The devastation brought on by Hurricane Helene in September was still very much apparent when I drove through Western North Carolina last week. In the town of Hot Springs almost every storefront on the main thoroughfare had been gutted after floodwaters all but destroyed them Dead trees littered the ground like spilled toothpicks along the French Broad River nearby signs reading "Asheville Strong" were posted on street corners I learned that residents and businesses had only recently regained access to potable water for cooking As someone who has visited this lively city several times before the storm a feeling of shell shock was still palpable In a year in which the media was primarily focused on the presidential election the plight of the communities affected by Helene fell out of the news cycle far more quickly than it should have I wanted to kick myself for not paying more attention The storm hit the area's hospitality industry particularly hard In a region that relies on tourism as its lifeblood breweries and hotels lose employees – who chose to leave the state after their homes were destroyed – they also faced repair costs insurance costs and a death spiral decline in business due to the virtual disappearance of tourists Cincinnatians will have a chance to help out Jose Salazar will host Asheville chef William Dissen for a fundraising dinner at Mita's Dissen owns several restaurants in North Carolina The goal is to help Dissen raise money for repairs and payroll costs for his restaurants until things return to normal Dissen practically introduced farm-to-table dining to Asheville when he purchased The Market Place in 2009 Fortune magazine named him "Green Chef of the Year" for two years in a row Chef Gordon Ramsay referred to him as "the most sustainable chef on the planet." The Market Place reopened in mid-November after a 65-day closure Instead of the 40 employees Dissen had on staff before the storm The Market Place also relies on tourists for much of its business Since tourism is down almost 80% in Asheville after the storm he's finding it harder than ever to make ends meet The menu for the dinner is reflective of Dissen's passion for Appalachian-inspired cuisine and will feature ingredients such as rainbow trout The five-course meal will include two dishes from Dissen and three from Salazar The $300-per-person price tag might sound steep. Just keep in mind that it includes wine pairings, tax, tip and, more importantly, a lifeline for Asheville restaurant workers (100% of the proceeds will go toward helping Dissen and his staff). The dinner takes place at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 15. For more information, visit mitas.co #inregister When it’s time to choose a gift for the kitchen aficionado who seems to have every gadget and ingredient I whittled my long list of gifts down to a single item: the perfect practical and even nonperishable treat for everyone on my list This stroke of genius came about by pure chance because when venturing out of Louisiana everyone appreciates a taste of our farms and fields friends will reciprocate with unexpected surprises In the spirit of “giving is better than receiving,” between hurricanes and holidays boudin and Louisiana rice) in an insulated bag and nestled it inside my suitcase to give to a friend in West Virginia It’s a gift.” Sharing the bounty of Louisiana always makes me smile and this cache of deliciousness was a belated congratulations to my friend Chef Paul Smith who won a James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast in June His restaurant 1010 Bridge is one of his many projects creating a culinary buzz in “the other Charleston.” I was offered a serving of the second course: Mushroom Toast with Peppered Ricotta which my daughter and I gleefully devoured with fork and knife Imagine an open-faced sandwich on expertly toasted sourdough topped with a pillow of peppery ricotta and a blanket of The top was embellished with edible flower petals and slivers of red-rimmed radish a pop of pickled ramps added a subtle tang to the earthy delicacy a sourdough canvas-turned-showstopping starter course My love for West Virginia runs as deep as the New River Gorge I immersed myself in the cookbook that was an unexpected gift souvenir Who knew there was an art to toasting a slab of sourdough or that a half cup of bourbon deglazing a skillet full of mushrooms was flavor magic I also discovered so many parallels of seasonal abundance to Louisiana The accompanying photographs make you want to savor every page My copy of this new book is already stained and I bought a stack of copies ready to share with my cooking friends How appropriate that in the garden of my workplace is a quote from St Francis: “For it is in the giving that we receive.” Source the best sourdough boule you can get your hands on Slice it an inch thick and toast as directed Preheat oven broiler with a rack in top-shelf position Lay bread slices out in a single layer onto a rimmed baking sheet Combine canola and olive oil in a small bowl The goal is darkened edges and lightly crisped golden centers Combine ricotta with pepper and scoop about 2 Tbsp Top each with a cascade of mushroom ragout and garnish to make it your own shiitake or portobello will also be delicious Louisiana has bountiful mushrooms at farmers’ markets and woodlands rich with edible varieties (a fun outing with an expert) Heat canola and olive oil in large sauté pan over medium-high heat Add vegetable stock and reduce again until just a shimmer of liquid remains “Smoked Turkey Legs with Kumquat Glaze” caught my eye I’m happy with little jars of this delightful kumquat marmalade (with thanks to my neighbor for sharing his kumquat crop) It is a perfect topping for toast and makes a great gift on its own Place quartered kumquats in bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped Transfer to a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan Cover pan and allow fruit to macerate at room temperature for 2 hours Uncover saucepan and heat mixture over medium-high heat Remove thyme and star anise after 20 minutes of cooking Divide marmalade into sterilized glass jars and cool to room temperature before covering and refrigerating for up to 6 months *Recipes adapted from Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South by William Stark Dissen Among the semifinalists for outstanding chef is William Dissen while Chase Collier was named as a regional semifinalist for the Best Chef in the Southeast region Dissen is a West Virginia native who graduated from West Virginia University before pursuing the culinary arts He studied at The Culinary Institute of America in New York where he graduated with honors After establishing himself in the culinary world in Charleston, South Carolina, he would return to Appalachia, opening The Market Place in Asheville, North Carolina, a restaurant with an emphasis on using local ingredients and focusing on community Chase Collier has been named as a regional finalist for Best Chefs presented by Capital One in the Southeast Region for his work in Charleston’s Ristorante Abruzzi. Collier was born and raised in southwest Virginia where his appreciation for cooking began. As he rose through the ranks of the culinary world, he never left his Appalachian roots behind, highlighting them in his work at the local Ristorante Abruzzi, according to the restaurant. The final nominees of the 35th annual James Beard Awards will be announced on April 2 before an award ceremony for the winners is held at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on June 16 CINCINNATI (WKRC) - A local chef is helping an Asheville restaurant rebuild from Hurricane Helene The fundraiser at Mita's Restaurant served up Appalachian-inspired dishes Chef Jose Salazar wanted to provide relief through the kitchen Asheville chef William Dissen and he are serving up a five-course meal with all proceeds going to Dissen's restaurant "We all woke up that morning of the storm and it was like a bomb had gone off everywhere No—we didn't have running water for three and a half weeks," said The Market Place chef and owner William Dissen He said that the city went almost 10 weeks without clean drinking water and that the hurricane damaged his restaurant "We're back open again but with limited hours and now we're down to just five," Dissen said Salazar said that they know each other just by being in the business They'd previously talked about collaborating Salazar said that it only made sense to turn it into a charity event "It's kind of for that reason that I thought it's important to try to do whatever we can to help them because I can only imagine the amount of heartache and devastation that comes around something like that," said Salazar Both of them said that it was easy to mesh their cuisines since they believe in farm-to-table Dissen also appreciates knowing that Salazar has his back "To be here today is really a huge honor you have a new best friend for life,'" Dissen said He said that Asheville is now back open for tourists "I want to implore folks to come back and see us and have a taste and feel of the mountains in Asheville," Dissen said For those who couldn't attend the relief dinner, you can still participate in the raffle. It includes a private dinner with Salazar and more which features hot and fresh Southern staples He’s also the founder of Charlotte’s Haymaker It is said that death and taxes are only two certain things in this life but I would like to posit a third: trout will always be on the menu at the Market Place Restaurant in downtown Asheville the Market Place has been serving locally sourced and sustainably grown food for 45 years and for the past 15 of those years It’s been a busy year for both Chef Dissen and the restaurant The Market Place was a semi-finalist for this year’s James Beard Award for Best Restaurant Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South this spring “I wanted to talk about being inspired by food and having a purpose,” says Dissen “What does food do—not just for us nourishing our bodies—but what does it do for the community as a whole And to me it comes down to being thoughtful eaters.” And Dissen knows a thing or two about the impact of thoughtful eating and conscious cooking As an ambassador with the American Chef Corps and the US State Department he carried the gospel of thoughtful foodways to the United Nations World Food Summit in Copenhagen in 2018 “I think it’s important to take the time to realize where your food comes from and what the effects are of what you are eating—not just on your own body but on the environment and the world around you What is the trickle down effect on that food shed that you are sourcing from we’re voting with our fork.” Dissen has also served as an ambassador for the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch as well as acting as a leader for their Blue Ribbon Task Force prompting none other than Gordon Ramsey to refer to him as “one of the most sustainable chefs on the planet.” that means sourcing locally and sustainably grown foods for his restaurant and one of the best products he can find is the trout from Sunburst Farms “[It] comes from just up the road,” he says “Trout and salmon are in the same family,” he notes Trout are like their smaller freshwater cousin so to speak.” Both are from the Salmonidae family of fish but trout spend their whole lives in freshwater while salmon drift between salt and freshwater So while the salmon may be a bit more robust and the trout a bit smaller you can usually treat them in similar ways in the kitchen Whole Stuffed Rainbow Trout with Lemon Butter and Grilled Ramps Smoked Rainbow Trout with Roasted Yellow Beets, Shaved Radish, Preserved Lemon, Smoked Pecans, Endive and Green Goddess Dressing Smoked Trout Pâté Green Goddess Dressing White Wine & Herb Vinaigrette Subscribe Now The Asheville chef is up for an Outstanding Restaurant James Beard award and coming out with his first cookbook We caught up with him on thoughtful cooking By Lindsey Liles On April 2, Chef William Dissen will release his first cookbook, Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South. On April 3, he’ll find out if the Market Place the beloved Asheville restaurant he has helmed for fifteen years will be shortlisted for a James Beard Outstanding Restaurant award following its longlist nomination in January the Market Place will celebrate its forty-fifth birthday.  This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply who also opened the Haymaker in Charlotte in 2017 and owns Billy D’s Fried Chicken But the Appalachian-born chef still prioritizes getting outside we caught up with Dissen about some of his favorite dishes from the cookbook what inspires him in the kitchen…and pouring bourbon down a ham leg.  First things first…what about this James Beard nomination You just got nominated for a James Beard Award…and not for Best Chef Southeast Your restaurant got nominated for Outstanding Restaurant in America.” I was like…I need a minute It will be the forty-fifth anniversary of the Market Place this year…I think consistency and quality is what’s kept us alive for so long talking to my farmers to know what’s in season I have notes in my phone and reminders that say things like There’s also all these micro seasons within where we live Do I want to make something a little spicier And then textures—maybe there is something smooth The really hard part about being a chef is that I can cook for myself and make it exactly how I like it but then take the time to ask questions and be thoughtful…when I make a recipe in the restaurant I grab a bin full of spoons and I make everybody in the kitchen taste it and tell me straight what they think.  What made you decide to get all these recipes out there in a cookbook The concept of thoughtful cooking reflects my upbringing in West Virginia We’re fortunate because we have four true seasons and access to nature I wanted the book to be about being connected but I wanted to take it a little bit deeper into how food connects us with others and how it connects us with the environment Our choices in how we eat can affect the world around us I’m not trying to beat people over the head but we can vote with our fork if we take a moment to think about how we eat That self-advocacy is something a lot of us may have lost in our day-to-day doom scrolling.  The South is evolving in its mindset and connection to food There are so many different people who have immigrated here and the cultures have really come together It’s important to look to the future and where we’re going you would tell me that your grandparents or great-grandparents were probably farmers or at least grew a garden Taking that time to connect and remember our roots is really important.  I’ve talked to you before about foraging and that topic pops up in the cookbook.  That’s a riff on a traditional French vichyssoise You can use leeks or scallions in the recipe if you can’t find access to ramps head over to your farmers’ market and you’re likely to find some wild ramps there When you omit leeks and add ramps…it’s like and they’re only available during a very short period of time I love to showcase that and other wild food however I can.  