The Southern Fork Stephanie Burt

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)
Southern Fork Sustenance: A Conversation with MacArthur Fellow J. Drew Lanham about SC Barbecue & Beyond  

Although Charleston, SC, has changed a lot, it is still one of the cities in the US with a decidedly European feel. Many parts of it are very walkable, there are cobblestone alleyways and al fresco dining, and lingering over a meal is absolutely encouraged. One of the best places to linger this time of year -- or anytime really -- is Malagón Mercado y Tapería. Juan Cassalett is the executive chef and co-owner, and although he grew up in Tennessee and Colombia in South America, his family is originally from Spain. Malagón is a slice of Spain in the Holy City. There’s jamon hanging from the rafters, a Spanish wine list and a mercado filled with Spanish groceries, but the Lowcountry shines through too in the seasonal dishes created with local ingredients. The restaurant has been featured in multiple publications, including Forbes, Charleston Magazine, and Conde Nast Traveler. Juan is married to Jill Mathias, executive chef/co-owner of Chez Nous, where he was the sous chef for 5 years.  


Other episodes that are related to this one:
Jill Mathias, Chez Nous (Charleston, SC)
 

On a cool, misty morning when the trees were bright green with their first flush of leaves, I rounded a corner on Route 215 in the NC Mountains and arrived at one of Sunburst Trout’s rainbow trout farms. Pristine water flowed continuously into multiple holding ponds, which held different sizes of trout with plenty of room to move around and swim. Here, in this storybook cove, these beautiful fish have grown for generations just downstream from the Pisgah National Forest. Wes Eason is the third generation to raise trout at Sunburst, which was founded by his grandfather in 1948, and the company preserves Appalachian food traditions, including the value of necessity. Morsels of trout that are too small for filets become smoked trout dip or trout jerky, and the roe of harvested fish is preserved and sold as trout caviar. Many of the chefs featured on this show include Sunburst Trout Farm products on their menus, and that was exactly how I discovered this iconic North Carolina business years ago. 
 
Jacques Pepin’s Southern Fork episode referenced in this show: https://www.thesouthernfork.com/episode-206
 

Chef Dave “Smoke” McCluskey, an official member of the Mohawk nation, has spent more than 30 years in the culinary industry, in everything from fine dining kitchens to catering gigs to even organizing and hosting boucheries. Those are traditional gatherings centered around communal hog butchering that also offer a space to celebrate local foodways, and swap knowledge, stories, and seeds. It was at one such gathering that he was gifted some corn, and from that came Corn Mafia, his research, education and micromilling project to explore native foodways. He’s participated in many food festivals through the years, including in 2022, when he hosted a cooking demo as part of Virginia Tech’s Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation. He partners with South Carolina’s Congaree Milling to produce small batch products, from hominy to masa, which he primarily sells via word of mouth. Dave currently lives in Augusta and is the Chef de Cuisine at the Augusta Mariott Hotel.

Passion for your work can give you energy to do more than you ever dreamed you’d have time for. That’s the case for William Dissen, chef of The Market Place in Asheville, NC, which this year, its 45th in operation, was named a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation. William began honing his skills through study at the Culinary Institute of America and in various kitchens, including the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, and the beloved but now closed Cypress in Charleston, SC. In addition to another restaurant venture, Billy D’s Fried Chicken, he has a big life outside the kitchen as well. He’s a member of the U.S. State Department’s American Chefs Corps, a “Seafood Watch Ambassador” for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, on the board of the University of South Carolina’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, and now, a cookbook author with Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South. Granted, it’s an unusual title for a man who always seems on the go, but because of his style of cooking, he’s always looking to nature and the seasons, which tell him to slow down and notice. It’s a practice he actively cultivates. Take one bite of his food, and that’s evident -- there’s a point of view and a grounded ethos behind every dish.

Jael Skeffington is the co-founder and CEO of French Broad Chocolates in Asheville, NC. What started in 2006 as a chocolate passion and a cafe in Costa Rica with her partner Dan, has grown to 85 employees, a Chocolate Lounge & Boutique in downtown Asheville, and an experiential Chocolate Factory & Cafe. French Broad sources the finest cacao from farmers and producers in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Perú and transforms it into 50 tons of chocolate a year. They sell not only their bean-to-bar and craft chocolates online but also to wholesale partners, and they directly wholesale chocolate to other artisans, from chefs to coffee brewers, Her in-house products have won numerous Good Food Awards, and in short, Jael’s world is chocolate-fueled, fueling community, a life full of flavor and connection, and the delicious potential in every day.