Columbia, SC’s Main Street architecture still has much of the charm of a mid-century movie set. There are jewelry stores, restaurants, hotels, and gift shops in buildings that range from the turn of the 20th Century to modern day. Tucked in among the hustle and bustle is Lula Drake Wine Parlor, which eight plus years ago was just another dusty buil…

Charlotte, NC is one of the fastest growing metropolitan cities in the United States. While the city has always looked forward, it was actually founded before the American Revolution and the site of the first US Mint. But in the past two decades, the intense growth and the addition of a light rail system have brought immense changes citywide. In th…

Over more than half a century as an editor at Knopf, Judith Jones became a legend, nurturing future literary icons such as Sylvia Plath, Anne Tyler, and John Updike. But although I was an English major, I first learned of Judith Jones years later, when I realized that Edna Lewis, M.F.K. Fisher, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, James Beard, and, most …

Rice was South Carolina’s first great agricultural staple. Before the American Revolution, it had already made South Carolina the richest of the 13 original colonies, and Charleston one of the richest cities in the world. But it did so on the backs of enslaved skilled laborers, most of whom had been kidnapped from the rice growing regions of West A…

Shaun Brian Sells started life in a two-person tent surrounded by plantation ruins in the flats of Coral Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands. It was in that environment where his love for cooking began– by roaming and foraging through the valley, fishing off his dad’s sailboat and cooking for up to eight siblings at a time. Those challenges became the…

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,…

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 Mercad…

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. H…

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,…

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…

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 fa…

Do you ever consider going to Hilton Head Island, SC for a fresh-out-of-the-oven French baguette or a raspberry tart that’s perhaps gilded with gold flakes and filled with lemon curd? Maybe not, but you might want to reconsider because Hilton Head Social Bakery, with two locations on the island, has been baking that and much more since Chef Philipp…

Despite the bio I’m about to share, I think Ray Isle is one of the least pretentious people in the wine world today. He grew up in Houston, and he learned to see wine as an adventure, an adventure that’s taken him all around the world. Ray is the longtime executive wine editor for Food & Wine as well as the wine and spirits editor for Travel + Leis…

Augusta Road in West Columbia, SC, isn’t a storybook setting. Strip malls are lined up down the road, flanking a Wal-Mart and a sprawling old school U Haul campus. But just keep going and turn off the road at the Aldi and there’s a summer camp style building tucked in some trees and a modest BBQ sign. That’s when you know you’ve reached the city li…

According to Saveur magazine, Border Food is defined as Mexican food with a distinct identity —influenced by the cooking of Chihuahua and Texas, but with a number of little twists. Because Texas is so large and diverse, it’s a more nuanced label than the overarching Tex-Mex, and one surprising spot that it is celebrating with abandon is in Greenvil…

Chef Nikko Cagalanan was born and raised in the Philippines. After immigrating to the states in 2011 and working as a nurse, he found himself inspired to pursue cooking with the desire to share his passion for Filipino food. He moved to Charleston, SC in 2018 and began Mansueta’s, a series of pop-ups in the city and the region that helped him hone …

Hi y’all, It’s Stephanie, I’m excited to share with you another podcast you should check out through this episode of The One Recipe from APM Studios. On The Southern Fork I've talked to a lot of people about their food and their recipes. Pretty much everyone who cooks aspires to have a clutch of recipes they can make their own. The ones that we sen…

Hi! Stephanie here. It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, but as we get close to Thanksgiving, I want you to know that I’m thinking of y’all, and I’m thankful for every one of you who listen to The Southern Fork. I’m working hard over here in the background making podcast plans and interview itineraries for 2024, but in the meantime, I want…

Host Stephanie Burt recaps Season 8 of the show, sharing the most listened to podcasts, her favorite bites of the season, and other details to keep the conversation going. Let’s Dig In.By Stephanie Burt

Charleston Wine + Food is a multi-day wine and food festival that takes place the first full weekend each March, and I have covered it as a media person, and/or participated as talent for all of its going-on 18 years excepting one. The following interview took place live in the midst of the Culinary Village at this year’s festival, and I’m sharing …

