[Music] Ramps are wild leeks and they can not be cultivated, making them one of the very few things that chefs can't get their hands on all year long so as a result we all go nuts for them.

Oh my god, it's springtime!

THE RAMPS ARE COMING!

THE RAMPS ARE COMING!

That's what chefs do when the ramps are coming.

[Theme Music plays- The Avett Brothers "Will You Return"] 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.

[Music] So this is my life.

Raising twins, living in the house I grew up in, and exploring the south, one ingredient at a time.

Previously on A Chef's Life...

So, Uncle Dwight, why didn't you tell us about this wild pig before now?

I didn't even think about it.

Oh my god!

Oh my god!

Today is the big party!

Happy birthday!

Flo, I think this might be the best birthday party you'll ever have, I'm afraid [laughs].

[Music] There's no 1222.

We don't know where we are?

This looks like somewhere Allan Benton would live though.

We had the opportunity to go "hunting" for ramps.

When you think of hunting you think of looking for a wild animal, but actually what we're doing is foraging for ramps.

Hey, how are you?

-Good to see you.

-Nice to see you.

Now, are you excited about them ramps?

I am!

I am.

We're going with Allan Benton of Benton's Country Ham, his wife, and Joseph Lynn from Blackberry Farms so this is not your average just going out in the woods, gonna pick some ramps scenario.

Allan Benton is the reigning King of smoked pork and Joseph Lynn is one of the best chefs in the country so this is gonna be a spectacular experience.

If you want to, take your time.

It's steep going in there so just take your time and it can be adventurous.

Let's go do it.

[Music] This is a ramp.

You can actually pull them by hand if you can get a hold of them.

That's ramps.

These are mature enough to be good.

We can cook them with potatoes.

We'll actually cut up leaves and fry that with potatoes.

It turns out great.

You either love it or you don't but the time you get down in here and pull these and find your way out you got enough of an appetite that pork and beans will probably taste okay.

[Music] This is a ramp right here.

And that's one.

Yeah.

-There's your first ramp.

-Thank you!

[Laughter] [Music] I think I thought there was gonna be like a whole meadow full of ramps.

I need a lot of ramps to fill this bag.

I'm looking for basically like two little chutes out of the ground with a little bit of purple on them.

I mean, to the untrained eye these may look the same but I can tell there's a lot more leaves on that.

[Music] Ooooh!

Foraging is a really hot thing these days but I've never foraged for anything.

So, this was a cool experience in a lot of ways and I had a really good time.

The weather was nice.

I just maybe didn't have the right shoes on.

I never have the right shoes on!

So, when y'all get ramps at the restaurant do people bring them to you and you buy them or does somebody go out?

We've got a guy who digs them for us.

I pay 20 per pound.

And I didn't really know what was appropriate?

Yeah.

Early in the season we pay 25 dollars per pound.

They're expensive.

Like, with my cooks it's like, you look at them and you're like this cost more than anything per pound in this walk in cooler right now so we'll end up making like ramp butter or something like that with them if I've got an excess of tops and we'll pickle the bulbs.

Yeah, you're not just like throwing them into some wilted spinach more than likely.

Yeah.

Did you find some ramps?

Yes!

Have you?

Yes I have.

How many have you gotten, Ben?

How many you got?

What have you been doing?

Talking the whole time?

Why, you got more than that?

Oh yeah.

Well.

They seem to be more plentiful down here.

[laughs] Come down here Ben.

Hang on one sec.

I got a big patch right here.

This is awesome.

I think he's been enjoying himself this whole time.

You get to this place when you're fishing or whatever you're doing and it's like okay I've done enough, now I just want to sit in the woods.

Typically when I go anywhere these days I make several lists.

I pack everything up.

I schlep it somewhere.

I unpack it.

I cook it and it's a lot of work.

But today is a new day because the only thing I'm schlepping anywhere are my several pounds of ramps that I've hunted for.

Otherwise Joseph Lynn, Allan Benton and his wife, Sharon are cooking for us and it's gonna be awesome.

I'll prep and you guys hang out.

Okay.

[Laughter] Unless you wanna clean ramps.

[Laughter] [Music] Do you work in the food business?

I do for now.

That's how I met Joseph at Blackberry.

I was working in the dining room and I went back to school for radiology.

