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Topsail Insider
Friends of James Beard Benefit: An Evening in Coastal North Carolina
SPECIAL EVENT: September 28th at 5:30pm - Reserve your seats today!
An Evening in Coastal North Carolina, a Friends of James Beard Benefit Dinner at Beach Shop & Grill in Topsail Beach, North Carolina
What does it take to create a truly unforgettable culinary experience on the North Carolina coast? How about a dash of moonshine, some pop rocks, hoop cheese, and pot liquor?
Executive Chef Jim Foss from Beach Shop & Grill reveals the magic behind “An Evening in Coastal North Carolina,” an exclusive six-course dinner for the Friends of James Beard Benefit Series. From locally sourced ingredients to creative culinary twists, this event showcases the best flavors from the Greater Topsail area’s farms and waters.
Beach Shop & Grill
701 S Anderson Blvd
Topsail Beach, NC 28445
https://beachshopandgrill.com/
beachshopandgrill@gmail.com
Friends of James Beard Benefit Link with FULL MENU: https://www.jamesbeard.org/events/fojbb-topsail-beach-nc
Reserve your seats HERE!
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Surf City Line! Come out for Beachin’ Bowls, Margaritas, and Live Music, and enjoy your meal on their top deck with Ocean Views! Visit SurfCityLineNC.com for their full food, bar, and brunch menus!
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Welcome to Topsail Insider, where you can hear all about the businesses and events in the beautiful coastal towns in the greater Topsail area of North Carolina Coming up, executive Chef Jim Foss from Beach Shop and Grill is here today to talk about a very special event they're hosting on September 28th. It's called An Evening in Coastal North Carolina and it's a part of the Friends of James Beard Benefit Series that's held around the United States and it supports the James Beard Foundation programs. It is going to be a culinary experience that you do not want to miss and we have all the details for you today on Topsail Insider. The details for you today on Topsail Insider. It's time to indulge and experience the finest coastal hospitality on Topsail Island with Saltwater Resort and Suites in Surf City, north Carolina, designed to exceed your expectations. Guests can enjoy elegant suites featuring premium, luxurious bedding, fully equipped kitchens with dishwashers, 75-inch flat screens en suite, washers and dryers, and gorgeous ocean views. With the grand opening of their newest location, you can now relax in their saltwater pool and modern clubhouse. Perfect for unwinding, socializing and private events. Perfect for unwinding, socializing and private events. Book your next beach getaway today at saltwatertopsailcom or call 910-886-4818. Saltwater Resort and Suites redefining luxury on Topsail Island.
Speaker 1:Come on out to Surf City Line for the best made-from-scratch beach and bowls on Topsail Island. Treat yourself to their delicious bowls with shrimp, steak, fish, chicken or pork, or enjoy their peel-and-eat shrimp, beach break salads and more. They offer a full bar serving handcrafted cocktails, incredible margaritas and they proudly serve North Carolina craft beer. The line boasts the biggest deck on the island with three levels for listening to live music, relaxing in the sun or head on up to the top deck to enjoy your meal with ocean views. Visit Surf City Line NCcom for their full menus. The best service and beach vibes on the island await you at 2112 North New River Drive.
Speaker 1:Whether you're a local or visiting from out of town, celebrating a special occasion or just soaking up the sun with family and friends, it's always a great time at Surf City Line. Always a great time at Surf City Line. Hello everyone and welcome to Topsail Insider. My name is Krista and I am your host. Today we are talking to Chef Jim Foss. He is the executive chef at Beach Shop and Grill in Topsail Beach, north Carolina. Welcome, chef, jim, and thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's so great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Awesome, so glad to have you. So we are here to talk about your upcoming James Beard Foundation benefit dinner. It's called An Evening in Coastal North Carolina, but first I just want to bring everyone up to date on what's going on at Beach Shop and Grill and talk about your team a little bit. Cheryl, who's now the sole owner of Beach Shop and Grill. She's really guided the restaurant's culinary experience to new heights over the years, and she has a talented team of chefs. She has a beautifully curated menu that changes throughout the season, and y'all use locally sourced ingredients from a lot of local vendors here, which I love, and she has an amazing wine list. Her wine list, I believe, is award-winning.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And then you have these really special events, and this is an amazing event. It doesn't happen often in our area, or have there been any other ones in our area?
Speaker 2:Not to our knowledge. I believe we may be the first ones in the Wilmington area that actually hosted a beard event.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you guys, pay attention, because the menu that's posted online that we're going to talk about today it's a six course menu. You start out on the patio with the oyster station and you're getting wine pairings throughout the entire experience. You go and you have a six course meal that you're sitting down for, followed up with the most interesting dessert I've ever heard of. That we'll talk about in detail. I just want to talk about your team a little bit. How long have you been working with Cheryl and what has that evolution been like? You said you've been with her for how long?
