The Southern Fork

When you walk into Smyth in Chicago, there’s no getting away from the kitchen. In fact, you’re basically eating in the kitchen, so that’s exactly where I interviewed chefs John Shields and Karen Urie Shields, in earshot (or microphone range, as it were) of two industrious sous chefs whisking things in...

You know, it was simple: I missed cake. When I was little it was always somebody’s birthday at school and some mom was always bringing in cake. Then in my 20s I started going to a lot of weddings, and well, I was all about the cake. But these days, not many restaurants serve cake, although I love restaurant...

In the culinary world, many of the people making things, and many of the people consuming things, are chasing memory. It could be granny’s Sunday lunch or a specific time or a specific experience or place, but it’s always a chase, because food and beverage can’t replicate memory, nothing can, it can only...

As Americans, we talk a lot about Mom and Pop stores -- how we love them, how we need to “save” them -- but if you press many of us, me included, we can probably tell you the best place to park at Costco. Well, it’s time to meet Mom and Pop. Four years ago, George and Lisa Bowen purchased Burbage’s...

I still write extensively, and thus, I still receive a lot of food news, usually in the form of emails from PR reps. I can read beyond the hype, but when hotshot New York City chef Michael Toscano decided to come to Charleston, SC, my town, to open a restaurant in one of my former favorite downtown watering...