Do y'all have kids?

No.

We want to travel a little bit first.

Do you guys have kids?

Yeah and do your traveling now.

[Laughter] We have twins.

Oh my gosh.

It's very cool.

Like, when I found out I was pregnant with twins I started crying because I had just not planned on that... Yeah.

But, there's some advantages.

I'm 26 now but I thought sometime after 30 I'll think about it.

You got lots of time.

Alright these are pickled ramps.

They're just pickled in white vinegar and pickling spice, bay leaf, you know just really really simple.

It's so delicious.

Awesome.

[Music] What do you think of the ramps, Ben?

I love the ramps.

I love ramps and eggs.

The ramps and eggs are great with that chicken on it.

The ramps and potatoes are just like your dream breakfast.

Nothing is better than cooking potatoes in the bacon you just cooked.

This is like ideal.

This is perfect, beautiful stuff.

It's good!

-It has a review on tripadvisor.

-Yep.

I'll read it.

It says our table decided to share the charred asparagus pizza with pork belly.

There was not an ounce of pork belly to be found on the pizza.

When we pointed this out to our waiter, Justin, he kind of rolled his eyes and walked off in a huff.

When he came back he informed us that the pork belly had been rendered into the sauce on the pizza.

Hmmm why didn't the menu say this?

Another problem is that things continued.

I decided on the New York strip steak but didn't want gouda creamed greens which sounded totally unhealthy and gross.

Which are delicious.

And asked to substitute for asparagus.

The waiter, Justin, acted like this would be a huge deal for the kitchen because the plates were pre-prepared.

Not a good sign.

This guy is just not for us.

That's not true.

A piece of steak which is lacking in flavor, a shmear of apple butter and these gross creamed veggies.

I told you, you know if we ever opened a restaurant in New York I'd put a sign on the door that says, if you're a critic you can go somewhere else.

Come and enjoy the food and if you don't like it don't come back.

We do the best we can.

That's it.

I am making coffee for my red eye vinaigrette and brooding over somebody calling our food gross.

[Music] Okay, so we've got ramps coming at two o'clock, which is a little later than I hoped but that's the way it's gonna be.

So, Justise, you're gonna have a ramp dish and it's gonna be like this take on this experience we had hunting for ramps with Allan Benton where he cooked ummm ramps and country ham and potatoes together.

So, we're going to do grilled ramps and that's going to get stirred into grits and then for the other ramp dish we're gonna do a take on steak and baked potatoes.

They're gonna get finished with a ramp butter.

Ramps don't always pair well with others but they do pair especially well with potatoes so I thought this would be a great opportunity to finally put a steak and baked potato, gasp, on the menu.

This is the last time I'm ever doing this.

It's going to be someone else's job.

That's okay.

Ramps won't last long and neither will this dish.

When we opened the restaurant many years ago everybody felt like the menu should be focused around steaks and baked potatoes so I've been terrified to put anything that even remotely resembled a steak and baked potato combination on the menu, but finally I'm no longer scared.

So, I'm gonna give the people what they want.

Allan wants a number two.

-Double.

-Double.

And you're gonna record his number two... With bacon.

I got it.

[Music] We've opened the Boiler Room on Saturdays and Sundays for lunch as well as dinner and everybody over here gets all giddy because there is somewhere they can get food.

Justise wants number four with bacon.

Number four with bacon.

And as afraid as I was of the Boiler Room, it's been great.

I love taking my kids there to eat.

Ben loves participating in the creative process over there.

I, however, have a hard time connecting over there.

This is my kitchen.

This is where I learned how to be a chef and I feel most comfortable over here.

When I go over there I feel like an outsider.

Ummm.

Justin, did you see that review of you on tripadvisor?

No, was it bad or good?

[Laughter] It's not good.

It's not good?

You've had worse.

You're smiling about it so it must be something ridiculous.

It's an uncomfortable smile.

Okay.

I would read it.

I'll look it up and see.

I'm sure Ben will bring it up to your attention.

Alright.

[Music] We're waiting for our ramps.

Service starts at 5:30.

It's Saturday night.

We have 180 people on the books and I'm trying to put two dishes on the menu that center around ramps so that's looking like it's gonna suck for us.

Hey, where are you?

Okay, so like five minutes?

