With a lot of time to reflect on my life the past couple months I've come to thinking a lot about my time in the low country , aka Charleston, South Carolina. I only spent a year in South Carolina but it truly set the foundation for my culinary career. I had three jobs in one year, sounds like a lot but each one provided a lot of knowledge and experience in where I wanted to take my career.
When I moved to Charleston fresh out of Culinary school I went to work for whom I consider a great friend but a better boss and mentor. A man who showed me the light when I was tapping out at working at one of the hardest restaurants in the world, Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Charles Matthews, an enigmatic soul who had the most outstanding charisma and strong character I've ever seen in my entire life. A real guy who hired me to move to South Carolina to work in the most crazy restaurant set-up I'd seen. No gas on the cooking line it was all wood fired. Some of the coolest techniques out there being used without modern technology to back it up. Things like whole legs of ham hanging above the fire and 40 oz. Ribeyes being seared on a plancha and finished in the wood fire oven. Whole fish being seared just above the embers so the skin acquires the texture of glass. Whole racks of pork loin being smoked and grilled. The best damn green beans you'll ever eat. Charles is always about the food and not the ego. The best quality in a chef. If the restaurant, Scarecrow, hadn't closed 4 months after me arriving I would've stayed for a while because I was learning something new everyday. Charles taught me a personal lesson though, don't be an asshole. A pretty simple statement but you'd be surprised how hard it is to accomplish sometimes. "When you stop having an attitude people respect you more" - Charles. That might be the best thing you can hear as a young cook. Don't confuse confidence with arrogance.
After everyone losing their jobs at that restaurant I quickly had to pivot, staging around, looking for the next move. But, first I found peace in one of my first true loves, pizza. Not fancy pizza either. Greasy, heavy, sturdy, rectangle, cheese-filled, pepperoni cloud covered, succulent upstate New York, maybe some would say Detroit style pizza. I got to make thousands of dough balls every week and where I got to set my standards for how I wanted to show people how I work. Deroma's pizzeria will always have a place in my heart where I got to practice knife cuts on whole cases of potatoes for my stage at the French Laundry. (Imagine staging at the French Laundry and Lazy Bear when you just got done topping the pizzas at a delicious but easy going take-out pizza joint. I. wasn't. Ready.) I stayed at Deroma's the rest of my time in Charleston, coming in every morning making the dough, sauce, salad dressings, then on to my next job which turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made in my life.
The Obstinate Daughter is an Italian restaurant using local ingridients located on Sullivan's Island in South Carolina a small tiny island connected to Isle of Palms where everyone goes for their beach getaway. As a tourist you would expect typical beach food that didn't have much to it. But let me tell you something, The OD as it's called throughout the area is on every chef's recommended list. I kept hearing it over and over again. I eventually went out to try it a couple times before I finally applied for a job. The pizzas, the pastas, the pates, the salads, everything this restaurant serves is freaking delicious. I got to practice everyday making pizzas in a wood fire oven, watch as pastas were being made tirelessly, hand rolled, hand cut by the most humble man I might've ever met. Brian Parkhurst. Taught me all of the pasta recipes and methods while I was running around the restaurant like a crazy person.
All while dealing with 300+ covers a night in a quaint little building next to the beach. This restaurant knows how to hustle, they know how to make you cry with nostalgic food memories, and know hospitality to a T. All of my Italian cooking knowledge is credited to this restaurant. I couldn't be more grateful for my time there and Will Fincher, Wilsky and Jaques Larson, are some of the most talented, cool-headed, and cohesive groups of people in the business. I don't think I witnessed one screaming match or argument the whole time I was there and that is incredible for a restaurant of such great credibility and pressure to serve so many people in one day. Thank you to this group, you do such great work between the community outreach and and the willingness to always be there for your employees.
There is another restaurant called FIG (Food is Good) in Charleston which will forever hold a place in my heart but that's a story for another time. My favorite food memory of all time lies in that story. Also, shout of to Mat Clark for providing super juice during my Charleston days, don't think I forgot about you.
What I can say about Charleston, though, is that it's hot, beautiful, cheap enough, and deliciousness enough to go at least once in your life and drive around, eat some delicious food, have a few cocktails and chill out on the beach. There's an overwhelming sense of serenity involved with Charleston, things are simple, and that's how it should be. Life is hard everywhere right now but if I can recommend one place that's worth a visit it's here.
Tim Buell
May 27th, 2020
Folly Beach Sunset in the Spring of 2017.
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