A Chef's Life

In the south, all corn is not created equal.

Sweet corn is definitely king

but people have very serious ideas

about which variety is the best.

I don't know that I can tell the difference

but I know I love just about all of it.

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 help 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.

[Avett Brothers perform]

I wish you'd see yourself

as beautiful as I see you

Why can't you see yourself

as beautiful as I see you?

So this is my life.

Raising twins, living in the house I grew up in,

and exploring the south, one ingredient at a time.

If you said, Vivian, create a menu

and I had no parameters,

I really don't think that I could do it.

(in kitchen) Alright, so we're bringing two ribeyes,

med rare, no green tomato.

But if you said, Vivian, design a menu.

This week we have corn, butterbeans, and tomatoes.

Really make these ingredients shine.

I can do some pretty cool stuff.

(in kitchen) This is gonna be the new style of fish.

It's kind of like a take on creamed corn

with seared scallops,

a country ham chip, and a tarragon vinaigrette.

So you've got sweet, salty, herbacious,

all of that's covered, okay?

What we do here is farm to fork or farm to table food.

We work with a number of small farmers,

all within 30 miles of the restaurant

to procure our produce and proteins.

That's a really popular concept these days and in theory,

it's a beautiful thing.

In practice it can be really challenging.

For one, you know, you have to change the menu every week

or every day based on: what's coming in and what's coming out.

Cooking seasonally, I know that in July for instance,

we are going to have a ton of corn, butterbeans, tomatoes.

So I can work within that framework

and really try to make those ingredients shine.

Warren, my favorite farmer,

calls me at the start of each week

and kind of lets me know what he's going to have.

So what do you have coming this week?

Corn: Corn this week.

We got lots of cucumbers: and we should have lots of lemon cucumbers this week.

Because the deal with corn is as soon as it's ready

it needs to picked and processed right away.

Right, right.

Well you got a few days to play with it.

Warren, tell me, this is where you grew up?

Yeah, yeah, I was probably

a fourth or fifth generation tobacco farmer

and after my daddy died,

we always messed around with a large family garden.

I knew I was interested in trying to do something different

so to start out with the flowers and I came in the restaurant

and sold you flowers first: and I guess I can owe my vegetable career to you

because you said, hey Warren,

I need somebody to raise me some vegetables!

So is this where this came from?

Mmm hmm in the middle of that.

Want me to go in there and fetch you another?

I don't know?

You're barefoot.

I don't mind going in there.

I just don't want you to go in there.

Warren, what variety is this?

It's Mystique.

That's your mama's favorite, right?

Mmmm hmmm mine too.

The sweetness has been bred in the corn nowadays.

Everybody wants a real sweet corn and it continues.

They got super sweet varieties now, sweet varieties,

and then they have the old timey varieties.

Very important question.

Yes.

Creamed or on the cob?

Hmmmm I'm kind of creamed.

I like all the work done for me.

[Laughing]

I think people have a misconception

about what creamed corn is.

People don't add cream to it.

They scrape the milk off the cob.

The cream's in the corn.

I don't know?

You put butter in it, that's almost like cream, you know?

My mama puts a whole, you know a big pot,

she'll put a whole stick of butter in it and salt and pepper

but yum yum is it good.

Warren's mother is like a great southern cook from what I hear.

I never get to eat anything.

I just hear about mama would have done it this way

or mama does it that way: or that's not the way mama did it.

Well everybody's that way about their mama around here.

I know, absolutely.

See that one's almost ready.

I mean, that really is kind of ready.

It looks like we can go in there Monday and get some.

Someone will go in there Monday.

[Laughing]

Oh gosh.

[Music playing]

When Ben and I moved here and opened Chef & The Farmer

I was begging our local farmers to grow fennel,

lemon grass, Jerusalem artichokes,

ingredients I had really grown to love

working in restaurants in New York.

It took me a while to appreciate

the area's native ingredients again.

My grandmother's ingredients.

The crookneck squash, butterbeans,

collards, sweet corn.

But once I did I was able to really embrace them

and put a new twist on them, applying modern technique

and this has really become our style here at Chef & The Farmer.

This is not a real cost effective crop.

Well maybe not but you haven't paid for them yet.

[Laughing]

So these are brown turkey figs wrapped in Benton's Bacon

and you're gonna grill them on all sides.

The whole process is only going to take

about four minutes, okay?

We're gonna turn them, maybe twice

and then brush them with a little honey

to make them glisten.

