A Chefs Modern Farmhouse

 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....

and perhaps if we were to try her recipe for Candied sweet potatoes with pecan bacon syrup .....

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 

with the meager orphans of the garden

Vivian is the master of that concept

find it here on PBS

or

  read more of her story 

 in a wonderful article written by Daniel Wallace 

for Garden and Gun

It's A Chef's Life Y'all