Speaker 2:This is my fourth season. Fourth season.
Speaker 1:So you've been there for a lot of the evolution of this menu. Her vision of the menu. What has that been like for you and your team?
Speaker 2:To me it's been a challenge and I love challenges in a good way. It has enabled me to really kind of bond a little bit with Cheryl and her vision and the direction in which she wants to take the Beach Shop and Grill, which is really to a casual, fine dining Southern restaurant, really boasting and focusing on regional favorites. We got this bounty the ocean, we got the intercoastal, We've got hog farms, chicken farms.
Speaker 2:We really do, and a lot of great things really right here at our fingertips, and why wouldn't we just take advantage of that and really the vision of celebrating the food. We're just the cooks. So we're taking this beautiful piece of hog nose snapper and making that the star of a dish and being able to pair that beautiful fish with an outstanding wine that's award winning and really just elevates the experience.
Speaker 1:It is an experience, yes, perfect word. Let's talk experience. Yes, perfect word. Let's talk about your journey a little bit. Where did your culinary career begin and then what inspired you to be a chef?
Speaker 2:Well, my culinary career, I guess, began when I was a young kid, growing up in Northeast Philadelphia, and I've just always been intrigued by food, by cooking, and instead of watching normal Saturday cartoons, I was watching Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. My parents got a little concerned about me and it just grabbed me. That's it.
Speaker 1:It had me.
Speaker 2:And there's nothing else. I'm the luckiest person in the world, even to this day, and I consider myself lucky back then that I just always knew I loved this craft. I loved culinary arts and the celebration of food and the transformation of it from the raw product to what ends up on your plate, and the joy that I feel watching people's expressions and their happiness, and also the sadness that I feel when people are disappointed with the dish that I've put out. So it really works both ways, and I'm my own harshest critic.
Speaker 1:Tell me about how you transitioned through your culinary career in different locations and how you ultimately ended up here in Topsail.
Speaker 2:Well, from Philadelphia I graduated high school and in the early 80s there was two really prominent schools for culinary arts the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, new York, and Johnson and Wales in Providence, rhode Island. So I chose Providence. Honestly, I chose Johnson and Wales because I'm like, oh, new England. I had this vision of cobblestone streets and clam chowder and I learned a lot. And just going through school, having some jobs, I worked at some really good places up there doing prep a place called Al Forno which was a premier restaurant in Providence. Remember Todd English, who's a very well-known chef who opened olives in Boston and a few olives and figs nationwide.
Speaker 2:He was my sous chef, didn't realize he was going to become what he became, but just little tidbits like that along the way that have helped groom me and my culinary journey. And then I eventually got a job with Marriott upon completion of school and worked with them for a while and at the time my executive chef had a job offer to go to the Hershey Hotel in Philadelphia and it's not because I was from Philly or I had wanted to go back.
Speaker 2:Well, I was curious, but he's like hey, Jim, you want to come and be my chef de cuisine down at the Hershey Hotel. Chef de cuisine, it was one under the executive chef, Gotcha Okay. So, I was the guy who coordinated the a la carte restaurants and we had three of them at the time and I oversaw the banquet chef and the other sous chefs. You moved up quickly. Well, a lot happened.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of giving you the cliff notes, the nutshell version yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm giving you the cliff notes here.
Speaker 2:Then he left and I assume of notes here Then he left and I assumed that role of him when the Hershey's since has sold out and it became the Hilton and Towers and during that transition not that I was overly looking, but I had a job opportunity to go to the Barkley Hotel, which is on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, which is the oldest four-star, four-diamond hotel in the city. It was a very prestigious role for me. So I went there as executive chef and that's when I started kind of coming out on my own and bugging Developing a name for yourself, sort of you think.
Speaker 2:It happened a little bit at the Hershey too.
Speaker 1:Oh, it did Okay.
Speaker 2:When doing some events. There was a popular event called the Book and the Cook in Philadelphia was a popular event called the Book and the Cook in Philadelphia, where you know, famous chef cookbook authors would come in for a week and various restaurants all over the city would host them and cook for them. Yeah, so I was able to work with Emeril Lagasse, norman Van Aken, jasper White. Just brush elbows with some really, really good, talented people and again you just pick up these tidbits and you learn things that you may not realize. You learned until 10 years later.
Speaker 2:So I did the Barkley for a while, and during that time is when I did my first off-site beard event at the Penn Club in Manhattan. It was a beard sanctioned event. And it was me, philippe Chin, george Perrier from Lebec Finn, and we went up and we hosted a reception there. So that was-.
