[piano intro] [upbeat cheerful music] - [Announcer] It's the food show.

Join us from the mountains to the coast as we dig into some of North Carolina's favorite foods and the inspiring stories behind the chefs and the foods that connect us all.

It's all on "My Home" coming up next.

[gentle relaxing music] - [Narrator] All across the state, we are uncovering the unique stories that make North Carolina my home.

♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Come home ♪ [mellow music] - Growing up in New Bern, I mean, it was one of those upbringings where it's a small town in North Carolina, everybody knew everybody.

[mellow music continues] There's a lot of little instances growing up that were anchored in a plate of food.

I changed the word trade to I'm learning my craft, and that became a whole different perspective now.

Now, I started digging deep.

I started learning about what it meant to learn about different cultures.

The one aha moment that was really pertinent to me is that growing up in Eastern North Carolina, we ate specific food.

[mellow music continues] That love affair of the water comes from that.

Even right now, I go to the water, I feel a sense of calm, I feel at peace.

It feels organic there for me.

And I go right back to those roots.

- Yeah, they grow in these beautiful little clusters.

- Oh, look at that, oh wow.

- My name is Ricky Moore, and my home is Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

I'm from New Bern, North Carolina, and I'm the Chef and Owner of Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham, North Carolina.

[mellow music continues] In the very beginning, I immediately found who can get me North Carolina seafood in Durham.

The most important thing is that I really paid attention to who I was sourcing from and how they shared my vision.

We are going to meet somebody special.

[Heather chuckling] Look at this.

Oh!

- Hey, y'all!

Finally.

- What's up?

How are you?

How are you?

- So good, how are you?

- Good to see you.

- I'm stoked to take you out today.

- Finally getting that done.

- Finally.

This is gonna be fun.

- This is Anna Shelem, shellfish queen.

- Oh, I love that.

- All about that life.

- Shellfish queen, I love it.

- All about that life.

- Thank you, Chef.

- Thank you for having us.

- I'm excited to take you to the marsh.

- So tell us what we're gonna see today.

- We're gonna go get, well, whatever you want, clams, oysters, mussels.

If we see a sand crab nest, we're gonna totally get in, fingers crossed.

We're gonna do sea beans.

You ask for those for your preparations.

- Yes, sea beans, sea beans are important because it's gonna be part of the preparation.

We're gonna do this, whatever we harvest shellfish, pot roast stew thing.

[uplifting music] [uplifting music continues] - We are waiting for the tide to go out a little bit more.

Tell us what we're gonna do, Ana, what's our next step?

- We are gonna start with oysters 'cause the beds are getting nice and exposed now.

And then we're gonna do some clamming.

The mussels grow up at the base of the marsh grass, so we'll finish with that and then we'll collect sea beans and whatever else Ricky wants to cook up.

I make these little cluster busters.

Legally, oysters can, when you harvest 'em, have to be three inches.

If we have to bust anything off of an oyster 'cause we only get singles, that's your size limit.

- Understood, and you made these.

- Yeah, we try to be as self sustainable and self-sufficient as possible.

- Fantastic, okay.

- That's boat life.

So we're looking for shape on the top of course, and shape for the cup and size.

Let's see, the tricky thing about the wild is you never, like when we land on an area, I never know if it's gonna be right.

- Is this?

- That's pretty.

- My first one?

- Hey [chuckling]!

There you go.

So next, I'd hold it by the oyster itself.

- Yeah.

Okay.

- And then break the excess off.

- Got it.

[metal clacking] - There you go.

- All right.

- Save that little fresh cook.

- Right on.

- Ooh, is that a little whelk?

Never cooked whelk before.

- Really?

- But we have one to play around with.

- Oh, that's awesome.

- They're hard to get out of their shell.

- You treat a whelk same way you treat like snails.

- Yes, so the reason these are whelks and not conch is the conchs are only herbivores and these guys eat clams, and oysters, and they eat meat.

- So they eat shellfish, man, so the meat is just spectacular once it's handled correctly.

- Yeah, exactly.

- You know what I mean?

- I know that that corner's gonna be good and there might be a nest on the way, so let's walk around.

- Okay.

- Guy is pretty.

Heather, if you wanna grab that basket, we can work our way around, and do some clamming.

- Ricky, how many clams have you found?

- [Ricky] One thus far.

One delicious one.

- [Heather] One delicious, we're gonna starve.

[all laughing] Oh, man.

- Here you go, all right.

- [Heather] That's two.

- I'm on a roll, I'm on a roll.

Come on Heather, lemme count mines, man, lemme count mines.

Don't say it out loud.

Come on, man.

- It's frustrating, right?

Because it's wild, everything is so unpredictable.

It can be very un-exhilarating [chuckling].

- [Ricky] Oh, oh, oh, oh!

