[gentle music] - I buy broccoli every single time I go to the grocery store.

It's basically the only green vegetable my children will eat.

I mean, they're not, like, licking their lips and saying, "Yummy broccoli," or anything, but they will eat it.

♪ ♪ - One, two, three, four.

- I'm Vivian, and I'm a chef.

My husband, Ben, and I were working for some of the best chefs in New York City, when my parents offered to help us open our own restaurant.

Of course, there was a catch.

We had to open this restaurant in eastern North Carolina where I grew up and said I would never return.

["Will You Return" by the Avett Brothers] - ♪ I wish you'd see yourself ♪ ♪ As beautiful as I see you ♪ all: ♪ Why can't you see yourself ♪ ♪ As beautiful as I see you?

♪ - So this is my life-- raising twins, living on my parents' farm and exploring the South one ingredient at a time.

Previously on "A Chef's Life"...

This is so big.

I hope this is not a bad idea.

We're getting ready for our practice run tomorrow on the food truck.

Hello!

[light laughter] - Yum.

- How do you think it went?

- I think it went really good.

- We got this.

It'll be an adventure.

- So we need to take watermelon-wrapped pickles.

We need to take bacon and then a cheese.

We need to take grits.

Bananas and mayonnaise we'll always get there.

[continues indistinctly] - She's now added cookbook author to her résumé.

Let's meet Chef Vivian Howard.

[cheers and applause] - [chuckles] [engine rumbling] - Familiar but just a little bit different.

And this float is kind of a take on a farm snack.

I'm on "Rachael Ray" right now.

I'm not actually right now, but it's on television.

It was prerecorded.

I made this peanut and Pepsi float and put bourbon on top, and it was the first dish that I made on there, and I was dying to get a sip, but Rachael was moving too fast for me, so I had to linger back and get another sip of my bourbon float, 'cause I thought it would help me make-- I thought it would help me be more relaxed.

[chuckles] And they cut away on that shot, thank God.

We're having this at the beginning of my segment so that I can calm down.

- Yeah, that'll make you-- Guys, calm her down.

- [chuckles] both: Cheers.

- Mmm.

[cheers and applause] [car horns honking] - So today is pub day for my book, dinner tonight at "Bon Appétit," and then at home, Ben and Casey and Holly and Leslie are loading the food truck and packing up, and I will fly tomorrow night to meet them in Nashville.

And then our tour will begin.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ This is not graceful.

[laughs] ♪ ♪ - Food in New York is "Joan Hamburg," where New York comes to talk.

- Your story in itself is really interesting.

Like a lot of kids, you grow up in small communities.

You couldn't wait to get out, and your parents let you go young.

- They did.

I left home when I was 14.

I went to boarding school.

And then when I got to boarding school, I realized that I was not just Southern, I was country.

You know, we said things like, "The collards are over yonder," and, "I reckon that'll do."

I began to feel a sense of shame around that.

- And, ultimately, that started changing.

♪ ♪ - That shrimp stock is concentrate, right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And then that's it.

[pen clatters] - So you're having fun on the tour?

- Well, I haven't really started yet.

Today the book launches, and then the food truck leaves, and then I'll fly and meet them in Nashville, and we'll start the tour from there.

- That's such a good idea.

- Well, that's what I thought, too, until we started.

- Till you had to do it.

- [laughing] Yeah.

♪ ♪ I'm honestly really nervous about not being there to spearhead the launch, 'cause it was my baby.

And Ben does not handle situations like this particularly well.

- Ben, are you fine with that?

- With what?

- The hors d'oeuvres-- they're just, like, regular tongs and spoons, like what we use in a kitchen.

- No.

- We talked on the phone, and asked him how he was doing.

And he was like, "I'm scared.

I'm nervous.

I'm stressed out."

So I hope that he will get it together and put a smile on his face, 'cause everybody going needs that.

- They did good.

They did real good.

- It's my home away from home for the next two months.

- Until now, I've thought of this book thing as kind of, like, my thing.

It's my book.

But this book tour is definitely not just my book tour.

