. Support our Sponsors: The official Vodka of the NC F&B Podcast: , all the taste without the bite!  Tech that helps your business grow. Call Tanya 858-213-7820 or email her tanyam@spoton.com Drink !  and turn your home into a haven! Visit  Think Differently About Dessert Use promo code 'NCFB' at checkout! The NC F&B Podcast is Produced and Engineered by Max Trujillo of Trujillo Media For booking or questions about the show, contact:  or  

Country music star, Martina McBride, has won 15 major music awards, sold more than 23 million albums, written two cookbooks and has a brand new exhibit in Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. But her roots are in a small, Kansas farm town where she grew up eating plenty of canned vegetables and ground beef with her musical family. You know what other musically gifted gal grew up on a farm in Kansas? Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz! We take a trip down the Yellow Brick Road with William Stillman, author of The Road To Oz, who shares both the fun and unfortunate food facts behind the most watched film of all time. After Martina tells host Rachel Belle about Fluff Salad, where Cool Whip is a salad dressing, we needed to know: what defines a salad?? Meggan Hill, creator and executive chef of Culinary Hill, a midwestern recipe website, explains how popcorn salad, Snickers salad and cookie salad are all...salads. A couple of years ago we did an episode all about the tomato sandwich, but have you ever had a banana sandwich? North Carolina food writer Sheri Castle says in some parts of the south, it's more common than peanut butter and jelly. Follow Your Last Meal on Instagram! This episode is sponsored by Ooni Pizza Ovens, the portable pizza oven company that makes one of Rachel Belle's prized possessions! Make your summer infinitely more fun & delicious by visiting www.ooni.com/yourlastmeal & prepare to make the best pizza of your life! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we celebrate the man remembered as the "Father of American Dendrology" (the study of woody plants, trees, and shrubs). We'll also learn about the November birth flower, which was celebrated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on this day in 1883. We also recognize the botanist, who was Philadelphia’s botany man during the 1800s. We hear some words about November by an American comedian, writer, and activist. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a Garden Cookbook with a southern flair. And then we’ll wrap things up with a little story about a pesky Otter and a koi pond in Vancouver.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” It's just that easy. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and blog posts for yourself, you're in luck because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There’s no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.    Important Events November 5, 1801    Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist Humphrey Marshall. The Marshalls were cousins to the Bartrams - their mothers were sisters. Humphrey’s cousin, John Bartram, was known as the "Father of American Botany” after establishing the country's first botanical garden, and he ignited Humphrey's love of native plants. In 1773, after Humphrey inherited his family estate and a sizable inheritance from his father, he created the country's second botanical garden. Humphrey incorporated natives, naturally, but also exotics. Humphrey forged a friendship with the British botanist John Fothergill who paid Humphrey for his plant collecting. John was a collector and a connector, introducing Humphrey to many of Europe's top botanists and a growing customer list. John's contacts helped Humphrey source new plants for his botanical garden. And Twenty-five years before Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis & Clark on their expedition, Humphrey Marshall repeatedly suggested exploring the American West - in 1778, 1785, and 1792.  A fellow friend, Quaker, and botanist Joseph Trimble Rothrock wrote this about Humphrey: "The earth abounds in beauty, all of which is open to his chastened senses. He revels in the sunlight and the breezes. The songs of the birds fall, welcome, into his ear. The colors of the flowers attract him." In 1785, Humphrey published the very first American essay on trees and shrubs. Humphrey Marshall is also known as the "Father of American Dendrology" (the study of woody plants, trees, and shrubs). Marshalltown, Pennsylvania, was named in honor of Humphrey Marshall. The genus, Marshallia, is named in honor of Humphrey Marshall.   November 5, 1883  On this day in Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society held its first Chrysanthemum Show in Horticultural Hall. This would be the first of several Chrysanthemum events presented by PHS to the public. Chrysanthemums have a fascinating history. In 1790, Chrysanthemums were brought back from China and introduced to England, where they were greeted with much adoration. The greens and blossoms of the chrysanthemum are edible, and they are particularly popular in Japan, China, and Vietnam. During the Victorian times in the language of flowers, the red chrysanthemum meant "I Love," and the yellow chrysanthemum symbolized slighted love. In China, the chrysanthemum is a symbol of autumn and the flower of the ninth moon. During the Han dynasty, the Chinese drank chrysanthemum wine - they believed it made their lives longer and made them healthier. As a result, the chrysanthemum was often worn to funerals. Generally, chrysanthemums symbolize optimism and joy - but they have some unique cultural meanings around the world. On Mother's Day down under, Australians traditionally wear a white chrysanthemum to honor their moms, and Chrysanthemums are common Mother's Day presents. In Poland, chrysanthemums are the flower of choice to be placed on graves for All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. Chrysanthemums are the November birth flower and the 13th wedding anniversary flower. In 1966, Mayor Richard Daley declared the chrysanthemum as the official flower of the city of Chicago.   November 5, 1896  On this day, the newspaper out of Buffalo, New York, reported that John Redfield herbarium was looking for a home. John H Redfield was born in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1815. In 1836, John became friends with Asa Gray after joining the Lyceum of Natural History in New York, where Gray was the Librarian and Superintendent. They remained life-long friends. During the 1840s, Gray tried to locate a plant called the Shortia galacifolia (commonly known as Oconee bell). Gray named the plant Shortia in honor of the Kentucky botanist, Charles Wilkin Short. Originally, Andre Michaux had found the plant and had sent it back to Paris. But since Michaux, no one could identify where the plant had been harvested. In 1863 Charles Short died - and still no Shortia. Botanists like Asa Gray and John Robinson dealt with constant taunting from comments like "Have you found the Shortia yet?" In May of 1877, a North Carolina teenager named George Hyams was walking beside the Catawba River when he spied a plant he couldn't name. His father was an amateur botanist, and he sent the specimen to a friend. Somehow the specimen made it to Gray, who could be heard crying 'Eureka' when he saw it. Thanks to George Hyams, Gray had found his Shortia. In 1879, Gray and his wife invited their botanist friends John Redfield, Charles Sprague Sargent, and William Canby to see the Shortia in the wild. Soon enough, they found the Shortia growing in the exact spot Hymans had described. It was an honor of a lifetime for John Redfield to be there with his old friend. John devoted most of the final twenty years of his life to the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. John's work at the Academy was both worker bee and preservationist. John made sure the early botanical work was indexed and mounted, preserving the city of brotherly love's precious botanical history. During John's lifetime, botanists had traditional visiting habits depending on the city they were in: they would visit Torrey if they were in New York, Asa Gray if they were at Harvard or in Boston, and John Redfield when they passed through Philadelphia. Botany folks genuinely liked John; his botanist friends noted his "strong yet tender character" when they wrote about him in his obituary.   Unearthed Words I have come to regard November as the older, harder man's October. I appreciate the early darkness and cooler temperatures. It puts my mind in a different place than October. It is a month for a quieter, slightly more subdued celebration of summer's death as winter tightens its grip. — Henry Rollins, American comedian, writer, and activist   Grow That Garden Library The New Southern Garden Cookbook by Sheri Castle This book came out in 2011, and the subtitle is Enjoying the Best from Homegrown Gardens, Farmers' Markets, Roadside Stands, and CSA Farm Boxes. In this book, Sheri aims to make "what's in season" the answer to "what's for dinner?".  I love that! Shari’s cookbook offers over 300 recipes that will inspire new and experienced cooks, southern or not, to utilize the seasonal delights from our gardens. “Sheri Castle offers a vision for Southern cuisine that's based wholly on locally grown, seasonal foods. . . . The ingredient lists are seductive on their own, but Sheri is a warm and engaging writer with the kind of practical wisdom that enlightens any kitchen.” — Oxford American “She formulates realistic recipes in her well-equipped but ordinary home kitchen….The proof of this pudding is in the produce: fresh, with reverence and flair. Y'all dig in.” — The Pilot This book is 456 pages of garden recipes from a true southern hostess. You can get a copy of The New Southern Garden Cookbook by Sheri Castle and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $4   Today’s Botanic Spark November 5, 2019  Finally, last year during this week, the Global News shared a story called Koi Tremble in Fear as Otter makes a reappearance in the Vancouver Chinese garden. "Nearly a year after a hungry otter began decimating the koi population at Vancouver’s Chinese Gardens... The Vancouver Park Board said Saturday the otter was spotted in the koi pond on Wednesday morning after three koi carcasses were found. Park board staff began draining the pond that same day to transfer the remaining koi to a temporary holding area off-site. It’s not yet known whether this otter is the same one that ate 11 of the garden’s 14 prized koi fish in November of last year, including a prized 50-year-old fish named Madonna." When I shared this story in the Facebook Group last year, I wrote: "There Otter be a law!" In all seriousness, for pond owners, there's nothing worse than losing your koi. After watching the Vancouver park measures to prevent animals from getting into the pond area, I have to say it's pretty intense. And, it just goes to show that whether you're a big public garden or a small private garden, dealing with critters like this can require ingenuity and hard work — and even then, there are no guarantees.