- [Ana] Oh!

- Oh, oh, oh!

- [Heather] Yeah!

- Look at that genius.

Look at that genius.

- It's gonna be so good [chuckling].

- So, Ana, so we out here getting ready to harvest mussels.

- So they grow at the base of the marsh grass, and they kind of grow like little blooming onions.

- Right.

- So you can see like this, we'll call it a family here.

- Right, right.

- They grow in these clusters and some have oysters attached, and if we can't break those off easily, we leave 'em and put 'em back in.

But I like to use a hori hori knife, so it doesn't disrupt the bed itself too much.

So we're gonna put right down the side put it under and push up.

- Like this?

- Yes.

- All right, cool.

- And then it'll bring them up to the surface, detaching them.

Oh dang, they're excited to see you.

Once you get in like that, you can use your hands afterwards.

- All right, all right.

- Okay, Heather, you can count now.

I got 17 now.

- [Heather] Okay, I see that.

[Ana and Ricky laughing] - I got 17, okay?

I'm pulling it up like that.

[keys jingling] [door creaking] We do a lobster roll social every year.

Been doing it for the last seven years I believe.

And it started off as me wanting to serve lobster rolls, that's it.

I know it's not North Carolina local, it's not.

But I liked them, so I wanted to serve them on the menu.

Now, on that day, I also serve crab grits in the morning.

[upbeat cheerful music] [upbeat cheerful music continues] The reason why I do it on Thanksgiving is because of the historical context of lobster being offered during Thanksgiving.

What I've studied is that there was no turkeys up there.

There was more seafood, so that was the other hook, if you will, pardon the pun.

The reason why I served lobster rolls on Thanksgiving because the center of the plate was seafood.

That's what we called GBD, golden brown and delicious.

- It's been our tradition for a couple of years now.

This is our third year coming.

- They're really good.

If you have a chance to, you should get them.

- It's this wonderful part of this certain community is it's a really food centric community.

[upbeat cheerful music continues] - We drove all the way from Winston.

We left at, what time did we leave y'all?

- Almost seven something.

- Almost seven something.

We were up at 6:00 AM.

Yes, we were like, "We're coming and we're gonna stay the day."

[upbeat cheerful music continues] [upbeat cheerful music continues] - I was blessed to have a lot of good cooks in the family.

At grandmother's house, she would prepare for us, me and my brother, would prepare for us to come and visit her on the weekends.

She would organize the meal for the entire weekend.

A lot of my upbringing was totally centered around food, but at that time, I didn't connect with that.

[mellow music] Just before getting outta high school, I enlisted in the US Army.

And when I joined the military, I joined as a cook.

And a lot of times, people have this perception of military food being a bunch of slop thrown on a plate, but that was not my experience.

My experience was developing a skill, developing discipline, learning a trade.

Come to find out, I started to enjoy what it meant to be a cook in a commercial kitchen, in a commercial environment.

And I started to research, and I found the Culinary Institute of America.

The school was started by GIs, and I was a GI, and that's how I kind of got started professionally.

I'm gonna start to chop up these 10 oysters.

Take the little.... - Take the leaves.

- Yeah, the leaves, yes ma'am.

You got it, you got it.

You've been doing this.

- And I'm married to a chef, come on.

- [Ricky] Yeah, you know the skills.

- You know I cook at home all the time.

- You got the skills.

I met Norma in Honolulu, Hawaii, particularly in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Norma and I were both from the military.

I was assigned to the island.

I was walking through the barracks.

She was on duty at the time, and I just saw her and said, "Hello, I like you."

I think it was simple as that.

I believe she started asking about me or something along those lines, and we was kind of back and forth.

And all of a sudden, we came together.

This dish right here, Norma, I thought about oyster's Rockefeller.

- Really?

Behind you.

- You see that?

That's restaurant lingo, behind you.

- I'm going behind you.

You have to say that.

[Ricky chuckling] - [Ricky] Oh yeah, oh yes.

We had fun.

We were traveling, doing cool stuff, out and about, having a good time.

We were going to Michelin star restaurants in our early 20's and 30's.

That was what we did.

We would travel to Paris, we would travel to San Francisco.

She grew up in a family that food was a big deal, so that was another connection.

We've been married 30 plus years.

Bon appetit.

- All right, bon appetit.

- Bon appetit.

- [Norma] You need to cook this more often, put that on the Saltbox menu.

- We've always, as a team, always wanted to elevate ourselves, not to be better than anybody, but we come from very humble beginnings.

When I won the James Beard Award, it was incredible.

It was a validation.

And I made sure when I was on the stage, I shouted out North Carolina fisher folk.

I gotta let people know, that's now my responsibility.

With those sort of platforms, now I move through spaces and make sure that I talk about these things.

