(Music plays) The butter bean.

Very few people outside the south have any idea what I'm talking about.

What is a butter bean?

That's really the question, isn't it?

(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.

(theme music) (theme 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.

Today, we are one day away from opening the Boiler Room.

At 6:30 we're going to do a friends and family.

Is that... that's their bun.

That's our bun.

That's the potato bun, yes.

And that's our bun.

Right.

Strike one.

It's falling apart.

Because the patties are too big.

I'm feeling pretty good.

I feel like I should pinch myself or something terrible's gonna go wrong because I think we're ready to open it.

(Music plays) I feel as if we're gonna be ok. You know, I've certainly felt worse going into opening night before.

Ben says I never give him credit for anything so I'm going to go on the record here and say Ben did a great job.

From start to finish he planned the budgets, the decor, the menu, and I'm very proud of him.

Um, I wanna talk to you about all the pickles we're doing.

Chef tried the pickle back shot.

What do you think about that?

Yeah you know, we made all the pickles for the Boiler Room and um, so we have all this pickling liquid and a lot of places... Bar stuff.

...do pickleback shots where they do... You take a shot of whiskey and then you take a shot of pickle juice and it's pretty damn good.

It tastes pretty good.

I like that.

One thing we do need to work on and you can start looking into, I've never made a veggie burger.

We're gonna have a veggie burger over there so you can put some thought into that.

We can go with black bean or we can go with garbanzo.

There's a place in Asheville that had like a double garbanzo bean burger and it was really good.

It was solid.

The vegetarians loved it.

What about a butter bean veggie burger?

We could try that.

Yeah let's try some butter beans.

Although I want to make sure they're nice and greasy because I was told by a vegetarian that...

It's dry.

...is like the grease running down your hand.

So... And what did they use?

Like olive oil?

Something like that.

It will be greasy.

And it's either going to be good or bad depending on who you ask.

Marquis, you wanna skim the scum off these?

Yes Chef.

So these are the speckled ones it looks like.

Yes.

There's a brief period at the end of July and the beginning of August when butter beans abound.

And people go absolutely wild in these parts when they feel butter bean season coming on.

At Chef and the Farmer we get dozens and dozens of bushels of butterbeans and we freeze them so we can use them all year long because there is absolutely nothing like the tender green creamy flesh of a butter bean.

So uhh, we're going to be changing a beef dish to sit on top of leek creamed butter beans and be studded with uhhh kalamata olive cured peppers.

So these are late summer ingredients that we like hang onto until the last of summer is over.

(Music plays) Leek creamed butter beans.

Olive cured peppers.

(Music plays) So, are you going to stir the butter beans into the leek cream?

Yeah.

Ok, alright.

(Music plays) So my mother in law moved here about a month ago and uhh she bought an old tire building and built out a very unusual apartment in it and everyone in town is fascinated by Ben's mom because she's eccentric and she's living in a tire building in downtown Kinston and people think that's so bizarre.

This is uhh two blocks from the restaurant and it is the Big D Tire building.

She has cut the center out of the building and made it a courtyard, like rain inside courtyard.

(Music plays) Susan?

Ow.

(laughter) Hey.

Hey.

How are ya?

Good.

How was the water park?

The waterpark was great.

The kids were fun.

So where do you sleep?

Well, this is a futon bed so I usually have extra people sleep there.

So yesterday I went and got some closeout rugs and that's what this is.

Boy these really fill up this space!

(laughter) Kinston's newest resident, Susan Singer.

It's, but, you all...

I find it amazing and I think it's because the people who have lived here get in the mind set of ohhh this is a small town struggling to make it.

Oh definitely.

You know, people, I find that as Kinston gets these cool things like the brewery or like the restaurant or the Boiler Room or the waterpark.

People outside of our community think it's much more intriguing than anyone who lives here.

Well I agree with you.

I think what you have done out here...

I mean it got me down here.

I wouldn't have... Yeah it's really more about our children though.

Yes, it's all about your children...

But, I would have visited.

Thank you.

Have a great trip.

(Music plays) You wanna put a nice spoonful of those creamed butter beans on there, Marquis?

(Music plays) Ok, so this is the flank steak that we've been serving this summer over uhh leek creamed butter beans.

So we make a leek cream with melted leeks and then we have a olive roasted pepper condiment on top.

