Here’s a hearty and wonderful summer friendly recipe for Chef Rick Moonen’s Catfish Sloppy Joe from Esquire. Tilapia can be substituted for the catfish if you prefer.

Ingredients:

8 oz skinless catfish (or tilapia) fillet, cut into 1/3-inch dice
Coarse salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced (about 3/4 cup)
1 small green bell pepper, diced (about 3/4 cup)
2 tsp paprika
1 cup barbecue sauce
Unsalted butter
2 oversized burger buns (or other soft rolls), split horizontally

How to Make Chef Rick Moonen’s Catfish Sloppy Joe
See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

Here’s a list of famous actors, artists, film directors, and other celebrities who have been either been chefs or cooks or are passionate about cooking. Quite a few of the names will surprise you.

Celebrities Who’ve Worked Professionally as Chefs or Cooks

Sebastian Cabot: Actor
Played Mr. French on the TV series, Family Affair

“After leaving school at age 14 he never had another day of formal education, and later worked as a chef - which helped precipitate his growth to 260 pounds. He also spent three years as a professional wrestler in London before World War II, an activity ended by an injury.” (Source: His IMDB Page)

Daniel Craig: Actor
The current James Bond. Star of the movies Infamous, Sylvia, and Layer Cake.

He used to work as a chef in a pub before he hit the big screen.

As Daniel Craig says:

“I love to cook. But because I used to work in the hostelry industry, I can’t cook for a few, because I’m used to cooking for 20 or more at a time. So there are always a lot of leftovers. Cooking is something that is in your blood. Even now, when I go into a working kitchen, a shiver runs down my spine.” (Source: Waleg.Com / Hello Magazine)

Danny Kaye: Actor, Comedian
Starred in The Court Jester and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

“Danny had been long known for his expertise as a Chinese chef, picking up recipes and gourmet knowledge in his 20s when traveling the Orient. One story indicates that the Greek shipping magnate, Stavros Niarchos, after sampling Danny’s cooking, offered him a job as his personal chef. Unfortunately (or fortunately) Danny had just been offered a starring role in the musical “Two by Two”, said no. Danny’s specialty was Chinese and Italian cuisine, but he gained most recognition for his rendering of many classic Chinese dishes like Roast Duck with Orange Sauce, Lion’s Head, Chinese Stir-Fry Oysters with Shrimp, Chinese Poached Chicken, and Chinese Chicken Salad. The poached chicken was a favorite of PBS chef and author, Jacques Pepin, who still uses the recipe, and is still impressed by how moist the chicken is. Pepin believed that Danny’s skill in the kitchen was on par with any professional chef. French chefs Paul Bocuse and Roger Verger have claimed that the best restaurant in California was Danny Kaye’s house…

As recounted in her book, Comfort Me with Apples, Ruth Reichl remembers dining at his home once and enjoying an extraordinary meal prepared using hand-made cleavers and giant woks. The supper included a clear soup flavored with lemongrass, slices of fresh liver with onions, (’like little pillows of velvet between satin slivers of onion, and so sweet it was as if it had been dusted with sugar.’) home-made noodles in a lemon cream sauce, followed by a ‘high, light, rich and eggy’ lemon souffle. The period, or exclamation point to the meal was a rich espresso.” (Source: DannyKaye.Org)

Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne: Theater Actors
Also ran the Stage Door Canteen in NY to benefit WWII servicemen

“In real life the famed theatrical pair worked tirelessly in the New York canteen. Lunt was considered ‘the chief cook and bottle washer of the American Theatre Wing,’ according to critic Alexander Woollcott, and was so often the emptier of the garbage cans that actress Katharine Cornell declared him to be ‘the only man who succeeded in putting glamour into garbage.’

