by Mackensy Lunsford
photos by Glenn Esterson

Our mountains are a great source for wild comestibles. We have ramps, wild berries and—most importantly, if you ask Theresa Oursler, one of the founders of the Asheville Mushroom Club—a wide variety of edible wild mushrooms. The drought of 2007 and 2008, one of the worst on record in WNC, led to all sorts of horticultural and agricultural calamities. That drought was declared officially over in mid-May, and then, it seemed it just wouldn’t stop raining. That’s excellent news for mushroom hunters, who have had a bumper crop of ‘shrooms to choose from, even if the wild swings in the weather have made things a bit unpredictable. Technically, mushroom-hunting season starts at the beginning of July. But Alan Muskat, a.k.a. the Mushroom Man, one of Asheville’s more renowned wild mushroom experts, says he’s seen wild mushrooms this year sprouting up in the wrong season. In June, he spotted two mushrooms—a shaggy parasol and an uncommon psychedelic type—that normally wouldn’t show up until the fall.

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photo by Murray Lee.by Mackensy Lunsford

Susi Gott Seguret is a fascinating cast of characters all in one body. Originally from Madison County, she seems thoroughly Southern, playing the banjo, fiddle and guitar. But she’s also an unapologetic Francophile and a reliable authority on French cuisine, spending at least nine months each year living in France. Seguret directs the Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts at Warren Wilson College (SSCA), a five-year-old immersive culinary program that, for part of the summer, runs parallel to the music-focused Swannanoa Gathering. Seguret says she views French cuisine more as an approach than a set of recipes or methods.

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Kade Espy grew up in Bangkok and moved to the Asheville area six years ago after she married her husband Allen Espy. Now she works at Asheville’s Greenlife Grocery and also does Thai cooking classes and demonstrations in people’s homes.

Common misconceptions about Thai food: “Most people think Thai food is hot and spicy. Part of that is correct, but there are so many Thai foods that aren’t spicy and are very good. My husband doesn’t like spicy food at all. When I make Thai dishes for him, I just leave the chiles out.”

Don’t try this at home: “People should try things that they really like. If you buy a Thai cookbook, find one where the author is someone who’s Thai or someone who’s been living in Thailand a long time. You don’t have to be an expert. I don’t have a degree from culinary school. I just love cooking.”

Other tips for the home cook: If you like something at a restaurant, write down the Thai name of the dish. It will be easier to look up in a cookbook or on the Internet. Also, choose your basil wisely. Many people assume Thai basil is best, but not always. “I like to use holy basil in my dishes. I use Italian basil as a substitute. Thai basil is often best in green and red curries.”

Thai ingredients that are hard to find: Galanga. “It looks like ginger but tastes very different. Some people call it Thai ginger.” It’s a main ingredient in coconut soup. You can often find dry garlanga at Asian markets. Lemongrass, an essential, is easier to find, and so are kaffir lime leaves

A Culinary Institute of America alum, Katherine Counce knew her world wines after studying with wine experts like Kevin Zraly and Michael Weiss in New York and with chef George Blanc in France. She got a closer look at the local scene in 2004 when she and her husband Scott Counce opened the Merry Wine Market in Black Mountain.

Common misconceptions about wine: That cheap wine is not good. Also, that organic wine is not good, and that wine is kind of a snobby topic.

What are your views on North Carolina wines? Local wines are getting better and better. “The vines are getting older, they‘re yielding more superior grapes and people are really pouring money into making some very nice wines.” Some local favorites include South Creek, in Nebo, North Carolina, near Lake James, and Rockhouse Vineyards in Tryon. Rockhouse owner Lee Griffin says the last two summers of drought have actually been good for North Carolina wineries.

Do you think North Carolina wines have lacked sophistication in the past?
Yes and no. It’s still an up-and-coming business… “One thing that’s happening is more wineries now are planting vitis vinifera grapes—old classical wine-making grapes. Before, they relied on grapes that have always been here, indigenous North American grapes like muscadine.”

Which grapes grow well in our climate?
Cabernet franc, an old grape primarily from Bordeaux in France’s Loire Valley. “It tends to need a drippy, wet winter.” Also, Viognier, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. 

Mary Lyth owns Giardini Trattoria in Polk County with her husband Joe Laudisio. She learned everything she knows about Italian food through her betrothed, who grew up with two Italian grandmothers—one from Sicily, one from Naples. “I am an expert by osmosis,” she says. “Real Italian food doesn’t come from restaurants, it doesn’t come from chefs, it comes from grandmothers.”

