Appalachian Roots to Culinary Heights - Chef David Breeden Interview

From the hills of Tennessee to the kitchens of The French Laundry, Chef David Breeden’s journey is one of resilience, roots, and refined craft. In this episode, Gloria and Tech Tom share a conversation with the chef, then bring his spirit into your home kitchen with five adapted recipes; from citrus-cured trout, garden fresh beets; to soulful short ribs and a classic carry-in cake.

It’s a celebration of where we come from, how far good cooking cake take us, and the nourishment that feeds body, mind, and spirit.

Visit the Gloria Goodtaste's website to view the full stories and available recipes highlighted in this podcast with pictures and additional info to further enjoy this episode.  Go to: https://www.gloriagoodtaste.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Food for Body, Mind, and Spirit. I'm Gloria Good Day, and I'm your host, ready to take you on a journey that brings the appellation trail to the heart of my diet.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

So here we're using it.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

We have a beautiful episode like that. I love we're talking about all the way up to the front of the hard work connected to where you come from and still reaching the very top of the culinary world. It's a kind of story that thank you on every level. I'll walk you through the five recipes with adaptive for the whole both and five.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

David Braden. We're on the telephone with David Breedham. Chef restaurant, cookbook author, an alumni at the French Library at Thomas Keller Restaurant Group.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Well, it's so nice to be speaking with you today, David. Now, I have this burning question. All right, who was the person who influenced you so much in Appalachian cooking when you were young?

SPEAKER_02 2:34

I well, first first and foremost, it would be Mother Nature. But of course, I was raised by my grandmother, uh-huh, and that she was she was uh absolutely a big, big influence, made a huge impact on me with food.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Uh-huh. Well, I know you had a very challenging youth. All right. How did you ever end up attending a culinary school in Charleston, South Carolina?

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Uh honestly, it was a a series of a series of of of unique blessings and opportunities that were presented to me. Um when I was, you know, like I mentioned, being raised by my grandmother, um, I was really acutely aware of Mother Nature, of the gifts from God, of of the fruits of the soil. You know, we had a huge garden in our backyard. At one time I lived on a dairy farm. Um we really celebrated the meal. So I really was in love with food, communion, uh, the communal aspect of of dining together. I really liked that. It was a very special time for me with my family because everyone was civil, everyone would sit down, you know, we would pray, we would give thanks, you know, for the meal, for the hands that prepared it, uh, for for our blessings, and it was just a special time for me. So I was always, you know, we would harvest the vegetables from the garden, we would put away we would put away the the extra vegetables that couldn't be consumed fresh, and we would can and and make preserves and jams and jellies and things. So part of Appalachian heritage is that. So I was kind of blessed from the beginning because I had a unique relationship with the earth uh and with the with the with the raw products. Did that my first profession was going to be skateboarding.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Did that help you with uh understanding low country cuisine also? Or did did you get that from one of the uh jobs or skills that you had?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, I so I learned low country in Charleston.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Never worked in a low country restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

I I was always in fine dining, so it's a little bit more French leaning.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

I I learned about low country cuisine only through consumption um by dining out uh and experiencing it. So so that was really my my association there. And I would consider myself, you know, I'm not really a southern chef, but I have southern values.

unknown 5:08

So that's kind of my guiding principle.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

We don't waste, we don't squander, uh, you know, we're grateful for what we have. Um it's a little bit more philosophical than than recipe driven. However, I do recreate my grandmother's dishes and things I remember from growing up out of out of nostalgia. So that's you know, I'm not a master of southern cuisine by any means. Um, what I think I'm good at is interpreting the gifts from the earth and trying to stay out of the way. I let the I let the beef tell me what to do. I let the zucchini tell me what to do. I am I interpret what it tells me, and through experience I know how it's going to show itself the best. Should it be quickly sauteed, should it be braised, you know, should it be poached, should it be seasoned and served raw? Those are all things that you know from having a good relationship with them and through, you know, thousands of repetitions.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Well, how did you ever end up working at Thomas Keller's restaurant group and the French laundry?

