Poole's Diner named in Eater's National Top 38 restaurant list

Ashley Christensen (Indy Week photo by Jeremy Lange)

Poole's Diner has joined another elite cast: Esteemed critic Bill Addison named chef Ashley Christensen's Raleigh flagship to Eater's second-ever National Top 38 restaurant list. It is the only North Carolina restaurant to earn the honor, which aspires to answer the question that drives Addison's work: "'What is essential dining?"

"Poole's is one of the South's great modern restaurants," Addison told the INDY. "The restaurant's macaroni au gratin may be its most famous dish (every time I'm there I spot people ordering only it for dinner), but beyond that decadent icon, the menu revolves with the seasons in precise, always-appealing ways."

Christensen is in New York this week, where she cooked Thursday for Women in the Kitchen, a Southern chef event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Southern Living magazine. Kaitlyn Goalen, director of marketing for AC Restaurants, says Christensen is fine with adoration of the justifiably famous mac 'n' cheese, even though she strives to create new dishes to wow customers.

"We're always grateful and thrilled that it remains on the list of things for people to try," says Goalen, noting the side dish has been on the menu since Poole's opened in December 2007. "It's what Poole's is about—really classic comfort food recipes that are re-imagined, but which still tap into a lexicon of flavor that we're all familiar with."

Addison adds that he admires the James Beard Award-winning chef's creativity and appreciation for local and seasonal ingredients. "I know right where I am and what time of year it is when I eat at Poole's," he says. "Ashley Christensen sets national standards not just in terms of the beautiful food she and her team execute but in her leadership—with seven businesses now under her umbrella—and in her commitment to community with events like Stir The Pot that benefit the Southern Foodways Alliance."

Goalen says the AC team had no advance notice about making the National Top 38 list, though it is bound to make it even more difficult to get a table at the often-crowded Poole's, which does not take reservations. The nod is sure to drive interest in Christensen's six other Raleigh venues too, including Death & Taxes and Bridge Club, both of which opened last fall.

"We're quite excited to be in the company on that list, and thrilled to have a North Carolina restaurant included," Goalen says. "We share it with the whole community of Raleigh. It speaks to how dynamic the food scene has become here."

Christensen has another eatery in the works, a pizzeria scheduled to open next door to Poole's in 2017. And October will see release of her first cookbook, a collection of some 150 recipes. Follow Poole's on Twitter to learn about some of the recipes as they're tested.

This post first appeared in Indy Week.

At TerraVita launch, food serves as a platform for social change

The sixth annual TerraVita Food and Drink Festival has earned due acclaim for its status as one of the South's best events for deliciously celebrating sustainably grown and produced fare, with special focus on the farmers, chefs and artisans who make it all possible.

This year's Oct. 8-10 festival will launch with a new element that will further distinguish TerraVita. Culinary Capital and Building Community features an all-star panel discussion on how culinary leaders foster positive change through mindful practice of their trade.

Led by Jeff Polish, founder of Chapel Hill-based nonprofit The Monti, panelists will use the storytelling techniques of TedX and Pecha Kucha to share the experiences and passion that drives them to use their celebrity as a platform to serve the greater good. The goal is to guide attendees to consider their own strengths and interests, and how these skills and energies can be leveraged to benefit their local communities.

Panelists include:

Ashley Christensen of Raleigh is chef and owner of AC Restaurants, including Poole's Diner, Death & Taxes, Beasley's Chicken + Honey and Joule. Named Best Chef Southeast in 2014 by the James Beard Foundation, Christensen is an active philanthropist dedicated to increasing awareness and reducing the incidence of child and family hunger.

Margaret Gifford, formerly of Chapel Hill, food advocate and founder of Farmer Foodshare, the influential Chapel Hill-based nonprofit that seeks to connect people who grow food to consumers who most need it. She is now working in New York City with Watervine Impact, which provides resources to benefit public health, food and agriculture enterprises.