Alfred Lunt was an excellent gourmet cook who not only procured food from area restaurants and stores for the soldiers, but gave cooking classes (six lessons for $10) for aspiring canteen workers.” (Source: Port Halcyon.Com)

Matthew Modine: Actor
Star of Birdy, Vision Quest, and Short Cuts

“After high school, Modine dropped out of BYU and worked several odd jobs before moving to New York in 1979. He landed a job as a chef at Au Natural in Manhattan, where he met his wife, Cari.” (Source: His IMDB Page)

Dominic Monaghan: Actor
Starred in The Lord of the Ring Trilogy

Worked as a saute chef at a place called Quincey’s in Didsbury, Manchester. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Michael Pare, Actor
Star of Eddie and the Cruisers

Studied at the Culinary Institute of America and was working as a chef when he was discovered. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Julian Schnabel: Modern Artist, Film Director
Directed Basquiat, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Before he was famous, Schnabel worked as a short-order cook.

Celebrities Who Are Passionate About Cooking
or Who Wanted to Cook Professionally

Josh Brolin: Actor
Star of No Country for Old Men.

Once aspired to be a chef. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Pat Conroy: Author
Author of The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, and The Water is Wide.

Also wrote the excellent cookbook, The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life.

Tobey Maguire: Actor
Star of the Spiderman movies, Wonder Boys, and The Cider House Rules

Originally wanted to be a chef, but he turned to acting after his mother offered him $100 to take drama rather than home economics in high school. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Vincent Price: Actor, Cookbook Author
Star of The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, Edward Scissorhands

Avid gourmet cook. Co-authored the cookbook, Mary and Vincent Price’s Come Into the Kitchen Cook Book: a Collector’s Treasury of America’s Great Recipes. (Source: Slate)

Vincent Schiavelli: Actor, Cookbook Author
Appeared in Batman Returns, Amadeus, and People Vs. Larry Flynt

Authored the books, Bruculinu, America: Remembrance of Sicilian-American Brooklyn, Told in Stories & Recipes, Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa, and Papa Andrea’s Sicilian Table: Recipes from a Sicilian Chef as Remembered by His Grandson. (Source: His IMDB Page)

James Spader: Actor
Star of Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Secretary

Loves cooking and is an excellent chef. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Christopher Walken: Actor
Star of Brainstorm, Pulp Fiction, and Catch Me If You Can

Is a very skilled chef. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Fake menus. No staff. No wine cellar. No customers. A reserve wine list featuring selections from some of the lowest-scoring Italian wines ever reviewed in Wine Spectator.

If this article from Osteria L’Intrepido di Milano is true, it’s apparent that even fictitious restaurants are eligible to win the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, an award thought by many to recognize restaurants for the quality of their wine lists.

As it says in a recent article about the hoax by the San Francisco Chronicle:

“The program asks restaurants to submit their wine lists and menus and charges for the evaluation. Many restaurants proudly crow about their results, though two-thirds of all submissions win an award. But evaluations are done on the wine selections rather than through in-person visits, and focus on the lists, not necessarily overall service. The program remains a major income source for the magazine’s publisher, M. Shanken Communications. At $250 apiece, the 4,128 restaurants in the 2008 list would have grossed more than $1 million total.”

The fake restaurant and its wine lists were dreamed up by Robin Goldstein, author of The Wine Trials.

As Goldstein says:

“The main wine list I submitted was a perfectly decent selection from around Italy that met the magazine’s basic criteria (about 250 wines, including whites, reds, and sparkling wines–some of which scored well in WS). However, Osteria L’Intrepido’s high-priced ‘reserve wine list’ was largely chosen from among some of the lowest-scoring Italian wines in Wine Spectator over the past few decades.

While it’s interesting that the reserve list would receive such seemingly little scrutiny, the central point is that the wine cellar doesn’t actually exist. And while Osteria L’Intrepido may be the first to win an Award of Excellence for an imaginary restaurant, it’s unlikely that it was the first submission that didn’t accurately reflect the contents of a restaurant’s wine cellar.”

Of course, Goldstein isn’t the first to question the methodology of the Wine`Spectator awards.

In the July/9/2003 issue of the New York Times, Amanda Hesser points out inconsistencies in the judging process even for nominees and winners of Wine Spectator’s obviously much more prestigious Grand Award, a process described as requiring an in-house evaluation by a Wine Spectator editor.