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Yeah, well, you know, another blessing, and it's actually a sad, it's a sad, happy story. Um, when I was when I was let me let me let me zoom out here. When I was about nineteen, I picked up a gourmet magazine. It was uh October 1999. Gourmet magazine, the restaurant issue, and it had an article called um From Hamburgers to Hope Cuisine, Chef's Journey, you know, about it. And it was about Thomas. And it was a few months before the original cookbook came out, and it was kind of a teaser for the cookbook. And I read that article, and I was really compelling, and I really liked his story. I liked what he represented. You could tell that the food was really beautiful and done well, uh, traditional technique, um, restraint. So I tore that out of that magazine and I put it in front of my recipe. I had a three-ring binder, I would keep all my little recipes in, my illustrations. I still have it. Um like I would I would illustrate everything. I would draw, I would write, I would, I would dream up dishes, things I had no idea what they were, and I would just really work towards it. And and so I kind of made that my vision board. And I s so that was October 1999. I my first day was January 25th, 2005. So I just set I set my sights on it and and I was able to make it happen.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

How did you feel when you were when you were first walking into Thomas Keller's restaurant as a cook? How did that feel to you?

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Yeah. Well well, so here's the thing. I mean, the French laundry is bigger than Thomas. And you know, it's yes, it's Thomas Keller's French laundry, but the restaurant, in my opinion, one of the wonders of the world. It is just absolutely amazing, regardless of who's who's you know, owns the lease. That property was one of the busiest restaurants in the Napa Valley for 17 years before Thomas purchased it.

unknown 8:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

It was called the French Laundry. There's a book called Six California Kitchens about a beautiful couple named Donna Sally Schmidt, who have both passed. Uh they were in their late 90s when they passed, and and they opened the French laundry originally and and raised their five children in that restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

In 94, they sold it to Thomas.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Oh, how about that?

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Oh, it was wildly successful. He bought it, uh he he was very intelligent by buying an incredibly successful restaurant and not changed the menu is different every single day, the dining room is full every single day. There's homage to Don and Sally all over the restaurant through an apple tree, um, there's a beautiful pink pearl apple tree, there's a bayleaf tree, there's uh the blue door. That's all in memory of Don and Sally.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Now, how many years did you spend working there?

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Total of twenty. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

You really know French cooking then.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Yeah. Yeah, I'm one of I'm I'm I'm you know one of the only ones who really has that uh history and that pedigree.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Well, now you actually co-authored a book too, didn't you? 2020 cookbook, The French Laundry with it?

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah, French Laundry Per se, that's correct.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

How about that? Why don't you tell me what was that book about?

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Well, really, it was just a snapshot in time. I mean, you know, we share, you know, the minute it's published, it becomes obsolete to a degree because of evolution and growth. Every single day we identify opportunities for improvement, we identify opportunities for growth. Um so really a book, much like a photo, is a snapshot in time specific to what we had achieved at that point. So our goal was to share what we had achieved thus far at that point, but we've since evolved from that. But it's a series and collection of really good philosophy, really good recipes. We celebrate our partners, uh, our purveyors, and we talk about technique and we talk about ingredients. And and really that's that's the genesis was uh was a French Logic Cookbook Part 2. Um, but to be honest, you know, we had to rush it because of COVID. And we shot the whole book in three months, so in my opinion, it's just a partial snapshot, and it's not really fulfilling to me. Um Well, but you can imagine the world was upside down at that point.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Oh, it was, it was.

unknown 11:06

No, mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

No.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

So if you looked at it, you can tell that there's not four seasons worth of food.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Well, who who is the actual person who shaped your entire philosophy, though? All right. I know you worked in many different restaurants and things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Who who was I've had I've had five mentors in my life, okay, and each were very, very different providers. But I and I'll tell you, there's a gentleman named Chip Broom, who was my original mentor in skateboarding, and he also happened to be a chef, a really cool guy. He was about five years older than me, you know, had a rough childhood, and he took me under his wing and really kind of protected me. So Chip was a really an older brother figure to me. My next mentor was Seth Zimmerman, my first executive chef. And that man was like a father to me. He was absolutely incredible. They used to call him the butcher, the accountant with a butcher's knife.