So that's what you're looking for,

that really nice grill mark right there.

Keep in mind you know, that if you get too much honey

you're going to burn the figs because this is straight sugar.

So once they're done you want to him them with a little salt.

You get this kind of corn vinaigrette on the bottom there.

Looks pretty good.

My job is to sprinkle this corn all over our menu

but not allow the menu to seem redundant.

The overall goal is to put corn in a lot of dishes

but make them all seem different.

New dishes for tonight?

So we got those Benton's bacon

wrapped brown turkey figs with grilled corn

and blue cheese vinaigrette.

Alright, what else do you got?

We're gonna have pan roasted Sneads Ferry clams

and mussells with a curry corn broth.

I think you're making her salivate.

I know.

I think so.

And some bacon fat croutons.

[Laughing]

We were not expecting to have twins.

Before we had them everyone said,

oh having children will be the hardest thing you ever do.

We thought owning a restaurant

was the hardest thing you could do

but this turns out to be pretty hard too

but a lot cooler than we thought.

The hours that we work it's like,

we leave in the morning and we get home at night

and they're asleep.

So you can go, you know, 48 hours

without ever even laying your hands on them.

So I'm tired of that.

I grew up and now live in Deep Run.

It's not a town.

It's a fire district and it's about ten miles from Kinston,

where the restaurant is.

For as long as I can remember

we've been having a 4th of July parade.

It's hilarious because it's a three block parade

but everyone in the community comes out for.

So you been to the Chef and The Farmer?

Yeah I'm telling you that's the best bread

I've ever eaten in my life.

The pork chop was good: but that bread was the deal.

Hey, Miss Audrey, mom told us we had to see this corn float.

I didn't even think about it.

I think it's pretty amazing.

So what are these?

Those are milk....

So you know what we are gonna do?

We're gonna actually put up corn at my mom's house.

We did that last week.

Oh you did.

It's hard work.

How much did you do?

225 ears

Oh really?

So who did you get it from?

Out of the garden.

Oh hahaha I guess that's the best place.

[Laughing]

So let's grab a bunch of ears and put it on the table.

So mom, when ya'll put up corn did you salt your water

when you blanched it?

No we didn't.

Well I am.

Hahaha.

We're gonna blanch these for about two minutes

and then shock them in this ice salted water.

Traditionally, corn, when it's ready,

you need to pick it and run from the corn patch

to your kitchen to put it up: because as soon as you pick the corn

the sugars start to turn into starch.

And what we call sweet corn: becomes just kind of starchy, gummy

and in my family at least corn is one of the few vegetables

that children will eat.

And this year we're gonna have a little bit.

Maybe one bag per family but we're gonna have a little bit.

[Music plays]

You wanna get, yea a different angle.

Sorry, I mean, I'm just trying to help.

I got this.

Okay.

She's got that.

[Laughing]

So I have all these memories of riding my bike up the driveway

and having a big pick up truck,

whole bed full of corn and mom and grandma in the kitchen.

I never did much of the shucking.

I mostly cut the corn off the cob.

Now I would give these cobs to my chickens

and they would really enjoy them.

They would eat them?

Well they don't' eat the whole cob

but they eat everything that is left on it.

At the restaurant we use the cobs

that are left over to make a stock with some of the husks.

So what do you use the stock for?

Ummm well if we were making a corn soup that calls for water

we would use that stock instead of water

and it just elevates the overall corn flavor.

Who would like to go with me to take the corn to the freezer?

I will.

[Music playing]

Oh, one of my favorite things to do

with corn is to grill it.

Just brush it with a little olive oil and a little salt.

Grill it til it's brown on all sides

and then you can put whatever you want on top.

We're gonna top it with a ginger bacon butter.

The bacon fat gives the whole thing

just a little quarky goodness

that makes it a little more round

and a little more full flavor

than just a regular compound butter.

We might have a few kids here who think the ginger

and the lemon zest is a little weird.

Eeeeww: I like it.

That's disgusting.

I'm good.

This butter's just gonna melt all the way down

and coat each kernel.

It's gonna be awesome.

Alright so is everybody ready to eat some corn?

Yes: Do you think dad will let us go to the restaurant anytime?

I don't know?

Dad said, you know, he can't take this whole crowd

to the restaurant.

It's too expensive.

No tea and no dessert.

[Laughing]

Actually we're all having a family dinner there tomorrow.