As Hesser wrote in 2003:

“These restaurants are not inspected every year. Montrachet, which has kept the Grand Award since 1994, has not been reinspected since. Galileo, an Italian restaurant in Washington that advertises its Grand Award on its on-hold phone message, won the honor in 1998. It was reinspected in 2000. But Rotisserie for Beef and Bird in Houston, which has had a Grand Award since 1988, has never been reinspected.”

Join us tomorrow to find out more about how to make Mini Falafel Dogs With Creamy Cilantro Yogurt Dip, Doug DuCap’s original recipe which features savory falafel breaded lamb, dried apricots, and more.

My Splendid Table has a wonderful, simple overview of how to make and use beurre monte, a workhorse sauce relied upon by such chefs as Thomas Keller and Tom Colicchio.

The page also shares Keller’s recipe for Sweet Potato Agnolotti with Sage Cream, Brown Butter, and Prosciutto which makes prominent use of the sauce.

(Wikipedia also has a good entry on beurre monte here.)

Here’s a few links to some recipes that feature beurre monte sauce…

• Sweet Butter Braised Maine Lobster with Baby Arrowleaf Spinach and a Saffron-Vanilla Sauce from Chef Thomas Keller via Food & Beverage International

• Filet Mignon With Yellow Corn Polenta and Cheese from Buhay Cocinero

• Potato Gnocci from Chef Tom Colicchio via The New York Times

• Cassolette of Sea Urchin and Lobster from Chef Ken Oringer of Clio

ETVRoadShow has made an interesting video showing some of the highlights of peaceful Georgetown, South Carolina as well as information about area restaurants which you can see below (or here).

If you enjoyed the video, you might also want to see our Georgetown, SC Flickr Photo Gallery.

What do you get when you combine Charleston Chew candy, blueberries, honey roasted peanuts and vanilla ice cream? If you’re Kevin Kelly, a Charleston Area middle school history teacher from Mt. Pleasant the answer is Seersucker Ice Cream.

As the winning flavor of Circa 1886’s recent ice cream contest, Seersucker Ice Cream was chosen by a panel of judges who were looking to capture the sweet flavor of living in Charleston, South Carolina. Circa 1886 will be serving the specialty ice cream at the restaurant throughout August.

Choosing a winner wasn’t easy. After receiving over 200 entries with names as creative as their ingredients (including Pluff Mud, Holy City Peach Tea, and Low Country Lush), Executive Chef Marc Collins and Pastry Chef Scott Lovorn narrowed the field down to three semifinalists: Cobblestone Cobbler, Seersucker, and Charleston Gold.
As one of the judges of the contest, Stephanie Barna writes in her food column in the Charleston City Paper:

“Seersucker, the winner, reminded me of a sundae with chunks of Charleston Chews, bits of blueberry, and honey-roasted peanuts. I took one bite and forgot the oppressive heat of the scorching July afternoon.”

Here’s a video of the judging itself, as well as an interview with the creator of Seersucker Ice Cream who talks about his inspiration for the flavor:

Article after article in the news shares grim statistics about the widening waistlines and related health problems of today’s youth. Could one of the best (and most rewarding) remedies for these serious problems be lurking in your kitchen?

1. Kids who cook usually end up being more knowledgeable about and interested in fresh, healthy ingredients than those who don’t.

It’s fun for young cooks to work with colorful fruits and vegetables when they first start helping out in the kitchen. Letting your children help out assembling ingredients for a meal, using melon ballers, small ice cream scoops, small cookie cutters, and plastic knives to help put together a delicious fruit salad, etc. can be a great way for smaller children to enjoyably and safely contribute to family meals.

Depending on their maturity level, you may also want to start working with your older children to learn the proper and safe knife skills needed to help with more elaborate meals. Of course, proper adult supervision is always a must.

2. Kids who are comfortable in the kitchen are more likely to make healthier and much more diverse choices in the long run when it comes to their own nutrition.

