Gone Clamming, Part II

(Intro Music plays) Clams are good.

I don't know what else to say about clams.

I don't know, y'all.

Wam, bam, thank you ma'am, that's the clam.

(Laughter).

Oh my god.

(Theme Music plays- The Avett Brothers "Will You Return") I'm Vivian and I'm a chef.

My husband, Ben and I were working for some of the best chefs in New York City when my parents offered to help us open our own restaurant.

Of course, there was a catch.

We had to open this restaurant in Eastern North Carolina, where I grew up and said I would never return.

(Theme Music plays) (Theme Music plays) So this is my life.

Raising twins, living in the house I grew up in, and exploring the south, one ingredient at a time.

Previously on A Chef's Life.

I'm Vivian and I'm a chef and I'm in Charleston.

That's all!

(Laughter) The Charleston Wine and Food Festival is one that I've always wanted to participate in.

One of the events I'm doing down here is a perfectly paired dinner with Shawn Kelly from High Cotton.

So, my clam dish...

I've never cooked clams en mass for a big group.

Let's go make some clam hash.

Yeah, let's do it.

Practice simplicity.

Start with a really great ingredient and then just don't screw it up.

When I'm cooking clam hash with Frank he's talking about how young chefs always hide the ingredient and I started to second guess my shrimp and it's not working out so great.

(Music Plays) You want it clumped a little tighter?

Yeah but I want space.

You see how I have negative space here?

Ahh I don't want it touching the side.

Is that too much negative space?

No, that's fine.

Today's Friday and really the beginning of my events here, at the Charleston Wine and Food Festival or Food and Wine.

I can never really get that right.

Tonight we have a dinner here, at High Cotton and it's all part of a series of dinners called "perfectly paired."

And then right after that I have to sort of rush over to Marion Square which is kind of the headquarters of the festival and judge something called the Waffle House Smackdown.

I was invited to do this dinner by Frank Lee and Shawn Kelly.

Shawn is the chef here, at High Cotton and Frank Lee oversees the Maverick Kitchen Restaurant Room.

Do you want to go out after each course goes out and explain to the guests?

Not really.

Okay.

Sometimes I do that but...

I have anxiety about that.

Okay.

I hate to watch people eat my food.

Or not eat it, you know.

I'm doing a clam dish, a boiled peanut dish, and some shrimp cocktail, which for some reason is giving me anxiety.

Your shrimp, you're going to put in the brine for 30 minutes and then we'll roast them so like in a really hot 500 degree oven, single layer and what I want you to do is just try two or three shrimp first.

To see how it is?

Yeah.

Most chefs come down here and have one event, maybe two events and then they hang out the rest of the time.

Well, I have like four events and an entourage so I'm just not, I'm not killing it this weekend.

I'm, I'm really not.

So, I'm getting ready to leave.

I've got to go to Garden and Gun and I'll finish this shrimp sauce when I get back.

Okay.

Thanks Chef.

Thank you.

Thank you for your help.

No problem.

(Music Plays) One of the more recent additions to Charleston is Garden and Gun.

Garden and Gun's offices are right in the epicenter of all the action during the Charleston Wine and Food Festival.

I've been invited to their office.

To do what, I'm not sure.

But when Garden and Gun invites you to do something, you go.

- Hey.

- Hey.

Welcome.

I'm Kim Alexander.

I'm Vivian.

Nice to meet you, Vivian.

Am I supposed to sit down?

Yeah, please.

How's Charleston been for you?

Great!

We went clamming and then today I'm doing a dinner at High Cotton and then I'm judging the Waffle House Smackdown and then tomorrow morning I have a brunch and then I have to go to Clammer Dave's oyster roast.

So, it's like a lot.

Lady Yeah, you got a lot of free time.

(Laughter) We're good to go when you are.

Okay, so yeah, just introduce yourself.

Okay, I'm Vivian Howard and I live in Eastern North Carolina and I'm the chef at Chef and the Farmer and the Boiler Room Oyster Bar.

What is your go to midnight snack?

Let me think.

I really like peanut butter, honey, and saltines Who is the best cook in your family, living or dead?

You know my grandmother, my mom's mom was a wonderful vegetable cook and she always had like butter beans and corn, cornbread and really flat crispy cornbread.

She was a great cook.

The secret to cooking delicious southern food is?

Cooking for the people you love.

Pork Rinds or Fritos?

I wanna say Fritos.

Barbecue or fried chicken?

Umm, barbecue.

Beer or bourbon?

Bourbon.

Goo Goo Cluster or MoonPie?

MoonPie.

What's the one dish you've never been able to perfect?