There's a team of people who are investing a lot of time and energy and actually a chunk of their lives to the book tour.

So here we go.

- Awesome.

- Thank you, gang.

- That's it.

[laughter] - No worries.

We got this.

[engine turning over] [imitates horn honking] Oh, this is so exciting!

- [laughs] - Are you excited?

- I'm excited.

- Good.

[car horns honking] - I think I see Vivian.

- I swear to God.

I can't do anything.

[laughs] Here.

- Thanks.

- And my shoes are in there.

I have clothes to change into.

- Okay.

I'll keep these safe.

- Okay.

♪ ♪ So, Brian, you're working on the lasagna.

- Yes.

- And you only have to do one serving.

And, Luke, you're working on the oysters?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Lots of times when your cookbook comes out, you have a launch dinner.

Well, my launch dinner is at "Bon Appétit" magazine.

So I brought Brian, chef de cuisine at Chef & the Farmer, and Luke, chef de cuisine at the Boiler Room, to help me with the food.

And tonight's really cool, because I was able to invite a lot of my friends and mentors who still live in New York to celebrate with me.

[indistinct chatter] - Hey.

- Hey, how are you?

- Good.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm so glad you could come.

- I wouldn't miss it.

Is your hubby here?

- No.

Half of our team is on its way to Nashville in this food truck.

Ben's about to spontaneously combust.

[laughter] - We're really thrilled about this dinner.

Ever since I met Vivian, I've been a fan.

And once you hear her talk and once you have a whiskey, you'll like her even more.

Without further ado, Vivian Howard.

[applause] - Coming through, behind you.

[indistinct chatter] - All right, we're gonna do that dorky thing where we go around the table and we introduce ourselves, and quickly, when we introduce ourselves, we say what our favorite Southern food is.

Knowlton, you go first.

- Oh, okay.

And my favorite Southern food is pimento cheese with Ritz crackers, because it's the best food my grandmother ever made.

- Aw.

- Tonight felt like a warm hug-- a send-off dinner of sorts, pushing me out on the road on to my nine-week book tour.

Here I come.

♪ ♪ [indistinct chatter] - So, in every town where we do a food-truck event, we're partnering with a restaurant to be our commissary kitchen in case we have any trouble.

This is where we'll wash our dishes.

And in Nashville, we're doing it at Margot.

Margot McCormack, who's the chef and owner, she opened a restaurant here in Nashville, like, 15 years ago.

So she's really Nashville's high-end restaurant pioneer.

- Hey.

- Hey.

- How are you?

- How are you?

- I'm good.

- Good to see you.

This is so cute in here.

- Well, this used to be a gas station... - Oh, it did?

- In the 1930s.

That's the original bay door.

This used to be the bay.

So it's kind of fun.

- That's awesome.

You know, now putting a restaurant in a gas station is a very hip thing to do.

- Mm-hmm.

We were just trying to find a cheap old building, really.

And then it ended up being pretty cool.

- Well, are you gonna come out and maybe help us at the event?

- Yes.

Yeah.

- Okay.

- Awesome.

So what do I have here?

- 50 pounds of shrimp and 5 pounds of broccoli.

Yeah.

There's broccoli.

- Okay.

So we're hopefully planning on coming to dinner after this.

- Yes.

- Do you have any broccoli on the menu?

- Yes, we do.

- Oh, you do?

- Of course we do.

- Good.

Well, I guess I'll be having that.

[laughs] I know it may not seem like it, but we do have an ingredient for this episode.

It's broccoli, and it's very hard to find.

♪ ♪ - Morning.

- Good morning.

Hi.

- How are you?

- Good.

- So this is Vivian Howard.

- Hey, Tana.

- Tana Comer.

- Nice to meet you.

- This is Julia.

- Hey, Julia.

- Hi.

both: Nice to meet you.

- Ooh, kitty.

- If you don't like cats... - No I'm okay.

I was viciously attacked by a cat when I was 16, but that's a story for another time.

[laughter] ♪ ♪ When we first opened Chef & the Farmer, I never would've dreamt of cooking broccoli.