Not surprisingly, an interest in cooking at a young age often leads to the development of an expanded palate; making meal planning more interesting and less challenging than it is for the parents of children who left to their own devices would happily eat such nutritionally dubious meals as hot dogs and boxed mac and cheese 365 days a year.

Best of all, kids who cook tend to be much more willing to try new and unusual foods than their non-cooking counterparts.

Being raised in an Italian home, I was exposed to a wide variety of tastes not commonly found in mass produced tv dinners. As a result, I now happily enjoy eating the foods of just about any cuisine. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve being taught to cook by my old, Italian grandmother.

Another good way to encourage your children to become intrepid food explorers is to take them to farmer’s markets so they can see what the foods they eat look and taste like at their freshest, meet the farmers and cooks who regularly work with such bounty, as well as to sample a variety of delicious and homemade foods in an inviting, non-stuffy atmosphere.

3. Cooking young helps give children a healthy sense of responsibility and self reliance that can help them build a balanced sense of confidence and independence.

Even small children can be encouraged to make such no-cook snacks and meals as tuna or cheese sandwiches or spread some peanut butter on celery for an after-school nosh, help mix pudding by hand, and use cookie cutters to cut fun shapes out from dough.

Older children can learn how to make pasta and simple sauces, help out with basic food preparation, bake with supervision, as well as use food processors and blenders to make smoothies, shakes, pestos, homemade salad dressings, and salsas.

Later, when they are of college age and/or moving into their first apartments, such early kitchen experiences will help them make healthier and more financially sensible choices than just having Pizza Hut on speed dial or regularly hitting the McDonalds’ drive-thru.

4. Cooking teaches valuable life skills, encourages empathy and caring, and is a fun way to strengthen your family bonds.

After years of cooking meals for your family, you may find yourself stuck in a culinary rut. But everything is new and exciting to the young chefs helping out in your kitchen, and working with food is full of sights, smells, and tastes that will excite your child as they experience everything for the first time.

You may find that cooking with your children helps you rediscover a sense of play and creative experimentation that you’d forgotten about as you teach your children about various spice and flavor combinations.

Additionally, kids who cook learn practical math skills and gain a sense of visual proportion as they learn to use measuring spoons and cups as well as convert and work with solid and liquid measurements.

Cooking also encourages creativity and organizational skills as your child first follows (and later is inspired to improve on) various recipes, assembles ingredients, and helps plan a meal.

5. Who knows, your kid could be the next Thomas Keller.

Many of the best chefs and cooks, including Thomas Keller and Anthony Bourdain started out helping in the kitchen at an early age.

As it says in this CBSNews.Com article about Anthony Bourdain:

“Bourdain’s mother Gladys is a copy editor at The New York Times today, but when Bourdain was a boy, she was a stay-at-home mom in New Jersey, and an enthusiastic amateur chef.

‘He would be curious…we had a great kitchen - and he decorated the gingerbread men at Christmas as a kid,’ she said. ‘So he always had this interest in good taste, good smells. From a very young age, he loved to try new things.’

His first summer in France, visiting his father’s family, a 10-year-old Bourdain ate his first oyster, and his world was never the same.

‘It was an early exposure to eating French that really resonated later,’ he said. ‘The power of those early experiences with a good oyster - in a very visceral way you remember those things.’

12 year old Joey Yarwick of San Diego recently won the Next Gourmet Burger Kids’ Recipe Contest with a burger featuring sirloin and melted brie on a croissant. More than 10,000 kids entered the contest, a sign of how popular cooking has become for the younger set.

England’s 10 year old Rumaanah Patel won Canned Food UK’s kid’s cooking contest where the prizes included a visit to her school by UK celebrity chef James Martin who enjoyed her fusion dish of Yorkshire pudding and curry.

(There are many different child-friendly cooking contests held every year, including the recently announced Jif Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest and this one from the folks at Food and Wine.)

According to this article in The Canadian Press, kids’ cooking camps and classes are becoming extremely popular throughout North America as the children raised watching the Food Network develop a passion for all things culinary.

