A Chef's Life

(Music Plays) Pickled pig's feet, side meat, belly bacon, jowl bacon, ham hocks, country ham, ham chips, smoked neck bones.

I'm talking about seasoning meat.

The meat of the South.

(Theme Music plays- The Avett Brothers "Will You Return") I'm Vivian and I'm a chef.

My husband, Ben and I were working for some of the best chefs in New York City when my parents offered to hep us open our own restaurant.

Of course, there was a catch.

We had to open this restaurant in Eastern North Carolina, where I grew up and said I would never return.

(Theme Music plays) (Theme Music plays) So this is my life.

Raising twins, living in the house I grew up in, and exploring the south, one ingredient at a time.

(Music Plays) Previously on A Chef's Life.

Yesterday I got my first round of edits from my editor.

I think I can have it back to you by Christmas.

We just lost my sous chef.

His last day was Saturday.

Oh dear.

You'll miss him.

I know you'll miss him.

Yeah.

So, I've gone back to work at Chef & the Farmer and it's become clear to me that I'm not gonna be able to devoe seventy hours a week to the kitchen there.

So, instead of hiring a replacement for John we decided to hire a chef de cuisine.

Hey Vivian!

How are you doing?

Good, how are you?

Good.

Good to see you.

Justise, she emailed earlier and put in another order for some hambones.

Yeah, we've been using a lot of them!

Y'all are going through quite a bit of it.

Well, it comes on our bread plate.

And we serve it raw.

I know you're really not supposed to do that but... No, that's fine.

I mostly carry this knife around because I'll be in the plant and I'll just kind of cut a little sliver off... As a snack.

(Music Plays) We've been buying country ham from Wayco Hams in Goldsboro for a couple of years now and it's funny because growing up I had a huge crush on George and he didn't even know it.

I don't even think he knew who I was.

Now, he does.

I've moved on George.

Don't worry.

So, this is your family business?

It is.

Yes.

It was actually it started back in the mid '40s as a lot of these smaller towns had a freezer locker.

Yes.

They didn't have freezers at home.

So they would store their meat down here and they could come and pick up what they needed for that night's dinner.

So, my grandfather, Waitus, he was the plant manager.

Yes, Waitus.

That's a good name.

Yep.

He was a good man.

He had already always used part of the plant to cure hams, which he did kind of on the side for family and friends.

As that business model obviously died out, Waitus bought those businessmen out and used all the space to cure hams.

So, this is where we get fresh hams in.

Okay.

All the hams come in weekly within twenty four hours of slaughter.

Just so everybody knows, the ham, I mean, is the back.

Yes, exactly.

Back, back, back leg of the hog.

Better yours than mine.

Exactly.

The country ham is a slow cure.

I mean it is kind of a controlled rot.

Right.

You're pulling moisture out and that preserves the ham.

Way back in the day that was the way they preserved the meat for use later on in the year.

And they would always slaughter, you know, when it's cold outside.

That's essentially what we're doing here.

They would slaughter in the winter and put it down in salt and in the springtime they would pull it out of the salt and hang it up.

Summertime would be the aging.

We're just replicating that here with temp controlled rooms.

So... (Music Plays) So, the hams come in here and two guys will coat it with our cure mix which again, back to Waitus' original formula, salt and sugar.

Oh, salt and sugar?

Sugar's not curing it.

The sugar does a little bit to keep the meat tender.

They will salt the hams twice.

They get the salt down in the hock because that's where it's really gonna travel up.

You gotta make sure it gets all the way to the center.

Otherwise, the ham's gonna spoil.

When they initially get salted, they'll have a coating on here and three days later it's gone.

It's amazing how quickly, it moves about an inch into the meat per week.

It's leeching out liquid this whole time, which is why they're on these pallets.

Yes.

Exactly.

And we've got the drain.

Water is the enemy.

So, you're pulling moisture out.

They'll stay in here anywhere from 42 to 47 days.

Wow, that's a lot of work coating every ham.

This is winter.

And it's about 42 degrees in here.

It is winter!

I wish I had worn my coat.

(Laughter) It's okay.

We'll get you to summertime here soon.

-Yeah.

-We'll warm up.

Alright, so we'll go into the Spring room.

I'm freezing!

It's freezing in here!

I can't move my hands!

So, this is the drying room.

We keep it 50 to 55 and very low humidity.

Obviously lots of air movement and a lot of producers actually skip this step.

They'll just go straight from the salt to the aging room, but we've always cured ours a lot longer.

Ironically, with the longer cure you end up with a bit of a milder ham.