Although The Southern Fork Summer Tour is over, we still have a few weeks together, and the weather has started to turn in much of the South. I don’t know about you, but soon after I feel that first cool breeze, I can’t wait to have a plate of barbecue. Maybe it’s because in my North Carolina childhood, barbecue “stands” as it were, popped up at ch…

Alabama native Scott Peacock is a James Beard Award-winning chef and one of the foremost authorities on American Southern cuisine. He might be best known for his work at Watershed restaurant in Decatur, Georgia, and his partnership with culinary icon Edna Lewis, but his recipes and writing have appeared in numerous publications as well, including T…

Despite the name, I was still so unprepared for how very clear much of the water is in the Crystal River region of Florida. From snaking like a teal ribbon around trees and under bridges, to reflecting clouds like a salty mirror, on the day I went out on it, our boat sped closer on its glassy surface to a horizon already dotted with other anchored …

In 1905, Saloon Columbia in Tampa, FL officially became Columbia Restaurant, a place helmed by Casimiro Hernandez Sr. where cigar workers in Ybor City could rest and enjoy Spanish and Cuban food, or snag a sandwich to eat on the job. Through the years, the restaurant grew to envelop the entire city block, and today, the family-owned landmark is Flo…

Rocca, located in the Tampa Heights neighborhood of Tampa, FL, is Chef Bryce Bonsack’s love letter to the family who he worked for and lived with during his tutelage and pilgrimage in Italy. Showcasing fresh handmade pasta, mozzarella pulled tableside, and dry aged meats, Bryce creates an ever changing menu influenced by both classical recipes and …

The day dawns humid and the waters of Sarasota Bay seem like a glassy mirror reflecting a pale blue sky. There are the sounds of birds as well as the gentle lapping of water up against a boat, sure, but more often than not, those sounds are drowned out by the sounds of fishermen calling out to each other to set the lines as they dock, or the beepin…

I’ve been covering food for close to two decades, and throughout my career, most of the high volume places I visit, and especially those in tourist areas, don’t present menus that follow local seasons, feature local produce, or work with local farms. However, on Anna Maria Island, FL and neighboring Longboat Key, the restaurants of Chiles Hospitali…

Founded in 1959 by Inez Hill and Louise Hudson, otherwise known as Mama Hill and Mama Louise, H&H Restaurant in Macon, GA is a Southern institution. In the 70s, Macon was home to the newly minted Capricorn Records, and H&H fed many of the musicians coming through the town, though it is most famous for its founders’ unique friendship with the Allman…

Parnass Savang is a first-generation Thai American who grew up in his parents’ Thai restaurant in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville. A Culinary Institute of America graduate, he came back to Atlanta to cook in some of the best kitchens in the city, including Kimball House, Staplehouse, and the now shuttered Empire State South. When he and fellow …

Greenville, SC is not only a food-focused destination, it is a place that celebrates the active life through its parks and most notably, its Swamp Rabbit Trail, a 22-mile walking and biking greenway that connects the city to nearby Travelers Rest, SC. About halfway between the cities, close to mile marker 31 is the Swamp Rabbit Café & Grocery. Mary…

Dan Weidenbenner moved to Greenville, SC in 2007 via Furman University. While there, he fell in love with the region and decided to stay, and then with the help of more than 50 volunteers, launched Mill Village Farms in 2012. The farm is located in the Greater Sullivan Community of Greenville and includes 30 garden beds, a 60-foot greenhouse, a com…

Pardon me on this one, but it’s true: we writers love a bookstore. I’ve heard many writers refer to their favorite bookstores or libraries as temples to reading, but one of the South’s most significant spots for cookbook authors, M. Judson Booksellers in Greenville, SC, even kind of feels like a temple, situated dead center in the downtown district…

The following is a travel journal entry recorded on location and delivered to you the same day. I hope you enjoy this mini-installment from the road during my Southern Fork Summer, and look for a regular full size interview to drop this Friday.By Stephanie Burt

Diego Campos, Executive Chef at CAMP, Modern American Eatery, works the chef’s counter like a pro in this Greenville, SC restaurant, chatting and visiting and not looking at all stressed that he and his team are making multiple complicated dishes for multiple tables. He’s just the latest to rise through the ranks of Table 301 Group, a restaurant gr…