As this Washington Times article about cooking camps shared:

“Just a couple days into the Deliciously Nutritious camp, A.J. Jones, 9, went home and started a family tradition: eating supper with his parents. He even made the pasta salad.

‘It’s normally my dad in the family room, my mom standing up and I’m at the counter,” he said. “Some nights, my mom will sit at the counter with me, but now, starting a couple nights ago, we’re having family dinners.’”

How to Get Started Cooking With Your Children

Think about ways to get your children more active in the kitchen. What meals do you make or recipes you know can be easily adapted so they can participate in age appropriate ways? This is also a great way to make memories and pass on family recipes to the next generation.

Here’s a few kid appropriate cookbooks and recipe websites that may spark a few ideas…

Books:

• Kitchen for Kids: 100 Amazing Recipes Your Children Can Really Make by Jennifer Low

• The Family Kitchen: Easy and Delicious Recipes for Parents and Kids to Make and Enjoy Together by Debra Ponzek

• William-Sonoma: The Kid’s Cookbook: A Great Book for Kids Who Love to Cook! by Abigail Johnson Dodge

• Passport on a Plate: A Round-the-World Cookbook for Children by Diane Simone Vezza

• Cooking Essentials for the Young and Novice Cook by Neena N. Langevin, Kathy Ishoy, and Christine Dyer

• Kids Can Cook: Vegetarian Recipes by Dorothy R. Bates

Websites:

• About.Com: Cooking For Kids

• How to Cook With Kids: Three Approaches to Cooking With Kids

• Recipe Goldmine: Childrens’ Recipes

• ChildrensRecipes.Com

• My Summer Camps.Com: Children’s Cooking Camps

(Photo Credits: Photos courtesy of the Yorkshire Evening Post, the Canadian Press, and The Washington Times.)

Please join us tomorrow where we share 2 turn of the century childrens’ cookbooks as part of our Free Cookbook of the Month feature and this week’s special Young at Heart Series.

Note: This article is also available in the following convenient format(s)…

In a recent New York Times article, Charleston on the Cheap, Chris Dixon focuses on a few of the simpler pleasures of a visit to the Holy City.

As it says in the article:

“Many of the area’s most captivating historic attractions are essentially free. Beaches and an outstanding farmers’ market are open to all, and the sweet tea and fabulous food can be found in off-the-beaten-path restaurants well known to the locals. With some careful shopping in advance, even a hotel room or condo can be affordable.”

I was particularly pleased that they mentioned J.B.’s Smokeshack, a down home, creaky doored barbecue shack I visit when I want to load up on hickory smoked barbecue pork, hash and rice, okra gumbo, and their deliciously rich pluff mud or chocolate eclair puddings.

Other restaurants mentioned in the article include such local favorites as the Folly’s Lost Dog Cafe and the Mustard Seed on Maybank.

For those that don’t live in here, the article goes on to share some inexpensive places to stay in the Charleston area, as well as a few off the beaten path attractions on James and Johns Islands that won’t break your vacation budget.

You can read more of the New York Times article here.

Charleston was also named one of Fortune Magazine’s 100 best places to live and launch on their recent 2008 list.

For those that enjoy golf, nearby Mt. Pleasant, SC was named one of the 10 best retirement spots for golf nuts by U.S. News & World Report.

As it says in the article:

“Located just outside historic Charleston, S.C., Mount Pleasant has 30 courses close at hand. And since it’s within day-trip distance of two South Carolina golfing havens—90 miles from Myrtle Beach and 110 miles from Hilton Head Island—boredom is one obstacle you’ll never face on the links…”

Other South Carolina cities that have recently won awards include Greenville, Aiken, and Rock Hill which were all recognized as one of the best places to live in America by RelocateAmerica.Com. Charleston also made the list.

Here’s an elegant and sophisticated recipe inspired by Nobu’s famous black cod with miso…Miso-Marinated Sea Bass from the folks at Rasa Malaysia.