Speaker 1:This was your first connection with the James.
Speaker 2:Beard With the Beard House, and pretty much because I stalked Mildred Amico back then and I was like the young kid who's constantly calling hey, hey, can I do it now I really want to come up and do one, and it just forged a great relationship.
Speaker 1:Very, that's so cool. Very cute, by the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could be persistent.
Speaker 1:You fanboyed.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then Barkley Hotel sold, unfortunately and truly. It was probably one of my greatest jobs.
Speaker 1:I loved it there.
Speaker 2:It was very old school European flat tops and polished and maitre d's and all that type of stuff and it was during then. One of my greatest honors was I got my certified executive chef and from the American Culinary Federation I was able to host the American Academy of Chefs dinner. Very big honor in doing that. So I was pretty young.
Speaker 1:How old were you at that time?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, I think I was maybe 24. My passion is what really drove me on that and then doing some high-end dinners there. Unfortunately, the Barclays sold to a condo developer so there was no need for that and I was scrambling looking for a job. And I got a job in Penn State State College, pa, as corporate executive chef for a very small company. There was only three hotels, but I did all the food and work in the cities or something like that I would have. I guess that's where I really really started getting into what is coined nowadays as farm-to-table or seat-to-table or things like that. But for me it's like I would pick up a carrot and be like hi, mr Carrot, I'm going to do some beautiful things to you. It sounds so wrong, but it was so right to me.
Speaker 1:That's funny.
Speaker 2:But again it's that celebration of the ingredient and we're just the cooks. Mother Nature did the hard work. We're just here to not screw it up. And then from there I found a connection in Washington DC and I went and this was about a six-month-long interview process. I had to do tastings in.
Speaker 2:The company was called Capital Restaurant Concepts and they had several restaurants in the DC metro area and I had to go do tastings in each of the concepts. We had Palo's, an Italian one, we had Old Glory, which was barbecue, j Paul's, which was a regional mid-Atlantic saloon, and they offered me the job as corporate executive chef, nice, and so I spearheaded the menus for that and that's where my connection with Mildred from the Beard House really came into play and I started doing a few more beard events and so on and also developing some different concepts.
Speaker 1:Some of these combinations that you're doing are things that I never would have thought of, and we're going to go back to that dessert on this menu here.
Speaker 2:That's all Gerald.
Speaker 1:Is that Gerald? Yes, he couldn't be here today and I was really disappointed.
Speaker 2:Me too.
Speaker 1:Tell me about Gerald, how long he's been with y'all.
Speaker 2:Well, this is Gerald's second season. Gerald is a very, very talented, kind soul. We're fortunate because his style of desserts and his style of cooking really parlays what it is that we're doing at the Beach Shop and Grill. So as far as the vision of doing that fine dining Southern Carolina coastal cuisine, it's part of his roots. He's local.
Speaker 1:Is he?
Speaker 2:He's from the area.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And he understands the ingredients, he understands the people and our guest and he's very, very talented and has some skill and he knows how to utilize that and put that forth. So it makes sense for the rest of the menu, from the start, to the appetizer, to the cocktail or wine, to the entree and then the final, the dessert.
Speaker 2:You got to end strong on that because, most people that's what they remember is that last thing that they ate. Walking out, that's the last impact that you're making to that guest and he just runs with it. Man, we're very blessed to have him.
Speaker 1:We talked about how Gerald is from this area, which I think is so cool. How did you end up here in Topsail?
Speaker 2:Well, my wife is from North area, which I think is so cool. How did you end up?
Speaker 1:here in Topsail.
Speaker 2:Well, my wife is from North Carolina. How did y'all meet? So I was at Myrtle Beach Bike Week and me and my friends. We went out to a place called I think it was 2001. And my wife picked me up in the bar.
Speaker 1:She approached you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. She thought I was a golfer and then realized I had a custom 12 and a half foot chopper and yeah, the rest is history.
Speaker 1:That's so funny. Was she from this area? Does she live here?
Speaker 2:Yes, she's from Stokes County, north Carolina, which is northwest of the Wilmington area, and we did the long distance relationship for a couple of years.
Speaker 1:Were you in DC at this time. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:And got married. She moved up to DC with me. Oh, how'd she like that With her daughter and I think she cried for about a week. It was a culture shock for her from being rural North Carolina into all of a sudden oh my gosh. I'm living in a small place in Alexandria, virginia.
Speaker 1:The traffic through there is crazy, oh gosh yes, so scary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do not miss 395 or 495.
Speaker 1:I don't know, 17 is pretty bad through here too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it has its moments.
Speaker 1:yes, All right. So then she said I've had enough of this, let's go south.