Cooking has become the great connector during this time of social distancing. Being physically apart as made our community ties grow stronger and the proof is all over social media. The Facebook group, Cooking and Coping: Gathering Around the Virtual Dinner Table is bringing people together through the love of food from all around the world. Today Malcolm and Carol talk with three of its top members Sheri Castle, Beth Kitchings, and Leslie Kelly. They talk about using food as building blocks, the delicious Dutch baby, and building culinary skills from the comforts of your RV.Mentioned Links:Small Business Coronavirus Resources - https://msmec.com/coronavirus/Mail Order Tennessee BBQ - https://www.forbes.com/sites/lesliekelly/2020/04/03/get-amazing-tennessee-bbq-delivered-to-your-doorstep/#59a9b6764935 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Phrases like "farm to fork" and "farm to table" are really trendy but only reinforce something that was once the norm during meal time. Eating what was fresh and in- season. Today on Deep South Dining we take a look at what is in-season with Robby Sullivan of the Mississippi Farmers Market (Jackson, MS) and talk with cookbook author Sheri Castle, who Carol calls the queen of vegetables. Also we hear from Robert St. John about the non-romantic side of growing your own produce.Discussed This Episode:Mississippi Farmers MarketEat Your Peas by Sheri Castle Summer squash casseroleJudy reed, Greenville, MSIngredients:2 pounds yellow summer squash7 tablespoons butter1 large onion, chopped1 large clove garlic, chopped½ red bell pepper, chopped½ green bell pepper, chopped1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped (optional) 4 slices plain white bread, toasted24 Ritz crackers, crumbed in food processor½ pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated 4 large eggs, beaten½ cup heavy whipping cream1 teaspoon sugar1 teaspoon salt¼ teaspoon cayenne pepperDirections:1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2 1/2-quart baking dish. Cut the squash into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Cook in boiling, salted water until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain. Purée in a food processor.2. Melt 6 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and peppers and cook until just tender. Meanwhile, crumb the toast in a food processor, melt remaining butter and toss together.3. Mix the squash purée, onions, peppers, garlic, cracker crumbs and cheese. Stir in the eggs, cream, sugar and seasonings. Blend well. Pour into the baking dish. Top with bread crumbs and bake until browned, about 40 minutes.Baked Shrimp and SquashRobert St. JohnIngredients: 6 cups Squash, cut into 1 /2-inch cubes1/4 cup Clarified butter, canola oil or bacon grease1 Tbl Garlic, minced1 tsp Salt1 tsp Pepper, freshly ground1 Tbl Creole Seasoning1/2 cup Green onion, chopped3 cups Fresh Shrimp (36 – 42 count), peeled and de-veined1/4 cup Clarified butter or canola oil1 Tbl Old Bay Seasoning1 Tbl. Garlic1/2 cup Onion, medium dice1/4 cup Red Bell pepper, medium dice1/4 cup Green Bell Pepper, medium dice4 Tbl Butter, cubed1/2 cup Parmesan cheese1 cup Cheddar cheese, grated1 cup Sour Cream1/4 cup Green Onion, sliced1 Tbl Hot Sauce1 cup Ritz Cracker crumbs, crumbled fine1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese2 Tbl Parsley, choppedDirections:(Preheat oven to 350 degrees.)In a large skillet, sauté the squash, butter, garlic, salt, pepper Creole seasoning and green onion over medium-high heat until the squash is cooked. Place squash in a colander and press out excess moisture with the back of a spoon (this is very important). Pour squash into a stainless steel mixing bowl; discard the drained liquid.In the same skillet sauté the shrimp, butter, Old Bay, garlic, onion, and bell pepper until the shrimp are pink and cooked through. Using a slotted spoon, transfer shrimp to the mixing bowl with the squash. Discard the excess liquid.Immediately add butter, Parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, sour cream, green onion and hot sauce to the bowl with the hot shrimp/squash mixture. Gently stir until butter and cheeses are melted. Pour the mixture into a 9 x 13 casserole dish.Mix together the Ritz crumbs, Parmesan and parsley. Top casserole with the cracker crumb mixture and bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly.Field Pea-Tomato Salad with Lemon VinaigretteBy Sheri Castle, Chapel Hill, North CarolinaActive Time: 20 MinsTotal Time: 35 MinsYield: Serves 6This gorgeous summer salad showcases peak-season tomatoes, fresh herbs, and lady peas, which remain creamy white or light green even after they have been cooked. A tangy vinaigrette brings all of these ingredients together to make one tasty dish. This salad is best served at room temperature immediately after it has been made, but you can cook the field peas in advance and store them in the refrigerator.Ingredients:VINAIGRETTE•1 medium shallot, finely chopped•1 tablespoon grated lemon zest plus 1⁄4 cup fresh juice (from 2 lemons)•2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped (2 1⁄4 tsp.)•1/2 teaspoon kosher salt•1/4 teaspoon black pepper•1 tablespoon honey•1 teaspoon whole-grain Dijon mustard•1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oilSALAD•2 cups shelled fresh field peas (10 oz.), rinsed•1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided•2 cups cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise•3 tablespoons chopped fresh lemon balm, lemon verbena, or mint•2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley•2 1/2 pounds large heirloom tomatoes (2 or 3 tomatoes), cored and sliced•1/4 teaspoon black pepper See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Breakfast: THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK ABOUT THE BEST MEAL OF THE DAYBy The Editors of Extra Crispy Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cookery by the Book podcast with Suzy Chase. She's just a home cook in New York City sitting at her dining room table talking to cookbook authors. Kat Kinsman: Hi. I'm Kat Kinsman. I'm the Senior Food and Drinks Editor at Extra Crispy, and we've got a new book, Breakfast: The Most Important Book About the Best Meal of the Day.Suzy Chase: This book was written by you and the other editors of Extra Crispy. Tell us about Extra Crispy.Kat Kinsman: Oh, wow. It's such an exciting ... This book, I'm so excited about it. It's actually a collection of material that we've run on Extra Crispy and some new things that we've written. Extra Crispy is your one-stop shopping for everything about breakfast: culture, news, essays, recipes. If it's breakfast, we're going to cover it. I know it sounds silly, so you have a site that's just about breakfast, but since we launched in June of 2016, we realized that, when you go narrow, you can go really, really deep, so we use breakfast as a Trojan horse to talk about a million different things.Suzy Chase: In 1875, speaking of deep, cookbook author Marion Harland praises eggs as elegant and frugal, so here's the age-old question: Why do we eat eggs for breakfast? I've never understood that.Kat Kinsman: Oh, my goodness. We actually have an essay. I don't know if it's in the book, but we have run an essay, I believe recently, about why that is. I mean think about it. They're so incredibly adaptable. They can store for a fairly long time. They are a fantastic and inexpensive source of nutrition, of protein. They keep you going for a while. Again, I think it got back to the adaptability of it, that there's so many different ways that you can eat them. They're really personal is what I've realized. It's something that, without a whole lot of effort, you can make for yourself in the morning, and you can make it exactly to your liking, or it's not too hard to guide somebody else to make them exactly the way you want them too. It's an easy way to give somebody pleasure, and sustenance, and a little bit of affirmation in the day, "I see you. I know how to make you happy. Here's eggs just the way you want them."Suzy Chase: I didn't know that, in the early 1900s, breakfast cereal was invented in response to indigestion blamed on meat and egg consumption. That sounds like B.S. to me, right? It sounds like a marketing thing.Kat Kinsman: Oh, absolutely was. The people at Battle Creek, the scientists there who came up with Raisin Bran, and flakes, and all that kind of stuff were doing it ... They were wellness freaks in a really early incarnation, and they were doing it to quash libido and-Suzy Chase: What? Really?Kat Kinsman: They were doing all sorts of ... Oh, it's just so nuts. It's in the early days of Kellogg's. They got some zealots in there to start to develop these foods that were supposed to be optimized for health but also sort of add moral fiber to your day. If you look at all the stuff that they were doing in Battle Creek and then at these sort of wellness resorts that they had, they were doing these things to control people's emotional impulses and set them on the path of the good and righteous. It was almost culty how all this stuff came about. I'm actually working on a piece right now about the moral intertwinings of the early days of flake cereal. It's really astounding stuff if you dig back just a little bit over a century. Suzy Chase: I feel like fried eggs are a bit out of fashion at the moment, but I love a good fried egg, especially a diner fried egg. Talk about some ways to upgrade the good old fried egg. Kat Kinsman: Oh, one very, very easy thing to do is use a ton of olive oil, get it just ripping hot, put the egg in there, and spoon the olive oil a little bit over the edges until they get good and lacy. It's a very ... Oh, I wish I could say the term. It's a Spanish term. Chef Katie Button really drove this home to me, and it's her favorite was to do it, but the way it translates is like lacy eggs. The center of it remains good and runny and beautiful, but if you can get the pan to the right temperature and use olive oil instead of butter, because butter can burn and it gets that sort of acrid taste to it, but olive oil can take a little bit more heat, and you get those brown, crispy, lacy edges and still have that runny yolk, and it's the simplest thing in the world to do. Another really, really easy thing to do is just put a little bit of Aleppo pepper over top of it, just a little bit, and have that olive oil with it, and that is a little bit of heat, a little pop of ... just a little pop of joy and sensory pleasure to start the day with. The texture of the lacy edges of the egg with a little bit of crunch of good salt, the Aleppo pepper, if you have that with some bread, that just hits every single sensory button, and it's a great way to start the day.Suzy Chase: There's an infamous op-ed in The New York Times that says, and I will quote, "Brunch is for jerks." What are your thoughts on brunch, especially brunch in New York City? Kat Kinsman: Here is my thing. I've always ascribed to the notion that, if it tastes good, it is good. I'm laissez-faire about these sorts of things. I realize the older I get the less prescriptive I am about things that bring people pleasure. I mean we are living in times of turmoil right now where I really believe, if you can bring any sort of simple pleasure into your life and it's not harmful to anyone else, why not? The great thing about brunch is the community aspect of it. I mean sure, you can go have brunch by yourself. That's absolutely fine. You can have it with one other person but, ideally, it's a vehicle for community. We ran this piece a few months ago by Nik Sharma who ... Oh, my gosh. I love this man. He has a book coming out. It's seriously one of the loveliest cookbooks I have ever seem. Everybody needs to buy Nik Sharma's book. He wrote a piece about why gay brunch is so important and especially in his early days ... so after coming out, and moving, and coming together in this safe space with friends where they could go through what happened that week and talk through their loves, and their heartbreaks, and everything in a safe, communal space before marriage was legalized. It was such a powerful, beautiful space. You talk now about the transition of now that marriage is legal and people are able to host brunch at home with their spouses and invite people over to their houses, but talking about the early importance of these sort of queer spaces to get together over brunch. I mean if mimosas and sort of crappy Eggs Benedict can be a vehicle for that sort of thing, I am all for it.Suzy Chase: There's a whole section devoted to the Dutch Baby. What is that?Kat Kinsman: Well, because it makes you look like a freaking genius. I hadn't really made them, and Dawn Perry, who has a few ... She's a goddess on Earth, and she's at Real Simple. Before she had really started up in this position at Real Simple, she was writing a bunch for us, and she ... I trust everything this woman does. Everyone needs to watch her show. She really drove home the fact that they're incredibly versatile. I think this thing was called A Dutch baby is the Little Black Dress at Your Party or something like that but, really, it's this thing where you just bring together a few ingredients. You put them in a cast iron pan. It puffs up. It's such an ooh-la-la kind of moment. You can make it sweet. You can make it savory. You can adapt it to whatever your particular taste is. You can make them all a la minute at a party and have that great razzle-dazzle moment where it's brunch and, "Oh, no big deal. I just made this great big, explosive popover thing," and everyone you brought there sees your moment of ooh and ah and gets to watch it move and deflate, and it can be dressed however you want. It's a glorious bit of theater that is really easy to pull off.Suzy Chase: I went down the rabbit hole researching this recipe and, in 1966, Craig Claiborne was at Dave Eyre's home in Hawaii. Eyres was the editor of Honolulu