Ingredients:

Sea bass (about 5 oz. piece)
1 teaspoon white miso paste
1 teaspoon mirin
2 teaspoon sake
1/2 teaspoon ginger juice
1/2 teaspoon palm sugar (sugar)

How to Make Miso-Marinated Sea Bass
See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

Charles Zeran, Executive Chef of Four Moons Restaurant in Orangeburg, SC, is the winner of 9 DiRoNA (Distinguished Restaurants of North America) Awards and 9 Wine Spectator Awards in his previous kitchens (Stone Manor, Middletown, Maryland; Stars Waterfront Cafe, Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina; and The Lodge at Glendorn, a AAA Four Diamond and Relais & Chateaux property in Bradford, Pennsylvania.)

Not bad for a former attorney and self-taught chef who started his professional cooking career at the age of 32. His delicious and visually arresting dishes are the result of his interest in molecular gastronomy coupled with his own broad experience and unique vision.

He talked with us about the winding road that brought him to where he is today, his favorite restaurants, his Western Tennessee childhood food memories of peach ice cream on Independence Day and traditional New Year’s meals, as well as his guilty food pleasures…

When did first you start getting interested in food and cooking? Please share some early cooking memories…

I have cooked all my life for fun. Even as a child. Some early food memories: making caramel fudge and taffy with my grandmother in western Tennessee where I grew up. My father making Steak Diane in the seventies when I was about 10 and waiting for it to catch fire when the brandy was added. Traveling with my dad as a child to New Orleans and having beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe Du Monde, and to Grand Bahama Island and having cracked conch right off the boat and Johnny cakes prepared by the native Bahamians.

It must have been difficult for you to make the leap from your original career to food and beverage. What happened that gave you the impetus to make that leap?

I became a lawyer I think more because it was expected and for the money more than because it was something I really wanted to do. Not because there had ever been a lawyer in my family, but because I had excelled in school and was expected to do something like a doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief.

After 7 years of divorce law in Northern Florida and Western North Carolina, I decided that life was too short to do something that I really didn’t love and began to think what would be better. I always loved to cook. The first food I ever sold was homemade lasagna to Italian restaurants while I was still an attorney in North Carolina. Made the pasta and dried it on a clothes rack.

One day I decided that I had had enough and spent the next six months winding up my practice, took a 3 month adventure around the Western United States looking for somewhere I wanted to be more than the Appalachian region of North Carolina. I ended up in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state and took a job in a roadside diner cooking breakfast. After about 4 months of this, I met the owner of a bistro in one of the tourist towns in the Cascades who offered me a line cook job, which I declined. But we hit it off being the same age and both growing up outside Memphis, so we had a lot of common history.

A few days later the manager of her kitchen was fired and she called me and asked me if I wanted to run their kitchen my first chef position with 4 months of restaurant experience and not a clue. Trial by fire.

What kind of cooking do you most admire?

Avant garde. When I want to feed I like it simple, but when I want to dine, I want to be entertained and I want something to think about, not just chew on.

What ingredients do you especially like to work with?

Seafood is probably my favorite medium. Especially tuna, scallops, and any really fresh fish that I can either use raw or cook. I also really like raw or practically raw meats lamb, venison, and good beef made into wonderful tatakis, carpaccios, and tartares. I love Asian ingredients and flavors, especially Japanese the flavors are so complex, but seem so pure.

Who are your food inspirations and why…Also, who are your favorite chefs and cookbook/food authors?

Ferran Adria, Grant Achatz, Homaro Cantu, etc for their creativity in molecular gastronomy. Thomas Keller for the purity and intensity of taste of his food, and the subtle layers of flavor. Michel Richard of Citronelle for his playfulness, and the mixing of pastry techniques into savory dishes. Rick Tramonto for the same reasons as both Keller and Richard. Masaharu Morimoto for his use of western techniques with Asian ingredients and vice versa without ending up with fusion for fusion sake, which I hate.

What part does travel play in your food inspirations?

Only incidentally. Haven’t done much traveling for food’s sake.

Where do you like to go and what cuisines inspire you?