unknown 12:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

He was he was amazing. He could run numbers well, he could manage the kitchen, he ran it like the military. Um I was 18 years old when I started working for him. Um I I can remember the proverbial moment uh when when dad teaches the tie-to-tie, right? It was me with Seth and my chef uniform. He took me to the locker room and says, Here's your pants, here's your jacket, here's your toque, your apron, and I came out of that locker room looking like a silly, like a silly little caricature. And I just remember him looking me up and down, like, this is not gonna work. And it's almost like he's like smacking me around a little. He's like, Look, you wear your hat like this, you tie your apron like this, he's like, button your chef's coat up. You're not a celebrity. You know, it's like all these things. He says, You're a professional, and this is your professional uniform. Act like you. And that was the that was the moment that I learned to tie a tie. And my tie was a tote and a chef jacket.

unknown 13:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Beth was the second mentor, and he was absolutely incredible. Third mentor was a gentleman named Michael Kramer in Charleston, South Carolina, and he taught me how to cook on command, seasoned perfectly rapidly, right now. He was so energetic. He was an amazing chef, an amazing flavor profile uh palate. He came from Spago and Mansion on Pearl Creek. Um he was a lovely, he is a lovely man, I shouldn't say love. He is a lovely man, uh, great, great mentor. And then, of course, there's Jonathan Beno, who was another father figure in a very different way. And Jonathan taught me about professionalism that I had never understood before. And Jonathan was chef of cuisine at per se. And Jonathan was a grown man and treated us like grown men. But once again, it was militant, it was very disciplined, uh, you had to tell the line, and he accepted zero, zero failure.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Not an option. Yeah, and and you had to perform, but he was compassionate and charismatic, and he would never allow you to fall on your face, but he would push you until you could, and he'd scoop you right up. So that I never felt support like that in my life. And of course, the last mentor who I met before Jonathan, but the mentorship didn't evolve uh until after I worked for Jonathan, was uh, of course, Thomas. So by the time I have had all these mentors in my life, the least I learned from Thomas was cooking. I learned philosophy.

unknown 14:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

I haven't really seen Thomas cook that many things in my life, to be honest with you. I worked for DeSheffe Cuisines. But what he did was he led with philosophical learned, and you know, that was really, really good. How to be a good businessman, how to be, you know, a good um purchaser from your partners and purveyors, how to be a good uh leader, you know. It was little about cooking. At that point, you know, we're chefs and three-star restaurants. It's not the cooking's the easy part, as they say, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Right, right. Uh well that must help you a lot with your guest-driven hospitality that you work in now, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Absolutely. Yeah, it's all philosophy.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Oh, certainly.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

But I do I do recipes that people want. Uh-huh. That's sort of my consumer. I craft them for them.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

That's a wonderful business. It's nice that you have that going for yourself.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Yeah, it's a blessing for sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

I have some really great questions that are food questions. Let's see if if we can get some expert answers on these. How's that? If you're buying meat or fish, should you really go for the quality or the price?

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Well, uh economy is important and I always consider economy. However, I would never buy a rotten fish that was half price.

unknown 16:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

So when when I go through the market, if I'm gonna purchase seafood, it's paramount. Freshness is paramount, price is second. Because it's so rapidly perishable and and deteriorates so quickly, you have to have a good fish monger, make sure you have high quality. Um however, and also most of the time I eat fish raw, uh, or ceviche, or crude, or tartar, or that kind of thing. Meat, especially in the market today, and I'm a big carnivore, I eat a lot of meat. I always look at price because the price fluctuates so much and the quality is sometimes hit and miss. The best thing you can do is have a good butcher that you trust, but you need to know meat. When I go to a market, let's say something simple like Publix, like I said, I interpret what the mood tells me to do. So if I want ribeye and I go to the market and the ribeye doesn't look good, I'm not getting ribeye. I I I go into the market never with an idea of exactly what I want. I go and I look at what looks best.