Magazine at the time. David made a Dutch baby for Craig, and Claiborne came back, wrote about it in The New York Times, and it's such a beautiful thing. I know for a fact that Martha Stewart loves the lemon butter Dutch baby recipe that you have on page 47.Kat Kinsman: Oh, my gosh, what a classic that is. Those particular flavors are ... they just work so beautifully, and it makes it feel like you're eating pie for breakfast, which I wholeheartedly endorse, by the way. Pie for breakfast is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Dutch babies, I feel like they're ... they have such a funny history. There is a town I'm totally blanking on on the West Coast, I feel like it's in California. It was like a Gold Rush thing. I should know about this because I wrote about it for the site recently, but can we talk for a second about Craig Claiborne and what an amazing taste maker he was?Suzy Chase: Yes.Kat Kinsman: Oh, my gosh. I think I'm probably one of the few sort of people who, right now, have read the memoir, the warts and all, of his memoir. People have forgotten about Craig, and it breaks my heart. He was such as taste maker. I remember him ... I don't remember when he did it, but the importance of him writing about the shrimp and grits at Crook's Corner with Bill Neal, this dish that ... it has some sort of murky origins and stuff, but he saw the beauty in this, wrote about it in the Times and, all of a sudden, people started really paying attention to this corner of North Carolina. I've made his mother's spaghetti dish on more than one occasion. I've made his shrimp and grits. What a legacy. He really did the legwork to go around the country, see the things that people were doing regionally, and then ... Nobody should need justification or the imprimatur of a giant publication but, at the time, he used it as such an incredible platform to really sing the praises of these regional dishes and make them national favorites. Sorry, I love Craig Claiborne.Suzy Chase: Well, he's one of those guys people say, "If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone living or dead, who would you invite?" He's one of those guys you want at your dinner table.Kat Kinsman: Oh, my God, him and Clementine Paddleford. There would be no doubt that you-Suzy Chase: Who's that?Kat Kinsman: Oh, God, she was spectacular. Suzy Chase: That's a great name.Kat Kinsman: Isn't it? She was incredible. There was a bio of her that came out a few years back, and she was an incredible woman who ... She was at one of the rival papers in New York. She flew her own plane, so she was a pilot and would fly her little plane around the country to sort of go in and see how people really were cooking in all of these regions like, really, the kind of cooking that would be in church cookbooks that was not highfalutin restaurant food because there really wasn't a whole lot of highfalutin restaurant food, but really talking about home cooking in regions all over the country. She would get in her little plane and fly there and come back and write in her paper. She was an established newspaper editor, and then Craig Claiborne came in, few years younger than her, and he was young, he was cute, and he sort of ate her lunch, so people really don't know as much about her legacy, but oh, gosh, I wish I could remember the name. I'm so blanking this morning on the names of all the books, but look up the book about her. It's really, really just a fantastic thing.Suzy Chase: Food that's weird to people you've never heard of isn't weird to those who grow up eating it, so I guess Livermush would fall into that category. I didn't grow up eating it.Kat Kinsman: Oh, my God.Suzy Chase: I have no idea what it is. Kat Kinsman: I think it could use some rebranding just from the name because, if people actually had it, it would ... oh, it would blow their minds. That piece by Sheri Castle that is in the book ... First of all, Sheri is a tremendous advocate for North Carolina food. She's an extraordinary writer, and she really sings the praises of mountain food and North Carolina food and really sings to the dignity of these foods that ... A lot of these foods come from deprivation, so Livermush is liver and mixed in with grains, and it's essentially made into a loaf and fried, and you slice it, and it gets golden brown on the outside. It's a little bit sort of mushy, spongy on the inside. It's basically like a meatloaf, and it is the most glorious thing. There are a few towns throughout North Carolina that throw festivals in honor of it. There's brand called Neese's that is one of the premier brands of it, and they have Livermush. They also have liver pudding, which is very like it with a slightly different spice blend to it, and they're just really preserving this heritage. There are a few different brands that make it. My husband's from North Carolina, so every time I go down there I try to seek out all the different regional brands and variations of it. Like what you said, the food that people didn't grow up eating might seem weird to them, but that's part of our core mission at Extra Crispy, is to really give the dignity to these foods that they deserve, because it really bothers me when people yuck other people's yum, just because they're unfamiliar with it. Food is so inextricably tied to identity, that to slam somebody else's food just because it seems weird or unfamiliar is unfortunately, since time immemorial, been a way to other people. It's done to first generation or immigrant kids, who bring their lunch to school and it smells different than what the other kids are eating. It's something that is often used as a tool to alienate people who might not be from the dominant culture, when in fact it should be a tool to bring people together. Here is this little part of my culture, my heritage. Here's a way to understand a little bit more about me. It's an act of generosity to share your food and it's something that we really, really try to emphasize on Extra Crispy, that we approach all foods with an open mind and an open heart. And ideally let somebody from that culture tell the story of it and why it's so important, and hopefully open up some new doors to it.Suzy Chase: Eleven fancy butters were sourced, to find the best one which is Bordier. Is it Bordi-a or bordi-er?Kat Kinsman: That is a really good question. Suzy Chase: Let's just go with Bordi-a. Kat Kinsman: Yes. I believe that is how someone who actually knew how to pronounce it -Suzy Chase: Yes. (laughs)Kat Kinsman: ... did pronounce it, but we've been all over the place on that. I got to take part in this tasting. Suzy Chase: I saw on a Mind of a Chef episode, where Chef Ludo goes to the factory. Have you seen that? Where they slap the butter with the paddles and they stamp it, and they put salt on it. Kat Kinsman: I've seen it. Suzy Chase: It's glorious. Kat Kinsman: We brought in my friend John Winterman who is the managing partner at Batard, but he is also a butter freak. I believe we gave him the name Maitre D'Beurre to guide us through this. The whole Extra Crispy team, we are butter aficionados, freaks, obsessives, whatever you want to call it. We sourced all these butters. It was mostly my fantastic colleagues, Margaret Eby and Rebecca Firkser. I think at some point, Margaret is just going to go off on a butter sabbatical. This is her dream to go somewhere and really learn how to make butter. She and Rebecca went out and sourced all of these different high-end butters. They had already done this with grocery store butters. And in that one, Kerrygold came out top as it should. It's a fantastic butter. But I think we grabbed the corporate card to expense butter. They tried it on bread. I have a gut condition and I can't really eat bread. I'm trying to remember what I had it on. It was radishes. I had mine on radish slices. Suzy Chase: Oh, that's so smart. Kat Kinsman: Yeah, it was a really great way to get to do it. Also I didn't fill up on bread. I was mad not be able to have it with the bread, but we work with what we are given. We just tasted them through. Came up with the top few and then put them all head to head. The Bordier was incredible. I have to say, there was a slight followup later because Bordier does variations. With those, we were just doing salted butters, I believe. Otherwise, you can really extra fall down the rabbit hole. Bordier does one with this flint pepper in it. They do a few different variations -Suzy Chase: Oh, no. Kat Kinsman: Well Margaret found the raspberry one -Suzy Chase: No.Kat Kinsman: They only make a little bit. It is one of the best things I've ever had in my life. So it is butter. It is raspberries. It's raspberry juice. We all tried it and we all just stared at each other. Suzy Chase: (laughs)Kat Kinsman: We could not speak. So Ryan Grim who is the editor of the site who is just a delightful human being. If you've ever seen the Instant Pot videos that I do, he is Mr. Grim -Suzy Chase: Yes. Kat Kinsman: -- in the videos. He's our boss. But he was just, you know, the 1,000 yard stare, like just eating this. It was the purest raspberries, the most beautiful butter. If you buy it where we bought it, we bought a quarter pound of it, it would be $72 a pound. But we sort of rationalized this because we got a quarter pound and said if you go into a party, you could bring a bottle of wine. That's great. It gets push on the shelf with the other wines. If you roll in with this butter and a baguette, you are the star of the party.Suzy Chase: Oh, my gosh. Where do you get this butter, do you know? Can you get it in New York City? Kat Kinsman: We got it ... Yes, you can. We got it at Le District, which conveniently is right below our office in Brookfield Place.Suzy Chase: Look at that! (laughs) Okay, I'm going down there today. Kat Kinsman: Yes. Actually if you want me to do it when I get into the office, I will look and see if they have it so you don't waste a trip. Suzy Chase: Okay. (laughs) Thank you. How did you get the inspiration to turn a king cake into french toast? Kat Kinsman: So Margaret Eby, who is our senior culture editor. She and I both are New Orleans obsessives. So she grew up in Mississippi and would go to New Orleans all the time. I've been going since ... Oh golly. So I used to work for CNN and I had the pleasure of my intro into New Orleans was we would have these secret suppers. I got to throw one at James Carville and Mary Matalin's house. They are such tremendous ambassadors for the city. They are food obsessives and they let us throw this party at our house. Sorry, at their house. I wish it was my house. So I had sort of a crash course in getting to go to New Orleans. My husband was supposed to meet me and our dog got sick and he couldn't come. So I was okay, well that means we'll have to go back and you'll have to come with me. He fell in love with it too, so we go three, four times a year because we love it so much. Margaret goes as often as she can. She actually rides in a Mardi Gras crew. So a great act of love from both of us is to bring back king cake when we go. We were just thinking king cake is ... There's a lot of really bad king cake out there. The intention is great, but if we're being honest, a lot of it kind of sucks and it gets stale really, really quickly. So we were thinking, it would also feel like a sin to throw away king cake. So we decided to do it two different ways. We made french toast out of king cake. Then king cake out of french toast. To me, it's exemplified what we do at Extra Crispy where we really do try to tell stories about particular tradition and cultures. Also we have a chance to get really weird. We sort of joke, the extra in Extra Crispy is that we have permission to take things to strange degrees and just have a whole lot of fun and find joy in this. I mean breakfast is a meal that it can be formal. It can just be for sustenance, but think about those weekend breakfasts when you just get to play and goof and eventually feed people. It's a really, really fun thing. We take people seriously and we take people's culture seriously and their identities and stuff. We don't always necessarily take ourselves too seriously.Suzy Chase: Speaking of extra, Chapter 6 Franken-foods and mashups. Kat Kinsman: (laughs)Suzy Chase: Velveeta chex mix nacho dirt bag casserole. Say that fast five times. That's hard to say. Kat Kinsman: (laughs) Suzy Chase: Is always a good thing, right? Kat Kinsman: So Margaret and I ... I want to explain dirt bag a little bit if that's okay. (laughs)Suzy Chase: Sure. Kat Kinsman: So this all came about because I had never ... I had my notion of sort of the term dirt bag. Margaret and I were texting while she was at a lake house with a bunch of her friends. She was leading what she called her best dirt bag life. I was like unpack that for please. She said, you know, it is the self when you are around people who you deeply trust and love that you don't have to put in any sort of guard or errs. You can be wearing whatever you want. You're comfortable. Ideally you're in a lake house or just somewhere where nobody's faultin. Everybody is just their most chill out, lazy, maybe a teeny bit tipsy, kind of self. And you're really happy and free. She texted me saying here's what we have in the house. We have oh golly, like some leftover bottoms of the bags of various chips. We have some eggs. We have some beer. We have some bread. She asked me okay, what can I make from this? I was like girl, you've got a casserole there. You have everything you need to make ... I am a big fan of a casserole. You can put absolutely anything together so long as you have some sort of bread-like substance, a liquid, ideally an egg, though you don't necessarily have to have an egg to bind it. You put it in a dish. You stick it in the oven, then put it under the broiler to get the top crunchy. Out of this came ... And I was like especially if you can pour beer into there as the liquid, you win. And Velveeta is