We often have this situation with an olive dish where someone gets it and after they take three bites they say, "I hate olives" and then they send it back.

So just as you describe that dish make sure to talk in some way how the olives bring a nice real briny saltiness... Or how you know these leek creamed butter beans are rich and heavy and so is the steak so you need something to balance all that out, you know?

It's the story of our, what we do.

I always see stuff like this coming back.

Yeah and I don't understand that.

So, anyway.

(Music plays) The butter bean is like the rose of the vegetable garden.

It is very finicky and will only grow in sandy soil.

It hates wet, poorly drained soil and this season it has rained and rained and rained.

The weeds are out of control, particularly at Brothers Farm.

(Music plays) So, this morning we are at Brothers Farm.

Um, we're supposed to be looking at Warren's butter bean patch but uhh it's really sorry looking.

I hate to say that.

He did warn me that he didn't have much of a butter bean crop this year but I didn't believe the scope of it.

It's the butter bean crew!

(laughter) There's not much out here.

I'm telling you.

It's hot.

I said, Lilly you ain't gonna need that chair.

Yeah I do because my back hurt.

There's one.

It's gonna take all of us.

So why does the butter bean patch look like this?

I think it has something to do with that 20 inches of rain we had in two weeks.

It's a little grassy and just not what I would call a bumper crop.

That it's not.

It's not what I would call a bumper crop either.

No.

So the rain did a lot for the weeds but not for the butter beans?

That's right.

Washed all the fertilizer out from under 'em.

I would like to try and explain to people who don't know what a butter bean is, what is so special about a butter bean and why do we...

Right.

I really think around here, we're the only people that think so.

(Laughter) I don't know why that is, but I mean people just wait all year for the butter beans and you know mama just likes those little teeny tiny.. Like this?

I think the smaller kind of the better.

That would be a perfect butterbean.

Sure would.

And it is different than a lima bean.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

You're talking about the big white ones or the speckled ones.

That's a whole different, yeah a whole different thing.

So this is a bush bean?

Mmm hmm.

Explain what that means.

It just means it's a compact small plant.

It doesn't run.

It doesn't climb.

And why do you prefer that?

If you're gonna plant 40 rows of butter beans you're have to put up 40, I don't know how many poles and wires and then you do the strings just like you would a pole bean.

But you didn't plant 40 rows of butter beans, did you?

No I did not.

Very wise because...

I see two here.

The two I got here and the six back there are like I say...

So your mom, how would she cook her butter beans?

That's a good question.

Just put them in some boiling water and a little pork fat in there.

Ok most people do use some pork fat.

Yeah.

How about you, Lilly?

How would you cook yours?

I cook mine the same way.

Just boil 'em and put some salt and pepper and some pork fat and let them boil down.

And would you eat... What would you eat with butter beans?

Fried chicken.

Pork chops.

Any kind of good meat that you would like.

And what kind of bread?

Would it be cornbread or biscuits?

Biscuits.

I mostly like biscuits.

I actually like mine without the pork fat.

Right.

I like to put just a little butter, a bay leaf, some salt and pepper, and water.

So you go on that side?

You can go on either side but I just like the back side.

The backside?

Yeah.

That is very slow work.

Yeah it is.

It's when you ain't got nothing to do... shell butter beans.

I see why they invented the butter bean sheller.

Sheller... (Laughter) I mean when you think about it you know, you shell it you get three beans if you're lucky.

This, I believe would be what Warren's mom would call the perfect butter bean.

It's really small, tender.

It would not take much cooking but this is mostly what you get when you get shelled butter beans.

I'm fine with those too.

So, how are things going over at the Boiler Room?

Are we going to be ready for the grand opening today?

Um yeah, you know we did that friends and family on Thursday night.

Yeah that was fun.

And it could have gone a lot worse.

We're doing a butter bean burger.

We've got to have a veggie burger because there are a few vegetarians in Kinston.

There are.

So, we're trying to make a butter bean burger like a black bean burger, kind of.

So we'll be introducing that tonight.

Lilly, that's about it, isn't it?

I think so Mr. Brothers.

Ok that's a wrap.

(Laughter) Let's go see nephew.

(Music plays) Butter Beans, they are extremely perishable.

They are a fresh bean and they are a beast to shell.

Donald, will the sheller run that many?

