Q&A with Chef Bill Smith

What is your food philosophy or your approach to cooking?

I believe in leaving everything alone as much as possible. Buy the best ingredients available, but keep the food simple and don’t take shortcuts. I teach a lot of cooking classes—I love to teach. When teaching, I use recipes that home cooks will actually try to prepare—nothing too daunting. I have the same approach for the dishes at the restaurant.

How would you describe the menu?

Our menu celebrates the diversity of Southern cooking [from the Southeast to the Southwest]. We may offer traditional Southern dishes, such as Hoppin’ John, but the menu also includes items like fresh corn tamales with summer tomato salsa during corn season.

Do you emphasize seasonal dishes and local foods?

All of our dishes are seasonally based, and local ingredients are used as often as is practical and reasonable. There is no fixed menu—it may change every day depending on what is available. From the spring to the fall, farmers show up at the restaurant daily with fresh produce. We are able to get lots of fresh tomatoes in the summer, for example, so I feature them in many dishes throughout the season, such as the chilled Baked Tomato Soup. (recipe link)

Chapel Hill is very close to the coast, so we offer a variety of fresh, local seafood. Currently, we have Pink Snapper on the menu. The snapper is baked in paper with sweet-corn creamy rice, fresh tomatoes and fried okra.

What inspires you and influences your dishes?

The menu reflects my upbringing as well as my travels, whether it’s to different states like Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, which is a big influence, or to places like Mexico. I created the Mango Salad (recipe link) after attending a festival that celebrates the cultures of all the Latin Americans who have settled in North Carolina.

You work double-duty at the restaurant’s pastry chef. What are your specialties?

I enjoy making sherbets, sorbets, ice creams and old-fashioned layer cakes. I like to use the fruits that are available in a given season, so the seasons heavily influence all of the desserts. During the summer, we have featured Blackberry-Papaya-Buttermilk Sherbet, Blueberry Sherbet, Guava Sorbet and Lemon Mousse. When peaches are in season I use them in a variety of desserts. Some of the desserts may be available for one day only depending on the ingredients we have. I recently had pecans left over from a dish so that day I made chocolate praline ice cream.

Crook’s is famous for our Banana Pudding that has a huge meringue topping. Banana pudding has been around forever and most people use the recipe on the box of vanilla wafers—this is definitely not that recipe!

You seem to have a second career as a writer, from blogs and essays to cookbooks. Your most recent writing is Immigrants in the Kitchen. Are these recipes?

They are a mix of recipes and social commentary interwoven with my journals from travel to such places as Mexico City and Celaya to visit former staff. But they are less about recipes and more about restaurants, food and how food and people are connected.

Seasoned in the South was published in 2005. Is this a typical cookbook?

It’s a collection of more than 100 recipes and stories from my life growing up in Eastern North Carolina, my travels and my years here in the kitchen at Crook’s Corner. The recipes are grouped by the ingredients of each of the four seasons. This is a university town and for schools, the fall is the beginning of the year, so the book begins with fall recipes.

Do you have a favorite ingredient you like to use?

I have too many favorites to narrow it to just one. I love seasonal items such as soft-shell crabs and wild blackberries. I also love using garlic and orange peels—an ingredient that I feel is truly underrated.

If you could suggest one food everyone should try in their lifetime, what would it be?

Sea urchin (uni)—I love it. They’re hard to get here so when I go to New York, I have them as much as possible—even for breakfast. I also think everyone should try soft-shell crabs at least once.

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