Viewers like you make
this program possible. Support your local
PBS station. >> ANTHONY BOURDAIN:
This episode of<i> Mind of a Chef</i> is all about Sean Brock's
Appalachian roots. Sean's mom shows us how to make
chicken and dumplings. >> I got some
really good memories of learning to do chicken
and dumplings because my mom started with the chicken,
chopping its head off. >> BROCK: We can get a live
chicken in here. >> Oh, that's okay! >> BOURDAIN: And together they
make an Appalachian dinner. >> BROCK: I can't believe we're
giving away all the secrets. >> I know! >> BOURDAIN: Chef Joseph Lenn
makes fried okra and country ham. >> The way I'm going
to make it is the way my mamma made it,
whose grandmother taught her. >> BOURDAIN:
And Sean talks seeds with master gardener
John Kuykendall. >> Uniformity
is the plague of sameness. >> BOURDAIN:
Enter the mind of a chef. ♪ ♪ >> BROCK: I grew up in
the coal fields of Virginia. And it's an extremely rural way
of life there. Still is to this very day. And if you're eating something, you either caught it,
shot it, or grew it. >> ♪ Feels so natural,
to be moving ♪ ♪ Get away from the old thing,
get into the new. ♪ >> BROCK:
My mother tells everyone that she never had to buy
a pacifier because I was always chewing
on rhubarb. So as a kid, all of my chores
and activities were in my grandmother's garden,
which was enormous. My earliest memory of having
a sort of moment in the garden
was digging potatoes. I remember as a kid
digging through the dirt and finding potatoes. It was literally
like digging for gold. I didn't realize
that what I was doing was going to shape me
into the person I am today. >> ♪ Who's got a new ground,
a new soul within me ♪ ♪ A lot of things
I could share with you ♪ ♪ if you give me the chance ♪ ♪ Give me the chance. ♪ >> BROCK:
So we're here with my mom in McCrady's kitchen,
which is kind of cool. We're going to cook a dish that is my favorite dish
of all time. If I had to pick one dish
that made me the happiest, that I loved to eat the most,
it's her chicken and dumplings. You can see, it's an extremely
complicated dish. There are lots of components. One, two, three, four. Four components. I've been trying to make it
for the last 16 years the way she makes it
and I can't do it. I gave up. I actually gave up. I'm not even going
to try anymore, because I just can't do it. Who taught you how to make
chicken and dumplings? >> My mom. Your gran. I got some really good memories
of learning to do chicken and dumplings
because she started with the chicken,
chopping its head off. >> BROCK: We can get a live
chicken in here. >> Oh, that's okay. I can probably describe it
well enough. >> BROCK:
So what, we leave these on? >> No! >> BROCK: No? >> No! >> BROCK: Are you sure?
>> Yes! >> BROCK: There's a lot of
delicious flavor in there. You want to do the honors? >> Sure. >> BROCK: I've always cooked
with my mom. And when I was a kid, you know,
I was the student. And I'm still the student,
but I was just fascinated with watching her cook. >> BROCK:
Now how long will that take? (chuckles) >> Till I feel it
and it falls off the bone. >> BROCK:
You can't give me a time? >> About an hour. >> BROCK: Okay. Then I went
to culinary school, and I learned discipline
and technique and foundation, and then she hated
cooking with me. >> BROCK:
How do you know if it's done? >> You can tell if it's starting to fall off the bone. And this is way ready. >> BROCK:
She would say, "I'm never going to cook
with you again. "You're no fun. "You're worried about how clean
the countertop is. "We're supposed
to be having fun. "You're, like,
you're not even smiling. You know,
what the hell's wrong with you?" >> When I was doing chicken
and dumplings and Sean was growing up, he was
always at my elbow or never far away. He'd be standing with his nose
to the edge of the... >> BROCK:
I'm still the same way. >> Yeah. >> BROCK: The first time
I heard her say that I thought, "Wow, I thought
you'd be proud of me "cutting this carrot perfectly "and keeping my station
perfectly clean and my towel folded nice
and tight over here." But cooking's not about that
for her. >> BROCK: What's your favorite
part of the chicken? >> The dark meat in the thigh. And yours?