I don't think I've ever perfected any dish, so... (laughter) So, if you weren't a chef what would you be doing?

Umm, if I were not a chef and I had talent I would love to be a choreographer.

What is the best piece of cooking advice you've ever received?

Well, I have received it a lot and I got it yesterday again ummm, to really keep it simple and try not to hide the ingredient with your skill set.

Perfect.

Well, y'all have a great time.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for including me.

O.S.- Thanks Vivian.

Thank you.

O.S.- Bye Vivian.

Bye y'all.

Spread it out.

This is not working well.

We'll try that.

Make sure that works.

(Music Plays) Hey.

Hey.

How is everything?

Good.

I'm about to test the cornbread.

Anytime you take yourself out of your comfortable kitchen and you go into someone else's kitchen to cook your food, it's a challenge.

But at High Cotton we're not only cooking our dinner, they are also open for dinner service.

You alright?

Yeah, I'm fine.

Sorry.

I'm all kinds of falling apart here.

So, I can see this whole thing kind of developing into something that is really difficult for us.

Oh no.

No?

I don't like it.

It's like chewy.

I made cornbread probably 10 million times and I can't even make cornbread today.

Our cornbred's not rising.

It's like a corn cracker that doesn't even taste good but it's because of the cornmeal and we finally figured that out.

I guess it's different cornmeal but our cornbread is struggling.

So, would we be able to turn up one of those fryers and drop the pieces in?

Uh hmm.

That's just part of cooking.

You know, you got to... Yeah.

Behind.

Coming around hot.

Coming around hot.

Go put them in the walk in.

Let them cool down.

Okay.

This is sweet potatoes for my clam dish.

We're doing sausage, spicy broth.

This will be at the bottom of the plate and hopefully when people stir into it they will discover the sweet potato.

But really what I'm concerned about right now is this shrimp cocktail because we have to have it all peeled and cold in a hour.

Okay.

200 shrimp.

Where are the shrimp that you just put there?

So this is my concern that... You're not going to be able to peel it?

For some reason this is making it really hard to peel.

I think that we can do it but we're gonna have to all three do it because we don't have a lot of time.

Okay.

(Music Plays) She's gonna cook them.

We're going to put them in the cooler to cool.

We're going to peel them and then we're going to put them in our little cocktail thing.

Okay.

We're gonna have to push.

Alright.

So, initially I had planned on doing this really cool take on a shrimp cocktail with several different elements.

But, based on what Frank said yesterday and me not wanting to embarrass myself I decided I would make the dish much more simple.

So, I brined my shrimp and then I roasted them in the shell.

O.S.- You like roasting them more than poaching them?

I like to do this brine on them.

Sometimes I just feel like poaching them you just lose so much of the flavor of the shrimp.

But I will say this is a major pain to peel right now.

Because the brine caused the shell to seize to the flesh of the shrimp I cannot peel them.

Just take your time.

Let me try first and see if it's even doable.

- Okay.

- Okay.

I now have Justise, Matt, Justise's boyfriend, and myself all trying to scrape the shells off these shrimp.

All the line cooks and everyone working at High Cotton is walking around and they see what's happening.

And you know, I'm supposed to know everything and I'm supposed to have everything figured out and I clearly don't.

So, I like tossed and turned all night and came in here today and decided to change what I was doing.

And here we are 30 minutes before they go out, desperately trying to peel these shrimp.

I mean I'm literally sitting here scraping the shell off the shrimp trying to salvage enough just to serve like a half a shrimp to each diner and it's very embarrassing.

I mean, you can't get more simple than shrimp cocktail.

The ones that are cold are even harder than the ones that are not.

The oil does not help.

No.

(Laughter) When Shawn, the chef gets involved, I believe I start blushing.

So, one per?

Two.

(Laughter) It started out as three.

I was just kidding.

So, Shawn, what's your background?

Have you worked with this company for a long time?

Yeah.

Frank Lee basically hired me as a dishwasher and I worked over there for like ten years and then moved over here about a year ago.

He's a good man, isn't he?

Yeah.

He really is.

How old are you?

I'll be 35 in a month.

You have such a baby face.

I do have a baby face.

My birthday is Sunday.

Oh yeah?

I'll be 30.

I'm just kidding.

(Laughter) This will be the best damn shrimp cocktail anybody has ever had.

It better be.

(Laughter) These do look really nice.

They look good.

You know, this is a disaster.

The food is going to be great but when I can't go in here and make shrimp cocktail and cornbread it really makes me question what in the world I'm doing wrong.

I don't understand why something like this can't be more simple.

Okay, we're going out there.

