#rawchs

[conniedesousa]

Are you ready for Alley Fried Chicken! #lowcountryYYC #popup kitchen party with @brandonbaltzley #rawchs #cookitraw @charcut #theotherchef

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Kitchen rawbar all set! #lowcountryYYC #popup kitchen party with @brandonbaltzley #rawchs #cookitraw @conniedesousa #theotherchef

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Low country boil table set! #lowcountryYYC #popup kitchen party with @brandonbaltzley #rawchs #cookitraw @conniedesousa #theotherchef

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Just in case! #lowcountryYYC #popup kitchen party with @brandonbaltzley #rawchs #cookitraw @conniedesousa #theotherchef

[ivyporkchopknight]

Part 3 of Cook It Raw Charleston involves bourbon, gator hunting, MoonPies and Carolina Gold rice. Plus a 4am wake up call that will never be forgotten.

In which a gator dies and we eat MoonPies 

[cookitraw]

Monday Night Potluck

Wow, that last week flew by. Hard to believe that Cook it Raw Charleston has come to a close. Fortunately, we have plenty of photos and stories to help preserve the memories, lessons, and inspirations, so we’ll be sharing those over the next few weeks. We’ve already covered the prep week and the first day, read on for a detailed breakdown of the very special dinner we enjoyed on the first full day of #rawCHS.

Potluck – the epitome of the communal meal.  A celebration of both food and social gathering that is a universal cornerstone for a community in any culture.  Monday night we gathered chefs, media, and a few local purveyors to share in a potluck dinner put on by a handful of Charleston chefs.  It was Lowcountry cooking fit for an epicure.

Giovanni Richardson, a ‘girot,’ – the Gullah word for storyteller, led us all in what they refer to as a ‘bress,’ which serves as a simple pleasure prayer to acknowledge food as the core of our existence.  

“Food is what we live for.  It makes us.  It breaks us, and this is why we call it ‘soulfood.’”  

A beautiful woman with an even more beautiful message, she is a descendant of the West African ancestors that were chosen for the South Carolina region specifically for their skills in rice cultivation and artisan crafts.  She refers to the Gullah as a ‘thriving people’ with an oral history whose traditions are passed on through the spoken, not written words.  Listening to her speak was an emotional and powerful experience – the kind that stays with you forever.

The next hour was trying to further expand our stomachs in preparation for a week of eating in the following renditions of classic Lowcountry cooking.

Craig Deihl from Cypress restaurant put up a beautiful slow roasted Berkshire pork with collard greens braised with ‘nduja – a spreadable spicy salami that presents like something of a hot sauce.  The dish was topped off with his signature spin on traditional ‘red eye gravy’ – a sorghum based gravy with the sweetness balanced by coffee and hot spice components.

BJ Dennis, a chef from a Gullah community on James Island affectionately referred to his dish as “one-pot love” – a shellfish based stew with broccoli greens and lunch box peppers.

Forest Parker is Frank Lee’s Chef de Cuisine at Maverick Southern Kitchens and his dish was beautifully composed of roast quail stuffed with Anson Mills rice grits with a watermelon molasses glaze served with pickled watermelon rind and hot sauce.

Travis Grimes is the Head Chef at Husk, and served us our first taste of fresh greens with his Nebraska salad – a composition of red and green mustard frills, flowering rapini and topped with toasted benne seeds and a benne seed dressing.  He also prepared a dish consisting of baked grits with BBQ pork collar and sweet corn puree with roasted red pepper.  

Jacques Larson, chef at the The Wild Olive put out a hearty one-pot rendition of classic Lowcountry cooking with a dish consisting of slow-cooked Sea Island red peas with house-made pancetta from a North Carolina heritage breed of hog with Tuscan Kale from the local Ambrose Farms.

Chris Stewart from The Glass Onion has been a key force in helping us organize product and activities for the week and he brought the evolutionary miracle of molting – The Stone Crab. Naturally lopsided with one claw that grows larger than the other, the unique crustacean can lose its larger claw, only to be returned to the ocean and have it regenerate through several phases of molting.

Finally, Robert Stehling of The Hominy Grill presented his dessert in the most endearing southern drawl dialect imaginable.  After all, it wouldn’t be the South without capping off a social food gathering with a few hefty servings of both pecan and buttermilk pie.  

[roadsandkingdoms]

Live oak with Spanish moss at Middleton Place; chef Andre Chiang microwaved big thatchy bunches of the moss to get rid of the mites in advance of serving it at @McCradys in Charleston. Less clear is how a chef might get rid of the sense of foreboding and dread history that seem to soak these plantation trees. Pretty sure microwaving isn't enough. #rawchs