Henry Hargreaves of Brooklyn is a professional photographer whose international work compels viewers to consider food and food products in ways that challenge social norms.

Kat Kinsman of New York City is editor at Tasting Table and renown devotee of the French 75 cocktail and the author of "Hi, Anxiety!," a book about her struggles with debilitating panic and determined quest for joy, to be published next spring by Harper Collins.

Virginia Willis of Atlanta is a Southern chef and author of the new Lighten Up, Y'All and Okra, a Savor the South cookbook from UNC Press. She is an eloquent advocate for healthful eating, sustainable farming, and protecting our nation's threatened fisheries.

Mike Moore of Asheville is the former chef/owner of the acclaimed but now-closed Seven Sows Bourbon & Larder and founder of the traveling Blind Pig Supper Club, which has raised funds to support sustainable agriculture and land preservation, as well as charities that serve children and young adults. His next venture will be a restaurant to open next year in Beaufort.

Tickets for this panel are $45. Student tickets are available for $25 each. Students must produce student IDs. Tickets can be purchased for this and all other TerraVita events online at TerraVitaEvent.com.

This post first appeared int WRAL Out and About.

Little cookbooks, big results: Short Stack series has a Raleigh connection with Kaitlyn Goalen

Kaitlyn Goalen
(Indy Week photo by Jeremy M. Lange)

Increasingly, home cooks are forgoing expensive cookbooks in favor of finding recipes online or downloading interactive lessons to their e-readers. Why pay for milk, they reason, when they have free access to a highly productive cow?

Amid such frugal thinking, it may seem surprising that Short Stack—a collection of single-topic mini-cookbooks, handmade and stitched with peppermint-striped baker's string—would achieve success in the overstuffed culinary marketplace. These decidedly retro productions have charmed critics and attracted the participation of top cookbook writers and recipe developers.

Reviews have celebrated the creativity of New York City-based publisher Nick Fauchald, a former editor of Food & Wine, and the more than $92,000 the project quickly raised via Kickstarter. Interestingly, however, none of the ample praise has mentioned that Short Stack has roots in Raleigh.

Fauchald's co-founder and editor is Kaitlyn Goalen, who divides her time between Raleigh and Brooklyn. A former writer for Food & Wine and website Tasting Table, Goalen is the founder of Wild Yonder, a Raleigh-based foodcentric outdoor camp experience for adults. The 26-year-old has an even better reason for hanging around the capital city, however. She dates chef and restaurateur Ashley Christensen.

Goalen says she and Fauchald share a passion for vintage cookbooks, especially the giveaways that used to come with a bag of flour or the purchase of a new appliance in the 1940s and '50s. "Producing these small, beautiful, handmade books goes against everything in the industry," Goalen says. "But I think that's exactly why they click with people. You can look through one of these in 10 minutes and know what you want to make."

So far, Short Stack has published 10 titles, the most recent of which is Plums by Martha Holmberg. Previous topics include corn, honey, broccoli, sweet potatoes, grits, buttermilk, strawberries, tomatoes and eggs. Upcoming issues focus on apples and brown sugar.

While several volumes cover the same turf as the Savor the South series of single-topic cookbooks published by UNC Press, Short Stack is not Southern focused. And the slim collections include just 20 recipes each. "They are more like an author's love letter to a particular ingredient than a comprehensive cookbook," Goalen says.

Editions are sold online by subscription and for $14 each at select shops around the globe. Locally, they are sold at Parker and Otis in Durham.

Collection of Short Stack mini-cookbooks at Book Larder in Seattle

Short Stack already has a full roster of books scheduled for 2015 and is considering titles for 2016.

"We're trying to work on how to grow and keep the integrity of the project intact," Goalen says. "There have been times where we could have gone cheaper, or done things a little differently, but our success is validating."

With such a hectic work life, Goalen says she's glad to escape the city and enjoy a more relaxed pace in Raleigh.

