By Jill Warren Lucas

Chef Jay Pierce has turned an old joke upside down at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen.

Why did the customer cross the road?

To get the locally-sourced, deeply-seasoned, irresistibly lard-fried chicken served on the other side.

Crowds are beginning to gather at the Cary location on Wednesday nights, where the three-piece chicken dinner – served with tender collards, mashed potatoes and a hunk of cornbread – is featured for $17. It’s even more popular at the Greensboro location, where it’s sold on Tuesdays.

Pierce knows diners could get fried chicken elsewhere, and probably for less, but he’s confident that his is the best.

“You expect people to come in with some contempt,” he said with a bemused shrug. “When people ask why we charge so much, I tell them, ‘You probably wouldn’t like it.’”

Actually, Pierce is more likely to playfully poke at diners who aren’t yet under the addictive spell of the special. “Sometimes we cook up a big order of wings and I walk around putting just one on the plates of people who didn’t order it,” he said. “I love to see their faces when they try it. I really want them to come back and have it next time.”


Creating the perfect fried chicken became something of an obsession for Pierce when the restaurant gave up its global menu and added Southern Kitchen to its name last year. The owner wanted a dish that would stir fond memories of grandma’s skillet-fried chicken – even if they never had it before.

There are at least two problems with that, Pierce said. First, cooking in skillets is not efficient in a large commercial kitchen. Also, while he admits to the guilty pleasure of Chik-Fil-A sandwiches, fried chicken was not native to Pierce’s experience of growing up in New Orleans.

“I tried so many variations before I worked it out,” he said, ticking off a list of soaks ranging from buttermilk and iced tea to pickle juice. He finally settled on a variation of the late chef Austin Leslie’s recipe featured in “Fried Chicken: An American Story” by John T. Edge. It’s also been published in Food & Wine.

“We put our own spin on it, but it’s a revelation,” said Pierce, stressing that the ingredient he borrows most from the original is the technique. “I can’t imagine chicken getting any better than that.”

Lucky 32’s version starts by generously seasoning chicken from Hopkins Poultry of Browns Summit with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. The dry-rubbed pieces then air-dry in the refrigerator at least eight hours to ensure deeply-flavored meat and crisp skin.

Just before frying, chicken pieces are dunked in a bath of beaten eggs and buttermilk from Homeland Creamery of Greensboro and dredged in a tub of Creole spice-spiked, self-rising flour from Midstate Mills of Newton. Next stop is a Swiss Braiser, a tilt skillet as big as Grandma's old washtub, filled with 20 pounds of golden lard rendered by Cane Creek Farm of Snow Camp.

 “It’s all non-hydrogenated,” Pierce said, gazing at the glistening fat that boiled vigorously as he deftly placed a row of plump breasts. “It’s a lot better for you than Crisco.”

The braisier is key to what makes Lucky 32’s friend chicken special. Instead of floating in a deep fryer, the chicken sizzles on a heavy grill pad that Pierce can tilt to swirl fat where it’s needed, such as a thicker breast portions, while the thighs and wings stay lightly submerged.

“It’s easier than using your grandmother’s skillet,” Pierce said, noting how the vast surface and finely-tuned thermostat keep the oil at a consistent temperature. “I can load at least 10 three-piece dinners in here at once – and I can fit 13 at the one we have in Greensboro.”

Pierce takes the challenge of fixing chicken seriously as he knows so many Southerners consider it the measure of a good cook. “It’s not as easy as it looks. There’s a lot of technique involved with cooking Southern food – good Southern Food, I mean.

“For people who grew up with it, fried chicken is practically a Proustian dish,” he said. “There are so many memories tied to it. That’s why it has to be so good.”


(For the perfect companion to the fried chicken, check out Chef Jay's recipe for Sweet Potato Hushpuppies.)

Lucas blogs at Eating My Words. Follow her at @jwlucasnc.

See related story about Chef Jay Pierce and the Feb. 15 CHOP event at Lucky 32.

By Jill Warren Lucas
Like Jay Pierce’s journey to develop the ultimate fried chicken for Lucky 32, the sweet potato hushpuppies took several detours before landing on the appetizer menu.“The truth?” Pierce said with a born storyteller’s glint in his eyes. “They started out as pumpkin ravioli.”

Before Lucky 32 expanded its name last year to include Southern Kitchen, it reduced the scope of its former global-cuisine menu. One of Pierce’s first targets with the fated ravioli.

“Actually, it was summer and winter squash in the same dish. Blasphemous!” he said with a shudder. Pierce knew he wanted to modify the recipe to keep it seasonal, so he tweaked it several ways before he felt he’d found a tasty alternative: deep-fried pumpkin ravioli in a ham cream sauce. “Everyone loved it but the owner,” he recalled. “I mean, he liked it, but he said, ‘It’s not Southern.’ He told me, ‘You can do better.’”