Great, we'll be waiting for you.

Hey, how are you?

We can wash 'em in here or do you wanna weigh 'em first?

What do you wanna do?

I mean, there's a lot of soil on them.

Not only are ramps the first sign of spring and something that you can't always count on because they're totally wild, they have such a short season.

They're only available maybe a month out of every year.

So, it only adds to the craziness surrounding them.

Because ramps can't be cultivated.

You can't take a ramp seed and grow a ramp plant in a greenhouse they're very kind of hard to come by.

You have to have a source, like a ramp dealer kind of.

Ummm they weighed in around 14.

So, George is this the last time you'll go this year?

Yeah.

Pretty short window this year.

You go to the same place every year?

Well, I basically consider myself like the steward of this patch.

It's protected land and basically we thin it out.

So, you're doing that to make sure that there's more for next year?

Yeah and then the whole, like the whole patch all together is gonna be, you know, there.

So, ramps grow on any face of a mountain or?

No, it's usually the north face of the mountain.

And it's uhh generally between about four and six thousand feet.

So, if ramps are there one year they'll be there the next year as long as you don't take all of them.

Yeah, actually they're very aggressive the way they kind of take over ravines and stuff.

Here ya go.

Thank you very very much.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

If you were to run across any more let me know.

I will.

Chef, is there something I can help you with as far as the ramps go?

No, I just need like another hour.

[Music] So, you can take half of the tops and I'm going to take the roots and pickle them right now.

Here's your filling.

Stuff 'em, okay?

[Music] Y'all got tweezers or something?

Justise puts her hand on the plancha.

Okay, there you go.

That's what we're doing.

Okay.

[Music] These are my pickled roots.

Whooo!

That's so strong.

These really need to be pickled because if somebody eats this raw they're gonna knock the person out across the table.

I would love for them to sit for several hours at least but that just ain't gonna happen.

[Music] Grits.

Garlic cream cheese stuff, ramps, and I really wanna be able to see the ramps.

Yeah.

Just gonna get that hot.

So, this is made with bacon fat, coffee, the pork jelly from the pork belly... Pork belly jelly.

Pork belly jelly.

Nice ramp there and then our country ham.

Okay?

Alright, so we got two things today.

Grits mounted with charred ramps.

It's something that we'll only have for about three days because we only have a limited amount of ramps.

So, really try to recommend it.

I think people will enjoy it.

Then right here.

This, please try not to recommend this.

That's all I can really say because we want to sale something else.

So, we've got our New York strip served with a stuffed potato, then on top we have finished it with a ramp butter, and then we have asparagus.

This is like everybody's dream, you know steak, baked potato, and asparagus.

Saturday night, this is gonna feel like crazy.

I know, that's what I'm saying.

-Try to recommend... -I'm sure like crazy.

Don't even talk about it.

[Laughter] They'll be like, where's the salad bar?

[Laughter] Thanks y'all.

[Music] When you make a compound butter of any kind you need to make sure that the butter is very very soft.

Recipes often call for room temperature butter.

By room temperature butter I mean butter that collapses at the touch of my finger.

So, I'm gonna start by blanching my ramp tops.

I've got some boiling water.

I'm gonna add quite a bit of salt to that.

What I'm trying to do here is just soften these leaves and preserve their bright green color so as soon as I see that come back up to a boil I am going to shock them.

I don't want to lose any of the oniony, garlicky, pungency that they have innately.

Okay, so I've got my blanched tops in here.

I'm gonna add a few other things to compliment the ramps.

I've got some mint leaves and a fair amount of parsley.

Next, I'm gonna add some lemon zest.

That's also gonna help point flavors and brighten things up.

I'm gonna turn that on and process it briefly before I add my butter.

So one of the reasons you want to process this before you put the butter in is so that when we start to incorporate all this together it doesn't warm up.

The friction created by the blade turning around will actually heat up the ingredients and that's very bad for the end product.

Turn this on.

I'm gonna add some lemon juice and some salt.

At this point this is the perfect thing to finish like, a grilled steak with or a baked potato.

But more than likely I'm gonna use this in a couple weeks when I have this very crazy wild boar barbecue at my, at my house.

Have you heard about this, Kim?

No.

So, my Uncle Dwight caught this wild boar, a wild pig and we are going to cook it at my house.