>> BROCK: Neck meat. >> That's what I thought. >> BROCK:
Cause that's the darkest! >> Ugh. >> BROCK:
Why is the neck meat gross? Cause you've wrung chicken necks
before? >> Yeah! I know how it feels
turning in your hand. >> BROCK:
See look at that neck meat. >> Yum. Bleh! >> BROCK: Cooking with her now
is we cook the dishes that I grew up cooking
because I need to master them. Every chance we get, we cook
just good old-fashioned recipes. And make a mess. So now the part
that has intimidated me my whole life and scared me
to death and still haunts me. Sometimes I can't sleep at night
because I can't do this. But thank God you can. Maybe you'll do it slow enough
this time that I... >> Don't blink. Don't blink. Okay, these basic ingredients. Flour. >> BROCK: Self-rising flour.
>> Yes. >> BROCK: Which you failed
to tell me until today. >> Sorry. Okay, and you just...
I sorta eyeball it. >> BROCK: So you're looking at
the amount of liquid you have, which changes every time
you cook the chicken. >> Exactly. >> BROCK: And that determines
how much flour you add. >> How many dumplings are going
to fit in that pot. Okay, buttermilk. >> BROCK: One of the things
that drives me nuts about my mom but I also love about my mom is that she never
measures anything and refuses to measure anything. I've actually asked politely
many many times, and it just doesn't work
that way. >> So we're going
to go with this today. >> BROCK:
See, that to me looks super wet. Which is why I don't know how
to make chicken and dumplings. >> You see how this
is boiling nicely? You look for the biggest boil
point in your kiln. >> BROCK: The biggest bubble?
>> Yep. >> BROCK: So you're like finding
the boiling points, and that's where you're dropping
the dumplings. >> Yes. >> BROCK:
Okay, so we add the chicken? >> Yes. >> BROCK:
So that's the tricky part. >> That's the tricky part. >> BROCK: I'll just gently
kind of move them. >> And you just sort of want to sink them in under there. >> BROCK: How do you know that
these dumplings are done? >> Well you look
to see how they've formed. >> BROCK:
Uh-huh, you can feel it. >> Separate dumplings. Stiffness, but you still want
a little bounce to them. >> BROCK: A little spring?
>> Yep. >> BROCK: Let that warm. >> Looks like it's ready! >> Let me smell. Mm... We're sniffers, aren't we? >> BROCK:
Now it's time to serve it. What do we gotta keep in mind? >> You gotta get down to the
chicken. >> BROCK: Uh-huh. >> And pick out a dumpling... >> BROCK: Oh, Lord. Mmm! >> Some people like more gravy. >> BROCK: What about you? >> I'm a gravy and dumpling. Leave the chicken. >> BROCK: You don't even
care about the chicken! I'm with you. >> That's good. >> BROCK: Oh, wow. I think in order
to move forward, which I think hopefully
is everyone's goal as a chef or as a farmer,
we gotta understand the past. I think Blackberry Farm
is a great example of embracing where you're from. I mean, this place
has done so much for Appalachian cooking and
for Southern food in general. You know, you think about
going to a market in 1915, just seeing the varieties
out on the table, and then going
to the grocery store today and seeing one variety. What's wrong with people? >> KUYKENDALL:
It'd be like, for an artist, squeezing out
three little colors on the palate and that's all
you had to work with. >> BROCK:
Yeah, it's true. >> KUYKENDALL: I don't know
how they made it out here. >> BROCK: They didn't. >> KUYKENDALL:
Styrofoam tomatoes. >> BROCK:
Yeah, they didn't. >> KUYKENDALL: And green beans
that have no taste to them. >> BROCK:
Well, that's what happened. And that's when people's opinion
of Southern food changed. John is the Obi-Wan Kenobi
of seed saving. He's there to make sure
that people like me catch the bug and continue
to pass it on. Because there are very, very,
very few people that I know who are insane enough
to do this sort of thing and to dedicate
their lives to it. >> KUYKENDALL:
Mine really began, I mean, in earnest,
from this seed book. That was 1959. >> BROCK: These illustrations
are beautiful. >> KUYKENDALL:
It's incredible, isn't it? And the first thing
I thought of was, where in the world
can you get these things? >> BROCK: I know what I'm doing
with my right arm now. I'll keep it just like that too. Same colors. >> KUYKENDALL: But two things:
a love of farming and growing things
and looking at unique varieties. >> BROCK: Diversity. >> KUYKENDALL: It is. Uniformity is the plague
of sameness. >> BROCK: I love that. >> KUYKENDALL: That probably
holds true in cooking too. >> BROCK: It sure does. >> BROCK:
So we're going to cook a very typical sort of
Appalachian, hillbilly meal. A meal that I grew up eating
a lot as a kid. Cornbread biscuits,
lots of preserves and pickles and fresh vegetables
and soured vegetables. My mom's here to show
some of the things that I haven't quite mastered. That she's the master at. And this one's centered around
polk salad or pokeweed. So this is a wild herb that
grows all over the mountains, and the side of roads. It's such a unique thing,
I've never had anything like it, but it's an herb. >> Exactly. And the berries are poisonous
so don't... don't walk by and take a pinch
of this and eat it raw. >> BROCK:
And don't eat it raw. >> Exactly.