Pierce went back to the drawing board and to his culinary awakenings in Florida and the Gulf Coast. There, he said, hushpuppies are big and fluffy -- “not the scrawny Civil War rations” found in some North Carolina eateries.

“Some people think they’re not really hushpuppies because they’re bigger and less sweet,” he said. “They taste like what they are: earthy sweet potatoes.”

The dark, crispy globes are served atop a pool of creamy ham sauce scattered with green onion. Light and savory, they are a perfect start for a fried chicken dinner.

By Jill Warren Lucas

Shakespeare famously wrote that “if music be the food of love, play on.” But don’t try to pull that mess
on Virginia Willis.

“I once had a very romantic date with some chocolate,” said Willis with an amused sigh of
recollection. “Loving and kissing just comes to mind.”

Though she’s published recipes for some intoxicating sweets in Bon Appetit, Y’all: Recipes and Stories
from Three Generations of Southern Cooking and her new, much-praised Basic to Brilliant, Y’all: 150
Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company, Willis rarely swoons for cake or pie
– even if chocolate is a key ingredient.

For true romance, the sort she proposes as necessary for a proper Valentine, it’s got to be Chocolate
Pots de Crème, a decadent delight she first learned when studying culinary arts years ago at L'Academie
de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne in France.

“They are rich and indulgent, and certainly meant for special occasions,” Willis said during a recent
phone call from her Atlanta kitchen. “But the best part is they are dead easy. There’s no worrying about
curdling eggs or any of that. If you can melt chocolate, you can make pots de crème.”

Featured in her first book, and shared below, pots de crème may look complicated but are, she
said, “nothing more than French pudding cups.” Their simple ingredients and mostly hands-off
preparation allow plenty of time for what Willis deems the best part of any meal: the time spent with
your beloved.

“I definitely prefer to eat at home on Valentine’s Day,” she said, pairing it with New Year’s Eve as the No.
1 days to eat in. “Restaurants are crowded, everyone is busy. It’s all about turning the tables.

“Having said that, I love to share the cooking and make it an enjoyable experience for us both,” she
said. “But you don’t have to stress and do it all at once. This dessert, for example, can be made the day
before. All you have to do is whip some cream.”

Despite her mother’s devotion to Cool Whip, which is humorously detailed in an anecdote printed above
the recipe, Willis recommends that heavy cream to be whipped into a lush cloud, without sugar, just
before serving.

“A friend of mine who is very healthful chooses to use fat-free, non-dairy Cool Whip,” she said with a
distinct shudder. “To me, it’s just too sweet. I’d rather had a teaspoon of whipped cream then two cups
of Cool Whip.”

Willis also suggests Crisp Roasted Duck with Peach Barbecue Sauce from the new book for the main
course, and perhaps Apalachicola Oysters with Sauce Mignonette for a starter.

“It’s fairly typical, but it always makes people happy,” she said, acknowledging the mollusk’s MO as a
heady aphrodisiac. “It’s easy and it’s delicious.”

While Willis is thrilled that Basic to Brilliant, Y’All has earned critical acclaim and landed on several year-
ending best-of lists, she was less pleased that her name became entwined with Paula Deen’s recent
announcement that she was diagnosed three years ago with Type 2 diabetes.

Amid the whirlwind of media attention that followed the news – a private matter, to be sure, but one
revealed in connection to a lucrative pharmaceutical endorsement deal – New York Times writer Julia
Moskin picked Willis to represent purveyors of “new” Southern cuisine.

“It wasn’t that long ago that I as writing recipes for a PTA newsletter, so I’m always surprised when
anyone wants to talk to me about anything,” said Willis. “My position is that Southern cooking doesn’t
have to stay trapped in the past. In fact, a lot of what’s been promoted as ‘traditional’ really isn’t. I did
not grow up eating deep fried mac ‘n cheese wrapped in bacon, and neither did anyone I know.

“To think we are just fried chicken and overcooked greens is very one dimensional,” she said. “Also,
we’re not all working on the farm anymore. We don’t need a 1,200-calorie breakfast to sit at a desk.”

Willis noted with pride that she has taught and cooked her recipes at some of the nation’s best-known
spas “almost verbatim from my books.”

“There are a lot of problems with Southern food and big problems with obesity nationally. In a positive
light, (the attention) is helping people have a constructive dialogue about Southern food and how it can
be made delicious by using healthy, seasonal ingredients. For me, it’s all about fresh ingredients and not
doing too much with them.”

Willis will continue to offer insights on Southern fare in what has become her Y’all series.
She’s “noodling” on a theme now and hopes to have the next volume on book shelves within two years.
In the mean time, the chef is drafting a different sort of book, “a very personal culinary story” about a fifth-generation farmer.

