The Sanctity of the Southern-ish Fish Fry
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th
4:30 PM – 7:00 PM
THE MULE AT DEVIL’S FOOT BEVERAGE CO.
ASHEVILLE, NC
>> Note: Free parking available on-site. More venue details HERE.
>> All attendees at this event must be 21+ years of age and show a government issued ID to verify.
Erin shares American Rivers’ commitment to create a future of clean water and healthy rivers everywhere, for everyone. Erin applies the best science, brings the brightest minds together, and finds win-win solutions that achieve the best possible outcome for the river—and dam removal is one of the best ways to restore a stream.
Born & raised in Norlina, NC. I am the pastry chef at Leah & Louise in Charlotte, NC. My main focus is reinventing the southern dessert table with a focus on Carolinian ingredients and tradition.
An Eastern North Carolina native, Chef Keith Rhodes, is owner of Catch Modern Seafood Restaurant, Catch the Food Truck and TackleBox Foodtruck located in Wilmington, NC, where he offers his unique signature on New Southern Cuisine with international inspiration.
Chef Rhodes has a lifetime of roots sewn here in our coastal community, in which he credits his grandfather for his “farm to table” approach. In addition to supporting local purveyors, fishermen and farmers, Chef Rhodes is always proud to give back to his community by visiting local grade schools, colleges and military bases to share his knowledge on food culture and cuisine along with educating groups on food deserts, sustainability policies and food advocacy.
With Wilmington also being known as a “Hollywood East” destination, Chef Rhodes has hosted both film and television personalities from Gwyneth Paltrow & Robert Downey Jr, to Morris Chestnut & Melissa McCarthy. He’s won numerous awards and accolades, some which include *Best Chef & Best Foodtruck (4 years in a row) Encore Magazine *NC Goodness Grows Best Dish for Fine & Casual Dining *Chef-testant on Bravo’s Top Chef (Season 9) *James Beard “Best Chef Southeast” Semi Finalist 2011 & 2023
In addition to being a Gullah Culinarian (US Park Service), Chef Rhodes is a 2023 NC Restaurant & Lodging Association Board of Trustees Member.
He has represented the NC Department of Tourism on several media missions, been featured in several publications such as Our State Magazine and Garden & Gun. In 2017 he was a James Beard Foundation guest chef onboard its Windstar Cruise Line, where his menu items are still featured today.
This past September, Chef Rhodes was a featured guest of World Renowned/International YouTube Food Blogger, Mark Wiens, which cast a spotlight on Wilmington and its coastal cuisine, with a video of 3 MILLION views. Another YouTube video blogger, Buzzfeed, “Is it Worth It” garnered over 2 MILLION views.
When he’s not treating his diners to the best seasonal offerings at Catch, you can find him traveling and spending time with his amazing wife of 33 years, Angela and their two adult children, Kristen and Keith Jr.
For more than a decade Locals Seafood has built relationships with our state’s fishing community, oyster farmers and seafood suppliers. Locals delivers seafood direct to customers through retail markets, area restaurants, grocery stores, nationwide shipping, and more.
Chef Malcolm graduated from Johnson & Wales in 2009 and made his way to NYC where he cut his teeth at various steakhouses, Minetta Tavern, STK and Unle Jacks Steakhouse. He also worked with Chef Dani Garcia at Manzanilla, Chef Danny Bowen at Mission Chinese Food and Chef Clause Meyer at Agern.
He left NYC in 2018 and moved upstate NY to the Catskills where he lived on a farm and work with his mentor Aksel Theikhul at The Debruce Inn. While there he was promoted to Chef De Cuisine and executed tasting menus.
At the onset of the pandemic he made the decision to move back to North Carolina and landed in Asheville where he was the Chef De Cuisine at Benne On Eagle working under James Beard winning chef John Fleer.
Chef Malcolm has since moved to Charlotte to be closer to his son. Chef Malcolm is currently working with Tonidandel-Brown Restaurant Group on their upcoming project Leluia Hall.
Matt Rodbard is a writer, editor, and author of food and culture books with more than two decades of experience working in television, magazines, book publishing, and online media. He’s the author of Koreatown: A Cookbook, a New York Times Bestseller, Food IQ, an Amazon and Publishers Weekly Bestseller, and the Founding Editor of online food and culture magazine TASTE, winner of two James Beard Foundation Awards. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, Bon Appétit, Saveur, GQ, and Fodor’s. He’s currently working on a book with Deuki Hong, Koreaworld: A Cookbook, to be published in 2024 by Clarkson Potter.
For over 15 years, Mike McCarty has masterfully captained The Lobster Trap as Executive Chef. He joined the crew in the earliest days, and took over as Chef not long after. From then to now, Chef Mike and The Lobster Trap have seen a lot of challenges and changes.
From the start, Chef McCarty, along with founding owner Amy Beard, had a clear vision of what The Lobster Trap should be; a meeting place for the flavors of Coastal Maine, combined with Appalachia’s abundance of fresh ingredients. As part of this mission, Mike made sustainability the focus of every dish on his menu.