But if you had to pull out some of your favorite recipes from the cookbook… there is a recipe for Billy D’s fried chicken in there There’s a really good beef short rib recipe especially for this time of year when it’s still a little cooler And the cornmeal and olive oil cake is delicious Tell me about the dulce de leche brownies.  and I got to cook with a lot of Latino chefs They really turned me on to making homemade dulce de leche did you ever see the jars of marshmallow fluff and have fluffernutter sandwiches what if I make homemade fluff and then take a torch over it so it’s almost like eating a s’more I also have to ask about the mac and cheese recipe that has Benton’s country ham in it. We did a bacon blind taste test in the office a few months ago we pretty much all ranked Benton’s first.  I was on the phone with Alan a couple days ago in celebration of our James Beard nomination…I asked if I could get one of his twenty-six-month aged hoof-on hams We have a little parlor trick that I do for events We get this fancy Spanish ham stand and we mount the ham on it with the hoof and then we carve a hole in it and we pour bourbon down it the mac and cheese has this light smokiness to it I was making a family meal at the restaurant one day a roux…you add flour into your base and that helps thicken the cheese sauce So I did the reduction method of reducing wine and cream down to get the consistency I wanted I put four different cheeses in it: smoked cheddar I had made this herb salad crust for another lamb dish I was doing mac and cheese needs some crunchy stuff on it That recipe is now on the menu at every restaurant I own.  Tell me what the visuals process was like for the cookbook Johnny and Charlotte Autry do a lot of our food photography in the magazine When they moved to Asheville ten or twelve years ago I had to do a Thanksgiving shoot with them I had done a lot of food photography by then We had this pork loin wrapped in Benton’s bacon “I’m getting paid to do it.” So she styled it I really want to take the readers and the cooks on a vibe shift from thirty-minute meal cookbooks I’ve got kids and I get home from work some days and it’s more intense than being on the line in the kitchen There’s always going to be the next thing on your schedule…but a few times a week it’s important to slow down and cook because there’s more to it than just sustaining your body and it connects you with the people that are near and dear to you.  Lightning last question—what was the last thing you cooked at home?  Let’s see. Today I made tomato soup. And then I had a country loaf from OWL Bakery and some leftover chicken thighs and some Benton’s bacon I caramelized some onions and garlic with balsamic and put it into a panini and had that with tomato soup for lunch You create formulas in your head and you just know what flavor profiles are friends Garden & Gun has an affiliate partnership with bookshop.org and may receive a portion of sales when a reader clicks to buy a book Lindsey Liles joined Garden & Gun in 2020 after completing a master’s in literature in Scotland and a Fulbright grant in Brazil The Arkansas native is G&G’s digital reporter and she especially enjoys putting her biology background to use by writing about wildlife and conservation but Julian Van Winkle III provides the lowdown on the sketchiest explanation A young Alabama chef brings community and flawless croissants to a funky strip Experts share the proportions and tricks they swear by The future of conservation in the South just got a little bit brighter—and not just for salamanders but they’re the craftsmanship of local crustaceans called lawn lobsters The drawls are receiving a lot of flak across the internet but a North Carolina linguist argues they’re actually pretty accurate This story has been updated with additonal information ASHEVILLE - The 2025 James Beard Foundation Award season has kicked off with the announcement of the semifinalists considered to win Restaurant and Chef Awards the prestigious national awards program ― dubbed the Oscars of the food world ― released its list of the best of the best restaurant industry professionals and establishments with several Asheville and Western North Carolina honorees in the running for the coveted medals The Asheville semifinalists are William Dissen "A James Beard Award signifies those showing excellence and the best of their profession in our food and beverage industry," Dissen said "For our town of Asheville to have multiple nominees shows how strong the food community we have and also shows how strong a community we have that supports local and one another." Two local chefs are in consideration for Best Chef: Southeast ― Silver Iocovozzi of Neng Jr.'s and Ashleigh Shanti of Good Hot Fish Leo's House of Thirst for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program of The Dining Room at High Hampton in Cashiers was named for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker said she's thankful and honored to be on the national list She attributed locally sourced ingredients her culinary travels and growing up in a family who loved old-fashioned baking to what makes her baked goods stand out "What do I want to eat when I go out for dessert?" said Franqueza, a Sapphire native who competed on Food Network's "Spring Baking Championship" Season 9 in 2023 There's nothing coming out of High Hampton that we're not making and it fills me with immense pride to have this beautiful product in Cashiers North Carolina ― kind of in the middle of nowhere ― and have it recognized." said the diverse wine program has evolved since opening in 2020 and includes locally sourced consciously made wines at different price points that can be appreciated by connoisseurs and neighbors "All attention for our community right now is a win," Wallace said "Leo's is a little 800 square foot dining room on Haywood Road For us to get some love from a big foundation respected like James Beard for doing what we've been doing day in and day out for our neighborhood ― it's not something we go searching for but when they happen they feel really good." WNC's food and beverage community continues to turn heads and rack up award nods from the James Beard Foundation In 2020, Shanti was a Rising Star Chef of the Year semifinalist. Now the "Top Chef" alum and author of “Our South: Black Food Through My Lens” is considered for Best Chef: Southeast In 2022, Asheville earned its first JBFA wins when Chai Pani In 2023, Neng Jr.'s made it to the finals as a nominee for Best New Restaurant is in the running for Best Chef: Southeast at the restaurant In 2024, four regional restaurants and chefs made it to the semifinals chef and owner of Dalaya Thai Cuisine in Sylva were vying for Best Chef: Southeast The Market Place and The Restaurant at Gideon Ridge Inn in Blowing Rock were considered for Outstanding Restaurant A shining moment post-Tropical Storm HeleneThis is Dissen's 16th year as the chef-owner of the downtown restaurant He said the recognition was an honor that he won't take lightly Although he's contending for Outstanding Chef Dissen praised the restaurant's past and present staff for consistently striving toward excellence especially those who've endured Tropical Storm Helene 27 leaving a path of devastation that has caused many restaurants to close "Our team continues to push to source local and to strive for excellence every day," said Dissen, a U.S. culinary and culture diplomat with the Arts Envoy Program, and the author of "Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South" cookbook "It makes me a little emotional to have great people that I like to work with every day The Bull and Beggar and Baby Bull restaurants said the honor will drive Leo's House of Thirst team even harder and provide more opportunities for the restaurant-wine bar and the city "It's an honor to be noticed by the James Beard Foundation "Whatever shines a light on us right now shines a light on everybody We look forward to more folks coming back and help us make it through this." James Beard Foundation Awards calendarJBFA's Restaurant and Chef Awards nominees and Achievement Awards honorees (Impact Awards Lifetime Achievement and Humanitarian of the Yea) will be announced on April 2 The Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony will be hosted live in Chicago on June 16 America's Classics winner announcement will be on Feb The Media Awards nominees will be announced on May 7 and the awards will be presented live in a ceremony on June 14 in Chicago View the full list of JBFA semifinalists at jamesbeard.org and follow @beardfoundation on Instagram Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times Email tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow @PrincessOfPage on Instagram/Bluesky shares his thoughts in this Q&A with the Physicians Committee on why LGBTQIA+ competence and humility are so important in health care.  Dissen: Very often when topics such as LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian and Others) competence is brought into a health care discussion so it doesn’t matter what their sexuality or their gender identity are as I will treat them the same as anybody else.” And while this is often rooted in a desire to be supportive and compassionate it really is important to realize that all medical and/or health care professionals really do need to know that the LGBTQIA+ community does have unique health needs and considerations that must be taken into account in order to provide quality care. First we need to recognize that many LGBTQIA+ are profoundly distrustful and suspicious of the health care system When the first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) was published in 1952 there was an official diagnosis for “homosexuality” which was viewed as a “a sociopathic personality disturbance” alongside pedophilia and sexual assault It would take 35 years before the DSM would no longer same-sex attraction as a psychiatric or medical disorder And it wouldn’t be until 1990 before the World Health Organization would stop classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder. During the time period during which the DSM did classify homosexuality and same-sex attraction as a disorder the medical community committed horrific abuse towards LGBTQIA+ people including chemical castration There has also been a harmful history of medicine viewing any deviation from the standard gender binary as pathologic as well we first saw the presence of a diagnosis of “transsexualism,” and in 1990 the World Health Organization created an ICD diagnosis code for “transsexualism.” And as of 2018 with the most recent version of the ICD to date there is still the view that being transgender or gender expansive is a physical and/or mental health condition instead of a valid means of self-development and expression of identity And for those people who are born intersex medical discrimination and a denial of bodily autonomy continues the international pilot study “Human Rights Between the Sexes” was conducted where it was found that intersex people experience discrimination worldwide due to the prejudices and biases of medical practitioners “Intersex individuals are considered individuals with a ‘disorder’ in all areas in which Western medicine prevails They are more or less obviously treated as sock or ‘abnormal’ depending on the respective society.” The ways in which these discriminatory practices are found in medicine and health care are numerous Some of the more egregious examples include involuntary genital surgeries during infancy and throughout childhood and the use of coercion and shame-based tactics in convincing patients and/or their parents into taking hormonal treatments The results of these and similar medical abuses include lifelong physical and psychological problems many LGBTQIA+ people are very distrustful of the health care system for fear of being discriminated against or not be cared for in a respectful and empowering way The consequences of this are numerous and are part of the reason why many LGBTQIA+ people have higher rates of heart disease many LGBTQIA+ people experience discrimination in the workplace which can mean higher rates of unemployment which can also then mean lack of access to health insurance in order to then access and gain entry into the medical system. Lastly there can be unique physical health needs and considerations pertaining to how certain medical interventions such as surgery and puberty blockers can impact nutrition needs and potential changes in risks for certain chronic health conditions health care professionals and medical providers need to not only create an environment that allows their LGBTQIA+ patients and community members to know that this is a safe and supportive place to receive respectful care but also that the care team has the competence and knowledge needed to provide care and assess for potential disease markers and risks I am very proud of the research that my teams and I have been doing to advocate for the health of LGBTQIA+ people one of the wonderful teams that I work with published “Orthorexia nervosa in gay men – the result of a Spanish-Polish eating disorders study” in BMC Public Health we were looking at factors that were predictors of orthorexia nervosa and body satisfaction in gay men living in Spain and Poland What we found was that lower body mass index and the use of sexual hookup apps like Grindr were the most important predictors of orthorexia nervosa in the study population those gay men who used pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications on a daily basis also were found to have a significantly lower risk of developing orthorexia nervosa compared to those who only used PrEP medications occasionally and those with a higher BMI were also found to have a lower risk of orthorexia nervosa. In the past year I also had the wonderful opportunity to publish an article in Cutting Edge Nutrition and Diabetes Care – Diabetes Dietetics Practice Group discussing the importance of equitable care for LGBTQIA+ patients with a specific focus on how discrimination and lack of provider competence can increase several important risk factors for type 2 diabetes and how provider competence and training is needed in order to better screen for and manage diabetes in the LGBTQIA+ population. Lastly I have the amazing joy of leading a research team with two incredible colleagues of mine that specifically focuses on the food and nutrition considerations and needs of LGBTQIA+ people one of which is currently under peer review with a journal and the other we are currently in the process of writing up the manuscript for to submit for peer review Without sharing too much before the peer review process has been completed for either study The first looked at the LGBTQIA+ competence and professional behaviors of nutrition professionals and dietitians And while their attitudes were quite positive the translation of those attitudes towards professional skills