Because when you rush the process, for some reason you end up with just a saltier, harsher flavor.

And I love the smell of it in here.

It's kind of like funky and sweet at the same time.

It is.

I'm not sure I could go to sleep in here... (Laughter) But for a few minutes.

We'll take that.

We'll take sweet and funky.

Okay, so they'll come into the aging room and this is summer.

Oh, thank God!

So, they're cured but this is really where the flavor develops.

It feels so much better in here.

(Laughter) It's 80, 82 degrees we keep it in here.

We keep 'em in here at least a month.

So from start to finish, how long is the curing process?

Right at a hundred days.

Interesting.

We're going to New York...

Tomorrow.

I have a cookbook coming out in the Fall.

That's exciting.

Yeah it is.

It is.

It's a lot.

But we're going to cook for the publisher and some of the marketing people, my literary agent, that's where we're having the dinner.

Okay.

And when I went up to New York to sell the book to publishers we went out meeting with publishers all day long, but the night before I had cooked this meal in Brooklyn at a restaurant and I had some ham hocks in my bag and my agent had this little tiny dog named Rascal.

Uh huh.

And we're out shopping the book around.

Melissa, David's wife calls and says Rascal is really really sick and his breath smells like barbecue.

(Laughter) So, he couldn't figure out...

It didn't occur to me that Rascal would have gone down into the basement and gotten my ham hock out of my bag and eaten it.

(Laughter) Umm, but like Rascal had to go to the emergency room.

Oh no.

He was so dehydrated.

Imagine a little dog... Oh, I'm sure from the salt.

Yeah.

He was like (panting sound).

So, I'm going to give away to all of the people attending the dinner, little pieces of seasoning meat.

Okay.

Excellent.

And tell that story.

I just love that you walk around with ham hocks in your bag.

I know!

(Laughter) That's brilliant.

(Music Plays) So once the hams are cured out this is where we call it breaking the ham down.

We got the shank end, the center slices, and the butt end.

That center portion, they'll bone out the center bone.

Those will be packed up as center slices.

The hocks.

We split ours.

If you split it you kind of gt a little bit more surface area of the meat anyways.

So, what is going on here?

It looks like he's taking the skin off.

Okay yeah, so this is the skinner.

This thing came with the building as well.

I think it's about 80 years old.

I think Wayne, you came with the building, I think?

I've been here a while.

How long have you been here?

Twenty four.

24 years.

Oh wow.

So, if you're looking for seasoning meat what would you choose?

The hock.

The hock.

(Laughter) Yep.

(Music Plays) Seasoning meat, things like country ham, smoked neck bone, they were born out of necessity.

The desire to preserve everything you can.

The desire to stretch vegetables and grains across an entire table to feed families.

That to me is what Southern food is all about.

This is the Piggly Wiggly closest to our restaurant.

I've been coming here to pick up little knick knacks that we may be out of.

And you can see this entire line right here is all cured or smoked pork seasoning meat and that illustrates how important it is in our cooking culture.

As a part of my dinner at David Black's house, I want everybody who works at Little Brown to have a little takeaway.

Something to remind them of where I'm from so everyone's gonna get a little piece of seasoning meat and I hope I don't gross anybody out.

I do know there's one vegetarian.

They've got country ham bones right here.

Smoked neck bones.

There's little pieces of meat on it so sometimes you'll leave these in the pot and just kind of gnaw on them when they're done.

Here are smoked hog jowls which would be the cheek portion.

Pig tails have a lot of like chewy cartilage and they give a lot of body to whatever they're cooking with and people like to pick it up and like gnaw on it.

Not me necessarily but some people!

These are smoked ham hocks and you know we talked about the hock earlier when we were looking at country hams and that would have been cut from this part.

You know, right below the thigh.

But these are cut from this part.

That is assuming you can compare my leg to a hog's.

Country ham skin and what's interesting to me is it really demonstrates our need to not waste anything.

And then here we have salted fat back.

So, fat back is something you hear a lot about, but I don't think people really necessarily understand what it is.

It is fat that comes from the back of the pig and it's a thick layer and you salt it and let it cure, but it doesn't have that streak of lean meat in it that side meat does.

I'm comparing my whole body to a pig and it's, it's a problem.

(Music Plays) Thank you.

-Have a good day.

-You too.

We have hired a chef de cuisie and really just in time because I am about to start promoting the book.

I wrote the book.

I turned the manuscript in and now a whole new process begins and I'm probably gonna be away more than ever.

So, today is Monday and Chef & the Farmer is not open on Monday but they are doing inventory, which is a huge production.