>> BROCK: You do a technique that I've only really seen
you cook. >> It's this labor-intensive
process. >> BROCK:
So, buttermilk, flour, eggs. >> Eggs, and cornmeal. >> BROCK: I remember as a kid,
I'd be so embarrassed, because we'd be coming home
from the little league game, and we'd be driving down
the four-lane highway, and she would see a patch
of this growing and we'd all have to get out and pick it
from the side of the road. And all my other friends
would be driving by, watching us picking food
off the side of the road! >> KUYKENDALL:
I think if I could only show you one thing in this entire garden, it would be the one
that caught my interest the most back in 1959 when I found
that catalogue, and that was the Tennessee
sweet potato pumpkin. It's a beautiful
looking pumpkin. >> BROCK:
It grows like, tall, right? >> KUYKENDALL:
Yeah, about that tall. And they're extremely sweet. They have a wonderful flavor
for pies and things. >> BROCK: Being in that garden
and seeing those old varieties, he uses a lot
of the same techniques that my grandmother used
with trellising beans. And just seeing that
just instantly transported me back to my childhood. A lot of people think
Southern food is all about big bowls of fried chicken
or all these things, but the reality is, I mean,
we mostly eat vegetables. >> Vegetables. >> BROCK: Or dried things,
preserved things. So you've got all these things
that you put up. These are what we call
mixed pickle. And so what do we have in here? Cabbage, peppers, carrots... >> Corn, green beans. >> BROCK: Corn, and green beans?
>> Mm-hmm. >> BROCK:
Go ahead, fry it up. So you're going to fry that up. We opened a jar the other day
of mixed pickles. Soured pickles. I just picked it off the shelf,
opened it up, dumped it out, and it was the one
with the stalk in it. >> KUYKENDALL: Oh gosh,
I bet that was wonderful. >> BROCK:
She was so excited. >> Now, don't break that cabbage
stalk. I tried to save it. >> BROCK: We just found
the cabbage stem in there. >> Cabbage stalk. >> BROCK: Stalk, sorry. >> From good homegrown cabbage. If you'll notice cabbage today,
there is no stalk. >> BROCK: So most people
would throw that away, but we love that texture. The stalk was always
her favorite part. >> KUYKENDALL:
Oh gosh, that is, that's great. You know, that would be an
interesting jar, wouldn't it? Pickled stalks.
>> BROCK: Just the whole thing. >> KUYKENDALL:
Yeah, the whole thing. Maybe we'll have to do that
with these cabbages. >> BROCK: That's how we're going
to get rich. >> KUYKENDALL:
Pickled stalks. >> BROCK: This, which
I didn't love as a kid, but I love now, is soured corn. >> KUYKENDALL: This old variety
is called Hickory King and that advertisement
for it says, "Destined to become
a favorite in the South." So it has been. And for certain things
like pickling, There's not many others around
that I know of that you could do that with. >> BROCK: We'd just take it
right off the cob, put it into a crock, salt it,
throw it down the basement, let it sour away. >> KUYKENDALL:
And have that in January? What a treat. >> BROCK:
Yeah, you just... hot skillet, Throw that corn in there,
fry it up. Fry it up. >> KUYKENDALL: Heaven,
I can taste it right now. >> BROCK: I can too,
I want to eat that right now. So the next thing
is leather britches. This is a preservation technique for people that probably
couldn't afford Mason jars. The technique is very cool. You take a needle and thread,
just like you would see people do with popcorn
for the Christmas tree. And then you hang them
above your wood stove or on your front porch
and let them dry. And once they're cooked
they boil down in just broth with a little bit of lard. And you cook that down,
and cook that down, and cook that down
and cook that down. And the broth tastes
like pot roast. One of the great things
is watching someone taste leather britches
for the first time. Because the name
kind of sounds silly. But when they eat it, they're like, "There's no way
there's not meat in that pot." I'm like, "No, that's beans,
water and salt," you know? And they're just...