and showed how many nutrition and dietetic professionals do not know how to match their skills to the unique needs and identities of LGBTQIA+ people The second study was specifically looking at experiences of transgender and gender nonbinary people with a particular emphasis on their relationships with food and the kind of nutrition care they have received during their times navigating the healthcare system as a transgender and/or gender nonbinary person Some preliminary results show that their care teams have spent little to no time talking about the role of food and nutrition on their physical health and there has been particularly very little time spent on how food and nutrition needs might change as a result of medical interventions like hormone therapy and surgeries We are excited to share both of these studies with the health care field after (fingers crossed!) they may it through the peer review process Dissen: The most important takeaway I could hope for is this: Please recognize that many LGBTQIA+ people have been wounded and harmed by the health care system in the form of bias and lack of provider competence and knowledge they may be very hesitant to share key information about themselves or their needs for fear of further discrimination or may outright avoid engaging with the health care system all together and your professional environment universally supportive and inclusive Dissen: What a wonderful and important question and others in your life (perhaps even yourself) who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community what their experiences have been in navigating the health care system and see what has been wonderful and what has been problematic you can learn more about exactly what they need.  go to appointments as an advocate and supportive friend when someone you know needs to see a member of the health care team make sure providers are using the correct pronouns speak on their behalf if something biased occurs so that you can take on the effort of correcting that wrong as opposed to that struggle always falling upon the one who had to experience the blow in the first place The best way I have ever heard allyship described is this: An ally is someone who stands in front of you when rocks are being thrown and show the LGBTQIA+ people in your life that you are there to make sure they are healthy and cared for whenever they are engaging with the health care system He is currently a tenured assistant professor of health science in the School of Health Sciences at Stockton University where his scholarly work focuses on the intersections between queer and gender-nonbinary communities and the health care system particularly in the area of cultural competence and nutrition considerations of queer people Food for Life classes teach you how to improve your health with a plant-based diet long considered the centerpiece of the quintessential Southern meal Even as healthier fare rises and plant-based burgers become commonplace menu items fried chicken remains part of the regional conversation whether it's Nashville's hot bird or the pickle-brined version that serves as the cornerstone of chef William Dissen's new flock of casual restaurants The North Carolina-based Dissen, owner of The Market Place in Asheville and Haymaker in Charlotte, also has three quick-service Billy D’s Fried Chicken locations The first opened in 2018 at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro with the other two at Elon and Wake Forest universities especially after a night out,'" Dissen said Billy D's keeps the students and zoo visitors fed with a menu centered around It's served on sandwiches or as fried breast Dissen comes by his love for fried chicken honestly first learning how to make it from his rural-living West Virginia grandmother they slaughtered chickens on the farm and we'd have fried chicken for dinner that night," Dissen said Dissen's grandmother marinated her chicken in buttermilk before dredging it in seasoned flour and then pan-frying it in pork fat before finishing it in the oven Things are done a bit differently at Billy D's Dissen brines his Joyce Farms chicken with pickle juice rather than buttermilk "The vinegar actually helps promote and expedite the osmosis that happens with the brine," he explained "It pulls the spices and seasonings through quickly and then the vinegar helps to break down the protein structure in the chicken." Make delicious sides:Top chefs share their best advice for making vegetables taste incredible the chicken gets dredged in seasoned flour but it's then fried in vegetable oil rather than animal fat or served relatively naked with classic Southern sides including celery seed slaw and macaroni with Ashe County hoop cheddar The slightly elevated Southern fried chicken model has been a hit and I think where we're at with Billy D's is that a lot of national brands focus more on growth than where their ingredients come from and I think that's what really sets us apart." Another thing that sets Billy D's apart from the national chains: transparency whose forthcoming cookbook "Thoughtful Cooking" focuses on seasonal Southern food as well as a recipe so you can make it at home Dissen's tips on how to make the best fried chickenIf you're making bone-in fried chicken be sure to cook the white and dark meat separately as they cook at different speeds.Brine your chicken and to help keep it juicy and tender," Dissen said.Have fun with your dredge "Put in some dried herbs and paprika — cayenne if you like a little spice," Dissen said.Make sure your cooking oil is hot 325 is usually perfect unless your chicken is particularly thin.Use canola peanut or other vegetable oils for frying.Billy D’s Fried ChickenMakes 4 sandwiches InstructionsSubmerge chicken in pickle brine for 30 minutes under refrigeration (20 minutes for tenders and thinly filleted breasts) Place on a sheet tray with a rack and hold under refrigeration for 2 hours or as long as overnight to dry and form a pellicle and 1 tablespoon kosher salt in a small bowl and set aside Whisk together buttermilk and eggs in a medium bowl ½ teaspoon kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of the spice mixture in a medium bowl Season the chicken on all sides with the spice mixture transfer the chicken to the flour mixture and turn to evenly coat Shake off excess flour and transfer the chicken to the buttermilk mixture Spoon 3 tablespoons of the buttermilk mixture back into the flour mixture rub together until the texture is coarse like wet sand adding extra flour on top of the chicken and pressing firmly to adhere as much of the flour mixture as possible Lift chicken out and place onto a sheet tray Repeat process until all chicken has been breaded or sturdy cooking pot with enough canola oil to submerge chicken gently place breaded chicken into the heated oil and cook until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 Remove chicken from the fryer and place on a sheet tray with a rack to remove any excess oil Serve fried chicken on a toasted potato bun with coleslaw ShareSaveCommentLifestyleDiningThis Southern Chef Adds An Indian Accent To His Appalachian CuisineByClaudia Alarcón Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights drinks and travel in places near and far.Follow AuthorJul 14 12:09pm EDTShareSaveCommentChef William Dissen is an early pioneer of the farm-to-table and ocean sustainability movements in .. West Virginia-born restaurateur and chef William Dissen and his wife Jenny a native of India who works in engagement and partnerships for the NC Institute of Climate Studies describe themselves and their children as a multi-cultural family; one that loves to blend Appalachian cooking traditions of the South with the distinct food and flavors of India and early pioneer of the farm-to-table and ocean sustainability movements in the Appalachia region Dissen was awarded “Green Chef of the Year” two years in a row by FORTUNE Magazine he faced off and beat Gordon Ramsay on National Geographic landing him the title “Most sustainable chef in the world.” He is an active board member on the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project a Seafood Watch Ambassador and a Blue-Ribbon Taskforce Member for Monterey Bay Aquarium All his concepts focus on local Appalachian ingredients from farms and producers within 100 miles from the restaurants - mountain trout among many others - carefully prepared using global flavors and techniques learned through his extensive travels and influenced by his wife’s Indian heritage serves international flavors using local Appalachian .. One ingredient that straddles both Indian and Southern cuisines is okra and Dissen has found many ways to serve it at his restaurants “Okra is one of the key ingredients in the South we spend a lot of time preserving and pickling okra when it’s in season,” he says A traditional Southern dish that showcases the vegetable is called Limpin’ Susan Dissen uses Carolina Gold rice in the preparation and serves it with pan roasted sunburst trout and strips of crispy fried okra “After learning from my wife's family and it's become a part of the way I cook,” says Dissen “I find a lot of inspiration from Indian food from how we cook at home Taking global ideas and distilling them down into my style of cooking keeps me interested and evolves my craft you're a teacher - you're teaching other cooks your recipes and your flavors and new techniques helps me and my team grow and evolve in the kitchen.” masala is a core ingredient in most every dish “But masala just means a blend of spices that are ground together to use as a base to build flavor,” says Dissen “Masala is the base for any good curry dish adding your base ingredients like onion and ginger Vagar is the Gujarati word to temper spices in hot oil which builds the fragrance and the flavor in a dish This layering of flavor is something that is found in cuisines across the world but it's a traditional Indian style of cooking.” One of the dishes he learned from his Indian mother-in-law is called Bhindi Masala You can also turn it into a meal by serving it with jasmine rice a scoop of fresh Greek yogurt or Indian-style raita Bhindi Masala is a traditional Indian dish which chef William Dissen learned from his mother-in-law heat the oil over medium high heat and add the onions Stir in all of the spices except the garam masala Stir in the minced garlic and cook until fragrant Stir in the tomatoes and cook for one minute Add the okra and allow to cook for 2 minutes Reduce the heat to medium and cover the pan and allow to cook for an additional 5-8 minutes Remove from the heat & stir in the salt Subscribe Now Read our Q&A with Dissen about his new cookbook crusts removed and left out to dry overnight Prepare the Mornay sauce: Place the olive oil in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat add the shallots and garlic and sauté until the shallots are translucent Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the cream cheese Prepare the herb crust: Place the bread in a food processor and pulse until crumbs Place the olive oil in a sauté pan set over medium heat Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain Assemble the mac and cheese: Add the olive oil to a medium sauté pan and set over medium heat Add the heavy cream and mornay sauce and bring to a light simmer Add more cream if needed to adjust consistency Excerpted with permission from Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South by William Dissen Garden & Gun has an affiliate partnership with bookshop.org and may receive a portion of sales when a reader clicks to buy a book This high-low appetizer will be the star of your next gathering delicate summer squash buds are a springtime treasure Green garlic and fresh herbs star in a refreshing family-style dish Beginning this fall, Elon Dining’s newest location, Billy D’s Fried Chicken, will replace Pei Wei Asian Kitchen in upstairs McEwen Food Hall The quick-service restaurant opened its only other location in 2018 at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. The menu features southern fried chicken sandwiches and baskets with sides such as macaroni and cheese, waffle fries and coleslaw. Billy D’s will be available as a retail option for students who have purchased a meal plan and the Chicken Shack downstairs in McEwen Food Hall will be discontinued.  The restaurant is executive chef and owner William Dissen’s fourth restaurant in the state and fine dining restaurant Haymaker in Charlotte prior to opening both Billy D’s locations and his first jobs as a teenager and college student were in restaurants He was unsure about his career path after graduating from West Virginia University what do you want to be when you grow up?” Dissen said There's so many options and types of jobs out there.” William Dissen is the executive chef and owner of The Market Place in Asheville Billy D's fried chicken at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro and soon to be at Elon University Dissen has a passion for locally-sourced food and hopes to encourage community-based agriculture at Elon Dissen attended the Culinary Institute of America starting his career as a chef and graduating with honors He said he was inspired by time he spent on his grandparents’ farm in rural West Virginia as a child he became fascinated by the way they lived off the land using honeybees to help pollinate their garden and forging in the woods for mushrooms and ginseng.  he found himself connecting more with the land around him too “You get to do that by default because you're dealing with fresh produce and fresh seafood and meats and seeing feeling things on a daily basis,” Dissen said Dissen worked in restaurants around the country before going back to school a third time at the University of South Carolina He earned his master’s degree of hospitality with concentrations in restaurant and tourism management which he thought marked the end of his restaurant career I'm going to get a corporate job and work nine to five all those silly American dream things they put in your head,” Dissen said He took a job as an executive chef after graduation and used it as a placeholder before deciding to get back in the business and open his first restaurant in Asheville All of his restaurants carry a farm-to-table ethic and he said his time working in California connected him to his grandparents and made him realize that to be a great chef “My grandmother just cooks such delicious food and it's because you pull it right out of the garden,” Dissen said “You’re eating ingredients that are still living and breathing those best ingredients were sourced right from right from the farm and right from the source.” He was on a tour of Tidewater Grain Company in Oriental when he met former Elon Dining executive chef Jay Vetter The two realized they shared the same passion for locally-sourced food and Dissen was able to become the community partner Elon Dining was looking for at the time “Americans certainly love quick-service style food because of our fast lives,” Dissen said “That’s kind of been my pivot in the past few years thinking through different business models It’s an opportunity to help push local food and community-based agriculture across more outlets It's an opportunity to hopefully do some better things for our communities create a more sustainable food movement and try to get more good food into the hands and mouths of hungry eaters.” Dissen said he considers his brand to be open-minded He said opening the location at Elon has been a streamlined process because of help from Elon Dining and Harvest Table as well as the decision to keep the menu the same as the Asheboro location Dissen is excited to offer seasonal side dishes specialty chicken sandwiches and Billy D’s merchandise everything keeps moving ahead in a good way,” Dissen said “We hope to implement a brunch or breakfast menu also We make these really delicious buttermilk jalapeno biscuits at our fine dining restaurants and they make really delicious fried chicken biscuits.” The restaurant is still under construction with an undetermined opening date due to the general contractor’s schedule Dissen knows they are pushing to be open by the beginning of the fall semester hopefully a week or two after the semester begins Dissen said he will be on campus on and off throughout Billy D’s opening but he hopes to be present as much as possible to say hello to everyone Dissen said he’s excited to be back on a college campus.  “I’ve been in school three different times for different degrees there's something really invigorating about education,” Dissen said Being on campus is just stimulating in terms of being in a place where people are there to learn and grow I feel like that's something I'm trying to do in my life every day meet the students and faculty and do our best to make some delicious food for everyone.” This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page signage displays some of the regional farms and other food producers where he gets his ingredients where he cooked alongside celebrity Kiwi chef Annabel Langbein at Le Cordon Bleu in Wellington Dissen visited Omved Gardens while in London for the United Nations meeting on Global Food Policy Nice Catch - During a trip to Alaska through Seafood Watch Dissen learned firsthand about sustainable fishing practices he was honored as a Champion of Change for Sustainable Seafood at the Capitol Family Guy - When he isn’t cooking or traveling for work Dissen enjoys family time at home in the mountains with his wife  Chef William Dissen; (inset) Sourced Locally At Dissen’s restaurant William Dissen thought of a lot of things he would do with his life He studied biology with the idea of becoming a radiologist then turned to English and French with hopes of going into law earning degrees in both before enrolling in the Culinary Institute of America in New York While his culinary training eventually led him to take the helm at The Market Place in Asheville (and open restaurants in Charlotte and Asheboro) it is safe to say that one thing the farm-to-table chef didn’t anticipate doing at any point in his career was to find himself addressing diplomats and global policy makers as a representative to the United Nations But that is exactly what happened this summer when the James Beard Foundation tapped Dissen to represent the United States at the World Food Summit in Copenhagen where he discussed sustainable food solutions for the world’s growing population with policy leaders from around the globe “You had directors of the Ministry of Agriculture from Slovakia and Department of Agriculture directors from South Africa NGO leaders using public and private dollars to change food policy,” he says “So to get up in a room full of them and talk about what we are doing here in Asheville was something else.” this is one of many instances when Dissen has used his voice and prominence as a chef to impact policy around sustainable food systems which involve everything from food production to distribution to waste management that’s carried out in a way that is good for a community’s environmental due to his commitment to sourcing sustainably caught seafood Dissen captured the attention of Seafood Watch an initiative of the Monterey Bay Aquarium that works with fishermen and governments worldwide to advance policies and management measures that improve the global seafood supply chain Dissen was eventually asked to join the organization’s Blue Ribbon Task Force a group that now numbers nearly 50 chefs nationwide who advocate for the initiative and lobby for change on Capitol Hill “I don’t consider myself a very political person,” he says It’s something that impacts everyone; everyone’s connected through food Fine Dining - Dissen serves Appalachian and Southern fare sourced from regional farmers at his flagship restaurant in Asheville (left and above) and Haymaker (top) in Charlotte Dissen’s work through Seafood Watch sparked other opportunities including an invite from the James Beard Foundation in 2013 to take part in one of its first Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change which empowers and educates chefs on advocating for sustainable food systems and led to much more: Dissen’s been to Washington more than a dozen times lobbying for everything from farm bills to childhood nutrition to federal fisheries management and was among a dozen chefs honored in 2016 as Champions of Change for Sustainable Seafood under the Obama Administration He’s traveled to New Zealand as a culinary representative of the US State Department to Alaska in 2015 to learn firsthand about sustainable salmon fisheries and to London last year to consult on the United Nations’ Global Food Policy report It makes sense to involve chefs in global food policy conversations But Dissen is particularly well-versed for the role because his career path has taken him deep into every avenue of American foodways as well as learning about farming and distribution It’s from practice that he’s able to preach and his understanding of food and the importance of fresh ingredients was developed from a young age “My father's father worked for a steel company in Pittsburgh and my mother was the daughter of a coal miner and farmer in West Virginia,” he says “I spent my weekends either going to the big city of Pittsburgh or going out to the family farm in the country which is really where I got my whole farm-to-table background and they canned and pickled and preserved.” Realizing he could make even more money by mowing lawns he slipped fliers for his lawn service into every paper he delivered “A hundred dollar bill goes a long way when you’re 12,” he laughs he took a job washing dishes at the local country club to have an excuse to hang out by the pool with his friends and seemingly always composed—qualities that can be unusual to find in an industry known for workers that thrive in chaos Where some chefs are drawn to the debaucherous nature of the restaurant industry “I want the dishwasher to know what is expected so that he can work harder I’d like to learn how to cook.’ And then a few years down the road that’s the white picket fence of it all; that’s the American dream and making something that some people don’t feel is a serious career into a real career.” Dissen entered the renowned apprenticeship program at Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia The experience lead to connections that lured him to Charleston where he took a position working alongside James Beard-nominated Chef Craig Deihl at the erstwhile Cypress and then on to the University of South Carolina in Columbia to earn a masters in hospitality “I started down a different path and then realized that restaurants are where I belong,” he says “But if I was going to stay in the restaurant business then I wanted to have my own thing.” During a fortuitous visit to Asheville in 2008 Dissen attended LEAF Festival in Black Mountain and “drank the Kool-Aid And when he discovered the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project No other community I’d been to had anything like this at the time,” he says and Dissen bought Asheville staple The Market Place from its founder It was a challenging time that required creativity and flexibility with the business “I really came into myself in Asheville in that I had the opportunity to use great ingredients and meet so many local farmers,” he says Dissen applies his food philosophy to all of his restaurants including his newest ones: Haymaker in Charlotte and Billy D’s Fried Chicken in Asheboro at the North Carolina Zoo “but [food] policy helps shape the core of our community and creates a better economy from the ground up It touches everyone from the farmer to the chef or restaurant ASHEVILLE - Cooking dishes like Whole Stuffed Rainbow Trout with Lemon Butter and Grilled Ramps at home is accessible thanks to a new cookbook full of Appalachian and Southern flavors and techniques chef and owner of The Market Place restaurant "Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South," geared toward advanced beginner to intermediate home cooks and using simple but impactful practices restaurateur and food and ocean systems advocate has pioneered the farm-to-table and sustainability movements in Western North Carolina “Thoughtful Cooking” invites cooks to adopt the practices at home in preparing dishes and drinks from Dissen’s repertoire of recipes The cookbook contains 80 recipes with “thoughtful tips” for preparation Dissen also celebrates the “New South,” which he said has emerged as Southern communities become more culturally diverse to create a new food culture that is a "melting pot for flavors." Chef William Dissen spoke to the Citizen Times about the inspiration and recipes in the book he shared the "easy" and "flavorful" recipe for the Asparagus and Rice Middlin’ Risotto featured in the “Spring” section of the cookbook as ingredients like asparagus and radishes come in season The restaurant’s turning 45 years old and it’s my 15th year being the chef and owner Being able to put pen to paper and get your thoughts down and tell your story is not necessarily an easy thing to do This proposal to get my book out is something I’ve been working on for seven years and finally had the opportunity for a publisher to sign me on to write the book WD: While this book isn’t The Market Place cookbook the ideals and the ethos come from the philosophy of The Market Place ― sourcing local taking time to acknowledge the change of seasons and the world changing around you and to be a little more connected all around We live in this world with smartphones and we’re scrolling all day and getting caught up in the minutia of technology I think we take for granted the world around us and the connection to nature and the change of seasons That was the idea of being more thoughtful ― how we’re being connected to our world and the community ― and food is the great median that brings us all together WD: My fried chicken recipe from Billy D’s and a few other things The mac and cheese is the same one we do at The Market Place and Billy D’s Fried Chicken There’s some crossover with ingredients but I tried to make it unique There’s some tried and true recipes from the past the creative process of what are my favorite things to eat These are not super hyper mixology cocktails but they are fun and crushable drinks I think go hand-in-hand with the food and give a little joy hopefully while you’re cooking ACT: What was the motivation behind categorizing the recipes by seasons?WD: For my entire career I come from a family ― my mom’s side ― that were farmers There was this idea of preservation of food which I think is a uniquely Southern thing especially Appalachian in that when the earth provides you “put it up” for the year ― fermenting dehydrating ― doing these things so you can preserve the unique flavors of that time of year and being able to use them throughout the year WD: I learned about sustainability early on from my grandparents They were meager folks who lived in very rural West Virginia and lived off the land I spent countless hours sitting on the front porch shucking corn and stringing beans and filling up canning jars full of vegetables They were putting up gold for the rest of the year organic and regenerative garden because they knew that if they filled the garden with pesticides it would kill the topsoil and nutrients in the ground Those are things I started to learn as I became a chef Nine of 10 times the people who are growing sustainably are taking great care of the products they’re growing and tastier ingredients because the farmers are taking the time to take care of the earth Cookbook release partiesDissen will host a book release party 5:30-7:30 p.m hors d’oeuvres inspired by recipes from the book and a signature cocktail Reservations are encouraged via OpenTable; drop-ins are welcome Individual copies of “Thoughtful Cooking” will be available for $35 On May 15, Dissen will host a book signing at Malaprop's Bookstore in downtown Asheville "Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted In the New South" woodyends trimmed5 cups Vegetable Stock3 tablespoons unsalted butter4 small shallots minced1 teaspoon minced garlic1 pinch red pepper flakes11⁄2 cups Carolina Gold Rice Grits3⁄4 cup Carpano Dry vermouth1 fresh bay leaf1 small bunch thyme bundledwith kitchen twine3⁄4 cup grated Parmesan cheese1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt,plus extra to taste1⁄4 teaspoon ground whitepepper thinly sliced3 tablespoons chiffonade basil4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil Kimberly Fisher is a Pursuitist contributor American Chef, Culinary Diplomat, Restaurateur and Author William Dissen is known as one of America’s most sustainable chefs, where his farm-to-table cuisine at his restaurants The Market Place and Billy D’s Fried Chicken focus on local ingredients and artisan products. We sat down with Chef Dissen over Doce Mezcal cocktails and chatted all things food Chef Dissen: I started working in restaurants as a dishwasher when I was 15-years-old and our chef asked me if I could work at the garde manger station an entry-level station in a restaurant kitchen while  I worked my way through high school and college my first was a Bachelor of Arts in English and French from West Virginia University My French studies gave me a deep sense of appreciation for fine French food and wine combined with my life-long experiences of working in the industry helped me realize that Culinary Arts was calling me I moved to New York to attend The Culinary Institute of America a private culinary school that specializes in culinary I realized I’d found my life’s calling I jumped headfirst into my studies and started learning how to become a professional chef I went to the University of South Carolina and earned a Master of Hospitality Those early years in higher education were critical in giving me a strong knowledge base for how to cook and  run restaurants but the decade of field experience that came afterward is what set the stage for becoming a sustainable food systems pioneer and fine dining chef What trends do you see in the culinary world right now Chef Dissen:I