its own magical substance. If you don't try to think of it as cheese, you're better off. You can use real cheese if you want to, but Velveeta, I think really gets the zeitgeist there. You can make it with absolutely anything so long as you follow the formula. It's cheesy and delicious and it's even better the next day. Suzy Chase: In addition to being the senior food and drinks editor at Extra Crispy, you also write and talk about tough, real life stuff; anxiety and depression. You wrote a book called, "Hi Anxiety, Life with a Bad Case of Nerves." You started the conversation in the restaurant community about depression, anxiety addiction and eating disorders on chefs with issues. Talk a little bit about that. Kat Kinsman: Yes, so I have been pretty open for a long time about my own struggles with anxiety and depression. Then recently a diagnosis of ADHD, which was contributing to the anxiety as I found out. It's something that I have dealt with as long as I can remember. My friends knew about a certain amount of it and definitely my family did. I've never been ashamed about talking about it, but it wasn't necessarily something I led with. When I was at CNN, I was the food editor there and I also wrote for CNN Living. And I wrote an essay about my experience with depression throughout my life and then later I wrote about anxiety. It opened up a conversation there at work and then we were able to ... Both of them went viral and they were really kind and generous and thoughtful enough to let me really explore that further there with some conversations and community stuff that we did. What happened was that I also was the food editor, so I would be interviewing a chef there or at my next job when we would be doing some video or whatever it happened to be and I'd be recording it. There would be a moment where we would stop and turn off the recorder to change batteries or change tapes. A couple of times it happened that the chef would be like hey, actually can I talk to you about something? Then they would tell me about their own particular struggles with depression or anxiety or addiction or whatever it happened to be. Or someone who they worked with in their kitchen. That happened once and I felt like okay, this is somebody who just needed to get it off their chest. I'm so grateful that they were willing to trust me with it. Then it happened again. Then it started to happen more than half the time. I started to think there's really something going on here. So after a few months of this, I threw up a website on January 1st, 2016 and I put up a poll asking people are you dealing with any of these issues? If so, do you feel open talking about it? Do you get treatment? All this stuff. I figured I'd maybe get a few dozen responses. I've gotten well over 2,000 responses at this point. I started getting letters and calls, emails, Facebook messages, Twitter messages from people saying, "Oh, my god. I thought I was the only one." I realized it was really a huge crisis. The month after I started this site, three different chef owners took their own lives that I knew about. It's constant. I cannot stress this enough. Chefs and hospitality workers and bartenders die all the time and people don't talk about it. Whether it is by suicide or whether it is by as they call it, "slow suicide" of rough choices or addiction or whatever it happens to be. That was three in one month. One that was very, very high profile and two that were less so, but people happened to tell me. I did the math on this and realized just the toll this takes on the industry. So I started this website. I got the opportunity to speak about it at a few conferences. I realized this was way, way, way bigger than me. I couldn't field all of this stuff by myself. It takes a toll. I'm happy to do it and it adds so much to me, but it's a lot. So I started a Facebook group last summer while I was recovering from surgery where people could just come any hour of the day or night, and have open conversations about what they were dealing with. And three months ago, there were 828 people in it. Now, as of last night, there were 2300 people in it-Suzy Chase: Oh my God.Kat Kinsman: The thing that happened was Anthony Bourdain killed himself, and yeah, which so many people are still reeling from ... The thing that's been going on also over the course of this last year, two and a half years that I've been doing this is, I've gotten a community of people who are starting this conversation in their own community. There are groups all over the country operating independently where they're gathering together people in the industry in their particular towns to talk about it, to offer the solidarity. Denver is incredible for that. There was a thing...Recently changed the name from Mile-High Hospitality Hazards...Not sure what the new name of it is, but they're doing great work to get people together. There's Ben's Friends throughout the south. That is specifically for people in recovery in the hospitality industry, and people are really getting together and taking care of one another in a way that they haven't before. And for the first time in awhile, I have hope that people don't feel like they're alone, they don't feel like it's taboo, they don't feel like they are weak for dealing with these things. I'm gutted, still, as so many of us are by the loss of Tony and if there's anything halfway okay that came out of this, it is that people are talking and hopefully more lives aren't going to be lost, even though I know that they have been since him. But hopefully the trend will change.Suzy Chase: I just got back from our beach house. All I brought were Anthony Bourdain books-Kat Kinsman: Yes.Suzy Chase: And I was just trying to find an answer. Is there an answer in this sentence? What happened? Because everything he ever said was, "That was my old life." He got beyond it and had a child and lived for her, it seemed like. And it's just like, "Wow." If he can fall to pieces, we all can.Kat Kinsman: Yeah. No one's immune to this. And this is why it's really important to me to never say "cure" about mental health issues. We'll never know exactly why, with him, and we have all wracked our brains and our hearts in thinking, "Is there something I could've said, done?" Any of these things that you didn't know, looking back at the last DM that he sent me, and is there something I should've said? But no, that's the thing, is like, it can come and get you at unsuspecting times. I don't say cure. I only ever say manage, and I'm pretty open about the fact that even for me, I've been dealing with this for a long time. I'm incredibly lucky. I am a straight, white, cisgendered married woman with health insurance and employment. I have every single advantage that a person could have, except for the only way there could be sort of more privilege present is if I were a man. Yeah, but that doesn't make me immune to this. It just means that I have more resources to deal with this. I have an incredibly supportive and fantastic spouse. I have friends and a community for whom I am so grateful. My Extra Crispy colleagues are so fundamental to my heart. It sounds maybe silly to some people to say this about a work situation, but it's so an emotionally great place to work, because we all have genuine affection and respect and care for one another. And I realize that is a tremendous thing, but at the same time, this summer, I had a very, very dark month where I went down...I have a panic disorder, as well, and I had...It was especially post-Tony. I ended up going around the country speaking with groups of chefs. I do a lot of closed-door meetings with chefs where I just get people together and talk about it, talk about what they're feeling about getting resources. The day it happened, we all found out about it the week before. I had been at the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival, where Kim Severson and I got people together and talked about things. I was talking in Charleston over the next couple of days. I was already scheduled for that. I went to the Aspen Food and Wine Festival the next weekend and talked to the other chefs there. I was on the road. I was ragged. I was revisiting my own trauma. I was sad about the loss of my friend and worried about other friends of his. And I was just in a susceptible place, and I got really, really dark. And I had a panic attack that lasted for an entire month. And I am someone who has all the therapy, has all of the resources, has all of this stuff, and it still happened, which is why you'll see me on Twitter having check-ins with people. It's incredibly important to check in on people who seem like they're doing okay, people who don't seem like they're doing okay, to ask you friends how they're doing and let them know it's okay if they don't say, like, "Oh, I'm fine." They can give you the real answer. I can't say this enough. It's so important to check in. I also-Suzy Chase: Especially in this age of social media, where everyone's Kim Kardashian. Everything's amazing. And it might not be.Kat Kinsman: Yeah. So I also got trained as a crisis counselor with Crisis Text Line, which everyone needs to have this number in their phone to share it with everybody. Text 741741 in the states. You can contact them by direct messenger on Facebook, and there is somebody there 24/7 to talk you, as they call it, from a hot moment to a cool call. And it's an incredible thing, so I trained as a counselor there, so I learned how to really deescalate situations. And a very important thing I learned there was the importance of asking people point-blank if they're thinking about killing themselves. And that is a harsh thing to have to say. I know people think that if you bring up suicide that it makes people more likely or puts the notion in their head. What they told us is that it's actually the opposite, because it bring it out into the open, it makes it not just this taboo thing. It actually shocks some people into reality, like, "Oh my God, yeah, actually now that you say the word"-Suzy Chase: And verbalizing it.Kat Kinsman: Yeah. And it's an awkward conversation to have, to ask somebody, but several times recently, I have asked friends that, and sometimes you get a very, very scary answer. But the thing I always say to chefs is yes, it's awkward if your line cook cries in front of you. That's a hell of a lot better than crying at their funeral. And I'm sorry to make it so stark, but those actually are the stakes of it, too. So during this really rotten time that I was having that was sort of spurred by being away from my support systems, being tired, revisiting trauma, a couple of stressful situations. My sleep was bad, my therapist was out of the country for three weeks and stuff. And I was lucky enough to have people around me who I could say, "I'm not okay" to, and I ended up, my therapist came back in town, I went and saw my physician who put me on an ADHD medication that, honestly, within 45 minutes, my brain felt calmer than it had in a month or longer, and it was an amazing thing. I was lucky to be able to ask for help and to have people around me saying like, "Hey, what are you doing for yourself?" But I'm somebody who talks about this pretty openly, and I think of myself as a solid, stable person who has...I've been lucky enough to have some incredible career opportunities, and it can still happen to me. So we really, really, really have to keep checking in on our people, no matter what beautiful things they're putting on Instagram-Suzy Chase: Yeah.Kat Kinsman: Whatever they're saying, look for the messages between the lines, or even just send them a text saying, "Just thinking about you." It really matters to do that.Suzy Chase: For season 4 of Cookery By the Book podcast, I am kicking off a new segment called The Last Meal. On a lighter note.Kat Kinsman: Yeah.Suzy Chase: If you had to place an order for your last meal on earth, what would it be?Kat Kinsman: I'd honestly be happy going out with an egg and cheese or a bacon, egg and cheese on a roll from a deli. Cup of coffee. Maybe a glass of champagne. I mean, that egg and cheese sandwich...which I can't eat because my gut thing, but if I knew it was my last meal, it really wouldn't matter. I love that perfect...As my friend Eric Diesel calls it, the deli egg bomb. It satisfies all my texture needs. It never fails to put a smile on my face, so I think it would have to be that.Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?Kat Kinsman: Ah. On the web, well, ExtraCrispy.com. That is home base. On Twitter, I am @KittenWithAWhip. On Instagram, I'm @katkinsman, and if you go to Tarts.org, which is the domain that I've had since 1997, I think you can also get there from katkinsman.com...That has all the links to all of the social...And it links to buy this fantastic Extra Crispy book by the editors of Extra Crispy. I just want to give a shoutout to Ryan Grimm, Margaret Eby, Rebecca Firkser, and then Kate Welsh, she recently moved on from the team to a fantastic opportunity, but they all put their heart and soul and everything into this book. Our former designer, Lauren Kolm, did some of the illustrations. The team in Birmingham shot the heck out of this. It's incredibly beautiful. Hugh Atchison wrote an incredible foreword, so we'd be remiss not to mention all those fantastic people.Suzy Chase: That's like an awards show. I'm playing you off with the music. Thank you for all of your great work that's changing lives. And thanks so much for coming on Cookery By the Book podcast. Kat Kinsman: Absolutely my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Suzy Chase: Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, and while you're there, please take a moment to rate and review Cookery By the Book. You can also follow me on Instagram @cookerybythebook. Twitter is @IAmSuzyChase. And download your kitchen mixtapes, music to cook by, on Spotify at Cookery By the Book. Thanks for listening.