They do it once a month, counting everything in the kitchen.

(Music Plays) But February 1st we have a chef de cuisine who is starting but he's been working in New Orleans at Cochon for three years.

He and his wife are both moving here and I am getting ready to go to New York tomorrow.

As part of the promotion meeting I am cooking a dinner at my literary agent's house and this is kind of a way to encourage enthusiasm for the book.

So, for the bread service for our dinner I am going to make flat, crispy biscuits like Ms. Lillie taught me to make and I'm rendering lard here to take for that because biscuits made with lard you rendered yourself are so much better but it just occurred to me that we've got some vegetarians.

I want them to kind of have an understanding of the type of food I cook so we're doing spiced pecans and then they're gonna have an oyster and clam pan roast and the broth is going to be pot liquor from cooking turnip greens with seasoning meat.

And then the last course is gonna be a Tom Thumb with peas that have been cookd in the Tom Thumb cooking liqud and smoked neck bone.

So, I'm going to put these in my peas that I'm cooking for my Tom Thumb.

Dried peas are something that people here eat a lot of in the winter and almost always they season them with some kind of smoked or cured pork and I'm choosing neck bones because they have a little bit of meat on them.

They don't have to cook quite as long as say a ham hock for it to release.

A lot of old country cooks, particularly African Americans whom I've talked to, favor neck bones.

(Music Plays) So, this is my manuscript.

I submitted it then my editor edited it and then I went through his edits and either accepted or refused and when I refused then we went back and I eventually ended up accepting his edits.

I don't know.

It's really scary.

Ummm you know, whenever I go somewhere and I cook a big event I always worry I'm going to expose myself for being ummm unqualified or uninspired and I've always kind of been ready for that.

Umm but with this book, umm I've worked on it for so long and I've been with it for so long and it's, I mean I feel like it's an extension of myself and I feel so confident in it.

Ummm that it's the first time I ever felt like if it's not successful and people don't like it then I can't do any better.

(Music Plays) I'm meeting with my editor, Mike, the marketing team, and my agent, David, to figure out how we're gonna promote the book and David can be a lot to take if you're not ready for him.

We wanted to chat with you right now to start talking about what the next nine months are going to look like on the promotional front.

We'll be making galleys, which are paperback versions of the first set of pages of the book that we can send out to media to get them interested.

Can I ask a question about galleys?

One of the things that I think is important and I know that this may push an envelope is that these actually be color galleys as opposed to black and white.

I don't think that particularly for cookbooks, black and white galleys do very much.

I think we were planning on a pretty wide distribution of the black and white galleys because now in the food media they want to read the story.

Okay, but even if that's the case, then do them in color.

Okay.

But then I realize that it becomes an expense.

We produce a limited number that would be in color really for the key media that need it.

The reason this book is gonna work is because it's an object and in black and white, it ain't gonna look like an object.

It's just not.

It's gonna cost you a chunk of money to get them out anyway.

So it's gonna cost you sometimes even more to print black and white galleys than it does to print the actual book.

We still send the finished books to a very wide range so...

I, I, I understand that.

I just don't know if we can compress the timing.

OS- Alright, let's walk through and then..

Okay.

So this is all a marketing and publicity timeline on what you'll be doing over the next year or so.

So, we're really excited that you're gonna be a part of our bookseller lunch on the 12th.

Those are like our top level media people that are there.

Then we move into May and we get to Book Expo America which is the big convention and this year is in Chicago.

We're going to be pitching you for all the national television programs: Today, GMA, CBS, maybe Fox and Friends, The View, Live with Kelly and Michael.

I think the idea of building a tour around southern cities and restaurants... And then we want to film you to make a short video after this.

Definitely keep in mind that that first week we're gonna want you to do media.

I'm prepared to do whatever it is y'all want me to do, until I say I don't want to do that.

(Laughter) OS- Thank you so much.

Thank y'all.

(Music Plays) I'm getting the sense that I'm gonna be on the road a whole lot and it makes me nervous because my kids will be starting kindergarten and I really don't wanna miss that.

(Laughter) Wait, Rascal wears shoes?

The salt is like a knife in their paws.

That's the famous Rascal, ham hock eater.

We got jowls, sausage, skins, side meats.

They're gonna be takeaways.

Okay.

It's a joke.

But not really a joke.

What's the joke?

That we're giving all these New Yorkers like a smoked pig tail.

Oh okay.

(Music Plays) John is gone but he hasn't started another job yet so I asked him if he would come with me to New York to help me cook this dinner tonight.

So, people will arrive at like 6:30.