Common misconceptions about Italian food: “An American misconception is that everything has red sauce and cheese, or that spaghetti and meatballs and pepperoni pizza are Italian food. Italian food is regional and seasonal. It’s really not easily defined.”

Don’t try this at home: Actually, you can try everything at home. “The essence of Italian food is simplicity. It comes from home kitchens, not fancy techniques, in opposition to French food, which is high skill and complex.”

Other tips for the home cook: Get the freshest ingredients possible. “Italian food is made with incredibly fresh ingredients, so opening a jar or a can is not going to get you an authentic flavor. Going to the farmer’s market or picking something out of the garden is going to get you there quicker.”
Italian ingredients that are hard to find: “Things are getting much better, but getting great fresh tomatoes can be challenging. Even in the summer when you are getting fabulous heirloom tomatoes, they are still lacking the unique and amazing flavor of a tomato from the San Marzano region in Italy.”

Originally from Calcutta, Ruby Banerjee will teach a John C. Campbell Folk School class in August that aims to simplify Indian cooking. “Normally it’s quite a laborious cooking style,” she says. Banerjee has a few shortcuts and tricks for tasty, fast Indian dishes.

Common misconceptions about Indian food: The use of the word “curry.” People use it as a generic term, but it’s a blend of spices. “There are so many different types of curries. The word curry actually means a vegetable preparation.”

Don’t try this at home: “Don’t waste time trying to make complicated masala spice blends from scratch,” she says. Buy them off the shelf at stores like Greenlife or Earth Fare, or in Asian markets.
Other tips for the home cook: A good pantry should have all the spices one needs to cook Indian food. Chiles and turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and mustard seeds. For anything more exotic, there are plenty of good ready-made spice mixes available.

Indian ingredients that are hard to find: Regular American grocery stores don’t usually carry good saffron or a wide variety of lentils.

Master Gardener Lenore Baum now teaches healthy cooking classes, and says she took many classes herself at the Organic Grower’s School in Old Fort. VERVE’s guide to local classes and experts on cooking, canning and growing your own.

Raw Deal
When cooking with Lenore Baum, it’s best to turn down the heat. Daintily poised at her kitchen table, the petite raw-food expert directs her husband Joe to the cabinet for a jar of dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes from two summers ago. “Raw food retains its life force,” Baum says, explaining that the tomatoes, even dehydrated, retain their nutrients because they haven’t been cooked. “The live energy from raw food is transferred to your body.”

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photo by Brent Fleury

Carson Lucci says it’s not the tourists she’s trying to impress when she goes out of her way to make omelets with local eggs, peppers, cheese and meat. It’s her regular customers, the people who will keep showing up at her downtown Asheville café, Over Easy, during the winter months when most tourists have gone home. “One of my main goals in opening a restaurant was to build a community,” she says. “I never thought I’d be in a town that’s so supportive of that.”

Lucci moved to Asheville ten years ago from Portland (after making a year-long stop in Boone) and has owned Over Easy for nearly five years. She’s grateful for the busy summer and fall, when her 47-seat breakfast-and-lunch spot is packed and her staff can’t whip up croissandwiches, breakfast burritos and tempeh scrambles fast enough. But her most enjoyable time is when it’s slow enough to sit and gossip with the regulars, who always scrutinize the menu. If something isn’t local, they ask Lucci about it. “Of course, you can’t support local so much that you go out of business yourself,” she says, noting that she recently cut costs by switching her egg-buying habits. For four years she bought hormone- and antibiotic-free eggs from a farm in Canton, but in June she switched to buying similar, cheaper eggs from a company in Louisburg, North Carolina, about four hours away. “It’s about picking your battles,” she says. In Western North Carolina, where “locavores” abound and the “buy local” movement has deep roots, she’ll earn extra points by continuing to fight the good fight.   — J.M.

Omelet at Over Easy Cafe. Photo by Brent Fleury.

by Melanie McGee Bianchi

photo by Jen Lepkowski

KerryAnn Foster didn’t celebrate this Fourth of July by gnawing on mystery ribs or slurping on rainbow-colored popsicles. Instead, she marked two years of independence from unknown—and, for her, potentially deadly—food ingredients.

For years, the Woodfin-based homemaker has suffered debilitating flare-ups of Celiac disease, a genetic autoimmune disorder in which a sufferer’s small intestine violently rejects the wheat protein gluten, mistaking it for dangerous bacteria. She hit bottom on July 4, 2006, becoming extremely ill after eating at a restaurant on an out-of-town trip. “I was lying on the floor of the hotel bathroom listening to the fireworks outside,” she recalls. “I couldn’t move. I thought, ‘This time I could really die.’”

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