This week's show is all about food! We begin with a recorded conversation between chef Travis Milton, who grew up in southwest Virginia - and food writer Sheri Castle, who was raised in western North Carolina. Travis stopped by the studio earlier this week, and Sheri joined us by phone. They share stories about who taught them to cook, their own definitions of Appalachian cuisine, some innovative new takes on the food of our region, and a few of their own Thanksgiving favorites. Our program today wraps up with some Appalshop staff members’ favorite Thanksgiving Recipes. You might want to grab a snack, cause this program is sure to make you hungry! We hope you enjoy!

A visit with food writer Sheri Castle on her work, cookbooks, and feelings on Southern Comfort Food. Plus her topic as key note speaker at the Great Smoky Mountain Food Day Event, October 6 & 7 in Knoxville. News on "The Long Table Dinner" taking place September 24th in the Old City in Knoxville to benefit CSA Beardsley Farm in Knoxville.

“In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.” ---Marianne Williamson Resistance Work. With Persistence, Resolve, Resilience, and Magic. Welcome Friends, to a special episode of Edacious. Because it is not business as usual in our town of Charlottesville, Virginia this week. Now is not the time to speak of the latest greatest cocktail invention, nor to promote the latest brewery opening or wine dinner. Now is the time to celebrate all that is good about Charlottesville, to remind ourselves despite the hatred that visited us over the weekend, when all is said and done, we are magic. We are greater than the sum of our parts. When our community decides to come together for a common cause with Big Love behind it, there is nothing that can stop us. Our resolve, our resilience, our persistence, and our magic will be the ingredients that point the way and keep us grounded. It's why I started this podcast. I looked around the community where I live and said, "Wow, folks need to know about this. Immediately. There is magic here." In this episode, I talk about Community Magic and the good folks who make it happen for us each and every day in our stores, on our farms, in our offices, in our fields, at our restaurants and kitchens. Folks whose passion is food but who know that food is just a starting point for so many other greater discussions and events and moments of connection. I'm convinced food is the great equalizer, the thing we all do, the thing each and every one of us can connect on. If you can just get someone from the other side of the fence to break bread with you, amazing things can happen. It's why I'm here. It's why I will continue to use this podcast to broadcast magic. Go in peace friends. Break bread. Practice self care. Get strong. Because this is only the beginning. Big Love. #Charlottesville #CvilleStrong #LoveisLove #YallMeansAll Charlottesville Makers of Magic Mentioned During This Episode. There are SO many others near and far I didn't get to. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for keeping our Charlottesville community strong as well as your own, wherever you may be. Kristin Adolfson of Still Point Press Design Angie Akey of Moxie Salon Brian Ashworth of Ace Biscuit and Barbecue Heather Balmat, trademark lawyer Jason Becton and Patrick Evans of MarieBette Café and Bakery Bellair Market MC Blair, radio host Laurie Blakey of Pearl's Bake Shoppe Jake Busching, winemaker Sheri Castle, food writer Polina Chesnakova, food writer Sara Cramer Shields and Andrea Hubbell of Our Local Commons Travis Croxton of Rappahannock Oyster Company Nancy Carter Crump, food historian Will Curley of The Coat Room Cville Coffee Simon Davidson of The Charlottesville 29 Victoria Dunham, chef Tim Edmond and Daniel Potter of Potter's Craft Cider Feast! Liz Finklestein, Piefest volunteer Jeanne Frey of Treat Yourself Right Massage Tim Gearhart of Gearhart's Fine Chocolates Grit Coffee Craig Hartman of The BBQ Exchange Martin Herbert of Small Potatoes Sales and Marketing and an Edacious Patreon supporter Gail Hobbs-Page of Caromont Farm Cheese Betty Hoge, Small Business Development Center David Hopper of Chutney Ferret Industries Phyllis Hunter and Will Harville of The Spice Diva Integral Yoga Java Java JM Stock Provisions Michele Jones of Pasture, Flora, Comfort Tami Keaveney of Tavola and The Cicchetti Bar Harrison and Jennifer Keevil of Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen Market Street Market Milli Joe's Susan McCulley, Nia Instructor Christopher Morris, photographer Mudhouse Coffee Gerry Newman of Albemarle Baking Company Rachel Pennington of The Pie Chest Jenny Bandy Peterson of Paradox Pastry Rebecca's Natural Foods Allie Redshaw Wilson Richey of Ten Course Hospitality Matt Rohdie of Carpe Donut Shenandoah Joe's PK Ross of Splendora's Gelato Bill Smith of Crook's Corner Hunter Smith of Champion Brewery Dawn Story of Farmstead Ferments Ian Thomas and Marlene Steiner of Virginia Distillery Company Timbercreek Market Angelo Vangelopoulos of The Ivy Inn Justin Vesser, PieFest and Soup There It Is! contest winner Amanda Welch of Grubby Girl Brian Wimer of IX Park and Lovefest Cynthia Woodring, yoga instructor SHOW NOTES – Links to resources talked about during the podcast: Help Our Charlottesville Community Recover - Please consider donating to this cause, supporting victims of last weekend's violence. Thank you. An Open Letter - Local food writer Simon Davidson responds to a GQ piece about August 12th. An Eyewitness - Local graphic artist Kristin Adolfson, who designed this very website, was a witness to the violence last Saturday. Here is her account in The New Yorker. Resist. Persist. - Brian Ashworth of Ace Biscuit and Barbecue clashes with Nazis in his restaurant on Sunday. Eater has the story. Bravo Brian! A Mother Grieves - Huffington Post speaks with Susan Bro, mother of Heather Heyer who tragically lost her life in last weekend's violence. Help Scotty Recover - My best friend has Stage 3B colon cancer. Bills are piling up. He can't work. Can you help? Share! Donate! No amount is too small. Thank you and BIG LOVE to everyone who donated and shared the Big Love Bake Sale and Big Love Birthday! Next up? Tee shirts! Look for them soon. Subscribe to This Podcast. Stay Edacious! - Come on, after this episode? You know you want to. Subscribers get new episodes instantly, while non-subscribers have to wait a few hours or days depending on the iTunes gods. Never miss a chance to be edacious! Subscribe to Edacious News - Never miss a food event in our area! Learn about regional and national food stories so you can stay edacious! This episode is sponsored by Teej.fm and listeners like you who donated their support at Patreon, who wants every creator in the world to achieve a sustainable income. Thank you.