"As someone who has only lived in giant cities before, I love it here," says the Los Angeles native. "People in New York seem burnt out, running on adrenaline and ambition. People I meet here are all incredibly engaged in something. They value the integrity of what they're doing and are passionate about collaborating.

"For me, having two communities feels really refreshing," she adds. "Some of our friends see us as having an essence of cool here in Raleigh. You know, cool people doing cool things at half the rent."

The mix of culturally savvy consumers and the natural beauty of North Carolina inspired Goalen to create Wild Yonder with friends Meredith Pittman and Heather Cook. The idea bubbled up while they were enjoying a few beers at the Wooden Nickel in Hillsborough.

"We thought about how great it would be to have a camp for grownups—with bourbon," she recalls with a laugh. "The next day we still were talking about it and decided to give it a shot."

Camps this season have featured games like Capture the Flask and a lesson in How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse. "Instead of nasty camp food", we had an amazing meal prepared in advance by Cheetie Kumar of Garland, Goalen says. Live music was provided by Phil Cook of Megafaun and upscale s'mores were made with handcrafted Videri chocolate. A planned sleepover experience last weekend was canceled because of low ticket sales (tickets were $200 and up), but Goalen is optimistic about scheduling several next year. "The ultimate goal is to set up a hotel that will be a full-time project," she says. A location has not been selected but likely will be in or near the Triangle. "It would be a place where we could have programs, but also be a beautiful retreat."

SWEET POTATO–COCONUT MILK SOUP
Excerpted from Sweet Potatoes by Scott Hocker. Reprinted with permission of Short Stack.

This bold soup is so simple to make, it's nearly absurd. The recipe is inspired by what we in the United States know at many Thai restaurants as tom kha. As David Thompson notes in his superb cookbook Thai Food, this soup is more like a distant member of the tom gati school, a collection of soups that feature boiled coconut cream. It's fiery, sweet, sour and rich, from both the coconut and the sweet potatoes. I purée the soup for a silkier texture, even though doing so is inauthentic. But then so is using sweet potatoes.

Serves 4

2 small Thai or other hot chiles, stemmed
1 large shallot (about 4 oz.), peeled and thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled
3 cilantro roots, scraped with the edge of a knife to remove dirt (cilantro roots are available at some farmers markets and Asian markets; if you can't find any, substitute 1/3 cup coarsely chopped thick cilantro stems)
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
One 14-oz. can unsweetened coconut milk
1 medium sweet potato (about 10 oz.), peeled and cut into 1/2- to 1-inch pieces
Kosher salt
1 tsp. tightly packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp. fish sauce
3 to 4 Tbsp. fresh lime juice (from about 2 limes)
¼ cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves

In a mortar, pound the Thai chiles, shallot, garlic and cilantro roots or stems together with a pestle until bruised (alternatively, pulse 3 to 4 times in a food processor).

In a large saucepan, bring the stock and coconut milk to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the chile-garlic mixture, sweet potatoes and 3/4 tsp. of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sweet potatoes are extremely soft, about 15 minutes.

Using a handheld immersion blender (or regular blender), purée the soup until it's smooth. Strain the soup through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the solids. Discard the solids and return the liquid to the saucepan. Bring to a simmer and add the brown sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. Adjust the seasonings, if needed; the flavor should be boldly sweet, salty and sour. Divide the soup among 4 bowls and garnish with cilantro leaves. Serve immediately.


This post first appeared in Indy Week. 

TerraVita Food & Drink Event announces 2014 schedule; tickets on sale July 20

The fifth annual TerraVita Food & Drink Event today announced a blockbuster schedule for its Oct. 9-11 run. Among its highlights will be the North Carolina premiere of the second season of A Chef's Life, the award-winning PBS series featuring Vivian Howard of Kinston's Chef and the Farmer restaurant.