When we were in the planning stages

of opening this restaurant my parents were hell bent

that one of the options should be a steak and baked potato

because everyone who goes out

and spends thirty dollars on a meal,

that's what they really want.

My mom's number one thing is that

we're always a little bit too expensive

and our tea is way too expensive.

I think our tea is currentlly two dollars.

We're not changing the price of the tea.

Put it that way.

[Laughing]

[Music playing]

My mom and dad are here.

My parents come here every night

but then we have a lot of people,

a lot of my dad's friends: who don't come all that often or don't come at all.

One of my dad's best friends, Butch, uhh,

he won't come because we don't have Thousand Island dressing.

The lack of a salad bar and the lack of mayonnaise

based dressings with pickles in it

keep a few people from coming here to eat, unofortunately.

Mom, we got it under control, okay?

(Music)

Ben and I met working in a small restaurant

in downtown New York City.

Eventually we moved from Brooklynn to Harlem

where we operated a small catering business

out of our apartment.

We actually made soup that we chilled down in our bath tub.

Our business was going great and we wanted

to open a store front somewhere in the city.

My family caught wind of that and really,

the last thing they ever wanted was for me

to stay in New York forever.

[Music playing]

What was real popular in New York at the time

was the farm to fork movement and I felt like,

based on my memories from eastern North Carolina,

that there were if anything, a lot of farms here.

To make a really long story short,

we moved back here to North Carolina

and opened Chef & The Farmer.

[Music playing]

Much to Ben's dismay we are what people call restaurant lifers.

God, I hope not.

There are a lot of challenges to opening up a restaurant

at this price point anywhere: but when you throw in the mix

one of the poorest congressional districts in the nation,

a town that the population is shrinking,

you've really dug yourself a hole to begin with.

We've been open about five years now

and it seems like every year: we're open the stakes get greater.

We have more employees.

We have babies now.

We're a week to week restaurant.

If you call on Friday night for a reservation Friday

you're probably going to get one.

That doesn't vogue well for security.

What the hell else are we going to do if it doesn't' work?

If we have to close our doors, what am I gonna do?

Go be a line cook in someone else's kitchen?

You'd probably get fired.

I'm sure.

I'd be like, who's going to clean up my station?

[Laughing]

For me, the hardest thing is finding staff.

I mean we're asking people to buy into this concept

of an excellent restaurant: when they've never been to a restaurant like this

or dreamt of a restaurant like this.

So we're having to train everyone from the ground up.

I mean, everybody.

Okay, in France they like to label their wines

based on place.

Chateauneuf du pape.

We have a Cote Rotie.

All of those are townships, okay?

And that's what is on the bottle.

St Joseph, you know that the wine is from St Joseph

and if you know a little bit more you know that

St Joseph is syrah, okay?

There are two grape varietals

that can be bone dry, semi sweet, or sweet.

Name them.

Chenin blanc and Riesling.

Excellent.

Very good.

[Music playing]

Corn is extremely versatile.

You can grill it, steam it, poach it, fry it,

freeze dry it, or pickle it.

Today, I'm going to show you how to smoke it.

So the star of our corn centric dish today

is a smoked corn relish: and what's going to make this relish really special

is the fact that we are going to smoke this corn.

Corn accepts smoke really well

and the smokiness is offset by corn's natural sweetness

so it's really a perfect marriage.

So to get this going I have some cherry wood chips

that I have soaked in water.

Then get your corn on top of that

in some kind of perforrated pan.

And then we're just going to cover the whole thing in foil.

Then I'm just going to turn this heat on

and get it going.

The heat from the flame is going to heat up these chips

and because they have been soaked in water they won't burn

and they'll just release their cherry smokiness

and that corn is going to absorb it.

Once the corn is smoked it's going to have

this really great toasted honey look

and from there we're going to start cutting it off the cob

and building our relish.

[Music playing]

Relish is just a condiment: that generally has a lot of sugar and a lot of acid.

It works really well with meats and anything with a lot of fat

because that acid and that sugar

is going to cut through that fat

and really heighten all of the flavors involved.

Relishes in the south were historically just another way

to preserve items.

In the summer, women, housewives,

would make relishes, chutneys, chow chows, pickle lilies,

to heighten the flavor of what would otherwise be kind

of drab, dark dishes.

So our relish is special because we're smoking the corn.

So we've got smoked corn in this bowl.