For one, no one grew it locally ten years ago.

And for two, I just felt that it was something that you ate at home.

But the past five or so years, chefs have really embraced all forms of brassicas.

That means things like Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collards, broccoli.

These are cool vegetables all of a sudden.

This is broccoli, but I don't see any heads.

- Right.

- Yeah, it's probably three weeks away.

Broccoli leaves are really something that people are interested in eating now as well.

But the stalk itself will come here and up This variety has one huge head, and that's pretty much it for the plant.

The variety we have planted in the Hoop House is a variety that has a big head, and then it produces mini side shoots of just this big, about this long.

- Is that broccolini?

- It then becomes broccolini.

There's no waste in that.

Like, with the big head, you cut that off, and lots of times that stalk, this big, gets tossed, 'cause the consumer doesn't want to eat it.

So with the non-heading variety, every part of the plant is eaten.

- And we're here-- this is early fall, and broccoli is, like, a fall and an early-spring crop.

- Right.

- And it does not like heat.

Right?

- It doesn't.

So this has been struggling.

And most of the farmers that I've talked to decided not to grow it this year because of the heat.

- So where's the other variety?

- Underneath the Hoop House.

- Okay.

- So, when it gets cold, we'll put the sides down, and that will heat up the inside 8 to 10 degrees.

In the winter, as long as you can keep it alive, it will keep producing for you.

And the plants will grow, you know, up to about this-- about here.

- Wow.

- And so we'll just keep cutting.

- Well, thank you all so much for your time.

- Yeah, thanks, guys.

- I can't wait to come eat at your restaurant.

- Well, I hope you do.

I hope you do.

♪ ♪ We never found any broccoli.

We found broccoli plants but no mature broccoli.

But on the upside, on the way out, I saw and tasted my first-ever pawpaw.

You found some?

- Yeah.

- Oh, my God.

I'm so excited.

- [laughs] - I have never had a pawpaw.

- Oh, I'm so excited.

I think that one's pretty ripe.

- Oh, wow.

This is like the "everything but broccoli" episode.

- [chuckles] - So these are so weird.

They're like a custard apple and, like, tropical.

- They are really, yeah, tropical.

- See, I think I've got a piece there.

- You'll have to take them with you, and they'll ripen up.

- It's kind of like a mango a little bit.

- Mm-hmm.

- So cool.

I'm sorry, pawpaw, but you're outshining the broccoli today.

♪ ♪ Since we couldn't find any broccoli at the farm, Margot suggested we go to this Nashville institution called Picnic and try their iconic broccoli salad.

- Hey.

- Vivian.

- We're trying desperately to make a broccoli episode.

- Uh-huh.

- And it's so hard.

- So we've come here.

- For broccoli salad?

- For broccoli salad.

- There's all variations of broccoli salad.

And we used to put bacon in it.

- We've changed with the times.

- We have changed with the times.

We leave it out, and if somebody wants some bacon, I'll go back and get them some.

- Can we make some of this in the back?

- Absolutely.

Come on back to the kitchen.

- So let's see.

So you've got the florets.

- And I use scallions.

Other people use just plain onion.

And I did some crisp bacon today.

- I'm glad you did include that.

- Because I like that crunchy, and I like it really crunchy.

I have golden raisins to go in it.

And also, I have sunflower seeds.

- I haven't seen that before in there.

- Really?

You're kidding me.

It sort of gives you a little salt, sweet and sour almost.

- I think it's a great combination.

- Okay, so you go scallions.

- We'll put the golden raisins in there.

- You know, raisins are polarizing, I always say.

Like, oh, people either love them or they hate them.

- And then we're gonna put the sauce on top.

I used mayonnaise.

I used apple-cider vinegar and sugar.

And we're gonna toss that through.

Okay, I'm just gonna start throwing it in.

It adds a lot of color, too.

- Yes, and it adds--you know, you've got the broccoli, which is kind of like the baseline vegetable flavor, and then you have the sweet raisins, and the dressing's got, like, some tang.