think that now more than ever people want to know where their food is coming from They want to know if the ingredients are healthy for them and for the planet Sustainable sourcing is becoming one of the most important trends in food right now What culinary destinations are on your bucket list  I’ve hit all my culinary bucket list destinations so for anyone reading this here are my recommendations I would be an entrepreneur or an outdoorsman I love adventure through creating businesses or finding inspiration in the outdoors Guilty pleasures: what do you eat when nobody’s looking Leftover pepperoni pizza for breakfast with a fried egg and a cup of black coffee and a freelance writer that has been published in over 50 publications including Huffington Post (Disclosure: Kimberly is under contract with Casa Del Sol Tequila) © 2025 Pursuitist. All Rights Reserved. Unless noted, some photos may belong to their respective owners and are used under the principle of fair use, according to Section 107 Civil libertarians have tolerated the normalization of perpetual With a response by David Cole Civil libertarianism was not written into America’s national code It often works by denying that it is a strategy and by claiming merely to serve America’s founding commitments or the incontestable norms of human dignity it is worth naming it as a strategy and evaluating how—and what—it is doing Civil libertarianism in the United States began as a leftist response to the persecution of communists and pacifists during and after the First World War (when the U.S Supreme Court began defending freedom of speech) Its advocates were internationalists and radicals who claimed that their values were as American as apple pie ACLU co-founder and then fellow traveler of the Soviet experiment Roger Baldwin helped found the U.S movement for the sake of his pacifist values He privately advised followers “to get a good lot of flags” and “talk a good deal about the Constitution” as part of his strategy to represent the movement’s precepts as if they were what Americans already believed But such public relations came—and still comes—at a price The focus on civil liberties singles out certain issues rather than others Even if it is just a ranking of priorities focusing on one burning problem configures our possibilities and intervenes in a particular way I think it is now fair to voice the worry that our civil libertarian response has accompanied the rise of “hygienic war.” Endless Not only have civil libertarians generally failed to connect with broader antiwar politics—such as by failing to join opposition to the Iraq war in 2003—but they have also tolerated the normalization of perpetual American liberalism was once haunted by its participation in most memorably during the Vietnam disaster it is worth asking whether the contribution of an otherwise upright culture of civil liberties to the rise of hygienic war is a parallel to—even a continuation of—that mistake Defending civil liberties is not merely a “strategy” or a means to some other end In response to Samuel Moyn Many popular movements around the world today oppose hierarchy and embrace direct democracy This is a spirit that we should applaud and help to flourish With a counter-argument by Sheri Berman. Real criminal justice reform demands profound social change The fixation on severe sentences and police brutality masks harder truths With a counter-argument by Marie Gottschalk. Please consider donating to Dissent. Your contribution will ensure that we continue to publish articles like this one. Donate $10, $50, or $500; we are grateful for gifts of all sizes The Market Place has been at the center of downtown dining in Asheville chef William Dissen has held the reins of the restaurant and has introduced new concepts across the state over time the restaurateur is taking one entity off his plate so that he may better serve and dedicate efforts to other culinary endeavors Dissen announced he’s sold his Charlotte restaurant to fellow chef Chris Coleman and his partners at Built On Hospitality “I’m excited about the transition of Haymaker It will allow me a lot more time to work on these projects and to spend more time at home in Asheville with my family,” Dissen said We’ve grown an amazing team and I’m excited for what the new management will do to take it to new heights I hope it’s around for a long time to come The Haymaker acquisition put Coleman’s restaurant group at three establishments joining The Goodyear House and Old Town Kitchen and Cocktails in Charlotte “amazing team” and menu were some of the factors that pursued Coleman to seal the deal “Will and I share a lot of the same philosophies when it comes to food,” said Coleman a winner of Food Network’s “Chopped,” “Beat Bobby Flay” and “Alex vs America.” “We both believe in local sourcing letting the seasons and ingredients dictate the menu.” Coleman said he plans to build upon what Dissen has created Haymaker diners will see some changes and more menu additions that reflect Southern Appalachian heritage “We do plan to make some changes," Coleman said is rooted in the South but we also like to play with ingredients so we will sneak in some chili crisps or a house-made chamoy or something like that every now and then but always letting the ingredients shine.” Coleman also plans to introduce lunch service and happy hour drinks and food specials and host activities before sporting events The Charlotte-based restaurant group is considering other avenues of expansion with restaurants and new concepts Q&A with Chef William DissenFor Dissen, selling Haymaker is a bittersweet farewell but a move that’s to allow him to invest more time and resources in his other restaurant The Market Place, as well as other restaurant ventures and projects which has locations at Wake Forest University Elon University and the North Carolina Zoo is preparing to release his first cookbook in April Dissen shared the plans for their restaurants and other food aspirations and how their decisions may change how diners eat in their dining rooms and at home which was originally imagined to be an extension of The Market Place then reenvisioned with its own style and character with similar foundations it was going to be The Market Place-Charlotte That was kind of the idea to take the sensibilities of what we create and the legacy we built in Asheville and move it to Charlotte we thought The Market Place is special and an iconic restaurant ― it’s about to celebrate its 45th anniversary in the next year ― and we need to leave that for what it is How is Haymaker different from and like The Market Place?Haymaker and The Market Place are both causal though the approach to ingredient sourcing is identical Dissen: It’s really trying to take those core values from a place of being community-driven and farm-to-fork and focus on sustainability and to see if we could take it to the big city and do it right in the middle of Uptown Charlotte … The restaurant is casual fine dining with seasonal menus with a focus on hyper-local sustainability Dissen: Every year since its inception we’re on multiple “best of” lists every year in the past week we were on the “best of” list for “Southern Living” and “Thrillist.” It’s bittersweet The Market Place is hitting its 45th anniversary How many restaurants make it to 45 years old we’re pushing toward that at The Market Place I also have a growing brand at my Billy D’s Fried Chicken concept and we’re looking forward to continuing growing that as well as another brand we’re looking to get started called Little Gem ― that’s a fast-casual concept I also just wrote my first cookbook that will be coming out right after the new year Working on getting all that launched and also spending some time home in Asheville with my family and children Dissen: He has a similar philosophy in his farm-to-table He started his career in Uptown Charlotte very close to the Haymaker and is somebody that I respect in the Queen City He was the first person I reached out to about it ― the only person I ended up reaching out to about it ― and it was good timing for him and his company Dissen: The restaurant (The Market Place) was founded in June 1979 We will be having lots of celebrations throughout the year next year We’ve got a lot of updates we’ve been working on with our menu formatting We’re working on launching Market Place into the next chapter of its life for its 45th anniversary A lot of places say they’re farm-to-table but are they really We spend a lot of time investing in our local farms and I think that connection to community is really important and we’ve grown into an iconic farm-to-table restaurant The Market Place was the forefounder of Asheville’s dining scene and it’s not something we take lightly We’re excited to push ahead to even greater heights for the restaurant in the coming year What’s new with Billy D’s Fried Chicken?Dissen: We currently have three locations for Billy D’s Fried Chicken ― at N.C Elon University and Wake Forest University It’s a fast-casual fried chicken restaurant but it’s still the same core values as The Market Place We source everything locally and regionally and I think that’s been where our success lies We’re taking care of the community and thinking about where our food comes from I’m hoping to expand more in North Carolina What makes your fried chicken special?Dissen: It’s great local poultry I have a special pickle brine that I do on the chicken and then we use a blend of different herbs and spices I work with Spicewalla and have created a special blend of spices that we use in our breading that’s amazing Dissen: We’re looking to launch at that North Carolina Zoo Little Gem is a fast-casual restaurant with counter service and it will focus on healthy eating ― rice bowls salad bowls and smoothies but still using local and regional ingredients proteins ― in a way that’s quick and healthy and casual Dissen: I’ve written a number of recipes and been involved in other cookbooks but this is my first solo foray into becoming a cookbook author … It’s my seasonal approach to cooking that I take in all my restaurants and there’s a lot of conversation about what it means to eat thoughtfully; the choices we make with what we eat makes a bigger effect on us Not only eating delicious food but understanding that you are what you eat and those things can affect the community and the world around us Dissen: The New South is an evolution of all the history and cultures that have come before us from Native American to African American to Italian to Scotch-Irish ― the melting pot that has come through the South and built the root of our country Southern food isn’t just collard greens and grits There’s a lot of other flavors and cultures stirred into the pot Be mindful of where our food comes from and what the heritage of it is I’ve had a lot of people ask for the recipe I have a big passion for sustainable seafood … I have a lot of delicious seafood recipes in there that I think the readers will really love Info: For more, visit marketplace-restaurant.com Info: For more, visit haymakerclt.com Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter/Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times ASHEVILLE - Gordon Ramsay was gracious in defeat After The Market Place chef/owner William Dissen handed the Michelin-starred chef a loss in the recent Smoky Mountains episode (season 3 episode 6) of National Geographic's Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted Ramsay called Dissen “one of the best chefs in the country and one of the most sustainable chefs on the planet.” Dissen showcased his region’s rich cultural and culinary heritage and then went toe-to-toe with Ramsay preparing multiple courses from Appalachian ingredients including Sunburst Trout and Benton’s Country Ham A panel of judges chose Dissen as the winner over the Michelin starred chef.  More: Grove Arcade 'Restaurant Row' booms: Here's a list of restaurants, cafes and what's new Dissen also said acting as an Appalachian culinary ambassador was a great honor "During the episode I had the chance to chat with him about the sense of community and sustainability that resonates through our region and the important heritage of our food that runs back to the Native American history of the land," he said "We have a deep appreciation for food and local culture here I believe he left enamored by everything he saw.” Catch the episode now on National Geographic TV now or on Disney+ on July 9. More about The Market Place and Dissen at marketplace-restaurant.com.  More: Gordon Ramsay explores region with Asheville culinary pros on new National Geographic show Mackensy Lunsford has lived in Asheville for more than 20 years and has been a staff writer for the Asheville Citizen Times since 2012 Lunsford is a former professional line cook and one-time restaurant owner Reach me:  mlunsford@citizentimes.com Read more: Subscribe to the Citizen Times here. Subscribe to my newsletter here.  ASHEVILLE — When William Dissen tells people his restaurant is 40 years old "It's like 250 years in dog years for a restaurant," said the chef and owner of The Market Place It's a particular milestone for one that opened in a downtown that founder Mark Rosenstein said was nearly deserted "Downtown was literally boarded up — people weren't coming," said the 67-year-old retired restaurateur So Rosenstein — rightfully credited as godfather of local food in Asheville — created a network of producers and buyers that still influences local restaurants.  Rosenstein was only 19 when he opened The Frog and Owl Cafe in Highlands he established what he called a local food "habit," and made connections with farmers and producers he brought with him to Asheville when he opened The Market Place on Market Street in 1979 He had live trout delivered to the restaurant, which he kept in 65-gallon tanks. He developed a relationship with young farmer Ron Ainspan to haul produce from regional farmers to The Market Place, part of the impetus behind the birth of Mountain Food Products "There's a lot of food connections that happened right there at The Market Place," Rosenstein said.  He nurtured working relationships with foragers and brought fresh seafood in from the coast He was Hickory Nut Gap's first restaurant customer and one of the first to by from Warren Wilson Farm would go on a shopping spree at the North Asheville Tailgate Market on market days By the time he sold The Market Place a decade ago an in-season menu would boast up to 90% local produce and 60% local meats The Market Place opened less than a decade after Alice Waters, sometimes called the mother of slow food, founded her famed Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California Rosenstein has said buying local was at first about making better-tasting food though it eventually solidified into an ethos.  'We don't know much about cooking or what you're doing but this food is delicious,' and at least half of that response was about the quality of the ingredients," Rosenstein said who opened the now-closed Grape Escape in the Biltmore Building on Pack Square in 2001 then thought Rosenstein's model was equal parts brilliant and crazy.  