“It will really stretch me as a writer,” she said. “It’s amazingly satisfying to hear that that people like the
stories in my books. People may be coming from a different place when they read me, but it’s all about
the community you build at the table.”

And if your community includes a beloved partner, so much the better.

Chocolate Pots de Crème

(Reprinted with permission from Bon Appétit, Y’all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern
Cooking by Virginia Willis, copyright © 2008. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House.)

Undeniably creamy and indulgent, these are the French version of pudding cups. Pots de crème are traditionally baked and served in individual ceramic pots with lids, how they got their name.

Much to my consternation, Mama buys Cool Whip instead of using freshly whipped cream. She recycles the tubs for food storage and other uses. I think a pet hamster was once gently laid to rest in a Cool Whip coffin. Whipping real cream is easy, and my mother’s opinion aside, it really does taste better. The key is that everything must be well chilled: the heavy cream in the refrigerator, and the mixer beaters and bowl in the freezer until cold to the touch. I prefer not to add sugar or vanilla to the cream, as I think the dessert is quite often sweet enough and sweetened whipped cream is overpowering.

Serves 6

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
5 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
5 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of fine sea salt
Whipped cream, for garnish

Position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Place six 6-ounce
ramekins in a roasting pan.

In a saucepan, combine the cream, milk, and chocolate over medium heat. Bring almost to a simmer;
remove from the heat. Set aside, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is completely melted.

In a large measuring cup, whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar. While whisking, add a little of
the hot milk mixture to the egg mixture to combine. (This technique is called tempering; it makes the
temperatures of two mixtures—one containing raw egg— more similar, so the egg won’t curdle in the
presence of heat.) Add the remaining milk mixture, and whisk to combine. Whisk in the vanilla and salt.

Pour approximately 1/2 cup of the egg mixture into each ramekin. Cover each ramekin tightly with
aluminum foil to prevent a skin from forming. Fill the roasting pan with enough boiling water to come

halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until the custards are just set in the center, 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove the pots from the water, and place on a wire rack to cool, about 30 minutes. (I usually remove
the pots with tongs and leave the roasting pan of water in the oven. Turn the oven off and let the water
cool until it is safe to remove the pan.)

When the pots de crème have cooled completely, refrigerate to chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.
Just before serving, top with a dollop of whipped cream.

Lucas blogs at Eating My Words. Follow her at @jwlucasnc.

By Jill Warren Lucas


Gabrielle Hamilton's years of hard living, coupled with her role as chef/owner of Prune, one of the most celebrated restaurants in New York City, have cemented an image of the quintessential bad-ass chef. She's famously infamous, a woman whose conversation is casually peppered with F-bombs and whose classic food evokes the rapturous praise of the most discerning critics.
 
So it was a surprise when she sheepishly accepted a glowing introduction last week at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, an event presented in collaboration with Culinary Historians of the Piedmont (CHOPNC). Hamilton read from the newly-issued paperback edition of her best-selling memoir, Blood, Bones & Butter (Random House), which was celebrated this week by Food52 as its No. 1 "favorite food-related find" from 2011. Yes, she assured fans, it is updated to answer some of the questions everyone asks about her children, her Italian mother-in-law, and the ashes of her failed marriage. The chapter she read recalled her liberating but at times frightening first extended trip abroad. Saved by a fortunate connection that took her from a freaky hostel in Amsterdam to a cozy attic room in small French village, she spent several weeks earning her keep in a working class cafe. It was there that she acquired an ease that allowed her the experience of learning "how we live and eat."

"Don't laugh," she begged of the capacity crowd as she allowed them a glimpse of the girl who two decades later would be named the Best Restaurant Chef in New York City by the James Beard Foundation. They hung on her every word -- even the French ones whose proper pronunciation, required by her demanding mother, made her feel "awkwardly pretentious."

"Can I stop? Ugh, I'll never read that one again," she said, clearly uneasy with the effusive accolades that accompany most everything she says or does. Or wears, like her chunky tortoiseshell glasses or fashionably greying hair caught in a clip, both of which drew admiring whispers.

Hamilton shares intensely personal details in her book, which is subtitled "The Inadvertent Education of a Relucant Chef." Arriving at a place where she could look back at the seeming chaos of her youth, and armed with an MFA in writing earned during a career detour, the book is evidence of a catharthsis -- a crystalization of  the good and the "gruesome" that shaped a journey from her mother's kitchen to the culinary world's center stage.

She welcomed a wide array of questions, ranging from how this working mother managed to find the time to write -- "I wrote while nursing, in the middle of the night, and sometimes on the line on torn sheets of brown paper we use to cover the tables" -- to how she traded substance abuse for the addictive passion for writing.