Everything that was taught to me, everything that people share with me and what it means to stay the course, that's what that was for me.

Sometimes, it comes when it needs to come, when you're ready for it and ready to receive it and appreciate it.

I had traveled around this planet cooking and learning and studying and that sort of thing.

And I came back home and I got awarded for food I grew up eating.

Think about that.

It was such a beautiful thing to say, you know what, I got awarded for doing something that's indigenous to North Carolina and what I grew up eating.

[gentle mellow music continues] [gentle mellow music continues] [no audio] - When it comes to food, I think food is medicine, but I also think food brings people together.

Sharing a meal with someone, we can learn so much about that person.

And I think specifically now with what is happening in the world, I think we need to just take a minute, take a deep breath, and just try to get to know each other, and I think food is the perfect connector for that.

My name is J Chong, and my home is Asheville, North Carolina.

[mellow music] I am a Private Chef here in Asheville, North Carolina.

I am a vendor at farmer's markets, so I sell my frozen dumplings and sauces at the farmer's markets.

And I also hold private dinners, cooking classes, and a couple popups around town as well.

Most of my recipes came from watching my grandparents cook it.

It was just basically sitting in the kitchen with my grandmother, just watching her choose certain ingredients.

And it could have been because that was in the refrigerator that was at the market, or that's what her grandmother always used.

So I think it's just fascinating, learning about people's culture through food.

I was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario in Canada.

[uplifting music] First generation Cantonese, grew up in a very traditional Cantonese household, Chinese household.

So in Toronto, there's a lot of different diversity.

I think a lot of different people immigrate to Toronto because it was so easy for us to do that.

So it was kind of like a melting pot for different people.

And my family chose Toronto as a landing spot.

And then I played soccer from the age of six so that, I go to soccer, 'cause I think soccer was the pivotal point in my life that brought me to the United States.

Played soccer my whole life and landed a soccer scholarship to Mississippi.

I think it was a great learning experience for me, just learning about myself, about humanity.

I knew that I was gay before I went to college.

There was something in me that I just knew.

And I think for me, growing up in a very strict Cantonese household, it was important for me to go to college to play soccer first and foremost.

I just wanted to play at that level.

But I also chose to go so far away from Toronto so I can come out.

I think a lot of queer people can relate to that and kind of resonates that there's people that grew up in households that were very welcoming and opening and like, but then there's situations like me where it wasn't like that.

So I knew that I had to go a little further, maybe a different country to come out.

I graduated with a education degree.

I decided at 25 years old, I wasn't old enough or mature enough to teach, so I just had random jobs.

And then at age 35, I decided to go to culinary school because I love cooking.

And that's when I met my wife.

So I would cook for her and I just felt it in my elements.

So I would dance in the kitchen, play Beyonce or whatever.

And I was like, "Well, maybe I should try "to get paid to do this."

[gentle mellow music] Food is love.

Think about your earliest memories surrounding food, let's just say.

It was probably during a very memorable time or a gathering with someone you loved or someone that kind of took care of you maybe.

'Cause food is nourishing, there's a level of passion and love that goes into whatever you're making.

It's just human nature, right?

Because that's when it comes to food, we're presenting it for someone to appreciate and to enjoy, so that's where the love part comes in, just naturally.

So I've always made dumplings growing up.

It's like one of those things, you can't just make 10, you have to make 500 because you make a batch, you sit there all day and you just wrap dumplings all day.

And I've always joked that I was gonna start my dumpling business.

So worked for Katie Button for about five years, and then it was February of 2020, I gave my notice because there was something within me that just had a desire to cook.

[gentle mellow music continues] I felt like it was something that I needed to do to reintroduce what Chinese food is to society, and just kind of allow people to understand that it's not saturated corn syrup.

It's not cheap, it's not fast and greasy.

So I put in my notice.

And then a month later, the restaurant shut down here in Asheville.

So I was out of a job and I was like, "Well, I was already planning "on opening up my business."

And the plan was to sell frozen dumplings.

We were three or four weeks into the pandemic.

My wife and I were just, I was driving her crazy.

We're chilling with the dogs outside.

And I was like, "You know what, let's just start this now."

So I started my Instagram page and I just put a post up saying, "Hey, I am selling frozen dumplings about a dozen."

Sent it, went to bed, woke up in the morning and we had 100 orders.

People would just, "Yeah, I'll take a dozen."

"Yeah, I'll take four dozen, whatever."

And I just started making dumping.

And one of the deliveries I made happened to be a market manager and they hit me up.

They were like, "Hey, do you wanna vend at a market?"

I'm like, "Absolutely."

So here we are now, three years later.

"The Big Brunch" experience as a whole was great.

I think the environment and what Dan Levy built was something I don't think any of us knew what was gonna happen.

