The Southern Fork

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Chefs Jeff McInnis and Janine Booth are as attractive in person as they were on  Top Chef  Seasons 5 and 11, respectively.  But these two are much more than good looking people you once saw on TV. Well-beyond their quick-fire challenge days, they are in the midst of some real-life challenges of their own: running restaurants in two of the most demanding markets in the country, NYC and Miami. Partn...

Chef Bob Cook is the Chef de Cuisine of  Artisan Meat Share under Chef Craig Deihl  in Charleston, SC. Bob and I had to chance to talk before dinner service one night at sister restaurant  Cypress , and you'll notice that the sounds from the kitchen get louder as our interview progresses. This man isn't phased. He's been in kitchens since his mid-teens, and so those sounds are just the sound of ho...

You can tell that farmer Kathy McCaskill is good around baby animals -- just listen to that soothing voice. Her farm,  Old McCaskill's  outside of Camden, South Carolina, started as a hobby for this homesick farm girl, but now it's grown into a compound of sorts, with a sprawling farm house that serves as a home for she and her husband as well as a bed and breakfast, barns and hatch houses, pastur...

I first met Chef Erik Niel one night in Chattanooga a few years ago when he visited our table at  Easy Bistro and Bar . We'd just enjoyed perfectly pristine oysters on the half shell, and I was confused as we were in the heart of the Tennessee mountains. Who was this guy who was so passionate about seafood he built a restaurant around it, a restaurant a very long drive away from any ocean waves? W...

When it comes to creativity, some people have it in spades. Such is the case for Ann Marshall and Scott Blackwell, the power couple behind  High Wire Distilling  in Charleston, SC. Formerly of Immaculate Baking Company (yes,  those  chocolate chip cookies you see in the refrigerated section of your grocery store), their latest venture is small-batch spirits. As someone who really nerds out on the...

Emile DeFelice is a man unafraid of opinions. As chair and founder of the  Soda City Market  in Columbia, SC, he helps transform a Main Street into a thriving market every Saturday morning, rain or shine. But that is just the beginning. This is the man who once raised pastured pork, who once ran for the SC Commissioner of Agriculture, and who doesn't particularly like his home city's current tagli...

Cappie Peete knows how to spit like a lady. (Actually gender has little to do with it.) As the Beverage Director of the  Neighborhood Dining Group , she is the youngest person in Charleston, SC to receive her Advanced Certificate from the Court of Master Sommeliers, and so that means an awful lot of tasting wines and then spitting discreetly into a bucket. If not, she'd be like the rest of us, thi...

Eric McClam likes tractors. He also likes building things such as chicken coops and flame weeders (really, check out that gas-fueled homemade contraption in the picture!). Farm manager and co-owner of City Roots Farm  in Columbia, SC, Eric gave up a life in architecture to transform a plot of land in the Historic Rosewood neighborhood with his father. To listen to him tell it, though, he didn't "g...

Christina knows that sometimes the best part of a long day is when that cake perfectly comes out of the pan. As head of the dessert program at Charleston, SC's Hominy Grill , she cranks out the goodies (along with her staff), including Coconut Cake, fruit pies, and the best Chocolate Pudding you're ever likely to have. What makes her tic? How does she feel about the use of real butter? And most im...