Speaker 2:No, no, I mean she had a career. She started doing government contract work and did work for NSA and all that type of stuff and she's still doing that now?
Speaker 2:Oh, she is Okay, yes, With the things going on with COVID and the one thing about DC it doesn't matter whether you're Republican, democrat, independent. Everything is based off of political climate and it was just a bad time politically and there was a lot of rioting and with COVID there was curfews and restrictions and you couldn't go out to restaurants and I really don't know what it was like down here. But businesses were closing left and right, and our last stronghold, georgia Browns. We had to close after almost 25 years, with a year left on the lease. We closed it and sold it. My wife and I just looked at each other and said all of our children are in the state of North Carolina.
Speaker 2:We vacationed in Oak Island for years and years and loved the area, I said why don't we move to coastal North Carolina? That's our end game, that's where we want it to be eventually, and my criteria was I want to be near with the water.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I said I don't care and she said, okay, this is where we're moving, because I love the ocean, I love fishing and I just I want it to be beach person. And it wasn't about the money for me and I didn't need to make gobs and gobs of it, thank God. It was time for me to just kind of chill out a little bit and try to enjoy some of the things that I didn't do my own doing when I was younger. Just enjoy life for a minute.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's talk about the James Beard Foundation, because there's probably some people who don't live in the culinary world and they want to just know who's James Beard. So what can you tell me about James Beard and why he is such an important figure in the culinary world?
Speaker 2:James Beard is a pioneer of American cuisine. He was a cookbook author and TV personality and just loved food and he was a big foodie and he was involved in a lot of events and galas and he really spearheaded a big movement in our country. He started in his house, his brownstone, on the East Village on 12th Street in Manhattan. He would host elaborate dinners and so on and so on and really was all about teaching people and that's what the real premise of the James Beard Foundation is. It's an ongoing celebration of learning, of giving back and being recognized for not only culinary excellence but also from a restaurateur standpoint and from being a sommelier, you know the celebration of't.
Speaker 2:as fortunate as others get that chance to really follow their dream, and that's what the true meaning of the foundation is.
Speaker 1:I know that there is the James Beard Awards, and that's a prestigious award for chefs to win. It's a great thing for the resume as well. What about scholarships?
Speaker 2:for the resume as well. What about scholarships? They do give scholarships to accredited universities, culinary or hotel restaurant management things that are indicative to the business. Cheryl really gets behind, supporting women and further enhancing their success in our business.
Speaker 1:I did read where the James Beard Foundation also has programs in place that support women specifically yes, and for Sherry, that's very close to her heart. In addition to the women's leadership programs I did notice too when I was doing my research they have a great diversity and inclusion program as well.
Speaker 2:Oh God, the foundation. What I just spoke about is really just a big overview of it, and there's so many subdivisions.
Speaker 1:There's a lot to it.
Speaker 2:Yes, that kind of fall into play under that umbrella and, yeah, it's good, it's great to get some recognition and notoriety from the James Beard Foundation.
Speaker 1:Who decided, and when did you decide that you want to have this James Beard benefit dinner at the Beach Shopping Grill?
Speaker 2:Well, cheryl and I just kind of spoke about it and I said do when did you decide that you want to have this James Beard benefit dinner at the Beach Shopping Grill? Well, cheryl and I just kind of spoke about it and I said do you want me to give him a call? And she said sure. So I called Isabella Wojcik and I said hi, jim Foss, remember me. And she oh my God, yeah, that's great how you doing and this and that. And I said we'd like to do a James Beard event and she said cool.
Speaker 1:If you're going to do something with that title attached to your event. What are the requirements? Is there anything specific outside of the proceeds are going to go.
Speaker 2:All proceeds, 100% of everything, goes to the James Beard Foundation, and their charitable causes Got it, so we do not see a dime.
Speaker 1:And you mentioned that your mentor is going to be at the event. Is there anyone else from the James Beard Foundation that's going to be at the event?
Speaker 2:From the foundation. Yes, they're going to be sending somebody who sits on the board of directors down to represent the Beard House.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:So it's going to be fun having them there.
Speaker 1:All right, let's talk about the event details. Give us the date and the time and the format for this event.
Speaker 2:Well, the event's going to be on. September 28th Starts at 5.30 pm. We're going to start out with an elegant, romantic champagne patio reception. We're going to have a live action station. Ghost Fleet Oysters are going to be there shucking their oysters. Nice, I love Ghost Fleet. They're great guys, cody and Carrie.
Speaker 1:I want to get them on the show and guess what? Put in a word for me.