The purpose was to bring chefs that were doing good things in their communities and have them come and share their stories on TV and let food be the connector.

He gave us all permission to just be us.

I think that just gave me permission to just be me in that setting.

I really appreciated the response people had to my people's food.

And I mean that in a sense because I'm able to come into your home, prepare a meal for you, perhaps celebrating a special occasion and it's intimate because I'm in your home.

You're inviting me into your house, I'm sharing my grandmother's recipes with you, telling other stories.

So I think that part, just being able to be that intimate with people that are able to enjoy my food.

[lively bright music] We like to hopefully encourage people to continue being themselves in whatever it is, or get to a point where you figure out what your purpose is and go for it.

[lively bright music continues] 'Cause we really only live once and we only have one chance in this life, so why not just try to do what we think we want to do?

And if you're good at it, just keep doing it.

I hope people just feel more comfortable in their own skin to do you, just not what people us to be, but go out there and do you because we all just need it.

[lively bright music continues] - I didn't really ever have any plans or intentions of bringing my art background into the hospitality world, but as soon as the opportunity became available, it just is the perfect combination for me.

I love using my hands to create things.

I love the feeling of clay.

It's really a give and take.

You really have to feel what the clay is doing and react to that.

I love being able to design whole spaces.

I am very detail oriented, but also think about the bigger picture and think about how a space feels once it's complete.

My name is Michelle Vanderalker, and I'm Co-Owner and designer of Queeny's Kingfisher and Queen Burger all in downtown Durham.

I'm also a Potter and make all the pottery for Kingfisher and Queeny's.

And my home is Durham, North Carolina.

[upbeat cheerful music] [upbeat cheerful music continues] [upbeat cheerful music continues] Durham is just the right size city.

You don't necessarily know everyone, but you may recognize people.

There's also universities here, there's arts here.

It's a very family friendly city.

For the size city it is, there's a lot to do.

It feels very community oriented within the restaurant industry especially, we're very close.

There's just an excellent community of people who support each other.

[upbeat cheerful music continues] - Queeny's is an amazing vibe, atmosphere, just energy.

Everything about Queeny's is very, very special.

And the fact that they have this podcast space, I mean, come on.

The first time me and my co-host came here, we felt like family.

We'd known these people forever.

The studio itself, coming in, you have to pass the bar to get there, and you meet all of the Queeny's family [chuckling].

So you meet the Queeny's family and you get to know them.

Having that space where we can come and feel welcome, that kind of sets the mood for the content that we ultimately produce.

[upbeat cheerful music continues] - It's my go-to place.

Whether it's cold, warm, raining, sunny.

I actually work from home and came to Queeny's to just finish my days and basically created a little community here.

So we always joke that it's the Tuesday crew, and just like a sense of family, sense of community.

The bartenders know who I am, who others are.

It feels very comfortable and safe.

And also there's a lot of fun events from music to drag shows, there's so much to do.

And also, the food is really good, and it's in a central location.

- Development of Queeny's was really interesting because neither Michelle or I come at it as a chef proper.

So it was really what kind of restaurant and space and experience we thought would fit in and mesh well with the rest of Durham.

The downtown loop, as I like to call it, has a lot of very nice, but I would say medium to expensive restaurants, and we wanted to create something that was an everyday accessible, affordable, and consistent experience for more of the folks who live in Durham.

- Things are a little bit different than you might expect based on the menu or chicken crispers for example.

They're pretty straightforward, but so delicious.

We also have a kale salad and our kitchen is open until 2:00 AM every day.

And sometimes, there's shift workers, restaurant workers, nurses who get off and there's nowhere to eat a whole decent meal.

We already made the salad for you, it's here.

You can fill up and feel good about it.

We have a really excellent burger.

One of our most popular items is our birria friendship.

It's this really wonderful braised beef, cheese bread from a local bakery.

Our fries are so good.

And then for dessert, we have an ice cream cake, which is, will really just take you right back to your childhood birthday parties.

As an artist who's also in hospitality, I love doing things as many things as I can myself and also involving the people that I know.

So when we built Queeny's, I learned how to pour concrete bar top and poured the bar top myself.

And I painted all the walls myself.

My brother is a woodworker, and he built all of our tables for us and also some hanging lamp pendants in the bathrooms and over one of the booths.

One of the bartenders we originally hired is also an artist, so he did a giant chalk mural on our wall.

One of my friends from years ago, I commissioned to sew a quilt that hides our TV when it's not in use.

And my carpenter friend also built out the book room and filled up one window with bookshelves and built me a little window seat.

[patrons cheering and applauding] [Kristine laughing] I hope that when people walk out of Queeny's, they feel more connected to Durham and the community, and maybe to a specific person that they've met there, and feel like there's really a place for them to be themselves and come alone or with a group of friends anytime of day or night.

[gentle music] ♪