Oh yea, it will run that many.

Alright.

We could probably shell them by hand almost as uhhh... Really.

That's what I was thinking...

If everybody just sat down to shell we would have 'em shelled, wouldn't we?

That's right.

So, this is your produce stand?

Yep.

We've been here four years.

So you're the butter bean guy in this area?

Well that's what Warren says.

Well, I'm one of them.

He's definitely not.

(Laughter) Well I don't know?

He's got more butterbeans today than I have.

Well that's true.

It's a temperamental plant.

Real real temperamental.

I mean a butter bean hill can be full of blossoms and a temperature change, water, and it just drop blossoms.

I mean it's real tricky.

Right.

Why do you think people are so wild about them?

Maybe the flavor?

Yeah I like the flavors.

And you know, you can't get em.

You know how people are.

Right.

Most people want what they can't have.

Absolutely.

I sure did want more butter beans than that to go through the sheller today, that's for sure.

(Laughter) So you are the owner of the Chef and the Farmer?

I am.

I am.

My husband and I.

Have you ever been there?

No, I stay in the woods.

If I go to town I get into trouble.

(Laughter) I can understand that.

Yeah.

So, let me see the sheller.

Yeah it's right here, the bean sheller.

What you do is you take these out.

Dump the beans right in there and close it up.

So how much would it cost if I was to bring a bushel of beans?

Five bucks.

Five bucks.

I think that would be well worth it based on how time consuming it is to sit there and shell beans.

That's right.

And you know people don't have the time they used to have.

It's a nice like, pass time... Oh yeah.

Sitting on the porch... That's right.

...And doing that, but I just don't think anybody has any time for that.

You know, I have older customers and they'll bring their peas but they'll always keep a bucket full.

For that purpose.

Right.

You know, I want to shell.

Now when people are sitting and have free time they are on like, Facebook.

That's exactly right.

(Music plays) I grew up eating butter beans and string beans and I thought these were the only beans in the universe and until recently I had no real understanding of what a butter bean actually was.

I love that smell, that like that fresh green.

Yeah.

So what is the difference between a butter bean and a lima bean?

Same thing.

Right?

I think.

Far as I know.

But these are just more immature?

Yeah.

So, if you were to leave these out there in the field they would eventually become lima beans?

They would get white and hard and dry... ...Just like he was talking about and they shell real easy.

Well I did not know that.

Really?

Yes really.

(Laughter) I know what I know.

Thank you very much.

I'm glad we made this happen.

Thank y'all?

Y'all fixing to leave?

Well we're opening the Boiler Room tonight so unfortunately I have to go.

You won't believe what I'm doing.

I'm making a butter bean burger.

We're going to have a veggie burger.

(Laughter) (Music plays) I started out on this quest to make an edible veggie burger.

When I first got started I added a whole bunch of things that I thought would make it taste good but there were like 20 ingredients.

So I had to distill that down into a more manageable recipe that I know that the staff over at the Boiler Room is going to be able to execute quickly and accurately.

This is much more simple and I think it's something that almost anyone can do.

And in the absence of butter beans you can use baby lima beans.

So I've got lima beans... excuse me I have butter beans that I cooked in boiling salted water.

I'm just gonna add those to my food processor.

They, along with cooked brown rice are gonna kind of be the meat of my veggie burger.

And to them I'm gonna start adding the things that are gonna make this taste good so I've got some caramelized onions.

They're gonna add both moisture and sweetness.

I've also got roasted garlic that will add a nice moisture and creaminess.

I've got a little worcestershire, which is something that I associate with meat.

It makes meaty things taste meatier.

Ground cumin which has a meaty kind of earthy quality, smokey quality.

Ground chipotle and smoked paprika and I'm gonna add a little salt to this.

And I'm gonna process it and when you get it going you want to make sure that you don't make this a smooth homogenous paste because we want to still see a few beans.

You want to know what it is you're eating.

So, I'm gonna add some olive oil for flavor and fat because you know butterbeans don't have any fat.

So what we wanna do right now is try not to ruin this tasty mix with too many bread crumbs but you do need to add some bread crumbs in order to keep it to hold together.

So, I'm going to take my panko and sprinkle it.

Alright, so you can see this is stiffening up.

So at this point I want to let my burger hang out and kind of become one.