To that we're going to add fresh corn that's been blanched

and then cut off the cob.

That's to kind of balance the corn flavor.

We don't' want it to be overly smokey

and this fresh corn is going to heighten the sweetness.

To this corn we are going to add cherry tomatoes

that have been quartered,

roasted red peppers,

and some soft herbs like parsley and some chopped mint.

We got some garlic that's been grated on the micro plane

and some ginger that's been done the same way.

Finally what, makes a relish a relish is an acid.

The acid of choice here is lemon juice.

We also have some red onions that have been marinating

in a red wine vinegar and sugar.

Finally, we are going to finish this all off with a little honey

to boost up that sweetness again

and some really nice olive oil

to kind of put a nice shine on everything.

Alright so let's build our mayonnaise.

To make a mayonnaise or an aioli

we need to start with egg yolks

and then we're going to add your acid.

In this case we're using lemon juice.

Once you've got your eggs and your acid in there

you're going to add your flavoring components.

So we're going to add sweet corn

along with some of that milk we scrapped from the cob.

So I'm going to turn this on: and start drizzling in a little bacon fat.

I'm going to use about half bacon fat and half canola oil.

See how this is starting to thicken up

and it has a really beautiful straw color?

That comes from the corn.

[Music playing]

This is going to make a very lovely appetizer.

There ya go.

Fried green tomatoes with a sweet corn

and bacon mayonnaise and a smoked corn relish.

Tastes like a BLT, huh?

Tastes like a BLT.

Tomatoes are cooked right.

Thank you.

[Laughing]

Alright guys so we have a few new dishes tonight.

All of them feature corn prominently.

It is July here in North Carolina

so we have corn coming off: and we have to take advantage of it.

We've got these dishes for ya'll to try.

Have a taste and tell me what you think.

I don't really want to hear what they think.

Hahaha I'm just kidding.

It was quite tasty.

-That's awesome.

-That's amazing.

That's really good.

(Music)

-Good job Elizabeth.

-Thank you Kim.

So right now we're working on tonight's family dinner

and of course the star of tonight's dinner

is going to be that corn we put up yesterday.

We're going to infuse it: with a little ginger, chillies, and garlic.

We're going to fry it in a cast iron skillet.

To go with that corn we're going to have some fried flounder.

That to go order has been sitting here

for like ten minutes.

The fryer was full of stuff.

-They're going to eat that.

-I understand.

The burgers have been sitting ten minutes.

Working together on this level,

running a restaurant really sucks.

Restaurants in general are very high pressure.

Everything is an emergency.

We've had lots of fights.

A lot of them have been in front of diners.

A lot of them are in front of our staff.

But at the end of the night we have to just say, I'm sorry.

Let all that crap go and not take it home with us.

Ya'll know how I am.

I would try the slaw and the fish together.

It's the end of another week.

Five hundred customers.

Six hundred ears of corn: expressed eight different ways across the menu.

That's pretty awesome.

I feel like the dishes were creative

and people seemed to really enjoy them.

Even my mom said she would order the corn risotto again

and that's her highest compliment.

It's been a good week overall.

I love what I do but really, the best part about being here

is being able to spend time with my family.

And I believe my family is going to have

some left over corn on Sunday.

Good night.

Thank you.

Thank you.

[Siren goes off]

We had a fire in the kitcen.

Nobody really knows why?

The investigator is back today

cause he is not happy with the answers.

The kitchen is pretty much demolished

and it sucks.

Yeah it looks like a bomb went off in the back room.

It looks like a tornado met a volcano.

That's what it looks like.

You know, everything starts running through your mind.

You know, What if we have to close?

What if we can't reopen?

What if we haven't kept up on our insurance?

What if our staff gets other jobs?

Everyone who works here works paycheck to paycheck.

You know when I first got the phone call

it wasn't oh my god what am I going to do?

It was what are we going to do

and I have two girls that I have to feed.

It wasn't about myself.

It was about this place.

Ben, Vivian, me, Kristin, Beth, Jason, Bryan,

Justice, Adam, all of us.

All of us.

This is my family.

This is my home.

Thank you so much.

Not a problem.

It's really hard to look at something

that you have put your whole being into and so destroyed

and you know it's really over whelming.

There's a lot to wrap your mind around.

We're basically having to start over.

For more information on A Chef's Life

visit PBS.org/food

A Chef's Life is available on DVD.

To order visit PBS.org or call us at 1-800-PLAY-PBS