Many of you know that I am a huge fan of the Modern Farmhouse esthetic.
I wrote a post a while ago about the subject
here and it has been viewed over 20,000 times.
Clearly it is a style or perhaps a lifestyle that resonates with so many.
It's a dream for some and a reality for others but the Modern Farmhouse look
has become the darling of Pinterest, with bloggers and decorators
and of course retailers are on the bandwagon
I thought I would share another version of the Modern Farmhouse,
a conundrum of styles and ideas
created and lived in by a chef
in rural North Carolina
I must confess that I am not a big television watcher but I happen to love PBS and many of the other interesting cable stations that have incredibly well written
and creative passionate stories.
A Chefs Life is just that.
The series takes us along on the rather private and very interesting journey of Chef Vivian Howard, her husband Ben and their family.....once New Yorkers,
they now reside in a very rural, middle of nowhere place:
Deep Run, North Carolina
Vivian and her husband were persuaded by her parents to move back to North Carolina
by dangling an organic carrot of sorts...
financial support
to assist them in opening their own restaurant
and a plot of land to build a home
Their restaurant is called aptly called The Chef & The Farmer
and that is essentially at the core of her cooking
Her relationship with local Famers
and her ability to utilize the most basic of ingredients
to create dishes fit for the cover of any
top notch Food magazine is the story line here
She readily embraces the ingredients of her childhood
and the regional specialities with such glee and focus
that she makes the lowly sweet potato
seem like a gift from the gods....
we would all agree
Corn is just one of the more important vegetables grown in this region.
as is wheat and rice
oysters and of course shrimp
and all things pork
including the rather odd and mouth watering (at least when it's done)
pork cracklin'
No regional item is off limits and in a couple of episodes we learn about Tom Thumb.
Yes my friends.... Vivian creates a sausage encased in the appendix of a pig
and serves it at a James Beard dinner in NYC....
courage, confidence and the heart of a chef
are at work here
Most of her cooking is much prettier that the Tom Thumb
but she feels the need to share all of North Carolina's specialties
with her diners as well as others who love southern cooking.
She creates dishes that could be described as
"the new normal" such as her pimped up grits!
As basic as many of her dishes sound they are in fact quite complex,
layered with flavor elements and require hours of preparation to get the desired end result.
You will see when you watch the series how much time she spends just creating a new dish
and working with her young staff
At some point after the opening or the restaurant
she and Ben started a family and have twins...
so I'm assuming that's why the Farmhouse was necessary
They had lived in her childhood home for many years before building the house
and the need for her own kitchen,
bedrooms for her children and privacy for her and Ben
jump started the process
The house sits on a parcel of her parents vast acreage and was the topic of much discussion by the locals while it was being built
Some thought it looked like a spaceship
and others a Doctors office
It actually looks like neither, but embraces midcentury modern vernacular
that is probably rather foreign to most
in eastern North Carolina
The back of the house with the massive fireplace is just beautiful
The kitchen is open, quite simple and streamlined and the floors are all concrete....perfect for kids, family dogs and lots of cooking
At first I wasn't a fan of the blue tile but after looking at the entire house
I think it's a fabulous choice
The floating open shelves are just the norm for a chef
so they are probably more functional for Vivian as opposed to trendy
A collection of butter bean shucking pans lines the stairwell
I love it...minimal, modern and full of memories all at the same time
The collections are so cute and personal here.... you can't help wondering if these owls have a special meaning to Vivian
In one episode she visits a neighbor to cook little apple tarts
and admires her vast....(vast is an understatement)
collection of salt and pepper shakers
So as I have always suspected
collections are important and have special meaning to just about everyone...including your's truly!
beautiful bathtub!
Ben is also an avid painter and his work hangs
throughout the house and at the restaurant
The relationship between Vivian and Ben is interesting. He is clearly a creative, just as she is.
What is equally interesting is how he seems to have embraced the rural life so easily, almost more that she has at times.
He's from Chicago so he's not going home, he's finding home.
She on the other had is returning home,
to a place she vowed never to return.
The house is a lovely mix of colors and casual furnishings
and the architecture is really striking
Vivian is now a co-producer and writer of the series which is wonderful for her, however she often complains about being seriously stressed out
so all of the added duties she has taken on is interesting to me.
I think her worries are the usual for all working moms and she feels truly exhausted and torn
(aren't we all) by the constant tug-of-war between family, work, success and marriage
It is hard to say no to any of it
and we all struggle with that.
Vivian also seems at times to be rather shy, which is interesting for someone being filmed for a television series
but her personality encompasses that strength of character
that we read about in so many Southern women:
vulnerable, feisty, beautiful and hard working
And this is a story worth telling and worth watching to say the least...
especially if you love to cook
and enjoy the beauty of the local harvest
as I have for the last few years
Often I have written about my love of food and how anyone can learn to create a great meal
Vivian is the master of that concept
or
in a wonderful article written by Daniel Wallace
for Garden and Gun
It's A Chef's Life Y'all