Yeah.

(Music Plays) We're each doing passed hors d'oeuvres.

I guess we'll start with the shrimp cocktail.

Uh so we have kind of a simple shrimp cocktail.

The shrimp have been brined and they're gonna be served over a preserve tomato cocktail sauce that I folded in a lemon aioli.

It's kind of like a Russian dressing.

We're also going to plate these ace plate oysters.

First course, this is a farm raised Cobia from the Gulf of Mexico.

Then we're going to fry four local clams that we shucked raw.

They'll be four clams on there as well.

So, my next course is called a boiled peanut risotto.

It's really a take on a bowl of beans, chow chow, and cornbread because you know peanuts are actually beans, or legumes so we cook them like that and then pureed some of the boiled peanuts and whipped that in so that it looks like beans that have cooked for a long time.

And the next course are gonna be steamed clams with a spicy sausage and everybody will get a piece of sweet potato onion bread.

Are you seeing a theme here?

Clams!

(Laughter) It's going to be a clamtastic dinner!

(Music Plays) Are you ready?

Yeah.

Hey, would y'all like a shrimp cocktail?

Absolutely.

Shrimp cocktail?

Lovely.

Thank you.

Hi.

Would you like a shrimp cocktail?

Thank you.

The good news is none of the diners knew what a struggle it was in the kitchen.

I feel like everybody really enjoyed it.

I wish it were not so stressful but it was okay.

Everybody on the line!

Everybody on the line!

This dish is the boiled peanut risotto.

So, this dish is as much about this relish as it is the peanuts.

I'm always like more relish, more relish.

Justise, don't forget the cornbread cracker.

If I'm in your way just let me know.

No, you're fine.

Throw some elbows.

Get in there.

A little less.

A little heavy handed.

You gotta think about they're eating five courses and this is a big boiled peanuts.

Where's our cornbread cracker?

Right there.

O.S.- These are good to go.

Yep.

Alright, these are good to go right here.

Alright, I'm gonna start dropping clams.

Do these flaps drive y'all crazy?

O.S.- Yes.

Okay.

O.S- Every day.

Sorry, behind, hot.

Behind.

Behind, coming through.

You know, we steam clams all the time in the restaurant, but to do it in such a large batch is not something I have a ton of experience with.

And I'm basically encroaching on all of High Cotton's line cooks space to make my clam dish happen.

Could you pass me those two bottles of wine in front of you?

Clams are very salty so I like to pair them with something a little sweet.

I also really like to pair clams with sausage and I want these folks to know where I'm from so I decided to do this dish around sweet potatoes, turnip greens, sausage, which I see as the three pillars of eastern North Carolina cuisine, plus clams.

And we need to toast the crostinis.

Yes.

This is like one of the best things ever.

Bacon grease.

(Laughter) With this bread it's like the best sandwich ever.

Don't kid yourself.

You can't call this spread just because it's spreadable.

It's bacon fat.

(Laughter) (Music Plays) A typical order of clams would be between eight and fifteen clams, but when I'm doing it in this big batch and I have literally hundreds of clams in there it's very hard to see when some open and when some don't.

So, it makes it harder to manage.

(Music Plays) Hot behind you.

Behind, behind.

Are we ready to go?

Yeah.

I've gotta bring the broth over here.

When you're cooking clams you worry about two things specifically.

One is getting a gritty broth and also getting an overly salted broth and that's the good thing about cooking this broth a little bit ahead of time so that I can taste it and adjust it.

I can add some water.

I can add some honey but I can make it work.

Coming through, behind, hot and big.

Coming through.

We're plating one.

So, the first thing on the plate is going to be sweet potato and turnip green.

Then clams.

Then broth.

Then bread.

Coming down.

More plates.

Can we do less greens, okay?

Less greens.

Less greens.

Heard Everyone take one step to the left.

(Laughter) Alright, these are good to go right here.

So, despite my shrimp catastrophe and breaking all my own rules I think this dinner went really well.

People liked the shrimp.

I think people loved the clam dish and the good news is that it's over.

We'll take some more.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, that's it.

Great job, Justise.

You too.

Selfie!

(Laughter) Okay here we go.

1, 2, 3.

Thank you for all your help Chef Shawn.

I don't know that we would have peeled the shrimp without you.

Now, I'm headed to the Waffle House Smackdown.

Thankfully, I don't have to cook there.

I just have to judge other people.

O.S.- Thanks so much.

Bye.

Peace out.

(Music Plays) I've never been to the Charleston Wine and Food Festival before, but I've certainly heard of the Waffle House Smackdown.

It's something they do every year.