The Keys for the fresh seafood. DC for some of the restaurants I used to go to when I lived in that area Citronelle, Jose Andres’ Cafe Atlantico, The Inn at Little Washington, Persimmon, Kinkaid’s.

Any favorite meals you’d like to share?

The Inn at Little Washington for the best service I have ever experienced. Michelle Richard’s Citronelle for the whimsical food, like the silver penguin statuette carrying an egg filled with scrambled eggs topped with caviar.

What do you like to do to blow off the stresses of the kitchen?

When the day is done I am relaxed. I found that the difference between being a lawyer and being a chef is the type of stress being an attorney involves chronic stress the same client with the same issues continues for months. Being a chef involves acute stress when the day is done, the day is done. Chronic stress is draining. Acute stress is a rush.

What tips would you offer to someone considering a career as a chef?

Don’t — unless you really have the passion. If it’s not something you have to do because there is something inside you that makes you, it will be a miserable career and you won’t do it well. But if that thing is inside you, it’s like Confucius said “If you find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

What advantages do you bring to the table as a self educated chef?

Not knowing what the rules are, I don’t know better than to break them.

Would you like to publish a cookbook someday? If so, what would its focus be?

Maybe the crossover between sweet and savory.

Favorite comfort foods?

Biscuits and gravy. Steak. Mashed potatoes with white truffle oil. Bacon. Bacon. Bacon.

Favorite barbecue memory?

We always barbecued a baby goat on the Fourth of July when I was growing up. It cooked most of the day. While it was cooking, we made a stew in a big cauldron in the back yard using all the game we had in the freezer from the previous hunting season we stirred it with a boat paddle. And we finished the meal with peach ice cream we churned with a hand cranked ice cream freezer.

Favorite Southern meal?

When I was a child in West Tennessee on New Year’s Day, it was a tradition to have pork roast, turnip greens, black eyed peas cooked with fat back, and corn bread. You always poured the “pot liquor” from the peas over the corn bread. And you always had to leave one pea on the plate for good luck in the coming year.

Favorite guilty food pleasures (sweet or salty)?

Foie Gras pan seared with sauted blackberries on brioche. White truffles shaved onto almost anything.

Favorite wines to relax with?

Syrahs from the Northern Rhone. New Zealand Pinots and Chards. Steely dry Rieslings from Alsace. Douros from Portugal. Good reds from Chile. Chateau Margaux Pavilon Blanc. Oh, and Krug if you’re buying.

As a working chef, your time is at a premium. What restaurants would you like to find time to visit someday? (ie. El Bulli, The French Laundry, etc.)

El Bulli. Alinea, Tru, Morimoto, Per Se.

What’s your favorite dish to make at home?

Plumbers don’t find the time to fix their own pipes, mechanics don’t find the time to fix their own cars. Me too. If I have to, something on the grill.

Can you share a recipe for the readers of HuggingtheCoast.Com?

Here one from the Raw Bites menu at Four Moons: Day Boat Scallops with Sweet
Spicy Chili Vinaigrette, Hot and Sour Pickled Mango, and Tobikko Ice.

Ingredients:

1 lb (approx) fresh scallops (You will want extremely fresh dry [not processed] scallops,
the larger the better, preferably day boat harvested. If you have U-10 size (under 10
per lb) scallops, allow two scallops per person for an appetizer portion. If using 10-20
size allow three or four.)

For the Hot and Sour Pickled Mango:

1 c. water
1/2 c. rice wine vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
2 T salt
1/2 t. whole cloves
1 t. mustard seeds
1 t. peppercorns
1 T. chopped fresh ginger
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes

1 large mango, peeled and cut into thin slices

Bring first 9 ingredients (thru red pepper flakes) to a boil in a medium, non-reactive
saucepan and allow to cool to lukewarm. Strain well, pour over thinly sliced mango, and
marinate for several hours.

For the Tobikko Ice:

2 1/2 c. cucumber juice (using a vegetable juicer), strained
1/2 c. simple syrup (see Cook’s Note)
3 oz wasabi tobikko caviar (available at some Asian markets or try your local sushi
restaurant)
Salt to taste
Sriracha pepper sauce to taste

Mix well and freeze according to your ice cream maker’s directions.

