COUNTRY ACCENT
It’s an incredibly vulnerable thing for me to even admit, but for a long time, being a chef on TV saved me from being a chef in real life. So much so that by the time I turned forty, the restaurant that once upon a time couldn’t run without me—my flagship, Chef & the Farmer, in Kinston, North Carolina—could no longer run with me.
In the years my series aired on PBS, Chef & the Farmer had morphed from a special-occasion restaurant into a pilgrimage destination. Guests traveled from near and far to scratch an itch more gnawing than hunger. Fans of the show wanted to see me, and when they did, whether they hailed from Raleigh or