The Market Place and its charismatic chef were a part of Baudouin's decision to move to Asheville "Mark made it very attractive to be a chef it's part of the reward to have that relationship with those growers." But Baudouin said local food is only one piece of the longevity puzzle "Even if people don't pay a lot of attention to (local) they do pay attention to whether or not they enjoyed their meal." "But the most expensive thing in a restaurant is an empty chair." He purchased The Market Place during the most significant economic downturn since the Great Depression The first two years also happened to usher in some of the snowiest weather the region had seen in years and I know that's true for other businesses in Asheville," Dissen said.  Those first two years saw times when it was just the chef and a dishwasher in the kitchen. "I just kept thinking director of literacy and outreach at the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies with supporting him in more ways than one. "If it wasn't for her job The Market Place probably wouldn't be here," he said chefs formed bonds and over bottles of bourbon But those almost-desperate times also served to expose the remarkable resilience of the local food community as chefs worked together to entice recession-struck customers with pop-up dinners and events Mike Moore's Blind Pig Supper Club was a notable product of those times "It was this community of chefs coming together and pushing the boundaries and that was the unique thing that helped make Asheville the food city it is today A food community coming together is a vibrant community." But there are dishes from that period Dissen might like to take back.  and I'm glad I came up in era to learn about molecular gastronomy and sous vide and foams and gels and all that stuff." But the rabbit trio with its red pepper foam and pea gel and rabbit three ways "It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever done," Dissen said While they can crowd the city and create demand for ever-more hotels and parking — "I wish we all had local parking spaces," Dissen quipped — the influx of money helps support independent restaurants like his one of the oldest farm-to-table restaurants in the country which has become a bit of a cliche since The Market Place opened four long decades ago: How does one stand out with a now-ubiquitous theme "There are a lot of restaurants out there claiming to be farm-to-table," Dissen said "And I'm saying it. We're actually doing it." In carrying on Rosenstein's sustainability torch Dissen has worked as an American Chefs Corps culinary diplomat to the U.S State Department; protected oceans as a Seafood Watch Ambassador with the Monterey Bay Aquarium; and was named “Green Chef of the Year" by Fortune Magazine in 2012 and 2013 That's not to mention the solar panels on the roof.  But all the solar panels in the world can't keep a restaurant open past its prime Dissen said the secret to The Market Place's longevity has been its ability to remain at the forefront of culinary trends as the city evolved since 1979 Even if it needed a bit of a cosmetic face lift a few times its locally focused soul has remained intact.  kept by Tracey Moore, financial director of The Market Place for half the time it's been open There are many numbers to crunch when working with hundreds of local purveyors rather than one big shipping service Dissen's accountant once made him proud by pointing out the sheer heft of his balance sheet recording his many transactions with local farmers.  "But this is about keeping money in the community and hopefully the community takes care of us," Dissen said. "And that's why The Market Place has been around for 40 years: a commitment to local and caring about your neighbor." A 40th anniversary celebrationWhat: The Market Place Restaurant will celebrate its anniversary with an “Outstanding in the Field” style farm dinner cooked over live wood fire with five family-style courses paired with wine All proceeds will benefit The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project Where: Gaining Ground Farm, 298 Sluder Branch Road Tickets: $100 per person. Tax and gratuity is not included. Find them on Eventbrite under The Market Place Restaurant 40th Anniversary Farm Dinner ASHEVILLE - An acclaimed Asheville chef to release his first cookbook; two food-centric discussion panels featuring award-winning local and national chefs and culinary professionals; a wine and chocolate tasting and a five-course dinner to celebrate women dominating their industries locally and globally Appalachian cookbook preordersAsheville chef and restaurateur William Dissen is preparing to release his debut cookbook “Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South” on April 2 Southern-inspired recipes that are interpretations of meals made in his grandmother’s kitchen in West Virginia and celebrate sustainable agriculture local cuisine and the Appalachian community Cornmeal fried catfish with butterbean and boiled peanut stew and tomato sandwiches with confit garlic aioli are among the many recipes featured in the 288-page cookbook “Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South,” published by Countryman Press will be released in hardcover and costs $35 To preorder, visit wwnorton.com and for more about Dissen and The Market Place, visit marketplace-restaurant.com Dissen also owns Billy D’s Fried Chicken and Little Gem in North Carolina The Market Place is a 2024 semifinalist for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant Katherine Miller will celebrate the release of her new book "At the Table: The Chef's Guide to Advocacy,” with an author talk with special local guest chefs Meherwan Irani (Chai Pani Restaurant Group William Dissen (The Market Place) and Katie Button (Curaté Bar de Tapas founding Executive Director of the Chef Action Network and former James Beard Foundation Vice President of Impact published the book as a comprehensive guide to chef advocacy Miller presents how chefs can lead and change a troubled food system with testimonies from U.S "At the Table: The Chef's Guide to Advocacy” will begin at 6 p.m. at Malaprop’s Bookstore, 55 Haywood St. downtown, and will be streamed online. Admission is free but registration is required for in-person and virtual attendees at malaprops.com Foodways scholar Marcie Cohen Ferris and cookbook authors Sandra Gutierrez and Ronni Lundy will explore how Latin American and Appalachian foodways intersect in North Carolina at "Comales and Cornbread: Exploring the New-Southern Latino Table in Appalachia" scheduled for 6 p.m March 27 in the Blue Ridge Room at Highsmith Student Union on the UNC-Asheville’s campus has more than 40 years of experience exploring Southern foodways Her published works include “The Edible South: The Power of Food and the Making of an American Region.” a founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance and the Appalachian Food Summit is a winner of the James Beard Book of the Year and Best in American Cooking awards for her Appalachian cookbook “Victuals.” She’s also the owner of Plott Hound Books in Burnsville has more than 3,000 original recipes and more than 1,500 articles published worldwide Her published works include “The New Southern-Latino Table: Recipes that Bring Together the Bold and Beloved Flavors of Latin America & The American South.” "Comales and Cornbread," a part of the Thomas Howerton lecture series, is free and open to the public. Registration is required for in-person attendees at unca.edu Or watch the livestream on UNC-Asheville’s YouTube channel @UNCAsheville Free visitor parking is offered at 5 p.m. on campus in the faculty/staff and All Permit lots. For more information and a campus map, visit parking.unca.edu Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times Chef William Dissen has worked in places such as Charleston and New York City to chase restaurant jobs across the country When he decided to open his own restaurant He purchased The Market Place there eight years ago and made the restaurant his changing the menu to be more casual and innovative He added solar panels to help the restaurant be more self-sustainable The décor includes reclaimed touches and a concrete bar that uses sand from the nearby French Broad River “I’ve definitely drank the Kool-Aid in Asheville,” Dissen jokes Helping encourage his eco-friendly tendencies is his wife who now works at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration She used to work at Accenture here in Charlotte and the couple keeps up with several friends in town when they travel here with their two kids So when Dissen felt he was ready to open a second restaurant a partner with local firm Dominion Realty Partners and his business partner on the Poplar Street project The rapidly growing culinary scene here made the decision even more appealing “The food scene there is just really really taking off right now and there are so many chefs that are just excited about food and the food community is really starting to explode,” Dissen says “So I’m honored to have the opportunity to expand to the Charlotte market.” but also to celebration: a haymaker is also a term for a party and still others may know the term as a knockout punch His menu will celebrate farmers through local ingredients; Dissen describes the menu as American they said you know if you want to be a great chef you have to use the best ingredients,” Dissen says “And the best ingredients are going to be the freshest ones.” Menu items such as the hay-roasted heirloom carrots show that Dissen is committed to using whole ingredients; the carrots are finished with a carrot top aioli Other dishes include a foraged mushroom tart with roasted shallots and soft herbs and a hearth-roasted Sunburst trout with zipper peas and a country ham broth The chef says he has enjoyed getting to know the farmers in the area Dissen has already gotten calls from several local chefs welcoming him into the culinary circle here, including Joe Kindred of Kindred Restaurant, Matthew Krenz of The Asbury, Paul Verica of Heritage Food + Drink (our No. 1 restaurant on our most recent Best Restaurants list) and Chris Coleman from Stoke The phone calls were meaningful to the newcomer “A lot of chef communities are not very collaborative and not very open and everyone in Charlotte seems very hungry to take Charlotte’s food scene to the next level,” he says. “I’m really excited to come down and be a big part of it.” Dissen wants the vibe at Haymaker to be upbeat and fun “That’s where dining is going nowadays,” he says “People want great food and great service that’s really what I’m trying to bring to the neighborhood there in uptown to make a space with great food that’s locally and sustainably sourced The restaurant will have plenty of windows looking out onto Romare Bearden Park where the chef hopes to secure space for a small garden Haymaker plans to serve local beers and ciders as well as craft cocktails—with some potentially on draft and is on schedule to begin service this fall Subscribe Now Appalachia’s pungent and increasingly popular wild onion is coming into season “Now they’re becoming trendy and popping up on menus in places like New York.”  That growing popularity makes sustainable harvesting key to the future of ramps, which are still almost exclusively a foraged delicacy. Below, find tips from Costello, Dawson, and chef Billy Dissen of the Market Place in Asheville on how to forage for your own ramps Just don’t ask for their specific favorite spots “I have some pretty epic patches,” Dissen says A ramp forager never divulges his top-secret locations.” Head to the hills from early April to mid-May.  Ramps are found all over West Virginia and in higher usually above 3,500 feet in elevation,” says Dissen “And if you ask an old-timer when to forage they’ll often tell you that ramp day is tax day.”  “Look under dense deciduous forest canopy,” Dissen advises “They don’t like the sun or heat that much.” North-facing slopes typically receive less direct sunlight and are therefore cooler and moister “It’s easy to spot a patch,” Costello says bright green things to emerge en masse.” Dawson adds that you could almost mistake them for daffodils and that the patches can vary in size from vast to small if they are just establishing a population “Approach a patch of ramps with the mindset that that ramp community has taken a long time to establish and you can wipe it out forever in an afternoon,” Costello and Dawson advise a ramp can take as long as ten years to reach maturity and many patches have been around for centuries Costello and Dawson will often just clip off the leaves of a ramp to use which means the ramp can regrow more leaves even within the same season he takes a pair of sharp scissors and is careful to clip just at the base of the bulb “People just see a patch and yank them all up,” he says year after year.” If you’re buying at a farmers’ market it’s important to ask questions about how the ramps were harvested and make sure the seller didn’t wipe out an entire patch and Dissen are all big fans of the traditional Appalachian ramp dish served at ramp suppers—ramps cooked in a skillet with ham and potatoes (“This is a classic that takes me back to when I was a kid,” Costello says) Costello and Dawson like to use them in a buttermilk salad dressing (they call it “rampch”) and Dissen has served ramp kimchi and a wild ramp broth on his menus “But my favorite thing is to make an omelet and stuff it with fresh morel mushrooms chef and owner of The Market Place in Asheville will open a new modern-American restaurant called Haymaker in Uptown Charlotte this fall Haymaker's name is a nod to a farming technique involving swinging a scythe through the grass and weeds to make hay That forceful movement also lent its name to a boxing term It helps that the chef's clout has been well-documented.  Department of State’s American Chef Corps Dissen has spoken to Congress regarding sustainable food and food-policy issues for national outreach events He's also a restaurant partner and member of the Blue Ribbon Task Force for the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Dissen is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park The latter is also the alma mater of his partner in the Charlotte project he expected to only grow his commitment to environmental stewardship "We're full steam ahead," said the chef via phone en route to the Atlanta Food and Wine Fest "We'll be sourcing even more sustainable products and hopefully make the world an even better place." the Charlotte restaurant will serve modern-American food with a focus on seasonal and locally sourced ingredients "A lot of farms we source from now come out of the same foodshed anyway," Dissen noted "Rutherford County is kind of the middle ground between Asheville and Charlotte." Haymaker will have a mezzanine for private dining The Charlotte restaurant will have 150 total seats including a four-seat chef's counter fronting an open kitchen and 30-40 seats on a patio the LEED Silver-certified restaurant will have views of Romare Bearden Park Dissen hopes to plant a community garden there with plans to grow some of Haymaker's produce.  