The Southern Fork – Details, episodes & analysis

I have a passion for sustainable seafood, and it’s been both an important subject here on the show and the subject of many of my written pieces throughout the years. When I first interviewed Sammy Monsour in 2020, I discovered that we shared this passion, and I’ve watched as he has really blossomed into a chef leader on this front. Therefore, when I first heard that he and Kassady Wiggins, his wife and beverage director partner, wanted to write a cookbook about Southern seafood, I encouraged them to go for it. What has resulted is Salt & Shore: Recipes from the Coastal South, filled with stories, sips, and plenty of recipes and photographs that will make you long for sea breezes if you’re missing them. It’s a vibe, something that Kassady and Sammy excel at in their restaurants, which include the now-closed Preux & Proper in LA -- that gained a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2019 -- and Joyce Soul & Sea, also in LA where they teamed up with founders and operators, Prince and Athena Riley. Joyce was named a “Southern oasis in LA” by LA Times food critic Bill Addison, and the Carolina natives bring Southern flavors to both the food and beverage programs. They are living bi-coastal these days between LA and Charleston and dreaming of their next project. Me? After this conversation, I’m dreaming of hushpuppies, so I’m glad there are two recipes to choose from in their book. 

Other episodes you might enjoy: 

Sammy Monsour: Preux & Proper (Los Angeles, CA)

Eric Montagne: Locals Seafood (Durham, NC)

When I first spoke with Chef Michael Toscano in 2017, he and his family were just getting settled in Charleston with the opening of Le Farfalle. Now, seven years later, the chef seems as if he’s truly settled into a new rhythm between NYC and the Lowcountry. He and his wife Caitlin currently have four restaurants: the aforementioned Le Farfalle, da Toscano in New York’s Greenwich Village, da Toscano Porchetta Shop in Charleston, and Fugazzi, a small spot inside Charleston’s Revelry Brewing that serves what Michael calls unauthentic Italian-inspired American food. The last two are decidedly casual, a new turn for a chef that’s been anything but when it comes to his career. He was a sous chef at Mario Batali’s Babbo by the age of 21, was nominated three times for Rising Star Chef by the James Beard Foundation, and opened his first chef-owned restaurant, Perla, in 2012, which made Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America list. He’s always pursued his passion for cooking, but now that passion is a team sport, where he looks to grow and support the rising stars in his own restaurants as well as the farmers he loves to work with. And one way he does that? By topping soft, crusty focaccia, fresh out of the oven, with all sorts of delicious things. 

Other episodes you might enjoy: 

Michael Toscano: Le Farfalle (Charleston, SC)

Craig Richards: Lyla Lila (Atlanta, GA)

Adrian Lipscombe is a native Texan, a chef, an urban planner, and a civic activist, though she prefers the term catalyst. In 2016, she moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin and opened Uptowne Café, a gathering place and a space for her to explore the synergy behind her Southern upbringing, Midwest ingredients and African American culinary history. In 2020, she founded the 40 Acres Project, which seeks to preserve the legacy of Black agriculture and foodways through the purchase of Black owned land. She’s also a founding member of the Muloma Heritage Center, a non-profit exploring the African Atlantic influences in American culture, she serves on the board of the Edna Lewis Foundation, she’s cooking at festivals and events all around the country, and today, was featured in NY Daily News for an upcoming Juneteenth Celebration with the James Beard Foundation. Adrian currently lives in Austin while pursuing a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. And yes, her intelligence and enthusiasm for life is an understatement.

Other episodes related to this one:

Dr. Howard Conyers: BBQ Pitmaster, Distiller, & Rocket Scientist (New Orleans, LA & Manning, SC)

Charcuterie boards are lighting up social media these days, but have you ever considered seafood charcuterie? According to a Johns Hopkins research study, nearly half of the US’ seafood supply goes to waste, and there are few people in the food system who know how to counteract that. Enter Eric Montagne, a chef who is part of a growing number of culinary professionals changing that, applying their butchery skills and whole animal respect in a whole new, watery direction. At Locals Seafood in Raleigh and Durham, NC, Eric transforms what previously may have been discarded into delicious retail products, from bottarga made from NC mullet roe, to a tuna bloodline burger that has so far utilized more than 1000 pounds of tuna meat that would have been discarded -- and has been named one of the NC Triangle’s epic burgers by Eater Carolinas. He previously worked with Chef Vivian Howard at the Boiler Room Oyster Bar, and was the executive chef at Raleigh’s Standard Foods before joining Locals. This all is a full-circle moment for a Miami-born boy who grew up fishing in the Florida Keys and left to attend Johnson and Wales in Denver with beef on the brain.