unknown 17:18

And then what looks best, then I consider the price.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

So two days ago, $33 a pound for a beautiful ribeye. It was very nice. That's something rarely I will do. I'm more in line with uh honestly, maybe tri-tip, chuck roast. Um, I love flat iron, I love um what's what's the other one? Skirt. I really like skirt steak. Um, you know, and you have to cook them all the way they want to be cooked, but my all-time favorite is is chuck roast. By far. By far. And if you get a really good chuck roast, there's one of the mussels that's on top that you can cook and slice like a steak, and then I use everything else to brace, so I get two for one. And it's typically $9.99 a pound.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

However, if I have a special party, I'll I'll spring for the for the finer quality.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Hmm.

unknown 18:14

Well not.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

I prefer American beef also over over Japanese.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Now, how about enhancing the flavor of an item? All right. How do you really enhance a flavor of something?

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Okay, well, you just use the correct word is enhancement. That's that is right, enhancing not masking. Um that's that's a very magical thing, but it really starts with seasoning. Um salt and vinegar, or acid, I should say. Lemon, vinegar, lime, salt, and acid are the two true seasonings that will change everything that you cook because the way your palate reacts to the flavors. So I literally, right now in the oven, I have a chocolate flan that I season with fleur de cell and tons of lime juice because it needs that to make the chocolate taste that much more fruity and chocolatey, as we know through today of salted caramel, right? We love that flavor. Um, so salt and acid are your favorites for seasoning. Pepper is not an absolute, and rarely do I use it unless there's a steco poivre or something. Uh I use chili flakes with tomatoes, I use um, let's say, like uh uh yellow Peruvian pepper with a ceviche. You know, I use different ones for different reasons, but those are flavorings, not seasonings. Because it imparts flavor. Uh however, consider this with enhancement. I like to do duality of flavor profiles to make a combination that is more powerful than what you would have started with. So, for example, if you wanted to make a beautiful artichoke soup, in my opinion, what has more character of the flavor of an artichoke than an artichoke is a sunchoke. So I always add a bit of sunchoke to my artichoke sauces or soups or dishes because it just really gets that in there. And to enhance truly, you have to layer the flavors. So an artichoke is another good example. You clean an artichoke and you take all those bitter green leaves and you discard them typically. What I like to do, well, I know a lot of people steam it and and dip right in butter, and that's beautiful too, but it's not that's not really the same thing. What I like to do is I'll take the trimmings, let's say no matter what vegetable it is, really, and I make a fast infusion with water to extract as much essence as possible. And if you read about the essences in the new TFL uh French Lager cookbook, it talks about the essences. So I'll get as much extraction as possible, as rapidly as possible, strain it out, then discard it, and now instead of using water, I have this artichoke infusion. And I learned that from Guy Savoie, uh the famous Parisian chef and his famous artichoke soup. And that's the way you get that flavor, and then you're layering those flavors in there, so you have a robust and complex flavor. I know that's a little a little nerdy and far out, but really that's the way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Okay, now what is the secret to actually making an ex an excellent stock, or should you just buy a stock and then just enhance that?

SPEAKER_02 21:34

I take a picture right now on my stove. I cleaned chicken pies earlier, and I have a chicken stock on my stove that I added a bouillon cube to. At home, I always enhance because I don't have the luxury or the economy like I do in a restaurant to be able to simmer twenty whole chickens in a pot. It's literally on my stove right now.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

I know you have something that says that you should always listen to nature, okay, when you think vegetables. What do you mean when you say you should listen to nature when you think vegetables?

SPEAKER_02 24:09

Taste a little taste of lemon juice, right? I mean, does the linen juice need a little bit extra sugar, or is it when it's a little bit too sweet? Does it need a little bit of sugar possibly you know, you you never know. You just have to always taste in a value.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

How can you tell the difference between that?

