56
WBM september 2018
OWARD grew up dreaming of being a sto-ryteller,
and her cookbook is a best seller.
“I still can’t believe it,” she says. “I read it
and I’m like, who did this? It’s the greatest
professional accomplishment of my life, for
sure. I’ve made a TV show for five years and
cooked in a restaurant for 10 years, things that
are temporary. You prep all day for something
that’s consumed instantly, you shoot something
that lasts 26 minutes and it’s gone; those feel
very temporary. I think about my children, and
when I’m gone what will they have that they
can refer back to. The book is something that
feels permanent.”
She turned 40 earlier this year. Rather than
triggering a midlife crisis, it’s resulted in some
appreciative reflection.
“Mostly I’m really grateful,” she says. “For
a lot of people, turning 40 is something they
dread, like it’s some kind of death sentence.
But I feel like … my 20s were awful. I didn’t
know who I was, I didn’t know what I was
doing, I was tremendously insecure. My 30s
were about fighting for everything — trying to
fight to find my place and my career and make
a name for myself. I feel my 40s is about mak-ing
the most of what I’ve done to this point
and really fleshing that out and not screwing
anything up.”
BAXTER MILLER
H
Vivian Howard with Warren Brothers, whose Brothers
Farm in La Grange, North Carolina, grows 40 varieties
of vegetables, 35 to 40 different herbs, and flowers for
Chef & the Farmer, Howard’s Kinston restaurant.
BAXTER MILLER
savor