thing local on their special board, but we try to push local food
on our whole menu year-round,” he says.
“Flavor is king in the restaurant business,” Cook says. “And
you can’t beat the flavor you get from fresh, locally grown,
just-picked produce; or fish that was caught and cleaned and
delivered just hours before serving. Or beef, pork or chicken
that was processed the day before and delivered the morning
you’re going to use it. Sure, sometimes we run into supply
issues and we have to change our menu on the fly, but that’s
part of what makes this job rewarding.”
“It’s not just flavor,” says Tina Moller of Nature’s Way
Seafood and Farm in Hampstead, “there are a lot of benefits
to eating food grown locally. A lot of farmers around here are
moving toward pesticide/herbicide-free practices and fishermen
are only catching what they can sell. There are health
benefits to eating quality food free of chemicals and preservatives.
And there are moral benefits in supporting humane,
savor — guide to dining on the azalea coast
responsible farmers, fishermen and ranchers.”
“On top of that, there’s an economic benefit,” says Bill
Moller, Tina’s husband. “With more restaurants using local
farmers and more farmers’ markets popping up … that
keeps money here rather than sending it to some multinational
fishing company out of Singapore. That has real benefits
to our local, state and national economies.” — JF
With its roots firmly entrenched in French cuisine
more than a century ago, dating as far back as the time of
Georges Auguste Escoffier and Ferdinand Point, only to
be reprised in the 1960s with Nouvelle Cuisine, the Farm
to Table movement continues to evolve today as chefs
chalk their boards and rewrite their menus daily to take
advantage of the bounty of fresh ingredients found at their
back kitchen door.
So whether you find yourself seated in East at the
Blockade Runner with a first course of summer vegetable
carpaccio served with micro greens drizzled with extra
virgin olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar or drooling
over Crow Hill’s delicious pan-fried Sneed’s Ferry jumbo
soft shell crabs, you don’t have to be a hipster to ask
your server the origins of each dish you find on a local
restaurant menu, but it just might enhance the experience
and prepare you for the next evolving food trend
— foraging for naturally growing ingredients like wild
fruit, berries, greens and mushrooms, all within driving
distance of your dining table.
“...local farmers grow ingredients
focused on flavor rather than shipping
durability, and that we pick and
deliver our produce, most of the time,
within 24 hours, retaining more flavor
and nutrients...” Stefan Hartman
87
WBM
Strudel of
local ratatouille
from Kyle McNight,
Circa 1922
N.C. trout with
sweet potato hash,
pancetta and brown
butter
from Derrick Cook,
Crow Hill