Speaker 1: This is taking stock on Bloomberg iyme pim Fox my
Speaker 1: co host Kathleen Hayes. Let's turn our attention now to
Speaker 1: the world of food with Vivian Howard, the chef and
Speaker 1: owner of a restaurant in Kinston, North Carolina. It's called
Speaker 1: Chef and the Farmer and also the Boiler Room restaurant
Speaker 1: in Kinston, and also the author of a forthcoming book.
Speaker 1: It is entitled Deep Run Roots, Stories and Recipes from
Speaker 1: My Corner of the South. Vivian, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for being with us. Thank you for having me. When
Speaker 1: you say my Corner of the South. Tell people a
Speaker 1: little bit about your personal history, because you've come from
Speaker 1: North Carolina. You're currently in North Carolina, but you've had
Speaker 1: a sojourn in New York City in which you managed
Speaker 1: to get married and start a soup business. I understand,
Speaker 1: and then decided to go back to North Carolina. Tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about you. Yeah, I grew up
Speaker 1: in eastern North Carolina, which is um we call it
Speaker 1: the coastal Plain, is in between Raleigh and the Beach.
Speaker 1: And then I always wanted to leave. I ended up
Speaker 1: in New York. I worked here, cooked here for about
Speaker 1: five years and then moved home and opened a restaurant
Speaker 1: in the town that I said I would never return to.
Speaker 1: And um, we've been there for about ten years now
Speaker 1: and have a two restaurants and uh PBS series based
Speaker 1: on that kind of experience. And this is my first book.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so funny because as a girl grew
Speaker 1: up in Olympia, Washington, lovely town in Washington State, but
Speaker 1: wanted to come to New York. Um, it's funny how
Speaker 1: sometimes you can you can go home again. I haven't yet,
Speaker 1: but that really touches a court I think with a
Speaker 1: lot of people tell us about Let's start with the PBS.
Speaker 1: It's a hit show, a chef's Life. Um yeah, so
Speaker 1: a chef's Life. We're in our fourth season and it
Speaker 1: is a show about family and place and tradition told
Speaker 1: through the lens of food. I like to say it's
Speaker 1: not a cooking show, um, but it is definitely. Our
Speaker 1: medium is food, and every episode is about an ingredient
Speaker 1: and we explore that ingredient past and present and farmer
Speaker 1: or produce an example of one ingredient profiled. Um. So
Speaker 1: in this season we do uh watermelon, so we um,
Speaker 1: we have a backyard barbecue with my family. Um, we
Speaker 1: make watermelon ron preserves with a woman in my community
Speaker 1: who taught me how to can. And then I'm writing.
Speaker 1: I'm writing my cookbook during the show, and so they
Speaker 1: follow me on that journey. And one of the recipes
Speaker 1: I'm um including in the book is uh watermelon braised
Speaker 1: pork shoulder. And so we we kind of uh explore
Speaker 1: all those threats. Tell us a little bit about this
Speaker 1: idea of sourcing your ingredients within a geographical area of
Speaker 1: the restaurants. Yeah, so eastern North Carolin, Wanna is formerly
Speaker 1: a tobacco growing region, and tobacco is not really a
Speaker 1: thing anymore, and so we have all these small farms
Speaker 1: and one of our goals with our restaurant is to
Speaker 1: help make eastern North Carolina region of small family farms again.
Speaker 1: So we try to source everything within about a hundred
Speaker 1: mile radius in an effort to improve the economic uh
Speaker 1: status of our community. So deep run roots stories and
Speaker 1: recipes from my corner of the south. What kind of
Speaker 1: what's unique about your roots where you're from, the kind
Speaker 1: of cuisine I think a lot of people think Southern.