SPEAKER_02 25:32

I don't really care how good it is because it doesn't really translate what happens when they get busy. Do the wheels fall off?

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Well, those are some good hints. I really appreciate all of the guidance that you've given to us. And now we kind of know how to tell the difference between that good restaurant and that excellent one. I'm definitely going to one that's busy.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

It's my opinion, and and my opinion is solely mine, and uh it's it's worth what you paid for it, you know. I don't, I don't uh, you know, it's not absolute, but it is the way I feel. But you know, the more information I get, my opinion can can change too. But currently that's the way I feel.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Well, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate, and I'm sure all of our listeners do also.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

My pleasure, absolutely my pleasure. Okay, bye.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Man, that was really special. You can hear how much those early years shaped him.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

The way he talks about the food of his childhood, the work ethic, and still carrying forward into such a precise, high-level kitchen? Well, that is moving.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

It makes you look at the simple plate of food differently, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

It really does. And that's why I wanted the recipes today to feel like a bridge between those appalacian roots that he had and the refined techniques that he mastered.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Shall we start cooking?

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Absolutely, let's start. We're going to begin on the lighter, brighter side. Well, first up is one of my favorite ocean trout with everything green. I just love this idea. This is our home adaptation saluting Chef Breedon's Applewood Smoked Trout Chaufro with avocado mousse and those beautiful cool green tones. We give the trout a bright citrus cure and then cook it gently in the oven so it stays moist and real tender, and it gets a simple avocado mousse and a big playful platter of fresh greens. The whole idea is to really have fun with this recipe. Use whatever green garnishes, make you happy.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

It feels fresh and generous at the same time, like a celebration of the garden and the sea. That trout was swimming in the fridge overnight, having the time of his life. He enjoyed the citrus flavors and he couldn't wait to be a part of the everything green dish. How about that?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

I really like that. And the fun part was going in the refrigerator and pulling out the things I had that were green and putting them on the platter. It was like I was creating a seascape.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

And we even had sea grapes.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Oh, we had sea grapes, yes, we could have.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Which are a unique ingredient that most people haven't heard of sea grapes.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

No.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

But they look like little little grapes and a vine.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Well, I found that little packet, and I could use the dehydrate those and or hydrate them. And they were wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Right, and they added more greens in a plate.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

They did. But it it was fun. I even, well, you know, when Chef made it, he had a cucumber there, and I really remembered that he had this gorgeous cucumber, and he had it stuffed, so I thought, oh, I have to grab the cucumber. So I took my cucumber and I made a hollow in it, and I stuffed it with some of the pickle, kind of a pickle kind of flavor.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

It was good.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

It was good. The whole thing was it was wonderful. So when when you do this thing, have fun with this dish. Put it together, have everything on it, you know, the celery that's there, the cucumbers, things, the zucchinis that you happen to find, make these little spirals, and you can just have a ball making this with everything green. You have the green tones, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Right.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Exactly. Well, let's next let's move on to something elegant, but still very grounded. Roasted beef and caramelized leeks. This chef-inspired dish takes humble garden vegetables, you know, those ruby red beets and slowly caramelized leeks and treats them with real care and patience. The result is a bright, earthy, and quietly luxurious. It works beautifully as a first course of a refined kind of side that you might have. It looks elegant. It really does.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Well, I have a problem with the word humble garden vegetable. These are the stars of a garden. They're not humble, they're the stars. We put the spotlight on them. Anyway, I love how it shows you don't need dozens of ingredients to make something real special. Just good produce and attention to detail.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Well, that's the heart of it. Garth, then we head back to pure family territory with a new spin on grandma's cucumber salad. Well, cucumbers and onions were a staple in our house growing up. And one of those treasured recipes was from grandma. Okay, great grandma, she was from Appalachia. So this thing carried through. So everyone in the family always had cucumbers with this vinegar sauce. We kept that crisp, bright flavor that was in the original recipe, and we added a little color with red onions, which makes it kind of look pretty, and a sweet tart vinegar dressing with a touch of dill or fennel, or even put both of them in there if you really have fennel pollen. That tastes really good. Alright. It's simple, refreshing, and full of memory. Did you have cucumber spells?