The whole cookout is because we did an auction item for the Arts Council and the Mother Earth people bought it.

So they're coming.

They think we're going to have like a spit-roasted lamb.

Little do they know we're going to have this wild animal so hopefully this ramp butter is gonna pair well with him.

[Music] -Hey, good evening.

-Good evening.

Now, we're going to discuss the food.

What we're featuring tonight are ramps.

Alright, order fire, ragout, Justise.

Heard.

Can you drop two more please?

[Music] Alright, are we ready to begin?

I'll have the steak.

I want the steak and baked potato.

I'll have the steak.

I would like a steak rare.

I'm gonna get the steak and baked potato.

And I'll have the steak medium.

Very good.

Alright ordering second course.

Two rares, one medium, one med rare.

Do you think we can see about getting this look like it did when I did it?

Yeah.

But I'll go check 'em.

And we've gotta kinda figure out how we can get a groove here because I don't feel like we've got one.

Your pan needs to be hot.

So I would keep a pan in here hot.

Alright.

And then when you're ready to drop them put your oil down and put that there because this is not helping the situation.

Do you have any working?

Yeah, I got three in there working right now.

So, I would put more in too.

Yeah, I just don't want you to get behind and now I feel like we're behind.

So, don't put the ramps on the steak.

You could top the potato with asparagus.

Yeah.

I don't like the way that looks.

[Laughter] Get a ramp y'all.

Ramps are good.

Yeah, they're delicious.

You know with that vinegar with that sweet vinegar in them.

Finally, one looks really good.

Here's your steak and baked potato.

You know why I ordered it don't you?

Because you said you would never fix it.

So, I've made a career of doing things I said I would never do.

Much as I suspected we started out only selling steak and baked potatoes but you know the crowd changes as the night progresses.

We're seeing more varied orders, thank God.

When one station gets crushed like that it's hard to function.

After that we're going to bring a grouper, a tuna, a strip.

[phone rings] Yes, yes.

I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry.

Okay, well that sucks.

I just got a call from my Uncle Dwight and the wild boar ain't gonna happen.

It's like doubled in size.

It's over 300 pounds and getting it from Duplin County to Lenoir County in a safe manner is just not in the cards for us so now I've got to figure out what in the world I'm going to serve these folks.

You know I'm very accustomed to dealing with seasonal ingredients.

You know, for several months each year I know when to expect strawberries, but when you're dealing with wild ingredients like a ramp or like a wild boar, things can be very unpredictable.

It's spring so we're gonna cook all these things that say spring to me.

We've got ramps, we've got strawberries, we've got soft shell crab, we've got asparagus, and we're gonna really make them shine in our hot back yard.

Ben is sitting out there in front of that fire.

What are you doing?

[Laughter] When we first started talking about doing this dinner I told him that we were going to barbecue a wild boar and he got like this terrible look on his face and immediately thought it was a bad idea so our auction dinner went from barbecuing a wild boar to grilling some soft shell crabs in the back yard and Ben is thrilled for two reasons.

One, it's a lot easier and two, he gets to say I told you so.

Probably numerous numerous times.

First grill of the season.

[Music] So, is that just oil, salt, and pepper.

Yeah.

That's good to go right there.

I like the charred part of it.

I've never had them grilled.

When she told me that's what she wanted to do.

I'm like that sounds great.

That's amazing.

So, the Mother Earth bus pulls up.

They get out.

They're all guys and most of them have beards.

Not a criticism.

Just an observation, but it left me feeling very unique.

-Ben!

-Welcome, welcome.

What's up?

Good, how are you?

So Ben you've got the chicken coop The weather was absolutely ideal.

The company was great and it was a fun party.

We went to Boston and Theo cried so hard on the plane that he vomited.

-Oh really?

-Yeah.

I get so drunk on planes I vomit.

[Laughter] So, we have a sugar snap pea and lamb bacon toast.

Then we have grilled soft shell crab that have been tossed in ramp butter and they're over grilled ramps so make sure you dig down and get some because it's really good.

We're all going to go home with terrible breath.

[Laughter] Thank you so much.

Oh, thank y'all.

Ben and I don't really entertain at home because we entertain for a living but if I were a different person with a different job I think I would consider entertaining more because I had a really good time.

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