Speaker 2:I will. You want me to call them? I'll call them right now. They're so passionate about it and they're going to be working the event. They come from a mile away from the restaurant. What people would say where do you get your oysters from? I do you get your oysters from? I love saying this. I say walk down to the end of that street. When you hit water, look at approximately one o'clock and you'll see the oyster pots right out there, that's our oysters.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's so cool. I love it. It's like it makes me gleam and shine. It's like, no, you don't understand. It's like right there.
Speaker 1:You truly are farm to table as much as we can be Sure.
Speaker 2:There's four seasons and with the seasons come different things, and we're not getting as much produce as we can get in late August or in January. So whenever possible, of course, and within reason, yeah.
Speaker 1:As we get to the menu, though, you'll see, like, how much you're utilizing local farms, but continue on. So we're going to have the patio. We're going to have the patio, we're going to have that action station.
Speaker 2:We're going to have past hors d'oeuvres mini chicken ballantines from Changing Ways Farm and Holly Ridge for featured nerd chicken. We'll have some foie gras lollipops with the hair William pop rocks on it Kind of a nice little fun thing to eat. New river clams from new river clam company. We're going to have a charcoal grill out there so we're going to be grilling some, some clams and oysters right in front of our guests. And it's going to be great when real celebration of our region.
Speaker 1:So about this reception before we move on? That starts at five 30, it's out on the patios. What are you giving with the oysters at the oyster station?
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to offer some condiments. We're going to do a pickled watermelon rind and moonshine mignonette.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about that for a minute. Certainly Does it ever have real moonshine in it.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Does it really?
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Pickled watermelon moonshine.
Speaker 2:Can I say it's legal.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes it's legal moonshine. Yeah, you can buy moonshine at the ABC store. I believe yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, we burn the alcohol off and then we mix it with watermelon juice. That we just juice watermelon with that and then we just take the watermelon, we take the rind and we almost make like a bread and butter pickle out of it and just dice it nice, small and sexy.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's going to be one of the condiments going with it.
Speaker 1:The grilled oysters. Talk about the country ham, part of that grilled oyster equation.
Speaker 2:Well, we again local. We're using Lady Edison country ham. That is America's version of a fine prosciutto. Whatever region I'm in or country I go right for, okay, what is this area known for? What does it? Do you know what are the foods that are indicative to this region? I don't care whether it's central Pennsylvania, new England, and country ham is a big one, it's huge here and there's people that just do it and do it right.
Speaker 2:So it's going to be that really briny oyster from the location of where Ghost Fleet's farm is. It's so close to the inlet. It really gives it that nice briny flavor. On there You're going to have that umami from the oyster plant also known as salsify, which is it's a tuber, it's a root, and we're going to roast that to give it that flavor and going to give it a little more of that salty, fatty flavor, that balance with the Lydia Edison country ham on there.
Speaker 2:So of course I see the oysters right there in the charcoal bubbling a little bit. You're hitting it with this beurre blanc made from the champagne that we're going to be serving with the reception having that roasted oyster plant in there. It's just a proper bite right there.
Speaker 2:That sounds amazing and I recommend you start with a raw one. Just go plain, jane man, eat it, celebrate it. Don't lie to the food, just let the food speak for itself and just kind of morph through. And then we're going to be tempting you with all those other delicious Scooby snacks for the reception Okay, one of the Scooby snacks is the foie gras lollipop with the pop rocks. Yes.
Speaker 1:Everyone remembers pop rocks, right it was so fun to eat, but you know how to create those yourself. Tell me how you came up with that concept for the lollipops.
Speaker 2:You know it's what's old is new and just going back to proper pate making 101.
Speaker 1:You're looking at me like I know this stuff. I have no idea how you make any of this.
Speaker 2:So for culinarians out of there, you're just making a basic foie gras pate and then chilling it and you're just using a little ice cream scoop and you can re-scoop it out and it's still going to be firm enough that you're going to get like a little jawbreaker size foie gras ball and then we'll just skewer it. The pear gelée it's just making like a pear jelly. Okay, with pear William and pear William it comes from France and they actually grow the pear in the bottle. So you'll see the pear trees with wine bottles tied to the tree. No way. So the bloom. And you can Google this afterwards and check it out. Oh my gosh, so that the pear grows inside of the bottle. And that's people look at, how did you get the pear like?
Speaker 1:that in a bottle.
Speaker 2:That's amazing they actually grow the pear in the bottle on tree.
Speaker 1:I have learned something amazing.