October's CHOP NC Guest Speaker Elaine MaisnerOctober 19,  7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Flyleaf Books  752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Chapel Hill, NC  (919) 942-7373
Free and open to the public!  Bring your friends, and a snack to share if you'd like!


Elaine Maisner, senior executive editor at UNC Press, has worked in scholarly book publishing since 1985, including stints at Yale University Press and the University of Tokyo Press. At UNC Press since 1994, she acquires books in the areas of religious studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies—and regional and general trade, working on many types of books about food, including cookbooks. In this endeavor she finds ample opportunity to draw on her extensive background in food and cooking—from farming on the Nolin River Farm in Kentucky to cooking with her teacher Deborah Madison at Greens Restaurant and interning at Chez Panisse in the astonishing food world of the late seventies and early eighties in San Francisco and Berkeley. A few of the titles she has acquired for UNC Press include Eugene Walter’s The Happy Table of Eugene Walter: Southern Spirits in Food and Drink, edited by Donald Goodman and Tom Head (A Fall 2011 Okra Pick of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance); Sandra Gutierrez’s The New Southern-Latino Table: Recipes That Bring Together the Bold and Beloved Flavors of Latin America and the American South; Sheri Castle’s The New Southern Garden Cookbook: Enjoying the Best from Homegrown Gardens, Farmers’ Markets, Roadside Stands, and CSA Farm Boxes (A Spring 2011 Okra Pick of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance); Marcie Cohen Ferris’s Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (2006 Jane Grigson Book Award, International Association of Culinary Professionals/A New York Times Notable Cookbook/A Chicago Tribune Favorite Cookbook/A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Top Cookbook/A 2006 James Beard Foundation Book Award Finalist); Psyche Williams-Forson’s Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power (2006 Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prize of the American Folklore Society); and Mildred Council’s Mama Dip’s Kitchen.

Eastern Triangle Farm Tour 
9/17 Saturday  and 9/18 Sunday
1 pm to 5 pm both days  

Tickets: Advance purchase: $25 per carload or cycling group
Days of Tour; Buy at farms $30 per carload/cycling group or $10 per farm


Southern Foodways Alliance:   Stir The Pot 
September 18th and 19th , Sunday and Monday 
Host: Chef Ashley Christiansen of Poole's Diner
Guest Chef John Fleer

The sixth helping of STIR THE POT, a fundraiser for the Southern Foodways Alliance, will take place on Sunday, September 18, and Monday, September 19. 

Sunday night is a five-course dinner with wine pairings at Poole's Diner, prepared by Chef Ashley Christensen and Guest Chef John Fleer. $150 per person. 

Monday night is a potluck at Chef Ashley Christensen's home in Raleigh. Main dish to be prepared by Chef Christensen is Brunswick Stew. Please bring a $35 donation to the SFA (check or cash) and a side dish or dessert that celebrates your sense of place. Beer will be donated by Foothills Brewing in Winston-Salem, NC, with a surprise cocktail by Fox's Liquor Bar. Wine is donated by Eliza Kraft Olander. Reservations are required and limited for both events. Please call Poole's Diner to reserve: 919-832-4477

For more information please visit 
www.stirthepotluck.com 

Learn more about Chef Fleer
Learn more about the Southern Foodways Alliance


Chop NC September event:  
“Spirits of Just Men: Mountaineers, Liquor Bosses, and Lawmen in the Moonshine Capital of the World”  
Wednesday September 21
Author Charles B. Thompson, Jr. 
Talk, book-signing
9/21 Flyleaf Books Chapel Hill, NC  7 - 8:30 pm


Sandra Gutierrez’s Book Launch Party
Thursday September 22
6:00 p.m. The Umstead Hotel, Cary NC
It's Fiesta Time, Y'all! You're all invited to the launch party for Sandra's brand new book:
The New Southern-Latino Table
Recipes That Bring Together the Bold and Beloved Flavors of Latin America and the American South 

RSVP by September 16 to jherg@email.unc.edu or 919.962.0585 Open to the public so feel free to tell all your friends.Door prizes and Appetizers. Valet Parking available.


TerraVITA
Saturday September 24
The Sustainable Classroom  9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Grand Tasting on the Green  1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
TerraVITA’s Grand Tasting on the Green will take place on The Green at Southern Village, an upscale, environmentally-conscious, mixed-use community in Chapel Hill, NC. Tickets for the Grand Tasting are all-inclusive (all alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as food samplings are included) and can be purchased for $65 each, or excluding alcohol $55.The Sustainable Classroom tickets can be purchased separately for $35; Combined Tasting & Classroom ticket, including both events, can be purchased for $90.