We're gonna put spiced pecans in bowls just sitting around.

The biscuits and the fig preserves are gonna go on the table.

You're making grits with pimento cheese on top.

We can pan fry the Tom Thumb before they get here.

- Pan roast.

- Pan roast.

We've got oysters shucked.

Pick out a ham hock, maybe a smoked neck bone because it won't take as long to cook and then cook the kohlrabi greens in it.

Essentially what we're doing s I've taken smoked neck bones, which are a really popular variety of seasoning meat and I've made a little broth with that and thyme.

I keep saying I have.

John has!

And then we're going to add some greens that we had hoped would be turnip greens but they don't have those in Brooklyn, apparently.

They have kohlrabi... Kohlrabi's way hipper.

And kale.

So we're going to use kohlrabi and kale and we're gonna cook the greens.

So, when you have greens cooked in seasoning meat broth you end up with pot liquor.

So we're gonna use the pot liquor as a component in my oyster and clam pan roast.

How are you?

Good to see you.

So, I brought the menus.

I think that's great.

Where's the meat?

Second drawer.

I want to make sure that somebody gets the pig tails.

Is there anybody in particular you want to go home with the fatback?

I'm trying to think of who the skinniest person is.

Based on the group in that room yesterday I was really rethinking my seasoning meat gift.

I'm not gonna lie Viv, these are very strange gifts.

Yeah!

(Dog barking) Excuse me, Rascal.

So, this is not just a dinner where I'm cooking and we want people to have a nice evening.

I want these people to feel invested in my book and in me personally.

So, I have a lot kind of riding on this dinner and I haven't really thought about it until now and it's making me really nervous.

Do you feel good about everything or no?

Do you?

If you do I do.

Well, I was gonna say if you do then I do.

Well, you know I feel good about this.

I feel great about that.

What are you doubtful about?

Putting the pan roast together?

Yeah, maybe.

Do you want to give people a general introduction to what the evening is gonna be like?

I'll just talk first and I'll probably be delivering some of the courses and I'm sure John would prefer for us all to get out of here.

(Laughter) Everybody out.

Except for Rascal!

(Laughter) (Music Plays) Hello!

Welcome.

Hey, I know you!

We've met before.

Hi, I'm Alli Coghlin.

I'm Vivian Howard.

And I've met you before.

Yes, Melissa.

Nice to see you again.

I am shaking because you know who is over there?

Ben.

(Laughter) Did you know that?

I did!

Umm and you like Ben.

Well, I can introduce you.

I like Ben.

You know him?

I do!

(Laughter) Ben doesn't always travel with me when I am on the road for work, but when he does come he's a welcome addition.

And tonight Ben has got his own fan club over there.

I think he's got some lady fans.

That's the pot liquor we made with that seasoning meat.

Let me check and see where we're at.

Are we ready, John?

Did you taste a biscuit?

Not yet.

Right there.

On that pass.

Okay let's do it.

Excuse me!

Time to sit down.

(Laughter) Hi.

Rich, nice to meet you.

So, what you have on the table now are Eastern North Carolina style biscuits made with lard and I know there's some vegetarians here so we have an alternative and what you have for the first course are slow cooked grits and they are topped with a layer of pimento cheese.

The next course is going to be an oyster and clam pan roast in a brothy liquid that is part pot liquor from cooking greens and part vermouth.

And then the next course we have Tom Thumb, which is a relic from the hog killing tradition in Eastern North Carolina where they would take the pig's appendix...

I'm sorry.

And stuff the family sausage mix into the appendix and hang it in the family's smokehouse until New Year's.

Before everyone leaves tonight we have some gifts.

In celebration of my relationship with Rascal, there's a random piece of seasoning meat in your bag.

I stayed with David when we were selling the book and we were having these meetings that I thought were really important and David gets a call and he goes out in the hall and is like, my dog is dying.

Rascal is sick and Melissa sas that it smells like barbecue.

(Laughter) The night before I had done a dinner at Seersucker and I had brought some ham hocks with me and so I went in my bag and the ham hock was gone.

(Laughter) When the dog saw Viv come in the other night her entire back half keep going back and forth like this.

(Laughter) Because she remembered the woman with the ham hock.

(Applause) (Music Plays) I'm sorry.

I'm not good at this part.

Well, that dinner's done and I'm one step closer to publishing this dang cookbook.

And I don't know how many of those publishing types are actually going to cook that seasoning meat.

Some of it probably ended up in the trashcan outside of David's house, but I do know that they will remember that dinner and remember their takeaway gift for a long, long time.

Somebody will enjoy it.

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