Welcome to Episode 73! In this fabulous conversation, I speak with Chef Bill Smith of Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Both Bill and the restaurant are beloved fixtures in this great town of advocates, artists, musicians, and other creative types. Sound familiar? Yes, Chapel Hill is very similar in size and energy to Charlottesville and is going through some of the same growing pains. So this talk hit close to home for me and was a great chance to catch up with someone I consider a dear friend. I first met Bill, in an extremely "meet cute" way while sitting on a bus during the Southern Foodways Alliance Summer Symposium. He was so friendly and put this podcaster at ease during her first solo foray into the world of professional food conferences where small talk is king and networking important. We had talked for a good half hour before I realized he was a chef and a noteworthy one at that! Chef Bill took over Crook's from founding owner Bill Neal back in the 1990's. Bill was a beloved chef who passed way too young and is credited with bringing shrimp and grits to the masses for better or worse. Needless to say, Neal's version is still the best in my opinion and a must-order. Chapel Hill's music subculture is well known, and Bill has been a part of that for decades as part owner of The Cat's Cradle which opened way back in 1973. In fact, Bill's collection of concert tee shirts which he has worn in the kitchen since he began, is part of a museum collection profiled in an episode of the Southern Foodways Alliance Gravy podcast. Musicians were a huge part of Bill's kitchen for many years because they have what he calls, "...a loose point of view," an enthusiasm, as well as a need for flexible hours. These days, his kitchen looks very different, comprised mostly of immigrants, some of whom have worked for Bill 15 years or more. He considers them family. How are they coping in this new political climate? How has Bill attempted to ease their way forward? His efforts are beyond admirable and make me so glad to know him. A true Southern gentleman, scholar, and outspoken advocate. "I trust them completely...they are family...I'm a Godfather...honorary grandfather. I've been to weddings, you name it...I love them to death...I'm almost 70 years old...having them in the kitchen helps a lot." Having such a dedicated kitchen staff from elsewhere has not only influenced the restaurant's recipes but has made a sometimes reluctant Southern clientele able to embrace more complex spicier dishes. In fact, he travels to Mexico City quite a bit on the regular. "When I first came to work here people would complain about things being too spicy. Now that never ever happens. Ever...so the public has come along...they've learned...I don't know if they're just more adventurous...or been exposed to different stuff...but they've become much more receptive." Bill grew up in New Bern, North Carolina surrounded by grandmothers and other relatives who were great cooks. His great-grandmother cooked lunch every single day until she was in her 90's. Folks would leave school and work to eat and enjoy a full mid-day dinner for an hour. With china, silverware, veggies, meats, the whole shebang. This kind of leisurely eating and fellowship is definitely present at Crook's today where the minute you walk in the door, you feel at home. Bill has appeared on Vivian Howard's A Chef's Life several times, has written many books, and is hard at work on a new one, a second volume of Seasoned in the South. The recipe tester is Sheri Castle of Rhubarb fame, so you can trust every recipe to come out the way it's supposed to. Can't wait until it's published! And yes it will have the recipe for "That Stupid Pie." What's that a reference to? The Atlantic Beach Pie, of course, a creation of Bill's grandmother and a beloved dessert at Crook's. A variation on lemon meringue pie with a saltine crust. In fact, if you don't order it, you're an idiot. Although I'm partial to his banana pudding, I never leave without taking a slice home. It's that good. This was recorded back in February, so it was interesting to hear how the frantic nature of our political sphere was just as anxious back then. Back then meaning 3 months ago! A time capsule for what was to come. Little did we know it would only get worse! What's the solution? We brainstorm some ideas. "I think it's our duty just to keep raising hell. I used to be a polite Southern boy but nuh-uh, not anymore...I get in somebody's face...lord help if somebody evangelical gets all over me...it's easy to make them cry...just challenging what they just told you...it's sort of funny, but it's sort of sad...I don't listen to crap anymore...I'm one of the troublemakers...but I come from a family of them...I'm spoiling for a fight." His definition of success? Rent and beer money. Awards and recognitions? Not that important. Despite numerous James Beard nominations and other awards, just having a nice cold can of PBR at the ready is reward enough. Sounds damn good to me. As does this episode. Enjoy.

Dessert Work. With Sheri Castle and Ronni Lundy at The Virginia Festival of the Book. Welcome to my latest episode! Were you a bad food enthusiast? Did you miss "Save Room for Dessert! Cookbooks With A Sweet Tooth!" at the Virginia Festival of the Book? No worries, Edacious taped it for you! It might be May, but we're still celebrating. In this exclusive panel moderated by yours truly. Sheri Castle was born in Boone, North Carolina. The Queen of Hustle, Sheri is a professional food writer, culinary instructor, and public speaker known for melding storytelling, humor, and culinary expertise. She wrote her first recipe at 4 years old, mailed it to a TV show, and never looked back. She's written three books, been in countless magazines, and appeared on Vivian Howard's show, A Chef's Life. Her books have been IACP Award finalists, won the SIBA award, and been mentioned in the New York Times and Washington Post. Nigella Lawson (yes THAT Nigella) counts herself a fan and has made recipes from her latest book, Rhubarb, on her website. "We always had rhubarb...I love it raw...I can remember when I was little going up to the garden and snapping off stalks...whereas my grandmother would sprinkle salt on hers...I would take a cup or a handful of Tang...and dip rhubarb in the Tang and eat it that way." ---Sheri Castle "That is a characteristic of Appalachian food and Southern food in general. It's very agrarian, it's very resourceful, and it is knowing how to make the best of what you have. And sometimes what you have is modest and sometimes it's glorious but it's knowing how to do right by ingredients and give them regard and dignity." ---Sheri Castle Ronni Lundy was born in Corbin, Kentucky and has spent much of her life chronicling the people of the hillbilly diaspora as a journalist and cookbook author. Her book Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken was recognized by Gourmet magazine as one of six essential books on Southern cooking. In 2009, Lundy received the Southern Foodways Alliance Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award. She has contributed to Eating Well, Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Esquire, among many others. Her latest book, Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, With Recipes won the IACP 2017 American Cookbook of the Year, as well as two 2017 James Beard Foundation awards for American Cookbook of the Year and Book of the Year. Food historian and heirloom seed saver Bill Best called Victuals, "The 67th Book of the Bible!" Victuals explores the foodways of Appalachia, the most bio-diverse region in the world, including many located right here in Virginia. "Victuals is for me not just a story about food and sustainable foodways but it's also a way to illumine the people of this region in ways that people are often surprised by." ---Ronni Lundy  Both ladies have been past podcast guests and I consider them dear friends. In this talk, we explore rhubarb, its uses in dessert as well as in savory dishes, and Appalachian foodways and its history of preservation, resourcefulness, and sustainability, including desserts that most folks have never heard of like apple stack cake and caramel cake. As well as a host of other things including how social media has impacted recipes for both good and ill. Yes, we got off topic, but so what? All good conversations do. Enjoy these multiple-award-winning authors, and thanks so much to everyone who came out to listen. Cheers! "Because of social media and food tv...most people now assume a recipe to be a visual thing more than it is a written thing. And that can be both good and really burdensome sometimes too." ---Sheri Castle  "I used to get asked do you actually test your recipes and I used to find that an offensive question...although now there are books that are going out where people are not testing recipes which blows my mind!" ---Ronni Lundy SHOW NOTES – Links to resources talked about during the podcast: Sheri Castle was on the podcast before! Give a listen! Ronni Lundy appeared on this podcast a while back. Give a listen! Trampoline - This graphic novel by Robert Gipe is the most creative thing I've read in years. A young girl grows up in Appalachia, unwittingly becoming an environmental spokesperson for her region all the while getting into trouble she can't seem to get out of. Poignant, thoughtful, and hysterically funny. Gipe is a great new voice. I expect great things from him in the future. Click here to listen to an excerpt! In Praise of Ugly Food - Kat Kinsman ode to ugly edibles appears in the 2016 Best of Food Writing anthology. Flora Restaurant - Oaxacan cuisine with a great tequila selection. In Richmond. Thank you so much to Michele Jones and Jason Alley who gave an incredibly generous amount to my recent Big Love Birthday campaign. Their donation helped bring us over the top! Big Love guys! Help Scotty Recover - My best friend has Stage 3B Colorectal cancer. Bills are piling up. He can't work. Can you help? Share! Donate! No amount is too small. Thank you and BIG LOVE to everyone who donated and shared the Big Love Bake Sale and Big Love Birthday! Next up? Tee shirts! Look for them soon. Subscribe to This Podcast. Stay Edacious! - Come on, after this episode? You know you want to. Subscribers get new episodes instantly, while non-subscribers have to wait a few hours or days depending on the iTunes gods. Never miss a chance to be edacious! Subscribe to Edacious News - Never miss a food event in our area! Learn about regional and national food stories so you can stay edacious! This episode is sponsored by Teej.fm and listeners like you who donated their support at Patreon, who wants every creator in the world to achieve a sustainable income. Thank you.    