Speaker 2:And then they put that distilled brandy in it, and that's what a pear William is Got it so we're going to take that pear William and just kind of do as little as possible to it, Because again you're going to hear me say this don't lie to the food. Let that speak for itself. We're going to put a little bit of gelatin in there and let that kind of congeal, and we'll take the lollipop and dip it in that gelatin, that pear-william gelatin. I still haven't decided whether I want to put a little creme fraiche or sour cream in that gelatin to make it white or not. And then I'm just going to kind of, like a candied apple, just roll it in the Pop Rock.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, this is homemade pop rock too, and the pop rock is also it's going to be made also with the pear William and all that type of stuff. How? About that and the pop rocks. It's not the Captain Original here, it's been done. I've seen it before. I don't know if it's been done with foie gras, but I've seen it used on savory applications and I figured that would just be. It would be fun. How fun. That's a fun little note like, hey, here's what's coming on the journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have the Mills, johnny Cakes and-.
Speaker 2:The Anson Mills Johnny Cakes.
Speaker 1:Anson Mills Johnny Cakes with Sloop Point Trout Again local.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the studio here is right off of Sloop Point Road, five minutes from my house, and there's right at that marina. Right there, you know, they're catching speckled trout. So again, we're going to celebrate that with Anson Mills, which is a South Carolina boutique, high-end milling company. When we order our grits for the restaurant they grind them on Monday. So you have to order, you know, and Sherry, she orders it for us. I tell her what to get Monday, so you have to order, you know, and Sherry, she orders it for us and tell her what to get, so they actually grind the grit to our spec, whatever kind of grit white, yellow, blue, red to order, and then they send it and it's perishable.
Speaker 2:So we have we. We keep our grits in the freezer, it's not like it could sit on the shelf. So that's again just a celebration of local and the quality that our region has.
Speaker 1:You mentioned the Changing Ways. Farm chicken with boiled peanut chicken liver, mousseline, mousseline.
Speaker 2:You go in any gas station around here and you see boiled peanuts.
Speaker 1:It's obviously a thing okay.
Speaker 2:And chicken livers fried chicken livers at the Scotchman, or whatever it's called. It's a thing. I love fried chicken livers. I love chopped chicken livers fried chicken livers at the.
Speaker 1:Scotchman or whatever it's called.
Speaker 2:It's a thing I love fried chicken livers. I love chopped chicken livers. I think I asked my wife to marry me because she said she likes fried liver. And you just take the two and you're making a mousse to smear in a local chicken breast and kind of roll it up and make it look like a fancy little pinwheel.
Speaker 1:To highlight that whole thing, it's Ghost Fleet, it's changing ways. Changing ways it's.
Speaker 2:Surf City Crab and Seafood Market and they're donating the crab and they're donating the hog nose snapper inland seafood out of Charlotte. They're donating local product. Nice Okay, and some artisanal product as well.
Speaker 1:Looking at the dinner menu too, like you've incorporated, like you said, like country ham is big here in our area, but so are black-eyed peas and buttermilk and pot liquor hoop cheese. Hoop cheese is a big thing around here If you were born and raised here, you know what hoop cheese is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I met my wife. I didn't know what hoop cheese was. I'm like what is this strange cheese that I keep finding in these off-road gas stations?
Speaker 1:Duke's mayonnaise, like that's what you have in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:I grew up on Hellman's, but that's a bad word down here. So, yeah, it's just taking fundamentals and putting the ingredients that we have at hand as the stars.
Speaker 1:You've embraced them in this menu though yes, and I think if anyone thinks of a high-end restaurant as like I don't even know what's on the menu, I don't know these things Well, if you're local here, you're coming to an event that has these things that you've grown up with. They've just been incorporated in a very creative way, and I love that about this menu.
Speaker 2:I just played with your mind because I'm using a big word like mousseline and then Duke's mayonnaise. It's like what's happening here so great?
Speaker 1:Talk about pot liquor for a minute, because a lot of people don't know what pot liquor is.
Speaker 2:Well, pot liquor is the juice that you stew your greens in. Yes, you know collards, turnip greens, mustard greens, the way I make mine, and I refer back to Old Glory and Georgia Browns in DC, which were all Southern-inspired restaurants. Oh, okay, our potlicker. We cook our collard greens in chicken stock and Newsky's bacon. Onion garlic, a little bit of molasses. Cider vinegar White House cider vinegar it has to be White.
Speaker 1:House. It has to be White.
Speaker 2:House. Yes, and that's kind of the basic of what a pot liquor is, but it's not a pot liquor until after those greens have stewed in it.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And we, even on the menu right now, our Buehler's pork. We take that pot, liquor we it out, we we marinate our pork in it. Wow, so so you know you're kind of doubling down on the flavor. You got this beautiful, fatty, delicate pork and then you got the collard greens, but then you're emulating that flavor of the collards by marinating the pork in the braising liquid of AKA, the potlicker that we cook those greens in. So it's a very harmonious dish.
Speaker 2:Marrying the two together Exactly, it's like how many things can I use this watermelon for? I'm going to use the juice, I'm going to use the rind and I'm going to do this. I'm going to make it with this and that, and it's like nothing went to waste. You're respecting the ingredients.