Tickets for all festival events go on sale July 20 through the TerraVita website

The event is larger and spread among more locations this year. A limited number of three-day passes ($425 each) will provide access to bonus non-tickets events and parties, including: 

• an afternoon event at [ONE] restaurant in Chapel Hill with Chefs Kim Floresca and Daniel Ryan and two additional North Carolina chefs – Vivian Howard from Chef and Farmer in Kinston and Scott Crawford of Standard Foods and Nash Tavern in Raleigh
• a hands-on bread baking class led by Lionel Vatinet of La Farm Bakery and author of A Passion for Bread: Lessons from a Master Baker 
• and a special TerraVita After Party at The Black House at Straw Valley in Durham with Master Sommelier Fred Dexheimer and Chef Adam Rose

The Southern Harvest Dinner on Oct. 9, will bring together chefs and producers from across the Southeast for an outdoor feast at Southern Season in Chapel Hill. The meal will be prepared by Weathervane Chef Spencer Carter and Chef Kevin Johnson from The Grocery in Charleston, S.C., in collaboration with Border Spring Farms’ Craig Rogers. Rogers' grass-fed lamb will be featured in a casual dinner paired with craft beers, sustainable wines and live music. Tickets are $85 each.

Following the dinner will be the North Carolina premiere of A Chef's Life. Vivian Howard will be joined by the directors, producers, staff and stars of the show, which recently was awarded a Peabody Award. It also had been nominated for honors by the James Beard Foundation.

Ashley Christensen

The Sustainable Classroom, which sets TerraVita apart from so many other food and drink festivals, will be held on Oct. 10. the program features concurrent culinary workshops, food and beverage tasting, demonstrations and topic-expert panel discussions. Among the presenters will be Raleigh Chef Ashley Christensen, who was named 2104 Best Chef Southeast by the James Beard Foundation.  Participants may choose to attend up to three 75-minute sessions, which will start at 9:30am. Each ticket costs $60 and includes 3 classes.

Also on Oct. 10 will be The Carolina Table: East Meets West, TerraVita’s celebration of the rich culinary scene from NC’s coast to mountains. The family-style seated dinner will be prepared by Chef Scott Crawford of the soon-to-open Standard Foods and Nash Tavern in Raleigh, Ben Adams of Piedmont in Durham, Matthew Dawes of The Bull and Beggar in Asheville. Other chefs will be announced later. Guests will dine with local food artisans whose cheeses, meats, artisan breads, brews and spirits will be highlighted in each dish. tickets are $100 each.

TerraVita wraps up on Oct. 11 with the Grand Tasting on the Green. Chef demonstrations will be spotlighted for the first time, alongside tastings from 45 exceptional chefs and artisans from across North Carolina. More than 100 sustainably-produced beverages from around the globe will be served, including organic coffee, biodynamic, organically-grown and natural wines, local microbrews and distilleries. Guests also will enjoy cookbook signings and interaction with chefs, artisans and beverage producers from across the state. The all-inclusive ticket is $75; designated driver tickets are available for $60.

For more information please visit www.TerraVitaEvent.com or email info@TerraVitaEvent.com. For updates, follow @TerraVitaFoodie on Twitter and Instagram, TerraVita Food & Drink Festival on Pinterest, and TerraVita Food & Wine Event on Facebook.

Triangle chefs, restaurateur vie for James Beard Awards

This post first ran in Indy Week.

Giorgios Bakatsias was caught off-guard when a longtime employee called to congratulate him for being a James Beard award nominee.

"It's a great honor and I didn't expect it at all," says Bakatsias, who learned from Vin Rouge General Manager Michael Maller that the James Beard Foundation had nominated him in a national category as Outstanding Restaurateur. "I take the moment to be truly overjoyed and grateful," Bakatsias adds. "At the same time, the credit goes to the people around me. We have a great team."

Giorgios Hospitality Group owns several popular and critically lauded restaurants in the Triangle. The group includes Bin 54, City Kitchen, Kipos and Village Burgers in Chapel Hill; Café at the Nasher Museum of Art, Local 22, Parizäde and Vin Rouge in Durham; Georges Brasserie in Charlotte; and Gatehouse Tavern and Girasole Trattoria in Wake Forest.