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yes, I did. This kind of dish that disappears fast from the table. I should clarify that. The cucumbers disappear fast from the table. And the vinegar stays back in the bowl. And what would the grandma do? She recycled the vinegar and put more cucumbers in the dish. So this dish would go on for days at every meal with different different onions, different cucumbers, and a little different spice. But it was basically the same vinegar over and over and over.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Well, you know why? Because they didn't have a lot of things and a lot of sugar and things like that. Those things were always expensive. So we do it. And you know, this was the kind of dish you could do that with. And everyone loved it, so it worked.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

And I used to steal the cucumbers when my mother was making them right out of the dish while she was preparing dinner. And she got used to get mad at me because there was no cucumbers left in the dish after Tom was through uh rifling the cucumber dish.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Don't we have fun with some of these family favorite recipes? Well, anyway. Every time, now get ready for something deeper and more comforting. This is something that you are going to love to make. Alright, it is primed braised short ribs these chef-inspired short ribs are slow cooked with red wine, aromatic vegetables and herbs, and they're meltingly tender, then finished with a silky sauce. I love serving them over creamy planta. Oh, it's a like a match made in heaven. And the best part for home cooks is most of the work can all be done ahead of time. So you have all of these things, and when the guests come, you're not stressed at all because everything is already prepared. I like that idea.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

That's real hospitality right there. Rich soful food that still feels thoughtful. And I had fun making it. I was stirring in the pan and we were grilling and we were spark sparking and we were turning them over, and we it smelled good. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

And I was standing there with my fire extinguisher. Yes, I do remember that well. Okay. You get a little bit wild when you start doing that, Tom.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

But the paletta is a lot easier to make. You just have to stir and stir and stir, and more stirring so it doesn't lump up. And when you put it on a plate, it's just a pillow ready for those short ribs to be placed right on top of.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Beautiful. The dish itself really is elegant. It's a wonderful dish to actually.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

And the trick is putting it in the refrigerator overnight, and then the fat comes to the top, and you can skim the fat off the top of the dish and and uh have a healthier dish than it would have been if you'd have eaten it right away out of the oven.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

A lot of recipes don't tell you that to take, you know, to actually do that, to put it in the refrigerator and take that extra fat that forms off of it. But by doing that, you actually make the dish taste better. Right.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

So you can taste the meat.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

You can, you can. All right. And finally, let's look at what we have yet to go. All right. We end on a sweet kind of communal note of apple dapple carrion cake. I love that name, apple dapple. All right. This one is filled with about three to four fresh apples that are incredibly moist and topped with a warm butter sauce that soaks in and creates the most wonderful glaze on the top of the cake. It is truly a southern carry-in cake. It's the kind of dessert that will be welcome at any church supper or family gathering or community table. And this recipe itself came from North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

How about that?

SPEAKER_00 36:04

All right. So that kind of is the territory that the chef was around, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Yes. And you know, it doesn't hurt to squirt a little whipped cream on the top of those cakes.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

No, of course not, Tom. I've got the whip cream.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

It raises it to another level.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Yes, I'm sure you would be putting ice cream on there too, right? Oh, it didn't hurt either.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

Good idea.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

From the hills of Tennessee to the French laundry kitchen in California, and then right back to a shared table. That feels like the perfect full circle.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

It does, doesn't it? Well, Chef Breden's story reminds us that our roots can be a source of strength, not something we have to leave behind. And that cooking with care, whether it's a beautiful cucumber salad or a beautifully braised short rib, is one of the best ways we nourish ourselves and the people that we love.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

Body, mind, and spirit, all in one meal.

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And that's why we do this show, right?

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Thanks for spending this time with us today, friends. We hope these recipes bring a little extra warmth and goodness in your kitchen. Have fun with them.

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And remember, always put a little good taste in your life.