So, I'm just waiting for Adam to come over and test it so I can let him know how I want it.

How it needs to be cooked.

Adam has worked here at Chef and the Farmer for several years and we needed to find someone to run the kitchen over there so we decided to promote from within so we'll see.

I hope it goes well.

If it doesn't it's going to suck for him and us.

Ok so this is the butter bean burger.

Berg...berg...burg...bur.

It's incredibly fragile so you're going to have to cook it from frozen and then brown it really well one one side and flip it.

It's good.

Um hmm.

I really like that.

Yeah, crispy.

Yeah, I think on our grill it will help crisp it up really nice.

(Music plays) What's on the dinner menu?

I just have to add the Pepsi... No, it's the same as last week, except the butter bean burger and the Pepsi float.

Butter Bean burger and the Pepsi float.

(Music plays) When I was working on my butter bean burger.

I'm going to stop saying that, my veggie burger (laughter) ...One thing I noticed was that it was kind of soft so I wanted to add some texture so we are going to have these little fried tobacco onions that should add a really nice crunchy oniony mix.

The reason we are cooking these from frozen is because the butter bean because you're smashing them they will oxidize so I don't want 'em to go bad.

We'll make a big batch, patty them out, freeze them and you'll just take them out as you need them.

You want to get like super caramelized sear and then turn it.

Ok. (Music plays) You're gonna put the special sauce.

(Music plays) That looks good.

14,15,16,17, 18,19, 20...

I think we're going to be serving food.

I made three Boiler Room butter bean burgers.

So this is our veggie burger.

Let's pick it up.

Eat it.

Nobody is going to get the cooties today.

We have all discovered that's the better experience, picking it up and eating it, than cutting it.

So, there's three here.

I'm really happy with this.

(Music plays) It reminds me of like a black bean burger and like a crabcake.

Oh my god.

It's really good.

I'd eat that everyday.

That is good.

So, anyway, alright we're going to have a great night tonight.

(Music plays) You can sit anywhere you'd like.

Here you are.

It says bait of the day?

What they do is they take a bloody mary mixture and mix it with the butter, top the oyster with butter and bread crumbs and put it in the oven.

That sounds really good.

Ben and I have been building up staff in anticipation of opening the Boiler Room, but as fate would have it we always lose a few folks just before something major happens so of course we have just enough staff to pull off the opening of the Boiler Room and the simultaneous running of Chef and the Farmer.

I feel like that's always gonna be the case with us though.

Ice water!?

Ice water?

That's it?

Come on boo.

It's time to start drinking.

Come on, come on we're at a bar.

What are we drinking on?

I want do a dozen of the raw.

(Music plays) The harpers are about to come out of the steamer in 30 seconds.

Alright I'm going to put these naked Roys out here, ok?

Alright.... (Music plays) I want to try the butter bean burger.

Yes.

We're trying to get like a really nice caramelized sear and the oil helps with that.

It also adds a kind of needed fat because that butter bean is just absorbing that right now and it's making it really really flavorful.

Greasy... in a good way.

My tender hands.

I keep burning them.

Alright here you go.

Veggie burger, bean burger.

Veggie burger.

Alright so I'm just going to go for it.

There you go.

A big hot mess.

It's everything I wanted it to be.

Good.

I'm glad you like it.

And more.

The consensus when opening a burger restaurant is that you need to have a veggie burger.

And until recently I had never even eaten a veggie burger.

There's not a whole lot of great options out there.

But I think the wonderful texture of the butter bean and the tender green flavor will be awesome.

Here goes the butter bean burger.

Oh man, it is very good.

As much as I've bemoaned the Boiler Room and feared what it would do to our overall establishment I think the opening went really really well.

I think we did over 80 raw oysters.

I know we did over 100 steamed.

Here ya go babes.

Love you.

Mean it.

Love you more.

You're pretty.

This is much easier than my job at Chef and the Farmer.

How's your bean burger?

I loved it.

I loved it too.

Ok, great.

I split it with everybody and everyone loved it.

The talk of the whole place is the butter bean burger.

I can honestly say though the best part of the whole experience of this butter bean season is that I have finally gotten to the root of what a butter bean is.

And I can only hope that I can put my mother in law to work, shelling some.

(laughter) (Music plays) For more information on A Chef's Life visit PBS.org/food A Chef's Life is available on DVD.

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