Making this dream a reality is a truly incredible feat of logistical problem solving. When the doors of the restaurant close for the night, Chef Mike and his team are already working on the menu for the next day.
Chef Ricky Moore – the James Beard Foundation winner for “Best Chef Southeast” and self-professed North Carolina seafood evangelist – opened the popular Saltbox Seafood Joint® in 2012 in Durham, North Carolina. Praised by Saveur as “a tiny but mighty seafood shack,” Saltbox Seafood Joint takes inspiration from his native Eastern Carolina coast and its traditional roadside fish shacks. Early in his career, Moore served as a cook in the US Army before attending and graduating from the esteemed Culinary Institute of America. After kitchen stints in some of the world’s most prestigious kitchens from DC to Chicago, Moore competed against Chef Michael Symon on “Iron Chef America.” In Durham, Moore found success with Saltbox Seafood Joint, and debuted the Saltbox Seafood Joint® Cookbook in 2019 – with 60 recipes celebrating his coastal culinary heritage. In 2020, Discover awarded Saltbox Seafood Joint® $25,000 for its #EatItForward campaign for black-owned restaurateurs and MOFAD included it in its Black History Month exhibit, “African/American: Making the Nation’s Table.” Today Moore continues to fulfill his lifelong dream as an entrepreneur, professional, and preserver of North Carolina fisherman and foodways, and is a member of the NC Oyster Trail and on the Advisory Board for the NC Sea Grant.
Shanti Volpe is the owner of Shanti Elixirs, a company inspired by the honeybees + dedicated to nurturing the intimate connection between the health of our bodies + the wellbeing of our planet. Shanti + her hive accomplish this by crafting Jun, a sparkling probiotic beverage made with raw honey.
Prior to his newest venture as the Owner and Executive Chef at beloved Tastee Diner in Asheville, NC, Chef Steven Goff served as the Executive Chef at funky Modern American restaurant, Jargon, in West Asheville. Before that, Goff worked as the head butcher at Standard Foods in Raleigh, and is the former Executive Chefand Owner of the King James Public House and AUX Bar in Asheville. Steven left home at fifteen, and spent the next eleven years homeless, jumping freight trains across the US and Europe, cooking wherever his travels took him. After being stranded in Asheville, he got more serious about cooking and enrolled in the AB Tech culinary program receiving honorable degrees in both Culinary Arts, and Baking and Pastry. Because of his early life experiences, he is highly dedicated to supporting the local community through his food. He co-directed the popular local fundraising event The Blind Pig Supper Club, and served on the Board of Directors of Asheville Independent Restaurants. Goff is currently on the Board of the Piedmont Culinary Guild in Charlotte and the Chow Chow Culinary Event Series in Asheville. Chef Goff’s cuisine has been recognized by Food and Wine Magazine, Bon Appétit, Garden and Gun, The Local Palate, and various local publications. In 2019 he was named Chefof the Year by the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association. He lives in Asheville with his wonderful wife Samantha, their daughter Emma, and their array of animals.
William Dissen is a renowned chef and culinary diplomat, restaurateur, published author, and is the early pioneer of the farm-to-table and ocean sustainability movements. Chef Dissen is based in Asheville, North Carolina and works throughout the Southeastern, United States, Appalachian region.
Founder of four award-winning restaurant concepts, Chef Dissen draws on his global culinary expertise and zest for diverse ingredients that tell a story to create world-class dishes for each restaurant’s guests. Throughout the year, Dissen travels in the U.S. and abroad as a sustainable food policy advocate, and also regularly appears in national media and broadcast television. Dissen is known for providing audiences of all types with timely and compelling education and entertainment in food and dining, teaching Appalachian food history that would otherwise be lost, and upholding the principles of food sustainability. William’s actions in sustainable food advocacy combined with his efforts connecting small farms to local restaurants and organic food grocery stores in the Appalachian foodshed earned him “Green Chef of the Year” twice by FORTUNE Magazine.
Dissen’s restaurant enterprises first-began in 2009, when he purchased The Market Place Restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina, a storied restaurant known for its menu of ingredients sourced exclusively from local farms. Now in its 45th year of business, The Market Place is a permanent fixture in the city’s flourishing restaurant community, and is widely regarded as a leading farm-to-table, classic American restaurant. Dissen is also the creator of the state’s first-ever fast casual, farm-to-table eatery: Billy D’s Fried Chicken, and maintains three locations at The North Carolina Zoo, Wake Forest University, and Elon University. Dissen also founded Haymaker in uptown Charlotte, N.C. in 2017 building the upscale eatery into an award-winning restaurant, and ushering in Charlotte’s now-booming culinary arts scene. In 2023, William sold Haymaker to focus efforts on his newest restaurant concept, Little Gem, as well as his much-anticipated cookbook: “Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted In the New South.”Published by W.W. Norton Countryman Press, the book will be released in April 2024.