those moments I love, to share those traditions
and those techniques and those particular varieties
of plants with people and just watch the amazement
just go over their face. That's what makes it
all worthwhile for me. >> KUYKENDALL:
Almost like Christmas morning. >> BROCK: And then
the last thing: greasy beans. >> Yep. >> BROCK:
A greasy bean is a bean that's really native
to the Appalachian mountains. >> KUYKENDALL:
This particular bean is called Lazy Wife Greasy Bean. That's kind of a strange title. >> BROCK:
I need those seeds. >> KUYKENDALL: But the greasy
part of the name comes from the fact
that the pods are slick, they're greasy,
they shine in the sun. It's amazing. I mean, just like they've been
doused with olive oil. >> BROCK:
Yeah, dipped in bacon fat. >> KUYKENDALL:
Yeah, they're beautiful beans. You've seen the little,
like your grandmother's. That little short...
>> BROCK: Yep. >> KUYKENDALL:
I think it's about that size. >> BROCK:
I love watching this. Like, as a little kid
that used to fascinate me, that they would just
coil around. You know, you would come back
the next day and they'd be up here. All you do is you put them
in a mason jar with some salt water
and pressure cook it. Pressure can it. The pressure cooking
cooks the bean, brines it, flavors it,
preserves it. So all you have to do
is open up this, dump it in, and then you literally cook
all the water out of it. Mmm! That's just a particular flavor
that you can only get... >> From a greasy bean. >> BROCK:
From the greasy bean. >> BROCK: What does it mean
to be a seedsman? >> KUYKENDALL: I'll tell you
exactly what it means. I would think about
your grandmother and all of the seeds
that she saved. We're not only preserving
genetic diversity in these old varieties, but we're preserving
living history. Like the music of the mountains. >> BROCK: Exactly. Now, for me as a chef this is
an incredible inspiration. But it also changes
the respect. If I know the family history
and I know the work that went into
finding that seed, when I cook that I cook it
with ten times more care than I've ever cooked anything. We all know that Southern food
has a bad rap. It's this, it's that,
it's fried, it's all pork. Or, "I don't like grits." You don't like grits
because you've eaten it out of that paper bag with that picture of the dude
on the front. You come here,
you eat real grits. You eat real cornbread. You taste real buttermilk. You eat real country ham. You drink fine bourbon. People leave here
with a different opinion of Southern food. So, like, this would be
a pretty typical meal of her cooking
and my grandmother cooking. You know, if you look at this, you've got fresh,
clean vegetal, you've got this herbal,
crispy fritter. You've got this sweet and sour
from the corn. You got this total sour from
all these garden vegetables. You've got this crazy savory
leather britches. Your braised soup beans. And then this is I think kind of
in between all those, so... >> Dig in. >> BROCK: We're here in the
garden at Blackberry Farm, with John Kuykendall,
the master gardener here, Joseph Lenn, the chef. And we're going to make some good old-fashioned
hoe cakes the real way. >> LENN:
John's kind of heating this up and we've put a little bit
of the bacon fat on there, the same stuff we put in
the actual hoe cake mix. >> BROCK: Hoe cake mix is just
like a cornbread batter? >> LENN: Exactly. >> BROCK: So this is like the
original sort of farmer's lunch. You know, you're in the field,
you're working. Take the tool
that you're using in the field, put it on the fire. >> LENN: That is too cool. >> KUYKENDALL: You've got
a good sizzle, but not too hot. >> BROCK: Yeah, and you can
adjust your heat by how close
or how far away you keep it. That's like the perfect griddle,
though. Look at that thing! >> KUYKENDALL:
Yeah, it's a good surface. >> LENN: You can kind of see
those brown edges happening. I'll just kind of see
if we can get under there. >> BROCK: Oh, man! >> LENN: When my mom
made cornbread like this, or hoe cakes for that matter,
she always called it fried cornbread because
the amount of like, I guess bacon fat
that she used on them. But man,
it gets that crust on it and that's one thing that she
really really loved about it. >> BROCK: Ha ha! >> KUYKENDALL: Looky there. >> BROCK: Perfect. >> KUYKENDALL:
I think they look great. >> LENN: Hoe cake? >> BROCK:
What's so cool about this is you smell the fire
and you smell the embers. That's the greatest smell
in the world. That hot cornmeal
with that buttermilk? >> KUYKENDALL: That'll take you
back in history. >> BROCK:
Yeah, it takes you right back to my grandma's kitchen. >> KUYKENDALL:
This is living history. >> BROCK:
We're with the chef Joseph Lenn, one of my very,
very close friends. And he's going to make a dish
today from his childhood. >> KUYKENDALL: I wanted
to kind of do a fun dish that reminded me
of a couple stories. One being one
of the first vegetable memories I ever had in the garden,
which was... my grandfather grew okra
in the summertime. And the way I'm going to make it is the way my mom made it,
who... her mother taught her. And then we're going to do
just country ham with redeye gravy. So you don't want this pan
screaming hot, because you want to render out
some of this fat to make the actual sauce,
which is the redeye gravy. >> BROCK:
So what's cool about this is we're cooking this
on an old-fashioned... >> LENN:
On a wood stove, yeah. This is kind of
the type of stove that my grandparents
would have had, and I'm sure yours...