Dissen will continue to live with his wife and two children in Asheville it's business as usual at The Market Place founded by Asheville culinary pioneer Mark Rosenstein this year celebrates its 38th anniversary.  "Asheville’s constantly getting busier and we're really hitting our sweet spot in terms of food service and involvement in the community," Dissen said.  ASHEVILLE - A chef-led hiking tour across the Southern Hemisphere; recipes and food savings hacks from local partners; and a chance to open a new restaurant in Asheville Gourmet travelsPlan an escape to a faraway land of snowcapped mountains estancia lodgings and cuisine of the Southern Hemisphere owner and executive chef of The Market Place is inviting 12 guests to join him on a luxury culinary travel experience in Patagonia next spring Patagonia is the southern end of South America encompassing parts of Argentina and Chile have partnered to launch the new 11-day and 10-night adventure Guests will hike and tour Argentina and Chile while learning about the land Dissen will educate guests on locally sourced or foraged ingredients and prepare meals throughout the trip at key stops Previous coverage: Asheville chef William Dissen selected as U.S. culinary diplomat, travels to Qatar Read this: Chefs serving restaurant-quality food in Asheville schools, low-income communities The itinerary includes a visit to a fourth-generation working ranch inside Los Glaciares National Park a private tour of Chacra Las Moras organic farm will include education on cultivation techniques used for growing fruits and vegetables in the Patagonia region The excursion includes gourmet meals and wine pairings leisurely strolls along serene lagoons and rare opportunities to trek through lesser-traveled paths of Patagonia The cost is from $10,000 per person, based on shared accommodations. View the daily itinerary and book online at modernadventure.com/our-trips/patagonia-william-dissen/ or call 855-219-8018 for questions Dissen also is the owner of Billy D’s Fried Chicken and Haymaker in North Carolina. Learn about the chef and culinary diplomat at marketplace-restaurant.com recipes and freebies to improve kitchen flow and meal prep Food Waste Solutions WNC will host a free summer gathering from 5:30-7 p.m The volunteer-based organization works to reduce food waste in the region Local partners will join in the quarterly event to demonstrate simple convenient ways to use extra ingredients and extend food life Local cookbook author Cathy Cleary and Asheville Buncombe Food Policy coordinator Gina Smith will provide guidance in the presentation “Save the Food: Storage Tips and Quick Preservation Hacks.” “Chief Pickling Officer” Don Paleno of DJ’s Pickles will share ideas and recipes on how to make the most of that pile of summer vegetables by turning it into quick-pickled treats Food Connection will give tours of its new Mobile Meals truck which is equipped to transport food to rural communities pick up surplus food from local restaurants and other facilities repackage bulk meals for individuals and families and more WNC Farmers Market will be giving out free goodies for guests to take home For details about Food Waste Solutions WNC and Food Waste Reduction Month activities, visit wncfoodwaste.org In other news: Local, women-owned food businesses supporting each other in North Asheville More from Tiana Kennell: Chefs serving restaurant-quality food in Asheville schools, low-income communities A regional Mexican restaurant chain is extending franchising invitations to entrepreneurs with a taste for tacos District Taco is a fast-casual eatery that began as a dream of Mexican immigrant Osiris Hoil the founder introduced a food cart in Rosslyn The company developed into 14 brick-and-mortar restaurants across Washington the company is looking to extend its services along the East Coast and into the Midwest The planned market areas span from New York to South Carolina and to Ohio District Taco specializes in Yucatán-style food described as “Caribbean-influenced flavors of Mexico’s southeastern peninsula.” The menu features customizable tacos “We have built significant equity in the District Taco brand on the East Coast we are ready to introduce the rest of the country to our innovative concept and signature flavors “Because our team is laser-focused on finding new and more effective ways to attract and engage customers the traditional franchise advertising fund is what we call the ‘Innovation Fund.’ It allows franchisees to contribute to more than just the cost of shared ads and local store marketing They will also contribute to creating loyal District Taco fans through strategic and dynamic approaches outside traditional marketing channels.” For details about District Taco, visit districttaco.com. For information on franchising opportunities, visit franchising.districttaco.com or meet the District Taco team at ICSC@Mid-Atlantic  in September or the Fast Casual Executive Summit in October Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter/Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.  ASHEVILLE - The first-round candidates for an esteemed national culinary arts awards program have been announced with four representing Western North Carolina On Jan. 24, the James Beard Foundation released the list of semifinalists for its 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards The Market Place in Asheville and The Restaurant at Gideon Ridge Inn in Blowing Rock were named semifinalists for Outstanding Restaurant “It’s probably one of the most exciting days I’ve had; to have the honor to be recognized for the work we’re doing and the work we do with the community feels good," said William Dissen chef and owner of Plant in Asheville and Kanlaya “Gun” Supachana are semifinalists in the category of Best Chef: Southeast Sellers began working in the food and beverage industry in 1987 but it wasn’t until 2004 that he became dedicated to culinary arts full-time he’s continued to hone his skills cooking vegetarian and vegan cuisine Sellers said he felt “giddy” after learning about the James Beard Award consideration I’m honored kind of as an outsider because I don’t think of pursuing or applying for or being considered for that kind of thing," Sellers said "It’s so far from the realm of my everyday focus." is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year Dissen said the James Beard Award consideration is a huge honor that reflects the decades of work the staff has put into the restaurant to help build it into what it is today “I’m humbled that our restaurant has been recognized as a national outstanding restaurant and we’re proud of the work that we do and couldn’t be more proud of the team we have,” Dissen said established in 1990 and first awarded in 1991 celebrates “exceptional talent and achievement in the culinary arts as well as a demonstrated commitment to racial and gender equity The James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony will be on June 10 View the full list of semifinalists at jamesbeard.org ASHEVILLE - A famously shouty chef recently visited Western North Carolina to learn about Appalachian and Cherokee traditions from foragers Native Americans and one local restaurateur.  perhaps best known to the general public as the acerbic star of "Hell's Kitchen," is more subdued in person, said William Dissen chef-owner of The Market Place in Asheville and very different than what you see on TV shows," Dissen said. "He's very down to earth Dissen was selected by National Geographic as somewhat of an unofficial ambassador of Appalachia for the Smoky Mountains episode of "Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted." Dissen's task was to show Ramsay around a bit and then send him off in pursuit of regional adventure The 10-destination National Geographic Channel series follows Ramsay as he "journeys to some of the most incredible and remote locations on Earth in search of culinary inspiration epic adventures and cultural experiences he will never forget." In episode 304, that led the multi-Michelin starred chef to cook and fish his way through the mountains with Dissen and learn about mushrooms with local forager Alan Muskat Dining: What’s in your yard? Asheville foragers will create a custom treasure map of edibles Ramsay also visited the moonshine makers at Howling Moon Distillery and learned how to make livermush from Matt Helms, butcher and co-owner of The Chop Shop Butchery in Asheville He learned how to process corn into hominy in Cherokee.  said Helms has been making livermush since he was a child counts the dish as a staple of his own family.  "It was a routine part of our breakfast growing up," he said.  Whether Ramsay was a fan of the scrapple-like unofficial dish of hog country remains to be seen but that wasn't his only contact with pigs and the dishes made from their meat.  Ramsay also visited a farmer the Chop Shop works with to see how his pastured pigs live out their lives on top of a mountain during the cooking competition part of the show — there always has to be a cookoff of some sort — Ramsay and Dissen enjoyed a nip of bourbon after it was first passed through a "luge" cut into a ham Restaurant news: New Asheville restaurants: Updates on Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse; Baby Bull opens Ramsay also learned about moonshine making from Cody Bradford of Howling Moon whose family history of making the high-proof corn whiskey goes back generations.  and we showed him the process from start to finish," Bradford said "He liked it and uses one of my products on the show." Dissen came fairly close to missing the experience altogether which arrived via email in the thick of the pandemic Food: Hopkins and Company's H&F Burger to reopen, reimagined as Holeman and Finch Asheville 'Do you want to do this or not?'" Dissen laughed.  But even if it was an odd time to shoot a travel production the West Virginia-raised Dissen took the work of uplifting oft-misunderstood Appalachia seriously "To be able to showcase and talk about the flavors and history of the region was really neat and I had a lot of conversations with Gordon both on and off the camera," Dissen said It helped that Dissen took Ramsay fly fishing and sung the praises of the area's natural beauty and resources including abundant edible and medicinal plants and game.  "And I think he really was enamored of everything we had," Dissen said National Geographic’s cooking expedition series and will air globally in 172 countries and 43 languages Episodes will be available the next day on Disney+ The "Smoky Mountains" episode is slated to air over the July 4 weekend It's no surprise to most of us that New Zealand is perched on top of a collection of fault lines But what might be a surprise is how little we understand about some of them is the subject of a new study gearing up to try and properly understand it The study is being led by GNS earthquake geologist Dr Russ Van Dissen “Our hope in this investigation is to shed more light on the aspects of those earthquakes largely which direction they rupture from,” Van Dissen told Summer Times The Wairau Fault links up with the Alpine Fault near the Nelson Lakes it extends for about 140 kilometres “It’s important because it points either towards or away from Wellington and that could have a significant impact on the level of ground shaking in the next earthquake.” His team are observing scratch marks made along the Faultline to see if it gives a clue as to how a rupture is likely to behave “As one side of a fault moves past another it makes scratch marks you can imagine like a bear claw ripping across the plain as one side moves past the other “And the shape of those scratch marks very well could have clues on which way the rupture moved from The Kēkerengū Fault in the north east of South Island moved during the Kaikōura quake and he says it is displaying scratch marks akin to “lazy rainbows” They were metres long and they had a curve to them which looked like a lazy rainbow “We’ve done modelling that’s consistent with [the idea] if the rupture’s moving towards you the shape of the rainbow is convex it looks like a rainbow instead of a U but on the other side of the rupture it should look like a U.” His research team are digging along the Kēkerengū Fault conducting a kind of archaeology “We take out excavators and dig along the fault and like an archaeologist gently remove layers of the earth until we get along that plain where the displacement happened and we start recording the shape of the scratch marks “And through that we hope to build up a better knowledge does the shape of these scratch marks really indicate did the rupture come towards you Meaning the shaking will be a lot stronger He hopes the study will have direct applications for building codes – moving beyond human safety to more resilient buildings “Meaning having things be operable after the earthquake “Better design parameters and this is what we are aiming for but we want to go past that and say it will be stronger than expected or weaker than expected for this fault line and that will enable the engineers to design more appropriately to achieve better performance objectives.” The Kaikōura earthquake revealed a number of faults that were unknown and geologists are constantly learning and adding to the sum of our knowledge “We’re getting a lot better at recognising the dominoes but what we need to start learning better is how they may fall.” See terms of use for easy access to all your favourite programmes The freshly ruptured Kēkerengū Fault has unearthed a few more secrets about New Zealand's tectonic past and will help map out a plan for what the country can expect in future The faultline begins in north Canterbury and goes through south Marlborough huge ploughshare has just gone screaming across the landscape from as far as we can see in one direction to as far as we can see in the other direction The fault was one of six to have ruptured at 12.02am on November 14 Their combined jolt created a magnitude 7.8 quake - one of the largest ever recorded in New Zealand View RNZ's full coverage of the earthquakes here Mr Van Dissen said the huge rupture confirmed a theory they had been working on in the months leading up to the quake "When we pieced the story together and actually got the results back we identified three big ruptures in the last 1200 years this fault has ruptured three times - and now it's the fourth time." Mr Van Dissen said there were only a few faults in the country that such a short recurrence interval "Four hundred years sounds like a long time to humans but as far as the faultlines go it's one of the most active in New Zealand." The colossal forces shifted the landscape distances between 9m and 11m in a few seconds Nicola Litchfield of GNS explained the damage to a road at the fault line and if you follow one of the lines - either down the side or down the middle you can see it's stepped over several times - and that's where