William’s love for the region and unique efforts in the culinary arts caught the eye of Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay, who Chef William then hosted in Asheville on Ramsay’s NatGeo TV show, “Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, Smoky Mountains.” The episode featured William touring Ramsay through the forest and rivers of Southern Appalachia, and concluded with the two chefs competing in a peer-reviewed cook-off, where William beat Ramsay for the first and only time in the show’s three seasons. The episode is what led Chef Ramsay to proclaim William as the “one of the best chefs in the country and the most sustainable chef on the planet.” His titles also include, Seafood Watch Ambassador to The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, and Official Ambassador for Le Creuset and Mountain Valley Spring Water.
A career in sustainable culinary arts led Dissen to become an advocate for food policy on Capitol Hill starting in 2010, where he’s lobbied to Congress about the importance of passing legislation, such as The Farm Bill, The Childhood Nutrition Reauthorization Act, and The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The Barack Obama administration lauded William as a, “White House Champion of Change for Sustainable Seafood” for his work to create healthier oceans. He also serves in the American Chefs Corps in the U.S. State Department, which sees him traveling around the world to promote American food culture and sustainability practices.
For more about Chef Dissen and his culinary ventures, please visit
www.marketplace-restaurant.
Yunanda Wilson, born in Yangon, is paving the way to introduce authentic Burmese flavors through new lens. With a collective experience in hospitality leadership of a Forbes Five Star establishment, and the Culinary Arts program at AB-Tech, she is leading a popular pop-up series. “aThoke Lay”, which translates to “little salad”, emerged last spring at various events in Asheville.
Myanmar, also formerly known as Burma, is nestled in Southeast Asia with strong culinary influences from its neighboring countries such as Laos, Thailand, China, India, and Malaysia. Chef Yunanda describes Burmese flavors as a playful balance of “chin ngan sat”, a Burmese phrase which means sour, salty, and spicy.
Bull City Ciderworks was founded in 2013 in Durham, NC. The company has expanded to its primary production facility in Lexington, NC, and added taprooms in Greensboro, Cary & Wilmington. Bull City is NC’s largest independently owned and operated cidery producing over 60 varieties of cider!
As the first U.S. female gin distiller inducted into the Gin Guild, Melissa Katrincic’s 20+ years as a marketing executive informs her role as President & CEO of Conniption Gin, a growing national U.S. brand. A Bryn Mawr physics graduate, she is a champion of women’s STEM education.
Highland Brewing was founded in 1994, establishing it as the pioneer of Asheville’s craft beer industry. The brewery ha a downtown taproom in the S&W Market and a 40-acre production campus in east Asheville with 18-hole disc golf course, 5 sand volleyball courts, live music, and private events.
For more than a decade Locals Seafood has built relationships with our state’s fishing community, oyster farmers and seafood suppliers. Locals delivers seafood direct to customers through retail markets, area restaurants, grocery stores, nationwide shipping, and more.
We pride ourselves on truth, integrity, and pure American spring water. Rising naturally from a spring in the Ouachitas, The Mountain Valley spring water filters through granite-based aquifers collecting all the pure, healthy, goodness from the land. Our water is sodium-free with a naturally detoxifying pH and rich blend of calcium, magnesium and potassium.
PURE SOURCE SINCE 1871
Mountain Valley is the same multiple award-winning clean, pure, premium American spring water it’s always been. Bottled right at the source, in The Ouachita Mountains, U.S.A since 1871
We bring the best beers from around the world to one place. In craft beer jargon, a “WHALE” refers to a sought-after, legendary, and amazing beer. With our locations in Asheville, Greenville SC, and Charleston SC, we offer a sophisticated, fun, and unique approach to craft beer.
With four locations in Asheville including three taprooms and a fine dining restaurant, Wicked Weed shows no signs of slowing down. They continue to grow while focusing on innovation, quality, and strong roots in their community of Asheville, North Carolina.
We are actively involved in our community as philanthropists, as a gathering place, and as educators of craft beer culture. We work with core partnerships in Western North Carolina in the areas of people, the environment, and the arts in hopes of supporting the local economy and our fellow neighbors.
Devil’s Foot Beverage uses organic roots and fruits to brew farm-to-can craft sodas out of Asheville, NC. Blending regional honey and organic cane sugar and using farm-fresh ingredients from local and certified organic farms allows these sodas to contain half the sugar as corporate brands.
Got to Be NC is an initiative on behalf of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services to promote North Carolina agricultural products and goods. Our mission is to promote and expand markets for North Carolina agricultural products both domestically and internationally in support of our state’s $95+ billion plus food, fiber and forestry industries.
In 2005, the Goodness Grows in NC program was rebranded as Got to Be NC. From then to now, our work with North Carolina growers and agricultural organizations continues to raise the awareness and availability of North Carolina products to consumers both locally and around the world.
For more than a decade Locals Seafood has built relationships with our state’s fishing community, oyster farmers and seafood suppliers. Locals delivers seafood direct to customers through retail markets, area restaurants, grocery stores, nationwide shipping, and more.