>> BROCK: Yeah, same with mine. This is where my grandma
would hang the leather britches to dry. And they're hanging
all over the place here. So this is, like, taking me back
to my grandma's back porch. >> LENN: We're going to take
this out of the pan here, transfer it to a plate. We're going to add the coffee. >> BROCK: Redeye gravy
has a lot of stories that are thrown around
about its origins. One of them
is Andrew Jackson being upset
at one of his guys who'd been drinking
a little bit too much the night before
and had super crazy red eyes. And he needed... I guess
the whole crew was hung over. And he told the cook, he said, "I need you to make a gravy
as red as their eyes." Tell me about this okra
that your mamma taught you. >> LENN: So, my mom just cracked
an egg over it. Just over this. And she just stirred it in. >> BROCK: I've never seen it
done this way before. >> LENN:
Next goes in the cornmeal. >> BROCK: Cornmeal probably
is the most important thing in the pantry
in the Appalachian mountains. >> LENN:
For sure, I mean, it's what people grew to survive. >> BROCK: So growing up
as a kid, for me, every single day we had cornmeal
in some form or fashion. I can't imagine life
without cornmeal. >> LENN: I can't either. So this is about
where you want it. Right there. >> BROCK: I think that looks
so awesome, man. I'm sitting here, at this stove. I can't imagine having to cook
this way every day. This thing is like
the gates of hell. >> LENN:
This is kind of like, I guess, a delicacy
for the summertime, to actually heat up the stove
and fry some okra. What you're looking for here,
you can kind of see this golden. But you can also see
how it's kind of green too around the edges. >> BROCK:
Okra's still kind of, like, raw. >> LENN:
Yeah, exactly. >> BROCK: I love that. That is going to be on the Husk
menu tomorrow. >> LENN:
Mamma Lenn's fried okra. >> BROCK: Exactly. >> LENN: The redeye gravy's
looking perfect there. >> BROCK:
Yeah, it's beautiful. >> LENN: So we'll put that on
the country ham. Man, this stuff's going
to be good. >> BROCK: That smell brings back
so many memories for me. Oh, man, look at that. >> LENN: Mmm!
>> BROCK: That smell. >> LENN: You can see, it's like
perfect redeye, right? On the spoon. >> BROCK:
Yep, that's a redeye. Yep, that fat being
the whites of the eye. >> LENN: Put some of that okra
just right in there on the ham to soak
some of the redeye gravy up. And that's it, man. >> BROCK: Thank you for sharing
that with me. >> LENN: Absolutely. >> BROCK: So awesome. This stove makes me want
to drink a lot of beer. >> LENN: Cold beer. >> BROCK: There was a moment
in my career where I really didn't have
a whole lot of interest in reviving the cuisine
that I grew up with. The older you get,
the more you cook, the more you realize
what's important. And what's important
is what you're born with and what's inside of you. The journey of life is amazing and it's easier if you know
what the endpoint is. And my endpoint
is sitting on a front porch on a rocking chair in overalls,
fat as hell with a huge beard drinking moonshine
and telling stories in the Appalachian mountains. That's what I want. Cooking these dishes,
and passing them down. As a kid, you want to run
as far away from it as you can. But the older you get,
the more you realize that enjoying life
is sitting on the porch. Captioned by<font color="#00FFFF">
Media Access Group at WGBH
access.wgbh.org</font>