Speaker 1: They might think of black eyed peas and smothered chicken
Speaker 1: and pulled pork. I expect there's a lot more to
Speaker 1: it than that, right, So I grew up in deep run,
Speaker 1: That's why it's called that. And um, I think that
Speaker 1: the South is much like think of it like Italy
Speaker 1: or France, and we never think of Italy as all
Speaker 1: the food being the same. And there's very stink regions,
Speaker 1: and I think the American South is very much the same,
Speaker 1: um idea. And so eastern North Carolina we have very
Speaker 1: specific things like we make this fish stew there that uh,
Speaker 1: the last step is to drop whole eggs over the top,
Speaker 1: and so they perch on top of the stew. Uh
Speaker 1: we Um. Our country ham is actually air dried sausage,
Speaker 1: So that's our charcouterie. Um. Sweet potatoes. We grow more
Speaker 1: sweet potatoes in Eastern North Carolina by like ten times
Speaker 1: than anywhere else in the world. So sweet potatoes are
Speaker 1: a staple in our diet. So we have a very
Speaker 1: distinct cuisine. And um, that's kind of one. That's one
Speaker 1: of the main focuses of the book. Did you always
Speaker 1: know that you were going to cook? No, I always
Speaker 1: knew that I love to eat and I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a storyteller, and so I started cooking UM as
Speaker 1: a means to get behind the scenes look at restaurant
Speaker 1: work so I could write about it. And then what
Speaker 1: ended up happening was I loved cooking, I was good
Speaker 1: at it. I liked the team kind of experience, and
Speaker 1: so I fell into it. I guess yeah. I spent
Speaker 1: many years in the front of the house, waiting tables,
Speaker 1: tending bar and it is definitely teamwork, and it's intense.
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the things that's fun about it.
Speaker 1: You're busy, and you get through the rash and you
Speaker 1: move on. What would you what advice would you have
Speaker 1: for somebody who wants to start a restaurant. I'd say,
Speaker 1: definitely work in one, because, as you know, it's a
Speaker 1: certain type of personality that enjoys it. You either love
Speaker 1: it or you hate it. I'd say, if you want
Speaker 1: to UH, either work or in or own a restaurant,
Speaker 1: you need to be prepared to work when everybody else
Speaker 1: is relaxing or celebrating UM. And not to turn anyone
Speaker 1: away from it, but that is a reality for sure.
Speaker 1: The training that you received or that you managed to
Speaker 1: get yourself not only from other chefs, but from culinary institutes.
Speaker 1: What did you learn that you didn't know about cooking
Speaker 1: as a result of all this? Not all of them,
Speaker 1: but I mean, was there something about the way that
Speaker 1: that food is then prepared in a restaurant setting that
Speaker 1: is different than the way you came to it as
Speaker 1: a not working as a professional? Um? Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1: I I kind of learned to cook classically in in restaurants,
Speaker 1: and then I moved home and then started to go
Speaker 1: into more home kitchens and and learn from home cooks.
Speaker 1: And I went into that situation thinking that I knew
Speaker 1: everything already, and it was so surprising to kind of
Speaker 1: figure out that, um, not all uh food genius is
Speaker 1: born in the restaurant kitchen. That there's so many, um,
Speaker 1: little nuggets of wisdom and and tricks and delicious dishes
Speaker 1: that are done in the home kitchen. And it really
Speaker 1: I think takes both uh to build you know, your
Speaker 1: personal style as a cook women chefs. Once upon a
Speaker 1: time that was such a rarity many women working as
Speaker 1: chefs now oh yees' um. You know, it's so interesting
Speaker 1: that in our culture we always think of women, you know,
Speaker 1: the matriarch being the cook in the family, but never
Speaker 1: in the restaurant kitchen. But that's definitely changing and women
Speaker 1: over the past few years have have, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: taken you know, major platform in restaurant kitchens and I
Speaker 1: think I think it's good. Well, Vivian Howard, good to
Speaker 1: have you with us on taking Stock. Vivian Howard chef
Speaker 1: an owner, Chef and the Farmer and the boiler Room
Speaker 1: restaurants in Kinston, North Carolina. The host of PBSS hit
Speaker 1: show A Chef's Life, and coming out with her first cookbook,
Speaker 1: Deep Run, Roots, Stories and Recipes from My corner of
Speaker 1: the South in the Fall. This is Bloomberg Radio.