Zachary and Hannah Welton started their great adventure together working in Charleston, SC’s celebrated Husk kitchen before they decided to settle on another coast – the Yucatán. Their time spent living and working in southern Mexico – specifically Hartwood in Tulum – solidified their love for wood burning ovens, bright and bold flavors, and plenty…

The following is a travel journal entry recorded on location and delivered to you the same day. I hope you enjoy this mini-installment from the road during my Southern Fork Summer, and look for a regular full size interview to drop this Friday.By Stephanie Burt

We delve into BBQ again this week, not into its past but its delicious future. Up and coming pitmaster Hector Garate of Palmira BBQ is definitely part of the cuisine’s next chapter. In Charleston, SC, he’s creating sustainable farm-to-table barbecue with old school wood fire techniques and Puerto Rican Influences. He’s in love with all parts of the…

J. Drew Lanham is a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship Recipient, an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, an ornithologist, poet, and essayist, and he’s also a native of Edgefield, SC, where he grew up on lots of fresh veggies from the garden and the occasional Krispy Kreme doughnut from trips to Augus…

The following is a travel journal entry recorded on location and delivered to you the same day. I hope you enjoy this mini-installment from the road during my Southern Fork Summer, and look for a regular full size interview to drop this Friday.By Stephanie Burt

Steph's first residency stop is ... NYC?! Let her explain why she's beginning a "Southern Fork Summer" by going North.By Stephanie Burt

If you visit Spotted Salamander Cafe in Columbia, SC at lunch any day of the week after 12:15, you’ll be in luck if you find a seat. This restaurant, housed in a commercial building constructed around 1915, oozes charm, from its handwritten menu on chalkboard to its creaky wood floors to its old fashioned shrimp salad tucked inside an avocado half,…

Craft beer is more than just a beverage, it’s a culture driver. Each brewery has its own personality that’s expressed through product and place, be it a neighborhood watering hole or concert venue or the place to play cornhole with your kids while you enjoy a pint. Resident Culture in Charlotte, NC, founded in 2017 by Amanda and Phillip McLamb, has…

The Dutch Fork is a region of South Carolina including Lexington, Newberry, and Richland Counties between the Saluda River and the Broad River where they come together in a third waterway, the Congaree. Named after the German settlers of the area who first started arriving in the mid 1700s, Dutch is derived from the German word deutsch. And one of …

Steph shares details of The Southern Fork Residencies Summer Tour.By Stephanie Burt

Hospitality can be a nebulous thing, and while you know it when you feel it, what are some of its concrete elements and how do you create it and maintain it in a restaurant? To explore that question, I turned to two of the most hospitable people I know, Jerry and Krista Slater. Based in Athens, GA, they currently own two restaurants: The Expat and …

You know how some childhood foods become taste touchstones that live in a memory? Well, for brothers Nick and Peter Dale of Athens, GA, that taste was Ecuadorian chocolate. When they went to visit their mom’s family there on vacations and holidays, there was just something special about that chocolate, something they could never quite taste outside…

Why are historical foodstuffs important? And what might they have to offer to us living now about some of the biggest issues we’re facing? Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills and AM Research in Columbia, SC is on a journey to address these questions through interacting with the foods themselves: finding the seed, growing them out, and working with his tea…

Many of us who are employed full-time might call what we do for fun away from work a hobby. But for Dr. Howard Conyers, the research and practice of BBQ pitmaster and now distiller is part of his life’s mission, much more than a pastime when he’s away from work. And what interesting work it is. At the age of 27, Howard earned a Doctorate in Mechani…

Jeremy Carter of Tarpon Cellars is more than just a winemaker; he is a student of taste, and he built his palate first in the South. A Georgia native, Jeremy attended Florida State University before moving to the Napa Valley in 2007 for an internship at his uncle’s winery in Rutherford. He would soon hone his winemaking acumen through various posit…

This week’s episode is a bit of a departure, but something very personal to me and essential to how I approach the varied work I do. I have been drawn to having deeper discussions about the nature of food and how we think about it, so I wanted to let you in a little to my behind-the-scenes by bringing this into the show once a quarter or so. Those …