Fancy dining isn’t all fluff. At Wild Common in Charleston, SC, Orlando Pagán puts his culinary passion on the plate with every service. He left Puerto Rico after high school to attend Johnson & Wales in Miami, and following graduation, spent three years at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove. In San Francisco, he cooked in a handful of acclaimed restaurants before leading the kitchen of Michelin-starred The Village Pub as executive chef. In 2017 Pagán relocated to the Lowcountry of South Carolina to join Sean Brock at McCrady’s Tavern, and in 2019, he helped open Wild Common, where he leads the culinary program as executive chef and was recently nominated for James Beard Best Chef: South. In the midst of this illustrious career, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but his careful management of the disease and focus on team and family keep him strong in the job.

Visit Maison in Charleston, SC any night it’s open, and there’s a definite vibe -- one that pays homage to the best of classic Left Bank Parisian creativity without the slightest hint of nostalgia. That’s a delicate balancing act, but Chef Vandy Vanderwarker accomplishes it through sheer will and his passion for a cuisine he’s loved since he watched chefs on television as a child. He continued his interest in cooking throughout college, and when he graduated, attended The French Culinary Institute in New York. After working in a series of restaurants in New York City, he moved to Charleston where he refined his style, including as Chef de Cuisine at The Ordinary, then opened Maison three years ago. It’s the home of sweetbreads with black trumpet mushrooms, galettes of shrimp and stone crab, and plenty of pomme frites, which I suggest ordering with a side of escargot. 

Although this show’s focus is usually the American South, my own culinary borders -- and I suspect yours too -- are actually a lot more fluid. Today, I welcome you to explore that in conversation with two chefs from the recent Charleston Wine + Food festival who inspire me to be bold, have confidence, respect the reader and the guest, and always remember food is a language.  

Maryam Ghaznavi, the force behind Malika, South Carolina’s first-ever Pakistani restaurant, and soon-to-be-opened Ma’am Saab, is bringing a taste of Pakistani culture and cuisine to the Lowcountry. She and her husband, Raheel, are expressing their culinary heritage with confidence and enthusiasm, and the results are nothing short of delicious. Also on the mic is Fatima Khawaja. She graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 2012, and after working in some of NYC’s most iconic restaurants, is now the Test Kitchen Manager for Saveur, which means she’s edited my work multiple times, and she’s developing her own produce-focused column for the magazine. Together, they explore what it means to express cultural heritage through food from two unique perspectives, and I am joyfully along for the ride. Please note: So you can tell the voices apart, they introduce themselves at the beginning of this audio. 

Think an egg is just an egg? Think again. While professional cooks, and especially pasta chefs and bakers know the power of a perfect egg, most of the rest of us are still in the dark as to the differences between the ones on sale and all those other ones that are free range, or organic, or even gathered from a neighbor’s coop. That was the case for Jeremy Storey too of Storey Farms on Johns Island, SC. He was a chef at Chicago’s elite three-Michelin-star restaurant Alinea, and until he traded in his apron to become a farmer, he’d never considered what makes a perfect egg. That’s been his mission these last eight years, and it’s won him some of Charleston’s most discerning culinary customers, including past guests Cynthia Wong of Life Raft Treats and Jason Stanhope of FIG. In fact, you’ll see Storey Farms on many a Lowcountry menu, and even in my fridge. Once you have a Storey Farm egg, there’s no going back.

There’s no getting around it. Smoke is in Carey Bringle’s veins. He grew up in Tennessee and developed a love of barbecue at a young age, and he still remembers family gatherings at iconic places like Bozo’s Hot Pit Bar B-Q and Lewis’ Store. At 17, he lost a leg to cancer, but recovered from the disease, and after success for years on the competition BBQ circuit, celebrated his second chance at life by naming his restaurant Peg Leg Porker when it opened in Nashville in 2013. His Peg Leg Porker sauces and rubs, another restaurant, a new line of professional-grade home smokers, and Peg Leg Porker Tennessee Straight Bourbon Whiskies have expanded the bbq into a full-fledged brand, but Carey has not lost sight of building community over a great plate of barbecue cooked low and slow in the heart of Nashville, TN.

Chef Ricky Moore of Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham, NC, always planned to be an artist. Growing up in Eastern North Carolina, Moore’s family was always cooking, and soon Moore found himself cooking, too—as part of the 82nd Airborne. After the military, Moore used the GI Bill and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1994 and subsequently cooked in some of the most important kitchens of the past 20 years, including Daniel and Tru. When it came time to open his own place, he trained his artist’s eye back on North Carolina and the simplicity of fresh caught, well prepared seafood. Moore has just been nominated James Beard Foundation for “Best Chef”: Southeast, Discover awarded the restaurant $25,000 as part of its #EatItForward campaign for black-owned restaurateurs, and he’s competed on Iron Chef America. Still, most days, you can see him at Saltbox, working to keep the tables clear, the kitchen humming, and the guests happy. His work is a study in technique and storytelling, set in an atmosphere that is part diner, part church fish fry, and all community gathering spot.