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