The Big Love Bake Sale is a community-based effort and the first fundraiser here at Edacious to benefit today's podcast guest, Scott Nichols. Happening Saturday 4/15, 9am-noon at Charlottesville City Market!  Concierge Work. Community Fundraising Work. With Cookies. Maybe the most important episode I've ever done. I truly believe every choice you make in your life sets you on a path. You might not understand the choice at the time or even the path you find yourself on, but eventually, it all comes together. In this episode meet Scott Nichols, a concierge with more than 20 years experience. A concierge who because of recent life developments has had to put his career on hold. A concierge who just also happens to be my best friend. Now concierge might not be the first occupation you envision when you think of Food Work, but hotels and restaurants have a symbiotic relationship, one that operates behind the scenes, with hotel staff and restaurant employees often working for each other's benefit, coming together to make sure both establishments remain successful. It's a relationship often misunderstood, and one most travelers never take advantage of. Hopefully, this episode changes that. First some background. We reminisce on our shared food adventures, as well as what it means to manage a Mrs. Field's Cookies. Yes, we met in a food court which acts as its own type of community, a place where employees help each other despite long hours and little pay. It's hard work and there's a great deal of hustle. At the time we were young and didn't appreciate where things came from and how our actions might affect others. Working for such low wages forced us to get creative to survive. Not making excuses. That's just the way it was. Working in a retail food court provides more life experience than sitting in a college classroom. It teaches you responsibility. Teamwork. On your feet problem-solving. All of which are good training for the hospitality industry or for owning your own business. Or for real life.  Thousands of people toil in fast food all over the world. It felt good to give them a voice. To throw some honor their way instead of shame in the form of degrading stereotypes you see in movies and on TV. We compare our cookie tray burns still visible after 30 years. Battle scars. We reveal Debbie's secret recipe. We reminisce about the hilarious methods we used to keep up morale. We talk about how Mrs. Fields actually provided great training for the career Scott embarked on and one he excels at...concierge. After moving to DC, Scott started in hotel reservations, slowly working his way up to the front desk. Learning as much as he could, networking, soaking up every piece of knowledge like a sponge. It was the 80's, people were traveling, so tips were good. The relationship between a concierge team and their hotel employers is often volatile. So when the entire team walked off the job one day, Scott stepped in and a career was born. A career where he thrived because of his ability to connect, converse, and anticipate the needs of his customers. Knowing what they wanted before they did. Anticipating what they needed just by looking at their suit, the make of their watch, their demeanor as they stepped up to the desk. A job so demanding he often had to sleep on a cot in a closet behind his desk. "I started knowing nothing and I'm a quick learner...whatever I lacked...I understood the value of presentation, preparedness, and potential...show up, bring your best, do your best." What did he enjoy most about the work and still does to this day? Making people happy. Making sure every guest feels welcomed and their visit is a trip to remember. "You learned early on that if you give people what they want and don't let them see you sweat and don't let them know how much trouble it was...then they are more comfortable asking you for whatever they want. People know when they're asking for something exotic...That's where I learned my philosophy of I work hard and I expect to be compensated fairly...(You must) understand that level of access and professionalism brings with it a certain cost and value." Learning, realizing what you're worth. Your own value in your chosen career. An important lesson in any profession. An important lesson for your LIFE for that matter. This isn't as Scott says, "McDonald's Concierging". This is building relationships. Spending 10 minutes having a conversation and getting to know your guest. Using your observational skills. Reading the customer. What time of day is it? How are they dressed? What does the woman's makeup look like? What shirt is the man wearing? These things can tell you whether or not the guest is hungry, has had a drink (or three), or even their mood. "If you make friends with a concierge you will take your time in any city to the next level and have the most amazing experience of your life." Whether you're a business traveler or a tourist, utilizing your concierge makes for a better travel experience. You don't have to be a millionaire. Be honest, form a relationship, and your concierge will work to tailor an unforgettable occasion within your budget. For example, if you're proposing to a future spouse, a concierge can help you make that an experience of a lifetime. Nowadays people use Internet "Best Of" lists to tick off every box. By keeping an open mind and trusting a concierge you will still have the most amazing experience, just maybe not the one you planned. Way better than consulting a Top 10 list on Yelp. Need a table at Rose's Luxury but don't like standing in line? A good concierge can hire you a line sitter. Which brings us to restaurants. Any concierge worth his salt has professional symbiotic relationships with restaurants, often with the hostess, a server, or even the chef. Often restaurants hold open houses for hotel staff, enticing them to recommend their establishment to travelers. This "Favor System" isn't without its flaws, but remains an important aspect of driving business. Best case scenario? The entire team of restaurant and hotel come together to make things happen so everyone involved goes away happy. How does this relate to Charlottesville and its burgeoning wedding and hotel industries? Scott has definite thoughts on maximizing growth. Pro tip: hotels have morning meetings where they go over customer reviews. If a guest says they loved a certain restaurant, staff will remember and send them there next time. So it's a good idea for restaurants to get to know the folks in that brand new hotel that just opened down the street. Most important thing to remember? Don't be intimidated. No question is too silly or strange. Even if you're on a budget and want a good seat at The Cheesecake Factory, a concierge can make that happen. The stereotype of the snobby desk clerk you see in the movies just isn't true. A great concierge gets their own fanbase. Customers will even follow them if they change hotels. We also talk about the reality of working at a hotel with a conservative owner who deals with the far right and the prejudices that come with that on a daily basis. How do you serve a customer who clearly hates your lifestyle? What about ageism? Workers over 50 are more reliable, professional, have life experience, have usually been successful in a previous career, often want part-time hours, and are a plentiful, viable section of the workforce. Don't overlook them. Last summer, Scott was diagnosed with Stage 3B colorectal cancer and had to leave his chosen profession for treatment. Medical bills began to pile up. So I stepped in to help, as friends do, by creating a GoFund Me campaign. The love and support for this campaign from friends, family, and even total strangers have been overwhelming. He is so very grateful. "The GoFund Me has been such a blessing from God...I'm still having trouble wrapping my brain around it...I've been on the hustle so long...I just don't understand strangers giving me money...But I'm thankful for it...the prayers mean a lot...I wouldn't be alive today without the love that I'm getting from the world...that keeps me going on bad days...because now I have little investors in my outcome...so I kind of have to deliver...none of those people want to get a note from you that says thank you for your contribution but he didn't make it...I need to go on after this and do great things...I'm really excited about, "Oh my God there might be a next chapter!"...after coming this far through the treatment process, I'll be damned if I'm going to spend one day doing something that doesn't make my heart happy on some level...people not only invested in me but sort of my reawakening of this second chapter of my life...This is an opportunity and we're going to go forward and it's going to be amazing." I agree. It will be amazing. His first round of treatment has gone well. But unlike the movies, there is no instant dramatic outcome good or bad, but rather a long series of, "Now we wait and see." Meanwhile the bills continue to roll in. But Scott, his husband Brian, me, and all his family and friends remain optimistic. In fact, it is his unwavering optimism that I adore most. He will get better. We will get this campaign funded. The Big Love Bake Sale, created after a phrase he uses often, will help with that. I just know it. When I started this podcast two years ago, I had no idea I'd end up interviewing my best friend. But I'm so glad I did. Not only is this the BEST episode I've ever done, it's the one fully inhabiting the mission I set for myself. Community and Connection. It lives the intention I set each and every morning when I sit down and put on my headphones. It will be the one I present when folks ask, "Which episode should I listen to first?" Of course, I'm biased. Beyond that, this episode not only presents deep story, it fulfills my podcast's purpose, and in such a beautiful way. I saw a different side to my friend, one I hadn't witnessed. It made me prouder of him than I've ever been. And it made me damn glad to know him. All those years I spent baking cookies. All those years I spent planning events for others. All those years I spent in fundraising and development. Work I knew was valuable but wasn't really my favorite thing. All that training has brought me to this moment in time. I truly believe that. Give a listen then head out to Charlottesville City Market for the bake sale. Big Love everyone. Big Love. Thank you to all of the community sponsors helping Scott fully fund his GoFund Me campaign as part of the Big Love Bake Sale, which happens Saturday 4/15 from 9am-noon at Charlottesville City Market: The Pie Chest - Thank you, Rachel Pennington! Splendora's Gelato - Thank you, PK Ross! Justin Vesser - Thank you, buddy! Gearhart's Fine Chocolates - Thank you, Tim Gearhart! Chutney Ferret Industries - Thank you, David Hopper! Virginia Festival of the Book - Thank you, Sarah Lawson and Sheri Castle! WTJU - Thank you, Nathan Moore! SHOW NOTES – Links to resources talked about during the podcast: Big Love Bake Sale! - Come out, buy some cookies, and help out one of our own. This Saturday 4/15 at Cville City Market! Help Scotty Recover - my best friend has Stage 3B Colorectal cancer. Bills are piling up. He can't work. Can you help? Share! Donate! No amount is too small. George Hamilton - Back in the day this movie star sold suncare products. And we bought the tee shirt. Subscribe to This Podcast. Stay Edacious! - Come on, after this episode? You know you want to ;) Subscribe to Edacious News - Never miss a food event in our area! Learn about regional and national food stories so you can stay edacious! This episode is sponsored by Teej.fm and listeners like you who donated their support at Patreon, who wants every creator in the world to achieve a sustainable income. Thank you.

Food Writing Work. With the Best Food Writing 2016 Panel at The Virginia Festival of the Book. Welcome to my latest episode! Were you a bad food enthusiast? Did you go see Walter White at JPJ last Sunday and *NOT* go to the Best Food Writing 2016 talk? No worries, Edacious taped it for you! This year's multiple award-winning panel included moderator and editor of the series, Holly Hughes, and contributors Joe Yonan, Food & Dining Editor for The Washington Post, Jason Tesauro, author of The Modern Gentleman, and Todd Kliman, author of The Wild Vine. Writer Monica Bhide, author of Karma and the Art of Butter Chicken was scheduled to appear but had a family emergency. All of the panelists consider themselves writers first, food being just one aspect of their work. Because food is the starting point for so many deeper conversations, a philosophy that informs this podcast as well. Holly began editing the Best Food Writing series back in 2000. Through sixteen volumes published annually, she has presented hundreds of great pieces covering humor, travelogue, politics, memoir, history, as well as hard-hitting journalism covering all the different aspects of food. The series was conceived as a bedside table book, not a kitchen one. It makes a great gift because everyone eats. Pieces are short so you can dip into whatever strikes your fancy. Way back when the first edition was published, the time was right. Food was becoming its own thing, its own cultural trend. Folks like Anthony Bourdain, Michael Pollan, Ruth Reichel, and magazines like Saveur and Lucky Peach made food a thing to contemplate and read about. It went beyond reading a recipe or restaurant review. Reading about food became entertainment. Food became more than just what would I eat for dinner tonight? Then food blogs came along providing writers a massive platform for publishing their own in-depth pieces immediately. It raised food consciousness, putting it much more centrally focused in the national conversation. Why has food remained in the cultural zeitgeist? Why is it more important to us now? That's just one topic covered during this terrific panel discussion. Another? The current state of fine dining. As Joe Yonan so succinctly put it: "You don't always want the journey. They (chefs) always want to take you on a journey. I'm tired of traveling. I just want to sit here and eat my damn dinner!" This year's pieces include a love letter to ugly food, another one to the chicken tender, and the fabulous pieces read aloud by our panelists. Works about Chef Bo Bech, chicken fried steak, and eating tacos in Mexico City appear simple on first glance. Keep reading. As with so much great food writing what's on your plate or the person cooking it is only a starting point. It's never just about the food. It's about the deeper topics, the thoughtful life questions that connect us all. The same mission behind Edacious. Using food as an entryway. There's a reason these pieces were chosen as among the best. They have a story, great storytelling, a strong sense of narrative, a profound message. Give a listen. You won't regret it. SHOW NOTES – Links to resources talked about during the podcast: Virginia Festival of the Book - most of the authors who attend are unpaid, and travel here out of their own pocket. Food writing is a challenging business. You donation will help cover expenses and get some of the big names here in 2018! Help Scotty Recover - My best friend has Stage 3B Colorectal cancer. Bills are piling up. He can't work. Can you help? Short Stack Editions - Love letters to a single ingredient. Sheri Castle, author of Rhubarb,  appeared at the festival and on this podcast. Victuals - Ronni Lundy's seminal work won the 2017 IACP Award for Best American Cookbook and is up for a James Beard Award later this month. She appeared at the festival and on this podcast. Subscribe to This Podcast. Stay Edacious! - Come on, after this episode? You know you want to ;) Subscribe to Edacious News - Never miss a food event in our area! Learn about regional and national food stories so you can stay edacious! This episode is sponsored by Teej.fm and listeners like you who donated their support at Patreon, who wants every creator in the world to achieve a sustainable income. Thank you.

