West Ashley Takes a Bite Out of the Big Apple

West Ashley will be well represented when a coterie of Lowcountry chefs host a special dinner at one of the most exclusive spots in New York City next week.
A magnificent seven of culinary professionals will deliver a $175-a-seat Taste of Charleston event Tuesday evening at The Beard House, the former home of one this country’s brightest culinary stars — James Beard.
And five of those professionals either work or live in West Ashley. And a couple of them do both.
Before his death, Beard was credited with exposing America to world-class cuisine and inspiring the careers of other luminaries, like Julia Childs.
Nicknamed the “dean of American cookery,” Beard’s name has since become synonymous with American fine dining after his passing, thanks to awards given annually in his name to best chefs and restaurants this country has to honor.
Local James Beard Award winners include Husk, and its celebrity chef Sean Brock, Robert Stehling’s Hominy Grill, and FIG, whose chef Mike Lata, was also honored with a best regional chef like Brock was.
Aaron Siegel, owner of Fiery Ron’s Home Team BBQ on St. Andrews Boulevard, will not only take up his right-hand man and partner Taylor Garrigan, but also his mixologist Adam Rothstein.
The Glass Onion on Savannah Highway will be represented by its co-owners, chefs Chris and Suzanne Stewart, with the latter providing a dessert of Carolina Gold Rice Pudding with Golden Raisins.
And Jonathan Banta, while he works on Kiawah at The Atlantic Room, lives here in West Ashley.
(Since neither East Cooper resdients Craig Deihl nor Bob Cook of the peninsular Cypress and Artisan Meat Share live or work here, while both worthy of praise, they are effectively barred from this story because this is about West Ashley!)
The dinner will be held in the late Beard’s actual townhome, with a tight kitchen on the first floor, and dining on upper floors.
The septet has been meeting regularly for the past few months, honing and tweaking a menu that includes four appetizers and four entrees, with adult beverage pairings provided by Rothstein.
Banta says that the core of the group formed three years ago, when they met while putting on charity dinners for pediatric cancer-fighting organizations.
Banta says they will all showcase local fresh ingredients, as each chef prepares both an appetizer and an entrée.
Banta’s locally flavored appetizer will be Fried Okra with Pimento Cheese and Tomato Jam; his entrée will be Lardo-Wrapped Wreckfish with Braised Butter Beans, Jimmy Red Corn Grits, and Spicy Tomato Jus.
This won’t be Banta’s first time at the Beard House, having worked with a crew of Latin chefs years ago, posted at a festive station on the roof of the building.
Siegel is well aware of the Beard House’s reach, having attended Culinary Institute of America outside the city.
Siegel and Garrigan will present an appetizer of Cold-Smoked Fish with Carolina Gold Rice and Pork Jus, and an entrée of Pork Belly with Charred Corn, Chimichurri, and Pork Skins.
The “fiery” duo is making sure their dishes have a big Lowcountry presence. While they will be smoking their proteins in a Brooklyn restaurant’s smoker, they will stop off at Louisville Farms just outside Charleston on their way up to get the freshest herbs possible.
But it’s the rice Siegel expects will make the biggest impression on the Manhattanites.
“They probably don’t think a lot about rice, but Carolina Gold is my favorite comfort food in the world,” says Siegel. “You boil it and strain it like you do pasta, and then you spread it out in a sheet pan with some butter and roast it in the oven – I think it will blow them out of the water.”
This won’t be Glass Onion’s Chris Stewart’s first time cooking at the Beard House either, having worked a night there years ago for Lata from FIG.
That night, Stewart didn’t get a chance to soak in much of the atmosphere – which includes the open air shower Beard used to bathe in on the back porch – as he said he just “put his head down and cooked.”
Tuesday, Stewart will serve Fried Chicken with Pickled Peach Gastrique and Benne Seeds as his appetizer, and Livermush–Stuffed Quail with Pickled Peppers and Carrot Vinaigrette for his entrée.
Stewart will use the liver from a whole hog he purchased from Walterboro’s Keegan-Filion Farm to make his livermush. “I bet a lot of them have never heard of it, livermush,” says Stewart with a twinkle.
Stewart says that whatever money they make from the dinner after covering costs will be given to charity.