- Here.

Yeah, so we can taste it.

We can get some bacon in there.

There you go.

- Thank you.

- You're so welcome.

You want a bite?

- Mm-hmm.

- Here we go.

- Is it good?

both: It's good.

- That bacon takes it from A to Z.

- I know.

[laughing] - The bacon is the trick.

- I agree.

I agree.

It's got that-- It gives it umami and saltiness.

- It gives you that crunch and the flavor.

- Well, I am so glad we came here.

- I am, too [jazzy music] ♪ ♪ [indistinct chatter] - Hey, you're welcome.

Fun.

I mean, I am freaked out.

[laughs] - I'm just gonna have you go get me some onions.

Hold on, Madison, 'cause I also have to get something for this broccoli dish.

I've got raisins.

I've got red onions.

Will you get some malt vinegar and honey?

- I'll get it.

- Okay, thank you.

I think my team is trying to shield me from some of the stress surrounding this trip, because I've just learned that the generator broke.

It's fixed, but this is only our first stop.

- I promise you--if I could've got over here at, like, 2:00, I would have.

- I know.

This is not your fault or Casey's fault.

And it's a good thing it happened on the first day.

- Are you getting caught up?

- Yeah, we're fine.

I'm trying to do a broccoli dish.

Just don't worry about it.

- She added a dish on the menu.

She's doing a vegetarian dish.

- Luck you guys.

[laughing] - I wanted everybody to come, because I wanted them to see that when I go away and do events, it's work.

- Yeah.

- Oh, it's work.

- One piece at a time.

One piece at a time.

Look.

How many did you put on this one?

- I did two on that last one.

I had them, like, about right there, and then you kind of, like, flip that over and tuck it a little.

The bread's really dry, so it's hard to do that.

Should I go to the photo footage?

- Right out of the gate, we're having trouble with the one thing that should be trouble-free-- my banana, mayonnaise sushi rolls.

Our bread is just not fresh enough.

It's kind of crumbling, and it should be really moist so we can roll it out and then roll it up.

It's not a good sign.

Yeah, see that?

- That was practice session.

- What time is it?

- 5:49.

- Okay, I need to get the broccoli.

Do y'all know where the broccoli is?

♪ ♪ Now I'm just looking for the broccoli.

[chuckles] ♪ ♪ [grunting] - It's in the reach-in, in the top back.

[cell phone ringing] Who's that?

I need, like, ten minutes.

♪ ♪ How are y'all?

- Hey, Vivian.

So we have a few journalists that we brought down just to kind of get a few minutes with you before the main event starts.

- It smells delicious.

- I know.

- Oh, my--the aroma, it's like, "Okay."

- It'll be good.

We still have a few things to wrap up, be we have some hors d'oeuvres that'll come out, and then we're eating eastern North Carolina-style shrimp stew... - Wonderful.

- With whole poached egg on top.

- Oh, wow.

- We're also serving something that people may or may not like, but it was the peanut butter and jelly of my youth, and it's a banana and mayonnaise sandwich.

- Did you say banana and mayonnaise?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Okay.

- We roll it up and cut it, so it's like a sushi roll.

- Okay.

- So we're calling it a deep run roll.

I'm really pleased with myself for that.

I'm happy that y'all were-- - It's so good to meet you.

- It's nice meeting y'all.

- Thank you so much.

- All right, where we at?

I need to show you what happens in the vegetarian.

- Oh, God.

- Yeah, I'm gonna fry it.

[upbeat music] To be honest, I conceived this broccoli dish on the fly because I hadn't planned anything else and because we had pimento cheese on the truck.

The inspiration for the dish is picnics, broccoli salad with raisins, mayonnaise, and bacon.

- All right, so you got broccoli in the fryer.

- I got raisins in the fryer, too.

- Whoa.

- This is, like, a spin on that broccoli and raisin and mayonnaise salad.

You know what I'm talking about?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, okay.

- Here in the South, we like salads with mayonnaise and bacon and then some broccoli.

- Exactly.

So see those?