Bakatsias hints that more may be in the works. "I don't sleep early so I'm always working on something," he says with a laugh. "Maybe in a couple of weeks there might be something to talk about."

Like Bakatsias, Phoebe Lawless was nominated in a national category, Best Pastry Chef, for Scratch Baking in Durham. It is her second consecutive nomination.

In an omission that recalls past Academy Award conundrums, The Fearrington House Restaurant in Pittsboro was nominated in the national category of Outstanding Restaurant, but Chef Colin Bedford is not listed among the nation's Outstanding Chefs. He is, however, among the semi-finalists named to the Best Chef Southeast category.

Last year's Best Chef Southeast finalist list included just one name from North Carolina, Ashley Christensen of Raleigh's Poole's Diner. She is a semi-finalist again this year, along with Bedford and six colleagues:

• Scott Crawford, Herons at the Umstead Hotel, Cary
• Vivian Howard, Chef & the Farmer, Kinston
• Scott Howell, Nana's, Durham
• Meherwan Irani, Chai Pani, Asheville
• Matt Kelly, Mateo's, Durham
• Aaron Vandemark, Panciuto, Hillsborough

While North Carolina was shut out of several major categories, including Best New Restaurant and Outstanding Wine, Spirits or Beer Professional, Katie Button of Cúrate in Asheville is one of 25 people nominated as Rising Star Chef of the Year.

Finalists in the restaurant and chef categories—as well as nominations for book, journalism, broadcast and restaurant design awards—will be announced March 19. The 2014 James Beard Awards will be presented in New York City on May 2 and 5.

Chapel Hill start remains a key influence for Chef John Currrence

This story first posted in Indy Week.

Chef John Currence’s first cookbook is both badass autobiography and an affectionate embrace of his adopted home of Oxford, Miss. But his first restaurant job as a cook, and the place he reveres for launching his career, is Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill.

“Honestly, I had hoped we’d wrap up the tour with a big event there,” says Currence, whose new Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey will be celebrated with receptions on Sunday at The Garden Terrace at Fearrington and Monday at Joule Coffee in Raleigh. (See details below.)

“I'm certainly going to pop myself up to the bar and hug (owner) Gene Hamer and (chef) Bill Smith around the neck. Bill and I never worked together but he’s as much of an influence as anyone else,” says Currence, who attended UNC in the early 1980s. “We’ve always been very good friends. He was one of the few people who used to come see our awful-as-shit band play. He always showed up, which of course endeared him to me to no end.”

It’s a different Bill—Crook’s original chef, Bill Neal—who looms large in the book. While in college, Currence worked in the small kitchen alongside Neal, who is often credited with sparking national interest in authentic Southern cuisine. Neal died in 1991 at age 41, just six years after his Southern Cooking was published by UNC Press and his food was celebrated in The New York Times by Craig Claiborne.

Neal also was known for his irascibility. In the summer of 2003, Times writer R.W. Apple shared an anecdote about his legendary temper in a story about a gala dinner celebrating the late chef’s legacy at the James Beard House in New York.

“Bill loved to create tension, probably to push us,” Robert Sehling, a former Crook’s cook who is chef/owner at Charleston’s Hominy Grill, told Apple. “It got wild sometimes. I've seen people hurl coffee mugs at him.”

One of those people was John Currence.

“I really do hate the fact, more than just about anything, that the last time I saw him it was very unpleasant,” Currence says. “It was an ugly and unnecessary argument.”

The dispute had been simmering for days. Currence had been unexpectedly tasked with turning two large bags of acorn squash into soup that would be a featured dish. The story is referenced in the introduction to the recipe for Roasted Acorn Squash Bisque. What the anecdote omits is that Neal responded to the young cook’s call for feedback with fury.

“It was my first special and I wanted it to be profound and exceptional,” Currence recalls. “I thought it was something I’d be proud to serve, but it was missing something. I called Bill at home and asked what he would pair with it. There was this pause and all of a sudden this barrage of expletives—a tirade like I’d never heard.”