Speaker 1:So there's six courses in this dinner. Yes, they're all coming out in like one at a time, right Paired with a wine, if you choose to have the wine pairing.
Speaker 2:Correct. We're offering it kind of two ways, with the wine pairings and without.
Speaker 1:So let's just go through this menu really fast. So you're not serving black-eyed peas, you're serving black-eyed pea lard crust. For that, the Carolina tomato pie.
Speaker 2:We're making flour out of black eyed peas. I've never heard of that before. Just grind it and that's it. It's going to be a mix of black eyed pea flour and regular flour, and I don't know. My grandmother made pie crust out of lard, you know that's not a new thing, yeah. So it's just again, it's not a twist of words, or it's not anything fancy, it's.
Speaker 1:hey, man, I'm just making things your grandmother, great-grandmother, your mother made I'm just doing it the old way. Let's talk about the she-crab cake.
Speaker 2:It's not she-crab soup, unless you have crab eggs in it. Henceforth the name. Okay, okay so we're going to do a little riff on that and we're just going to make the crab cakes that we serve. They're delicious and we're going to wrap it in phyllo, but in between the phyllo layers I'm going to put the hydrated crab eggs in there to make it a she-crab galette.
Speaker 1:That makes sense.
Speaker 2:And that way you're going to have that nice light crispy, with that salty, crabby roe. That's just kind of like the quiet bass player in the back.
Speaker 1:Let's see the tea-smoked squab.
Speaker 2:Squab is pigeon. It's a petite game, bird.
Speaker 1:How are you going to serve that?
Speaker 2:What I'm going to do is I'm going to put a very light smoke on it with tea, this dish. Originally I was going to do it tobacco-smoked my wife being from growing up in a tobacco farmer's thing and everything else and I kind of changed my mind on that. I didn't know how people were going to take that or not. So I found some Carolina grown tea, so we're going to use some Carolina black tea and kind of use a little Asian accent on there.
Speaker 2:It's not going to have Asian flavors but the technique of using the Koshi rice and the tea and some orange peel to put a very light smoke on there.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:Then we're going to take the carcasses, we're going to take a fancy word offal for guts, all the guts, the hearts, the livers and all that stuff out Offal O-F-F-A-L and that's going to be a part of the succotash that's going in there. So the dewberries my mother-in-law, gladys, has already picked them in the spring and I've had them in my freezer. She walks to the end of the street so I live right behind Carol Sue Farms in that neighborhood and they have all sorts of blackberry and dewberry bushes.
Speaker 1:So she.
Speaker 2:So she goes. She went up there and she picked a bunch of dewberries. That's the inspiration for that I'm like okay, let's do it. Again, everything is so local, yeah the berry is going to really accent that gaminess of the squab and the earthiness of the succotash and give that kind of sour, sweet twang to the nage. And a nage is nothing more than a very heavily reduced stock to the point it's almost the syrup.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that was kind of.
Speaker 2:That was kind of the inspiration. I just wanted to show off a toot to snoot kind of meal, you know it's a what Toot to snoot, toot to snoot, yes, and I'm kind of using all different elements of the pig. I'm really excited to showcase the flavors of my new home you know, and showcase the Beach Shop and Grill family and what it is that we do there.
Speaker 1:You really have Like. I've never seen a menu embrace so many different local farming, whether it's aquaculture or agriculture different local farming, whether it's aquaculture or agriculture. I've never seen anyone use it to this degree and incorporated not just in one part of a dish but in multiple parts of the dish to come together and create one dish. It's really beautiful.
Speaker 2:It was a collaboration. It takes a village.
Speaker 1:Have you tried all of these in different little ways and had everyone taste it and figure out which way was the best way, like, how did you test drive your menu?
Speaker 2:Through my life I've done many, many things. I mean I had like the French garlic sausage for the study in pork. I've made that a hundred times.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Having barbecue restaurants and making my own sausages, for that I know, and I know how the flavors are going to come together.
Speaker 1:The black-eyed pea lard crust. Is that not brand spanking new? Or you've done that before.
Speaker 2:Gerald, if you're listening to this, you are going to help with the pie crust.
Speaker 1:You're not just doing desserts, but that's right Okay. So we're talking about Gerald's dessert. Here we have the cantaloupe semifreddo. Semifreddo which means half frozen. So you've got the cantaloupe frozen, semi-frozen treat that's on top of a buttermilk spice cake with the marshmallow cream. But then you have country ham. Who combines that?
