Chef's Corner - August 2007
Fresh Vegetables Come to Center Stage
I was lucky enough to grow up in Wise County, in the southwestern corner of Virginia. Life is still quite rural there, and the family garden is a very important part of life for most everyone. The food we ate came from those gardens – we never went to restaurants for dinner, not even for special occasions.
As a boy, I could often be found wandering through my grandmother’s garden, eating anything that I could get my hands on – so much so that my mother likes to tell people that I “teethed on a stalk of rhubarb.” Growing up in an atmosphere so rooted to the earth gave me a deep appreciation for vegetables. Perhaps more than anything else, that’s why I’m a chef today.
