cuisine

Grits. If you grew up in the South, you have likely eaten them. If you buy yours from the grocery store, though, you may never have really tasted the goodness of stone ground grits. 

COVID-19 has caused many a business to adapt to changing circumstances in order to survive.  Such is the condition of many chefs in the Charleston area.  Since the advent of COVID has shut or slowed many restaurants, some chefs in the Lowcountry - and elsewhere - have found work doing private cooking for small groups or families right in their homes. 

After growing up in a rural Gullah community outside Charleston, SC, and finishing college in Sumter, our next guest moved to Atlanta and eventually started a catering business based on the Gullah cuisine she loved as a child.  Her business became very successful, culminating not only in winning the food category in Garden and Gun magazine’s 2019 Made in the South Awards, but also in her decision to move back home to support the preservation of the Gullah-Geechee culture in our state.

January and February gave us the State of the Union address and the State of the State address – important stuff. But, for a Southerner, there are specific, important areas of life in these United States that these addresses didn't cover – areas that we need to check on once in a while. So, in early 2019, what is the State of Southern Cuisine?

Is it still making inroads in the food ways of other sections of the country? Are chain restaurants affecting what people in the South call ‘Southern Food?’ Who is innovating Southern Cuisine while staying true to traditions?

Small scale brewing operations like River Rat and Hunter Gatherer in Columbia are representative of the growing craft beer industry in South Carolina and nationwide. For this story we spoke with Kevin Varner, founder of Hunter Gatherer Brewing, about the laws he helped pass back in 1995 that gave brewers more freedom to run their operations. We also sat down with River Rat brewmaster Drew Walker, who talked about how brewers work to stay on top of such a rapidly changing industry.

Food maestros in our state continue to win national awards.  The most recent example is a Lowcountry chef who received recognition for two of her creations earlier this year at the 2018 Good Foods Awards in San Francisco.

Mike Switzer interviews Leslie Rohland, owner of The Juice Hive and Health Emporium in Old Town and the Cottage Cafe, Bakery, and Tea Room in Old Town, Bluffton, SC, who won the pickles category for her Shiso Leaf Kimchi and Low Country Kimchi.

For decades, Epworth Children's Home in Columbia has been well known in Methodist circles for two things: caring for children, and the unique dessert it has produced since the Great Depression: peanut butter ice cream.  The government sent the home large quantities of peanut butter to help give the children protein, and the cooks served it in every way they could think of, said Epworth President John Holler.   In those days, the home had a dairy, so someone suggested  trying to make ice cream with it. 

Chocolate is one of life's great treats for most folks.  Traditional, mass-produced chocolate candies have been enjoyed for generations, but lately, specialists have been making chocolates in South Carolina.  Columbia chocolatiers Christina Miles and Joseph Vernon have developed their own unique varieties of chocolates. 

(Originally broadcast 05/19/17) South Carolina native "Princess" Pamela Strobel ruled a small realm, but her powers ranged far and wide. Her speakeasy-style restaurant in Manhattan was for three decades a hip salon, with regulars from Andy Warhol to Diana Ross. Her iconic Southern dishes influenced chefs nationwide, and her cookbook became a bible for a generation who yearned for the home cooking left behind in the Great Migration. One of the earliest books to coin soul food, this touchstone of African-American cuisine fell out of print more than forty years ago.

(Originally aired in 2016) - Eating cupcakes, pies, cakes, and cookies is a pleasure for most folks, but for judges at the South Carolina State Fair, it’s also a responsibility.  Judges Laurie Aker and Mae Wells say because baking contestants work hard to prepare their entries, they should also be diligent in evaluating each entry to get the fairest (no pun intended) and most accurate result in determining winners.  Here they give their criteria for judging food, and for a judge’s qualifications.      Aker lists some common mistakes made by some cooks, and judge supervisor Brenda Turner tel

"S" is for Sanders, Dorinda [Sua] Watsee [b. 1934]. Farmer, novelist. After graduating from the segregated schools in York County, Dori Sanders attended community colleges in Maryland. Then, during the winter, she worked as a banquet manager. During the summer she worked on her family’s 200-acre farm and helped staff Sanders’ Peach Shed on US Highway 321. She had been writing for a number of years and in 1990, Algonquin Press published her first novel, Clover. The lyrical novel received rave reviews, won the Lillian Smith Book Award, and later became a made-for-television motion picture.

South Carolina native “Princess” Pamela Strobel ruled a small realm, but her powers ranged far and wide. Her speakeasy-style restaurant in Manhattan was for three decades a hip salon, with regulars from Andy Warhol to Diana Ross. Her iconic Southern dishes influenced chefs nationwide, and her cookbook became a bible for a generation who yearned for the home cooking left behind in the Great Migration.

While most folks know that tourism is one of South Carolina’s top industries, many do not know that food tourism is a growing phenomenon around the state.