NO. 1 BEST OVERALL
C H E FKirsten Mitchell
While Ceviche’s repeated its 2015 win (the 2016 event was can-celed
because of Hurricane Matthew), it did it with a new chef.
Kirsten Mitchell became executive chef just four months before the
competition.
“She’s done an amazing job. She’s turned the menu into her
menu, plus my things that I want from Panama that I grew up
savor
CEVICHE’S
Judge Eric Gephart (right) gives the first-place award to
Ceviche’s chef Kirsten Mitchell.
VENITTA REEVES
OW N E R SHunter and Laura Tablier
LOCAT I O N7210 Wrightsville Avenue
with,” owner Hunter Tablier says. “But Kirsten has a Caribbean background and she knows ceviche the seafood dish that gives the
restaurant its name.”
Mitchell, the daughter of a restaurateur, grew up near Banner Elk, in the North Carolina mountains. She became familiar with the
flavor profiles of the Caribbean thanks to her father.
“My dad was a surfer, so in the wintertime we would shut down the restaurant and we would go to Eleuthera, which is one of the
only islands in the Bahamas that has really good surf breaks,” Mitchell says. “We would spend months at a time there, so I kind of
grew up with Caribbean influences.”
Before Ceviche’s, Mitchell spent four years at 1900 Restaurant and Lounge then owned, operated and eventually sold the popu-lar
Vittles food truck. Despite her experience with the local scene, her first entry into the Taste of Wrightsville Beach was to defend
Ceviche’s past successes. Along with the 2015 Best Overall nod, Ceviche’s won the People’s Choice category in 2014, just 10 days after
opening its doors.
“I felt like they wanted me to be intimidated because they stuck me in the news,” says Mitchell, who appeared alongside Weeks for a
television news segment before the event. “They asked me, ‘So, are you going to win this year?’ I was like, ‘I guess so? I guess I have to!’”
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WBM january 2018