Currence, who casually drops expletives into his own conversation (his Twitter handle is @BigBadChef), managed to hold his tongue. The next day he arrived before his shift to clear the air, but Neal was in a dark mood because someone left a dog’s water bowl outside of the restaurant. “As soon as I walked in, he started screaming at me again,” he recalls. “I threw a full cup of coffee at him and walked out.”

Despite this dispute, Neal is acknowledged as a primary mentor in Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey. It may not be as evident to readers outside of the Triangle, but he is cited more times than any other chef for his lasting influence.

“Bill does still play a role in my thought process,” says Currence. “It’s hard to be in a kitchen and not be reminded of him.”

Many North Carolina references are in the book, including a nod to former Magnolia Grill Chef Ben Barker, “the big brother I never had,” in the recipe for homemade Worchester sauce. In the notes to his Pimento Cheese Fritters, he declares that Chef Ashley Christensen’s pimento cheese is “transcendent.”

Christensen, who is working on her own debut cookbook, has high praise for Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey.

“It’s a yearbook of sorts, chronicling a life of honesty, hard work and joy in the kitchen,” she says. “John is respectful of tradition, yet still inviting to evolution and innovation at the stoves. His food belongs to him, and to all of the people and personalities—from cooks, to critics, to guests—who have been a part of shaping it.

“Even if John wasn’t one of my closest friends, I’d feel like I’d known him all of my life after reading this book,” she adds. “That’s pretty special.”

---

Cooks & Books: Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey Reception
The Garden Terrace at Fearrington Village, Pittsboro
Sunday, Nov. 24, 3 p.m.
Reception including food, autographed book, tax and gratuity: $85
Reservations: 919-542-3030

‘Snacks with Snack’: Reception hosted by Ashley Christensen
Joule Coffee, 223 S. Wilmington St., Raleigh
Monday, Nov. 25, 5:30 p.m.
Reception including food and cocktail punches from Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey;
copies of the book will be available for sale: $35
Reservations: 919-424-7442

Chef Ashley Christensen working on first book

The story first ran in INDY Week.

Ashley Christensen and Edward Lee at a Stir the Pot
event held September 2011 at Christensen's Raleigh home.

Ashley Christensen pre-ordered a copy of Smoke & Pickles, a book by her friend Edward Lee, so she could be among the first to read it.

“You’re immediately engaged based on what a great storyteller he is,” Christensen says of Lee, who she met a few years ago through the Southern Foodways Alliance. “He’s a brilliant writer. His food is beautiful, thoughtful and bold. Those are things that, in combination, create something very special.”

Christensen said she was struck by Lee’s honesty in sharing so many personal stories and how they shaped him as a chef. “As chefs and restaurateurs, you are always on display,” says Christensen, who has welcomed hundreds of strangers to her Raleigh home for fundraising events. “I believe the book will make a lot of people think differently about how they approach the process, about not keeping the public and readers at arm’s length.”

Christensen intends to use a similar approach with her first book. She hopes to sign with an agent this week, a crucial step in getting the project to a top publishing house.

“Ed's and my books will be very different, but I want to share stories as he does to show how my thought process works,” she says. “I learned to cook by throwing dinner parties. It will be based on how that can explode into other things we can make.”

Christensen has been working hard to document the recipes that dazzle diners at Poole’s, Beasley’s Chicken+Honey and Chuck’s. Some already have been featured in food magazines.

“Like Ed, my goal will not people telling people how to measure,” she says. “I want to teach them how to think about cooking, the history of how food got here and why the relationship between chefs, farmers and artisan providers is so important.”

Lee, a three-time runner-up for James Beard honors will be celebrated Wednesday evening by Chef Colin Bedford with a special dinner at Fearrington Village in Pittsboro. The event starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are $85, which includes dinner, a beer tasting, gratuity and a signed copy of Smoke & Pickles.