Speaker 2:You know I'll tell you why. I mean Gerald, he has done this cantaloupe semifreddo and it's fantastic. And he gave me a few choices. He's like, hey, what do you think? And honestly I didn't even read the whole thing and I heard texting and I responded to him and I said you had me at country ham. You read it and in my mind I know how it's going to taste. You got that sweet kind of earthy umami from a cantaloupe. You got the chill from the semifreddo but that creaminess, that mouthfeel that it's going to give. You got that twang from the buttermilk spice cake. You're going to have those warm spices in there. That's great for the time of season. The event's going to be in Again. You got the earthy honey. You got that honey going into marshmallow, which he's making his own marshmallows, which is essentially almost like a meringue with gelatin in it.
Speaker 2:Then you got some heat coming in from that Asian spice and it's like, ooh, it's going to wake you up a little bit. And who doesn't like, nowadays, salted caramel? That's where the country ham's coming in.
Speaker 1:Boom, boom boom.
Speaker 2:So you're kind of getting hit, but it's all homogenized, it's making sense. That's a part of the journey. It's got to make sense and even though we're using fancy culinary terminology that you can Google and find out and be like oh, this is just a jelly. Oh my, why didn't you just say that?
Speaker 1:Because I would not be fine, that's true, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 2:We're very blessed to have Gerald In the words of Gerald McGuire. He completes us.
Speaker 1:It's not often that we get treated to an event such as this in our area and I think it's going to be spectacular. Let's tell the folks how to reserve their seat for an evening in coastal North Carolina. The price for that seat, both with and without the wine pairing.
Speaker 2:Sure Well, the easiest way to book a reservation, and it is limited. We're only selling 65 tickets. To keep this a very intimate night, is to go to the Beach Shop and Grill's website and just click make a reservation. It's right in front of you. Or you can do the same by going to the James Beard website click the event, do search Beach Shop and Grill and we'll pop up Again. The event is September 28th. It starts at 5.30 PM.
Speaker 1:How long do you think the whole experience is going to last?
Speaker 2:I'd say about the reception, about an hour and then probably about two to two and a half. It's going to be an evening on the Carolina coast. You know, don't be in a hurry.
Speaker 1:No, don't be in a hurry For something. This like this, you can't.
Speaker 2:Because, truly, I'm the one who's honored to be able to cook for my guests. It's that simple You're coming into my house, I'm honored to cook for them.
Speaker 1:You're going to be walking around and I'm going to be In it.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be knee deep in it, man. I may pop my head out the kitchen door and the price is, without wine, $110. With wine pairings, which I truly recommend, if you like, wine, is $170.
Speaker 2:This is a very it's reasonably priced of what you are getting here. And again, thank you to our vendors and their donations For those who haven't donated, I'll deal with you later and a hundred percent of the proceeds go to the foundation to better the future of our business. So if you guys enjoy really good restaurants, this is a great way to share your support for them.
Speaker 1:All right, insiders, you know the drill, so I will have those links for you in the show notes. They will be clickable and so you just go there and click. It'll take you straight to the reservations where you can get your tickets, and then also you'll be able to have just the link to the restaurant there if you want to just go and visit them outside of this special event. It's always a wonderful experience even without this and the six courses and the wine pairings. Just going to the Beach Shop and Grill is it's a special occasion place. It's where you just feel like you're. You're getting to do something really special, because the menu is always amazing and it does change throughout the year too, which is also nice, because every time you go in there you get to try something new, and it's special. So thank you, listeners, for joining us today. I really appreciate you always and thank you again, chef Jim. It has been such a pleasure getting to know you.
Speaker 2:It's been my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:It's been fun. I've really enjoyed the conversation today. My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:It's been fun. I've really enjoyed the conversation today.
Speaker 1:Thank you, me too. Just so everyone knows. This was supposed to be like a 20-minute conversation that we were just talking about James Beard and I'm like, nah, we're going to turn this into a whole episode.
Speaker 2:And I'm glad.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you giving me the extra time today. Thank you, you bet, and I fully expect the next time I see you and Cheryl with you.
Speaker 2:Oh, they already know that they're coming. Okay, I've done enough talking.
Speaker 1:All right, well, thank you so much. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode of Topsail Insider, please show your support by clicking the follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast listening platform. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, twitter and YouTube. Please also go to TopsailInsidercom and join our mailing list by clicking on the Make Me a Topsoul Insider button. While you're there, you can click the Send Me a Voicemail button and let me know exactly what you're thinking your message just might be on an episode of Topsoul Insider. You can email me at krista at topsoulinsidercom, or call or text me at 910-800-0111. Thank you for listening and supporting Topsail Insider and our local businesses and nonprofits. These are our neighbors and our friends, and together we build a mighty and a beautiful community I'm super proud to be a part of. I'll see you around, topsail.