It's late night and then early morning the next day.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the third annual Waffle House Smackdown.

(Crowd cheers) So I just want to introduce our judges.

Let's start with Scottie Kimble from Royal Cup Coffee, Jan Carroll from an upstart hot sauce company called Tabasco, Stephanie Barna from Charleston City Baker, Brandon Rogers and you've worked at the Waffle House for how long?

Five years.

Five years.

You're a rookie.

And then we also have a special guest judge tonight, Vivian Howard.

(Crowd cheers) You know where she's from.

I don't have to tell you.

So, I'm here about to judge the Waffle House Smackdown and I'm just really thrilled that I don't actually have to cook.

I just get to judge and I have no idea what I'm doing?

We're gonna start the clock.

You have ten minutes.

You ready, Lisa?

I'm ready.

Pull one bacon.

They have no idea what they're doing.

(Laughter) Drop four hash browns.

Make one in a ring.

Table four is drunk and they want their food fast.

(Laughter) The Waffle House Smackdown is a real creative little event where chefs have to take orders from a Waffle House manager, using Waffle House lingo, and they have to cook those orders to Waffle House criteria.

Fire, a Texas grilled cheese plate, scattered, smothered, covered.

Scrambled plate scattered in half.

I have no idea what's going on.

Sorry.

(Laughter) Aren't you glad you're not cooking?

Oh my god!

This would be so hard.

I'm just so glad I'm not doing this.

It's really fun to watch these well-known renowned chefs struggling to cook Waffle House food and it ain't that easy to do it fast.

O.S.- We got four hash browns, three are not in a ring, two are chunked and scattered and covered.

Can you imagine these guys right now?

(Laughter) So Lisa, we do believe that both of these chefs are James Beard nominated chefs?

(Laughter) 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1.

Put down your spatulas.

(Cheering) Let's get a score for that plate.

What are we thinking?

Four?

Wow.

Generous 3.

That's not a good face you're making.

(Laughter) Okay, you're just chewing it.

Right.

Let's go taste.

5, 4, 4, 5, 4.

(Cheering) Alright.

(Music playing) One of the events I'm cooking at the festival is the Southern Betty Brunch.

It's a brunch for I'd say about 300 hungover happy people and I'm one of maybe eight female chefs cooking for it.

We're doing grits and greens.

We're going to get the grits nice and creamy and then we're going to stir in the sausage.

I think when it gets warm our sausage brick will break up.

Hey.

Oh my God.

Hey Warren.

You have no idea.

I was up at 7:30.

I said I got to get there.

I want to get there before Vivian but I see I did not.

Yeah right.

(Laughter) Can I help you with anything?

No.

You're gonna help us serve.

Okay.

Just talk.

Okay, I can do that.

What's that?

Butter?

It looks like butter, doesn't it?

Cheese.

Cheese!

I like your hat, Warren.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's very Charleston.

Yeah.

This morning is this event called the Southern Betty Brunch and Anne Quatrano whom I really admire is here.

Ashley Christensen, Phoebe Lawless, Michelle Weaver and some other folks that I don't know but I hope to meet today.

3,2, 1.

(Music Plays) So, we're sitting there prepping for the event and expecting people to trickle through the doors and come and taste our food when a curtain raises and like hundreds of people descend on us.

It was frightening.

Oh god!

Okay.

Come over here.

Come over here.

Okay, you start spoonin'.

How are y'all?

At this point of the weekend most of my obligations are over so I can kind of relax and enjoy myself.

I at least don't have to cook for anyone else.

Hey.

Hey Vivian, how are you?

I'm good.

We have the raw oysters here.

Okay.

And then the steamed oysters back this way.

Cool.

So, I thought Clammer Dave was having a clam bake, but actually, what he had was an oyster roast.

A big oyster roast.

So, that's how they cook.

When they're done... Now you really have a tan.

When they're done it takes two people, this whole basket lifts out and we take 'em over to the table and dump 'em over.

Mmm wow.

It's really really good.

I love raw oysters but I really love them steamed.

Uh huh.

That's how we grew up eating them in an oyster bar.

Yeah I think they're cooked really perfectly just as long as they're warm enough to pop 'em open easily.

This has been a pretty long and exhausting weekend.

At this point I've been away from home for four days and what you don't know is that it's my birthday.

It's kind of hard to be away from home and away from your kids on your birthday.

When Mommy gets home tomorrow we'll have cake and ice cream for mommy's birthday, okay?

Yaaay!!!

And I'll get to open all my presents.

We're so excited for your birthday.

(Laughter) Bye.

I love you.

I love you.

Aww.

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