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Bourdain: a History in Objects

This is not a post about Charleston, food tours or historic walking tours. But after 25 years in restaurant kitchens, I’m still in love. I love kitchens, and the gifted artisans, technicians, miscreants and psychopaths that inhabit them. No one ever summed up this life and these people so smartly or succinctly as Anthony Bourdain. …

Free! A Chef’s Guide to Undiscovered Charleston

Where do Charleston Chefs eat? Bertha's is a favorite of Undiscovered Charleston founder Chef Forrest Parker's. It's been recognized by the James Beard Awards and their okra soup has been named by Garden and Gun magazine as "One of the 100 Southern foods you must eat before you die." Guests on our Undiscovered Charleston: Food …

The Whispering Ghost of Hominy Grill

Finally, the Night King has come. Hominy Grill has served its  last plate of shrimp and grits. Chef Robert Stehling closed the institution on Sunday, following the lead of Chef Bill Smith, who just earlier last year stepped away from the Chapel Hill institution Crooks Corner. Chefs Forrest & RobertVery, Very good biscuits.Might as well …

Remembering Verta Mae

I was saddened to learn of Verta Mae Grovenor's passing over the weekend. I wrote this post a year ago recalling the time my wife and I got to meet her at a Southern Foodways event at McCrady's. She was a Space Goddess!   I met a lady named Vertamae Smart- Grosvenor once at a …

Arrival

"should be interesting to see how this picture progresses in the future…" sb In the daily miasma of operations, occasionally things get stuck in your head. This is from the first post by Sean Brock on his blog Ping Island Strike, back from when he first arrived at McCrady's in 2006. This post in particular …

Forrest Parker’s Dispatch From Seed Saver’s Conference

As originally appeared in the Charleston Post & Courier, 7/22/16. (Editor’s note: South Carolina Chef Ambassador Forrest Parker, most recently of Old Village Post House, sent this report from Iowa.)   by Forrest Parker It’s a testament to seed savers’ enthusiasm that when David Shields posted on Facebook a speech he planned to deliver at …

The Charleston Wine and Food Festival Short List

Allright people. It's almost time for us to be 10-8. Negativland, A Big 10-8 Place It's Charleston Wine and Food Festival Week. Unless you live under a rock or are from off, you already know this. It's always a hectic week, an energetic whirwind of culinary excitement. Old friends, new friends, chef crushes, burning the …

Dim Sum in the Year of the Monkey

Hurry up, please. It's time." Anne Sexton I am a fiend for dumplings. I remember my first dim sum like it was yesterday. Paying a visit to Seattle with family, our Alaska Air flight was delayed due to bad weather over the Cascades. By the time we got in to Sea-Tac, we were dizzy from low blood sugar. …

Brunch: A Recipe for Braised Short Rib Hash

Brunch menus are an open invitation to the cost-conscious chef, a dumping ground for the odd bits left over from Friday and Saturday nights... Cooks hate brunch. Brunch is punishment block for the B-Team cooks, or where the farm team of recent dishwashers learn their chops. Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential   There are those chefs …

Getting Down at the H&R

One block up and one block over from my usual haunt at Old Village Post House Inn sits a rather diminutive looking cinder block building. The H&R Sweet Shop, open since 1945, shares the space with a hat shop. It's been on my list for several years- right in front of me, yet I never made …

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