The Floating Island Workshops

It was an unseasonably warm October afternoon when The Floating Island arrived in Chapel Hill. We all hit the ground running and kicked off the 2010 Chapel Hill Workshop with a fabulous lunch at Crook’s Corner with Chef Bill Smith. He regaled attendees–including recipe editor Sheri Castle, cookbook author Sandra Gutierrez, and Publisher’s Weekly senior editor Lynn Andriani–with stories about the dishes and his time at the restaurant.

He started off the meal with rice porridge with fried oysters instead of crackers, using Carolina Gold rice from Anson Mills. This porridge is typical fair in China but this was one of the first times Chef Smith has served it at Crook’s Corner. With this bowl of warming, delicious goodness, we were served a slightly-sweet, slightly-spicy Pineapple-Tequila Sparkler. Along with the eponymous ingredients, the light, refreshing drink featured jalapeno and a dash of Peychaud’s bitters.

For our main course, Chef Smith produced tender, bone-in chicken tamales steamed with plantains and wrapped with big banana leaves, which he paired with fresh papaya. The recipe was inspired by (and ultimately assembled by) Rosy, a local Tamale legend, who served them curbside (before meddling health inspectors intervened).

And for dessert, Chef Smith presented a perennial favorite from Kim Sunee’s Trail of Crumbs: Almond-Saffron Cake (recipe). He paired the tender, subtle cake with homemade orange sorbet and a generous dollop of whipped cream.

Chef Bill Smith

During a three-course lunch at Crook’s Corner (the Chapel Hill restaurant long known as “sacred ground for Southern foodies”), chef and author Bill Smith with share the ins and outs of how he came to write Seasoned in the South, a book of recipes and stories, named not only a New York Times Notable, but also a Food & Wine best book. Part cookbook and part memoir, Bill Smith’s Seasoned in the South was published by Algonquin Books, a literary publishing house which is a division of Workman Publishing, known for more standard cookbooks.

As intuitive a chef as he is a writer, Bill Smith is constantly writing from the kitchen—daily on Twitter and at more length on his blog, A Year in the Kitchen). His next book-length project involves Mexico and working with immigrants in the kitchen. A taste of this new project can be found in the Southern Foodway’s Alliance’s journal, Gravy.

We are looking forward to lunch with Bill Smith and hope you’ll join us. In the meantime, you can visit with Bill Smith on this YouTube post that follows him on the Libba Cotten Bike Path in Carrboro, NC—part of the process for making his famous Honeysuckle Sorbet.

The three-course lunch, with wine pairings, is included in the 2010 Chapel Hill Writers’ Workshop. And it is open to the public at the cost of $29 (tax and tip not included).Please reserve online, as seating is limited.

Lunch with Bill Smith at Crook’s Corner
Monday, October 11, 2010
Noon to 2 p.m.
Crook’s Corner
610 West Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC
Reservations: online registration

Chef Andrea Reusing

We are excited to announce an exclusive family-style meal at Chef Andrea Reusing’s nationally renowned Lantern Restaurant on Wednesday, October 13. Chef Reusing has an uncanny ability to take essential Asian flavors and bring them to life with the best local products North Carolina has to offer. Gourmet Magazine recognized Lantern as one of “America’s Top 50 Restaurants,” and Chef Reusing has been nominated for Best Chef in the Southeast by the James Beard Foundation.

Andrea’s first cookbook, Cooking in the Moment, is slated for release next year and promises to be brimming with beautifully seasonal recipes, and tales of simple local meals with family and friends. Click here for an interview with Chef Reusing.

The multi-course family-style meal with wine pairings will be offered at a set price of $95 including tax and tip, as well as a cocktail hour with snacks beginning at 6 p.m. Call Lantern today to reserve your seat, as space is limited.