Writing Work. Rhubarb Love. And Hustle. Welcome to the first in a series of FOUR podcasts celebrating the Virginia Festival of the Book! In the next four days you will hear from the country's best and brightest when it comes to food writing. Today's episode? Food writer Sheri Castle, whose newest creation, Rhubarb, presents this misunderstood vegetable in a way it's never been discussed before. Sheri will be appearing at two events as part of the festival, including a talk I'm moderating, "Save Room! Cookbooks With a Sweet Tooth!" Event details are listed below. Sheri wrote her first original recipe at the tender age of four, mailing it off to a television show. But never once did she consider food as a job. Her goal was similar to that of most writers: get a PhD in English, write stories, become a professor. Instead she headed into the corporate world. But her bosses always had her writing. Then suggesting she bring in her delicious food for potlucks. So when she was offered a severance package she headed to culinary school, intending to become a teacher. Writing was something she left behind. It wasn't until a woman approached her during class with a food column offer that she reconsidered. It didn't pay much, but here she was writing again. The rest is chocolate gravy!  As she says, "In hindsight everything was inevitable, but naivete got me a lot farther than the ambition. If I had known how hard this was going to be, I never would have attempted it...I'm a writer. And my cooking is in support of that." It's a story I've heard many times. Food writers who wear several different hats, doing two to five jobs in order to make a living. Food writers who fall into the profession backwards from other careers. Hustling to succeed. "In hindsight everything was inevitable, but naivete got me a lot farther than the ambition. If I had known how hard this was going to be, I never would have attempted it...I'm a writer. And my cooking is in support of that." Do you need culinary training to be a good food writer? Not necessarily, according to Sheri. Just as a doctor doesn't need to know every disease, a writer doesn't have to be a chef. By the same token, there is a clear difference between a food writer and a food typist, someone with only an interest and a blog. You've got to have a clear, profound STORY, not just an anecdote. Rhubarb, part of the ever-popular Short Stack series, is definitely that, a compendium of recipes and stories. Lots of stories about her connection, and ours, to this tart and tangy item. Each Short Stack volume is a love letter to an ingredient. Rhubarb is no exception and Sheri was thrilled to be asked to write about this misjudged vegetable which isn't just for pies! It has the same flavor profile as citrus, is very high in vitamin C, and works incredibly well in savory dishes. "An anecdote or a memoir helps a writer understand what they think about a topic. Good food writing helps the reader understand what they think about a topic." In Rhubarb she shares all of this, as well as its long history going back to the Victorian era. We discuss how to grow it, tips for storage, the differences between fresh and frozen, its medicinal properties, and her fond memories of dipping fresh-cut stalks into Tang as a snack. Yes, Tang! Did you know you can purchase hothouse rhubarb year-round? That's what Sheri did while doing research for this book. At one point she guesstimates she had 90 pounds of the stuff in her fridge. Lordy be! Nigella Lawson, yes THAT Nigella, counts herself as a fan of this book and talks about it often on her website. It was during Rhubarb's launch party that a Short Stack editor showed Sheri a text. From Nigella. Praising the book. So, there's that. True Rhubarb Love from across the pond! "Stories happen only to those who can tell them." Food writing is a rich style of narrative that informs and entertains. Hemingway, Dickens, and Proust all wrote about food although it wasn't sold as such. As Sheri says, "The vehicle of a food memory was the most effective vehicle to convey a thought." We are both such champions for the genre which covers politics, history, culture, memoir, comedy, fiction, philosophy, health, and many many stories. It's never just cookbooks. How do you make recipes into stories? Sheri knows and talks at great length about her process. Folks seem to be catching on, with many recent award-winning cookbooks adding narrative to their recipes. Backstory which gives the reader context, heft, and authority to the food they are making. Way better than just Googling a recipe for brownies. "Food writing is good writing. The topic just happens to be about food." Sheri also talks about her lengthy process for recipe testing. Often cookbook recipes never turn out at home. Why is that? Sheri explains, and she should know, having tested ones for Bill Smith's Seasoned in the South as well as Vivian Howard's award-winning cookbook, Deep Run Roots among many many others. Sheri has also appeared on Vivian's show, A Chef's Life, talking about her love of casseroles. As I've said, she wears many hats. Her favorite topper? To get up in front of a group of people and tell food stories. Which is why you should definitely get your butt down to ALL of her events. After you listen to this episode of course. Cheers! "I'm interested more in how the field peas got on the plate, rather than what the field peas taste like on the plate." Save Room! Cookbooks with a Sweet Tooth Wed. March 22, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM Barnes & Noble, Barracks Road Shopping Center, Charlottesville, Virginia Cookbook authors Sheri Castle (Rhubarb) and Ronni Lundy (Sorghum’s Savor) will discuss their work. Cooking Demos Thu. March 23, 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM The Charlottesville Cooking School, Meadowbrook Shopping Center, Charlottesville, Virginia Join Sheri Castle (Rhubarb), Shane Mitchell (Far Afield), and Ronni Lundy (Victuals), as they each give a cooking demonstration of recipes from their cookbooks. SHOW NOTES – Links to resources talked about during the podcast: Rally for Ally - help out one of our own, a chef who recently suffered a debilitating accident. Help Polina Recover - help out one of our own, a baker, who recently suffered a debilitating accident. Help Scotty Recover - my best friend has Stage 3B Colorectal cancer. Bills are piling up. He can't work. Can you help? Will Write for Food - Dianne Jacobs wrote the seminal work on how to be a food writer. My bible. Nigella Lawson - She's a fan of Sheri's book, Rhubarb! And her website is pretty great too. Stir - The best piece of food writing I read last year. It should've won a James Beard award. Subscribe to This Podcast. Stay Edacious! - Come on, after this episode? You know you want to ;) Subscribe to Edacious News - Never miss a food event in our area! Learn about regional and national food stories so you can stay edacious! This episode is sponsored by Teej.fm and listeners like you who donated their support at Patreon, who wants every creator in the world to achieve sustainable income. Thank you.

The Not Old Better Show Interview series, Author Sheri Castle, The New Southern Garden Cookbook Welcome to The Not Old Better Podcast. As part of our Smithsonian Associates, Art Of Living series, our guest today is chef, author, cooking teacher, and public speaker, Sheri Castle. Ms. Castle, who hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, explores the rich history and heritage of the foodways of the Mountain South, a region whose cuisine—long overlooked or misunderstood—is riding the wave of new attention. She looks at the wide variety of dishes that make use of quintessential mountain foodstuffs including corn, beans, wild greens, potatoes, sorghum, apples, biscuits, game, and freshwater fish. She introduces iconic Appalachian foods such as leather britches beans, dried-apple stack cake, chocolate gravy, candy roaster squash, and righteous skillet cornbread.   Join Sheri, and Smithsonian Associates, Nov. 3, 2016, Ripley Auditorium, Washington DC, for Sheri Castle's presentation, titled “Shuck beans, stack cake, and chocolate gravy.” Enjoy.

All month long I've brought you stories and interviews with some of the founders of the Appalachian Food Summit. I wanted to end October's exploration with the woman whose question started it all. Not long ago Kendra Bailey Morris, food writer and PR Manager for the Virginia Distillery Company, asked a question about Appalachian cuisine on Facebook. What followed was a discussion with commentary exceeding 200 posts. Someone suggested a group, and after a while, another person suggested a gathering. Thus, The Appalachian Food Summit was born. This is the last in a four-part series on the summit, a gathering of folks committed to preserving Appalachia's unique cuisine and heritage, while at the same time bringing the region forward into one of economic vibrancy and cultural celebration. It's a mission of love and revival for an important part of our country needing some attention. While at the same time making sure Appalachia doesn't descend into stereotype and the food remains pure and unadulterated, not becoming a fancypants parody of itself. It's a gathering of inclusion, not exclusion, and prices for attendance are kept low so it's accessible and affordable for everyone. The Southern Foodways Alliance must agree with me because over the weekend Lora Smith was presented the 2015 John Egerton Prize on behalf of the Appalachian Food Summit. Insert thunderous applause here. This was a unique interview done in two parts because sometimes life throws you a curveball.  In the first part recorded shortly before the summit in Abingdon, Kendra had just come from her grandmother's funeral. Granny lived to be 100, and it was her love of food that started Kendra on her career path. We talk about her dressing in muffin tins with black walnuts from her tree. How the muffin tins make it crispy so guys working in coal mines and farm fields could take it with them. What is the right way to make West Virginia pepperoni rolls and what is grit bread? We discuss Kendra's traditional path to food writing and talk about how that is all but gone with the advent of social media. We're also joined by Tricia Zawhorodny of the Virginia Distillery Company, for a lively discussion (and sampling) of their Highland-style single malt whisky. Made from 100% barley at the facility by a Scottish master distiller, the caramel-colored nectar is soft and delicious, redolent of honey and heather. Virginia Distillery Company opens mid-November on 100 acres in Lovingston, and will not only include a tasting room, but a huge indoor-outdoor fireplace, a museum, and an interactive tour. Tricia hails from Waynesboro, Virginia with an extensive background in food, including front of house, back of house, bartending, and a stint working for Sysco which brought her to the present position at VDC. In the second portion of the interview recorded at Wintergreen, Kendra and I talk about the upcoming VDC grand opening. We also reflect on the mission and future of the Appalachian Food Summit now that it's winning awards. How can we make sure Appalachian cuisine stays true to itself and not become, ugh, TRENDY? What does the threat of a pipeline mean for Nelson county and how in the hell can we stop it? What classic Asian dish can be made in a crock pot? Finally, what volatile question on Facebook began the Appalachian Food Summit? You'll just have to listen to find out. SHOW NOTES - Links to items discussed within the episode: The Southern Slow Cooker - Kendra Bailey Morris creates Southern classics in a crock pot to scrumptious results. White Trash Gatherings - need a little something to take to your next family reunion "down home"? Kendra can help. Friends of Nelson County - stop the Dominion pipeline! Sign up to keep informed. Crock Pot Pho - from Jaden of Steamy Kitchen. Create this classic dish in hours rather than days. With minimal time at the stove. The Southern Living Community Cookbook: Celebrating Food and Fellowship in the American South - another instant Southern cookbook classic from Chef extraordinaire Sheri Castle. A Chef's Life, Season 3, Episode 7, "A Casserole Says Plenty" - Chef Sheri Castle gives her two cents on creating the perfect casserole every single time. This episode is sponsored by In A Flash Laser Engraving.

D. G. Martin interviews Sheri Castle - The New Southern Garden Cookbook