An Asheville Chef’s Cookbook Celebrates the Rich Cuisine of Southern Appalachia Amid Hurricane Helene

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James Beard finalist chef and Asheville resident Ashleigh Shanti. Her cookbook, Our South: Black Food Through My Lens, came out this week—as the Southern Appalachian region she lives, works in, and loves reels from Hurricane Helene.Photo: Johnny Autry

“Every day is an emotional rollercoaster,” James Beard Award finalist chef Ashleigh Shanti says of life in Asheville after Hurricane Helene. At least, that’s what I think she says. Cell phone service still isn’t great in the Appalachian town, so she breaks up a little. But her next line comes through loud and clear: “This has been a really painful experience.”

Shanti is quick to clarify she’s one of the lucky ones; her house on the banks of Shenandoah River is still standing, unlike those belonging to many of her neighbors. (“The river just swelled over and washed away our road,” she says.) Yet Asheville—a city known for its eclectic arts and culinary scene set against the rolling backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains—was devastated by the once-in-a-century storm: around 100,000 people in Western North Carolina still don’t have running water, and the city’s schools are closed until at least October 28. Remote learning has been impossible as internet connection is scarce. It’s been hard to see the town that she lives in, works in, and loves like this, she says.

Like most Asheville businesses, Shanti’s critically acclaimed restaurant, Good Hot Fish—which was named to the New York Times’s Best Restaurants of 2024 list just two days before Hurricane Helene hit—is yet to reopen. So instead, she’s opened a free outdoor food pop-up called Sweet Relief Kitchen with fellow Asheville chef Silver Iocovozzi. Over the past few weeks, they’ve served everything from smoked chicken to Filipino spaghetti to whoever wants it. “We’re cooking in a way that I think is very Appalachian—just using what you have,” she says. The biggest challenge? “Finding clean water where we can—filling up buckets, making hand washing stations, and boiling water to wash dishes,” she says.

Amid it all, Shanti’s first cookbook, Our South: Black Food Through My Lens, was published. A love letter to the wide-ranging traditions of Black Southern cooking, Shanti breaks her book up into four micro-regions: Lowcountry, Midlands, Lowlands, and, yes, her beloved backcountry of Southern Appalachia. “Each micro-region here is so distinctly different from the other,” she explains. “I thought it was important to highlight that because I think everyone thinks that they know what southern food is, but it’s so much more diverse than what meets the eye.” (A lifelong Southerner, she compares the region to Italy, where different areas have entirely different categories of cuisine.)

While most Americans may be familiar with the coastal cuisine served in Charleston or the crawfish boils of the Georgia Golden Isles, the backcountry isn’t a place whose culinary heritage is often highlighted on a national stage. “It’s just seen as very simple and maybe even bland,” says Shanti. As the cookbook unfurls, the chef shatters that assumption with recipe after recipe. There are multiple types of chow chows (a Southern pickled relish) as well as hush puppies with Southern corn ketchup. There are brown butter apple pork chops, peppery turnip soup, and bologna schnitzel sandwiches. For dessert, there’s a mean apple stack cake. “I enjoy getting really creative with a lot of these traditional recipes,” she says.

The October 15 publish date of Our South: Black Food Through My Lens was set several months ago. Yet its arrival feels serendipitous. Southern Appalachia is a region that is still reeling from the aftershock of a natural disaster, but it’s already recovering—and as art galleries, concert venues, and restaurants re-open, they’ll need both celebration and support. Which has been Shanti’s goal all along: “I hope that people see this rich culinary destination that I see,” she says.

Below, Shanti’s recipe for Spicy Beet Chow Chow from Our South: Black Food Through My Lens. “It has a nice little kick to it,” she says.

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Photo: Johnny Autry

Spicy Beet Chow Chow

Ingredients:

  • 3 large beets with their greens, coarsely shredded, greens minced
  • 4 cups coarsely shredded cabbage
  • 2 garlic cloves, grated
  • 1⁄4 cup prepared horseradish
  • 21⁄2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups white wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
  • 2 1⁄2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
  • 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 2 whole cloves
  • 2 dried bay leaves

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the beets, beet greens, cabbage, garlic, horseradish, and salt.
  2. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine the sugar, vinegar, mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, coriander, cloves, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cook for 1 minute, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, until the sugar has dissolved.
  3. Meanwhile, pack the beet mixture into a sterilized 1-gallon glass jar (or another nonreactive heatproof vessel with a tight-fitting lid). Pour the hot brine over the top, leaving 1 inch of headspace, and let cool. Seal the jar and store the Chow Chow in the refrigerator for up to 14 days.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Our South: Black Food Through My Lens by Ashleigh Shanti © 2024. Published by Union Square Co. Photographs © Johnny Autry.