The Dirty Spoon Radio Hour

For Anthony Bourdain's birthday, we revisit one of our first stories, which also happened to be his obituary. We miss you, Tony. Every day.

As the governor decides whether to push North Carolina into phase 3 of reopening, or knock us back to phase 1 because of the booming cases of coronavirus, we look at the shape of the state and wrestle with the future of this lockdown.

Home Fried Episode #30 -- Bringing down the Confederate Monuments w/ Jon Elliston by Dirty Spoon Radio Hour

Bars have been hit particularly hard by the North Carolina shutdown. In addition to not being a part of the first phases of opening, the state also voted against allowing bars to sell bottled cocktails to go, leaving many proprietors wondering how they will survive. Stefan Huebner runs one of the best bars in Charlotte, the much beloved Dot Dot Dot. We talk to Stefan about what the next few months...

The Hop is an Asheville institution. Opened in 1978, it has been doling out ice cream to a few generations of kids, and since Ashley and Greg Garrison bought the place in 2008, The Hop has become ubiquitous in Asheville. Bu like so many other food related businesses in Asheville, this pandemic threatened to put them out of business. We talk with Greg about what things might look like moving forwar...

Lauren Maxwell reconcile's her southern heritage and draws life lessons from a tomato sandwich, Georgie Smith celebrates a beloved bean of the Pacific Northwest, and Erica Landis learns about compassion fatigue while working in a New Jersey liquor store.

As protests in Asheville over the killing of George Floyd continue to escalate, the Mayor has issued curfews to try to clear the streets. Today, we bring you a special audio collage of the streets the hour before the curfew went into place.

With all the conjecture about China these days, we decided to head directly to a source for some clarification. Spencer Musik is the Managing Editor of China Xinhua Sports in Beijing. A native of Rome, Georgia, he actually returned to the states during the outbreak to care for family, but with a life split between the US and China, he offers a unique perspective on both nation's response to the pa...

As North Carolina enters Phase 2 of the reopening process in the wake of Coronavirus, the infection rate spikes as restaurant workers are called back to work. Here's our look behind the scenes at the front line workers and the stark choices they are facing. Between small businesses struggling to hold on and workers fighting for their health, the friction feels like a tinderbox, ready to erupt at a...

No Home Fried today! We are busy putting together a special report for Saturday from Dirty Spoon called Tinderbox; a look at restaurant workers going back to work in the midst of this pandemic. Find it wherever you get your podcasts by subscribing to the Dirty Spoon Radio Hour.

Listeners to Dirty Spoon may recall journalist Anna Nguyen from our episode where she profiled and interviewed Chris Scott, from the show Top Chef. Since then, Anna has relocated from Montreal to Cambridge/Boston to take a position as a research fellow at Harvard. We catch up on what it is like living in the city during lockdown, and the racist blowback one can feel just for being an Asian-America...

With restaurants closed and Farmer's Markets drastically sized down, local farmers are left with a ton of food in the ground and nowhere for it to go. For a lot of beginning farmers, it's causing them to innovate in ways they didn't expect when they got into the game. Nicole DelCogliano of the Organic Grower's School catches us up to speed on what is happening with Western North Carolina farmers....

Chef Joe Marple catches us up on the final results of the Asheville Hot Sauce Battle: where 32 local contestants duked it out for the crown of Best Hot Sauce. Plus, we play another rousing game of Pantry Raid, solving listeners conundrums as to what to do with hard to work with pantry goods!

Brooks Reitz has his hand in a great many pots. In addition to being a founder of the Jack Rudy Cocktail Co., Brooks runs 4 restaurants; Leon’s Oyster Shop, Little Jack’s Tavern, Monza Pizza, and Melfi's. We catch up on the state of Charleston heading into the reopenings, and what it looks like to try to run 4 restaurants in the middle of a national shutdown, and how Brooks stays so resilient duri...

The Outer Banks of North Carolina can't seem to catch a break right now. After a hurricane ravaged the region at the tail end of their season, the Covid-19 has shut everything down again just as the season was supposed to start picking up. That can be devastating to a region that relies on tourism. We talk with Outer Banks vineyard manager John Wright of Sanctuary Vineyards about what they are doi...

Nothing like a good, ol' fashioned hot sauce competition to help us get through this lockdown, right? Today we chat with Justin Ferraby, who, together with Joe Marple and IamAVL is hosting the Asheville Hot Sauce Battle, a competition between a few dozen restaurants and amateurs alike for the mantle of best hot sauce in Asheville. Justin also catches us up on what the future looks like for the Ora...

Alice Gohan moved to London over a year ago, and almost immediately she began missing the food from her home in Hong Kong. So she did what anyone would do in her shoes, she called her mom for the recipe, and learned to make it herself. Her instagram feed @chopsticksandapint is a wellspring of classic Cantonese dishes and recipes. We chat with Alice about what it's like living in London during this...

Home Fried Episode #18 -- Asheville Strong with Catherine Campbell by Dirty Spoon Radio Hour

For nearly a century, Asheville built its economy around tourism. After the recession in 2008, it doubled down on that bet. But as the coronavirus lockdown stretches into yet another month, it leaves local entrepreneurs and politicians alike asking if that model is sustainable. We dedicate the whole hour to the questions of how we got here, and what happens when this is all over?

Cass Herrington is the host of Morning Edition on Blue Ridge Public Radio, and is a reporter covering immigrant communities in Western North Carolina. Her current work revolves around farming systems and how they are being impacted by Covid-19. She also helped found and cohost Skillet, a podcast about the intersection of food and memory. Jon talks with her about how producing a show about food has...

Home Fried Episode #16 -- Progress in isolation with City Council candidate Kim Roney by Dirty Spoon Radio Hour

It's time for another round of Pantry Raid games! Our listeners have submitted trouble ingredients that are taking up space in their fridge or cabinet and we are here to help you come up with creative ways to use them! Our guest today, Chef Steven Goff. Some may know him as the Chef at Aux Bar and Brinehause food truck, others as a former culinary instructor at AB Tech, and others may remember his...

When Food Connection was founded, it was to address a different crisis in Asheville, getting food that would otherwise go to waste to people in need. In a city where nearly 25% of the residents have to do without, Flori Pate -- Food Connection's founder -- helped them get access to a decent meal. But in the current crisis, the need has grown exponentially, and Food Connection had to figure out how...

Today we head to Greenville South Carolina to check in on the future of one of the fastest growing restaurants scenes in the southeast with travel writer and At Home Magazine editor Steph Burnett. Plus, we play a rousing game of Pantry Raid, helping listeners figure out what to do with neglected items in their cupboards.

Home Fried Episode #12 -- The Future w/ Asheville Citizen-Times reporter Mackensy Lunsford by Dirty Spoon Radio Hour