the Kēkerengū fault ruptured the road in the earthquake." The scale of the damage becomes apparent while walking on a nearby farm Mr Van Dissen said it was unusual how big the fissures are Some are more than 3m deep and almost as wide "And that's because it's not often you see a fault that ruptures by up to 10 metres Fissures in the ground are common but the size of these are uncommon because this displacement is way bigger than common," he said Jamie Howarth of GNS has a special interest in the Alpine Fault and said he wondered what the Kēkerengū fault might tell him "This particular rupture has let the cat out of the bag in some respects because it's ruptured a series of faults that we wouldn't have thought would rupture together in an earthquake of this magnitude "That has implications for how we go about modelling seismic hazard in this country." Mr Howarth said traces of organic materials buried in the layers of dirt were fairly accurate indicators of a timescale between ruptures "We can do some statistics to get the condition of probability of having a rupture of a given size on the Alpine Fault in a given period of time from now Those numbers sit between 30 and 50 percent chance of having a great earthquake on the Alpine Fault in the next 50 years," Mr Howarth said the risk of that happening was no different to before the quake The scientists said the thing we can control The first convoy of civilian vehicles has re-entered Kaikōura via the quake-damaged inland route International tourists mistakenly think Picton is affected by the earthquakes and are staying away A person died when trucks collided on a South Island highway used as a main route since the earthquake Art might not be the first thing you think of when you hear the words "earthquake recovery" - but the first pieces of post-earthquake art are starting to appear out of Kaikōura Parents in Kaikōura desperate to be reunited with their children have been offered hope with new public convoys New Zealand RSS Follow RNZ News Fried chicken is one of those foods that, too often, we take for granted, but just imagine a world without it. While the dish can be a comfort on its own, fried chicken can be a base for a great sandwich or the anchoring entree of a fabulous meal It's also a food that many people see as basic and assume is easy to prepare it's much easier to get it wrong than right Enter as Exhibit A any home-cooked fried chicken you have ever eaten (or prepared yourself) where the breading falls apart and the meat is tough and gamey To learn the secret to making truly delicious fried chicken, we asked the chef and owner of Billy D's Fried Chicken, William Dissen, for a few tips. During an exclusive interview with Mashed You always want to source locally [and] make sure you know what the poultry is being fed And then let it sit in a refrigerator uncovered for a minimum of six hours if not overnight." Dissen explained that the chicken then forms what is called a pellicle and "the outside the chicken gets a little sticky One of my biggest pet peeves when eating fried chicken is when you cut into it and the breading just falls off." For chef William Dissen, the whole "farm-to-table" thing isn't just some buzzword or cliché. Whether he is sourcing poultry for the fried chicken he'll make at Billy D's or foraging for wild ramps he'll use to make a pesto sauce for dishes at his restaurant The Marketplace he is a staunch believer that the best foods are always those you can find in season and nearby the chef said: "I definitely think [it's about] eating more locally and more seasonally I always make the cliche analogy of: Would you rather eat a tomato in June or January I think if you can make that idea about how to eat your food is one going to taste better." Dissen added "You're going to have more vitamins and nutrients in the food you eat rather than having something that's picked under-ripe and shipped across the world in off-season time." You can watch new episodes of "Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted" air on Sundays on National Geographic. To catch more delicious recipes, follow chef William Dissen on Instagram When Mashed caught up with William Dissen for a recent interview, the chef shared plenty about his time spent cooking (and foraging and fishing and generally hanging out) with Gordon Ramsay he talked about what's right and wrong with the whole farm-to-table movement these days and had plenty so say about the culture and cuisine of the Appalachia What were the most surprising parts of working with Chef Gordon Ramsey on "Uncharted" He's known as one of the most famous chefs on the planet So to have the opportunity to work with him was definitely an exciting opportunity in my career And Nat Geo — working with them also was amazing so being able to be part of their TV series "Uncharted," was kind of a feather in the cap to bring Gordon and bring Nat Geo to our region of Appalachia here in the Smokey Mountains to show them around This region really gets kind of a rap for being backwoods and dueling banjos country but really has an amazing food culture and just history and heritage here And I think that's something that Chef Ramsey saw when he was here and we had a lot of conversations about the culture and the food and he even made an analogy and said: 'I feel like this is such an untapped region.' He said: 'The heirloom ingredients and the heritage cooking [are] on par with places like Tuscany Italy,' which to me was a pretty astounding comment What were the most enjoyable and what were the most challenging parts of the production it was pretty cool to be considered an ambassador for the food scene here in North Carolina to have that opportunity to kind of showcase the food on behalf of the state So that was pretty tough with the daily COVID testing and all the COVID restrictions but being outside most of the time it was a really nice opportunity to get out in the region without a lot of people around What did you cook for the win against Gordon we cooked a number of dishes against each other is that I'm kind of the culinary ambassador for the show I talk to him about the region and the heritage and then send him on some adventures And he meets a few folks along the way to learn about the culture and learn about different ingredients and he brings some of those ingredients back with him to cook Then we go and head-to-head in the cook-off I cooked a mountain trout with candy roaster squash so that's an heirloom type of bean here from Appalachia called a greasy bean that we actually string and dehydrate and then we later rehydrate those and cook them and it creates this really crazy umami bomb when you cook them I did a forage hen with a wood mushroom gratin a cornmeal griddle cake with a sour corn and crawfish relish." How is the camera and outside different than working in a kitchen on a normal given day I'm fortunate to have done a fair amount of TV in the past and I do a lot of cooking demonstrations and guest chef events so it's becoming kind of old hat at this point But certainly different in that in a kitchen you never know what's going to happen you never know what's going to happen with the elements how that's going to change while you're cooking Who is another celebrity or award-winning chef you'd like to cook with Oh gosh. There's so many great people out there. I'd love to cook with Alice Waters from Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. She's kind of the farm-to-table guru and somebody that I followed for years. I think another celebrity, who's deceased now, but Anthony Bourdain is always somebody I've wanted to meet in person but his travels and cooking were definitely an inspiration to me along my career Would you want to cook with Gordon Ramsay again even though he is this vast celebrity to hang out and just get to know me I think one of the big takeaways from the show for me was having Gordon come out and say you're one of the best chefs in the country one of the most sustainable chefs on the planet I'm not one to necessarily tell my own accolades but that was something that really blew me away And I think for me was kind of a pat on the back for myself and my colleagues at our restaurants all the hard work and really what we're doing in terms of local sourcing What do you wish more people knew when it comes to Appalachian cuisine I was born and raised in West Virginia [but I] kind of traveled all over the world, learning, educating, and I found myself back in Appalachia and Asheville when I started The Marketplace about 13 years ago. I think a lot of people think that we're all rednecks that are up here, all dueling banjos and moonshine But I think one thing that's really set our cuisine apart is that here in Appalachia we have natural boundaries with our mountains And so it's created this area that really has been — pun intended — uncharted and untouched we have a lot of heirloom and indigenous produce and fruit and wild ingredients that you don't find anywhere else This part of Appalachia is considered one of the most biodiverse places on the planet with flora and fauna and types of animals and reptiles that you only find in this region So [it] really is a special place and it's a temperate rainforest part of the region I've lived and traveled all over the world and I've never been anywhere quite like this I love central California for the grower region but the quality of produce that we get here from the really fertile soil What are some misconceptions people have over the farm-to-table movement I think the phrase "farm-to-table" has become cliche and that everyone says they're farm-to-table You see national pizza brands on commercials saying that they're farm-to-table I think it's about a sense of place and community We put seven figures or more a year from our restaurants back into the local community by sourcing the local fruit and vegetables I think that trickle-down effect in the economy is real You don't find that as much as you would in a big corporate world as you do in a smaller independent farm-to-table style restaurant And I think that sense of place is really burdened because of that How can people cook and eat more sustainably in their everyday lives I definitely think eating more locally and more seasonally would you rather eat a tomato in June or January If you can take that idea about how to eat you're going to have more vitamins and nutrients in the food you eat rather than having something that's picked under ripe and shipped across the world in off-season time What do you look for when you're judging how well-run a professional kitchen is and are there red flags at a restaurant and kitchen not run properly When I'm going in as a guest chef in other folks' kitchens I look for organization and I look for people smiling And I think when you're in kitchens that might be very professional you can see it by the scowl across people's faces When you come into a kitchen and they're prepping and maybe there's some light music playing and people are smiling and having fun that translates into the food you eat as a guest What advice do you have for an aspiring professional chef I think a lot of people think they can go to culinary school and watch Food Network and think that they're going to become the next famous celebrity chef like Gordon Ramsay you have to work hard to garner accolades and get to the top So a 40-hour work week is not necessarily the norm if you want to make it to the top It takes time and perseverance and hard work to get there I've definitely sacrificed holidays or time with family in order to make my business work What is one dish that you never get tired of preparing We have a dish on the menu at our flagship restaurant we make a homemade semolina pappardelle pasta and we braise local lamb shanks in red wine and make a ragu out of the braised lamb shank and with roasted local oyster mushrooms and campari tomatoes we'll preserve the greens into a pesto that we will vacuum seal and freeze to have it for the entire year And so we garnish the plate with a wild ramp pesto and locally grown arugula it kind of showcases the artisan nature of how we cook and the locality of how we source our cuisine Are there any dishes you would just as soon never hear mentioned again I think I'm over foams and gels and that whole era of tweezer food I think that's fun to break out for a celebration but I think people want food that they can relate to food that's nurturing and food that's delicious the food needs to be delicious and something that you can relate to and if the food tells a story of the region or of a place Your restaurant Billy D's is all about fried chicken - can you share any secrets to making truly great fried chicken Fresh is best. You always want to source locally, make sure you know what the poultry is being fed. But I think in technique, well, we do a quick brine on ours. We actually do a pickle brine And then letting it sit in a refrigerator uncovered for a minimum of six hours forms what's called a pellicle and [because of] that kind of outside the chicken gets a little sticky One of my biggest pet peeves when we eat fried chicken as you cut into it and the breading just falls off Sustainability is a huge factor in all your cooking They have a program called the American Chef Corps so I'll do a lot of international work going out and doing the culinary diplomacy around the world with different embassies to help promote American cuisine and sustainability And so having the opportunity to kind of be a part of ["Uncharted"] and on a national and international stage to talk a little more about that sense of community and sustainability is [important] I hope it's a good message to get across to people that it's not just about TV or about food but there's a bigger message behind what we do Aside from your own Appalachian upbringing and the real farm-to-table experience you would have at your grandparents' farm not to mention some of the French influence that came from your studies are there some types of cuisine that have played a major informative role for you she was working for the Clinton Foundation and was recruited to go to work in Hanoi and I spent a few months over there with her prior to buying my first restaurant And that experience being in Northern Vietnam really opened my mind up to being influenced — to travel and to food and culture and just the flavors that I hadn't had before And also my wife is an immigrant from India but that flavor profile and that building of flavors that Indian cuisine really has imprinted upon how I cook too what do you think you might've done as your career I had a biology scholarship and I had grand plans to become a radiologist and become a doctor but I think business is something I've always been interested in I started out as an entrepreneur at 10-years-old with the paper route and lawn mowing service And I think I always had that knack for wanting to work for myself Check out new episodes of "Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted," Sundays on National Geographic, and follow Chef William Dissen's culinary adventures at @chefbillyd.