For the Vinaigrette:

Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce (available at Asian markets and many supermarkets)
Rice Wine Vinegar
Soy sauce
Lime Juice
(Proportions of the above are to taste, but you are looking for a sweet and sour spicy citrus flavor.)
Olive Oil

Slowly drizzle in oil while whisking to reach vinaigrette consistency.

To Serve:

Slice each scallop very thinly into 6 - 8 coin shaped slices and arrange on serving plates.
Drizzle the chili vinaigrette over the scallops and let marinate for a couple of minutes.
Arrange drained mango slices on scallops. Garnish the plates with a scoop of the
tobikko ice and whole cilantro leaves.

Serves 4 as an appetizer.

COOK’S NOTE: To make Simple Syrup, use equal measures (by volume) of water and
sugar. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Click here to read yesterday’s Four Moon’s Restaurant Review.

Imagine yourself enjoying the myriad sensual pleasures of a truly stellar meal: the bold, imaginative dishes, each ingeniously presented, their flavors expertly intertwined…the visually captivating interior…the expert wine pairings…the attentive and sincere service…

So, where did you imagine yourself? Orangeburg, South Carolina, by any chance? I thought not.

But by the time you get done reading this, you will.

Like most, I was somewhat surprised to hear that a fine dining restaurant had opened in Orangeburg. Charleston’s substantial sphere of culinary influence notwithstanding, “O-burg” is pretty much off the expected path for gourmet experiences.

But even though the city is dismissed by some as “troubled” or past its prime, Orangeburg has much to recommend it: beautiful parks and gardens, interesting, varied architecture and neighborhoods, unique little shops, good barbecue, and a location on the highway between the state capitol and Charleston and not far from Interstate 95.

More importantly, it has residents who believe in its future, who want better for it, and are willing to put their money where their mouth is. One of those residents, Buck Ridge Plantation founder Michael Tourville, has brought together a group of experienced and highly talented professionals to create this world-class restaurant.

Judging by the look and feel of Four Moons, it seems that no detail was left to chance. From the moment you enter through the imposing wood & mirror doors, everything changes. Everything outside - heat, noise, and hurry - is traded for its mirror image within: a cool, restorative stillness and the whispers of falling water. The imaginative interior, designed in collaboration with architect Dan Sweeney of Stumphouse Design, is visually delightful yet relaxing - celestial, and almost dreamlike.

The restaurant manager and sommelier, Ryan Groeschel (formerly the general manager of Charleston’s famed Peninsula Grill) has trained and inspired his service staff to excellence, and has carefully built a firm, 500 label / 2400 bottle foundation for the confluence of fine wines and the visionary, whimsical, and sure-handed creations coming out of the kitchen of award-winning chefs Charles & Colleen Zeran.

After being welcomed by Mr. Groeschel, my dining companion and I were seated almost directly under one of the visual set-pieces of the room: a lambent red orb, looking like a dwarf star, set into a luminescent blue parabola. To my right, round ‘moon’ windows cast light onto the booths against the far wall, each separated by a glittery mesh curtain. At either end, circular banquettes with George Nelson-inspired chandeliers are swathed in an impression of Mombasa netting, an echo of Victorian elegance in this very modern interior.

The glass walled wine room to my left gave us all the encouragement we needed, and as an opening shot across our palates my dining companion and I chose crisp whites: for her, a tall, cool, and lightly effervescent Blanquette de Limoux and for me a Ca’ del Sarto Pinot Grigio.

I often find that whites are served too cold; they might be refreshing when nearly frosty, but so is Gatorade. Both of these wines arrived quickly and at the correct temperature to both refresh and to allow their nuances to emerge, no doubt the result of the sommelier’s careful attention. These were soon followed by an amuse consisting of one perfect wine-chilled shrimp on peppercress greens dappled with a tart and lively blackberry horseradish dressing. A nice way to energize the tastebuds for the meal to come.

Now about the food… (click here to read more)

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