- Yeah.

How they puff up like that?

- So you got vinegar in here?

- Yeah, I put malt vinegar and salt.

- You got to sign books.

- I know.

I'm getting ready to.

So a little smear of this on the bottom and then a little of these fried golden raisins.

Okay, so make sure that the stew tastes really, really, really, really, really, really, really good.

- How many "reallys"?

- More reallys than you can imagine.

Love y'all.

- We love you.

- Mean it.

- I can take some pickles whenever you got them.

- Hey.

- Hi.

- How are you?

- Good.

- Could I write your name here?

- Catherine.

- Hey.

How are y'all?

both: Good.

- How are you?

- I'm good.

I'm good.

I love to see young girls watching the show.

Or I assume you watch the show.

- Yes, we love it.

- We love the show.

- I like your name, Geraldine.

- Perfect.

Thank you, Vivian.

both: Thank you.

- Thank y'all.

Thank y'all.

Hey.

- Hello.

How are you?

- I'm good.

How are you?

- I'm good.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Hi.

- Hey.

- I'm thrilled to meet you.

- Why, thank you.

♪ ♪ One of my fears around the book tour was that we would put in all this effort, time, money.

We would get to the events, and no one would come.

Based on the line here, that's not gonna be one of our problems.

It's nice meeting you.

- It was nice to meet you.

You have a good week.

- Hey.

Y'all get some food.

- We will.

Thanks.

- Hey, what are we eating over here?

- Okay, so you have banana and mayonnaise sandwiches.

And these are bacon-wrapped watermelon-rind pickles.

- Best of all.

Yum!

- So can I get a picture?

- My husband is, like-- - Sure.

Sure.

- He's out of town.

♪ ♪ - Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Unfortunately, there were so many loose ends to wrap up getting ready for the event that we completely forgot to put the broccoli salad on the menu board, so no one ordered it.

- Yeah, so at least two orders came through.

- Two broccoli salad!

♪ ♪ - This is the coolest part.

- How they puff?

- Yeah.

- Look like Corn Pops.

♪ ♪ - Roasted or fried?

- The broccoli was fried, as well as the little raisins.

You drop them in the hot oil, and they kind of puff up.

- That's good.

- That's the best kept secret of the night.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Well, the first book tour food truck event is a wrap, and it was a huge success.

How was it?

- It took a little while for it to all get ready, but I think everybody was happy.

Yeah, they did good.

- Great job.

Great job, Holly.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ Thank you very much.

- You're welcome.

- Aren't you glad you don't have to do that 25 more times?

- I kind of am, yeah.

Yeah.

- [laughs] It's hard.

- It is hard.

- It's taxing.

- It's hard to plan.

And you kind of never know, you know, what you're gonna get into.

- You never know what you're walking into, which is-- The irony is that that's why I wanted to do this.

- Well... - Less complicated.

- First one.

- Yeah.

I mean, think about your first night of service.

- Don't even remember it.

It was a blur.

It was a blur.

- What's your broccoli dish?

- Hey, Han.

Show Vivian the broccoli side.

- So that's shallots and garlic.

- Shallots and garlic, a little bit of chili flake.

Rosemary--just a nice, like, finer sort of thing.

- Okay.

- We just blanche this off.

[sizzling] Salt and pepper, of course.

In fire, we have, like, these-- just cook it with some onions and stuff to start out, cinnamon and anise.

We sous vide a bunch of currants with sherry and honey and orange juice-- kind of plump them up, and then we toss it with some whole almonds that we chopped up.

And there we go.

- I like all your vintage plates, too.

- Makes it fun.

- Hanley likes pretty.

- We like pretty things.

- Hey, guys, come on in!

- Awesome.

Thank you so much.

- Hey, you're very welcome.

- I just want to say that I know that it was really rocky today.

We had a lot of things that did not go as planned, but I think that everybody did great.

- Cheers.

- We can mark Nashville off the list.

[laughter] ♪ ♪ - For more information on "A Chef's Life," visit PBS.org/food "A Chef's Life" is available on DVD.