Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2014 - 48

MORE ON THE STACK CAKE...

The stack cake recipe my husband Phil tried comes originally from food writer Ronni Lundy, a
native of Kentucky who lives in Burnsville, N.C. now and has gotten to know the Stehlings and
their restaurant. While Phil's cake was only two layers, Lundy wrote me that traditionally "the
cakes were stacked as high as eight to nine layers, and a cook's skill was measured by how
many she" - or he - "could stack." I didn't tell Phil about that part.
Stack cakes were also made in cast iron skillets. "Old time cooks," says Lundy, "may have
sprinkled with confectioner's sugar; more contemporary cooks sometimes ice the cake with
a thin caramel glaze, although we oldsters are suspicious."
-CEM

little bit of everything, nothing too amazing." The
garden is on hold this year because they've opened a
new chicken and waffles restaurant, King Daddy's, in
west Asheville.
earlygirleatery.com
828-259-9292
RECOMMENDED VENDORS:
Looking Glass Creamery, ashevillecheese.com
Imladris Farm, Fairview, N.C., imladrisfarm.com
Green Toe Ground, greentoegroundnc.com
Hickor y Nut Gap Meats, Fair vie w, N.C.,
hickorynutgapfarm.com

Sunburst Farm Trout:
LOCAL ROOTS, ROANOKE, VA.
Local Roots is in the
heart of Roanoke,
Va.'s historic Grandin
Village, a few short
steps from a vintage
movie theater, a
ballet school, a yoga
studio and a natural
foods co-op.

Diane Elliott bought Local Roots from her son,
Rives, who originally opened a coffee shop and community hangout in Grandin Village with his girlfriend. "Tea and coffee and cookies didn't really pay
the rent," so it was expanded into a restaurant. Elliott
bought it in 2009, and it moved in 2010 to its current
location, a historic storefront in the village that in its
previous incarnations was a vintage record store, a
ladies' dress shop and an appliance store.
Local Roots is just that - focusing on local, sustainable and organic foods - seasonal foods - "we
don't have any fresh strawberries in January." But they
do have rutabaga soup in April, and bison from
Hollow Hill Farm almost all the time. "We make our
own pastrami from bison."
Herbs and edible flowers come from a plot in
Grandin Gardens, about four blocks away from the
restaurant, and from Elliott's own home garden -
including fig trees (she brought in about 100 pounds
of them last year).
Elliott works with the executive chef, Matt Lintz,
to develop the menu. Lintz, originally from
Pennsylvania, studied biology, microbiology, chemistry and education at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg,
and decided he'd rather cook than work in a lab or a
classroom.

48 | BlueRidgeCountry.com

"My true love of cooking is working with all five
of my senses," says Lintz. "You are able to use your
smell, touch, sight, hearing, and feel at once while
working in a kitchen."
He thinks a lot about place and region when he
cooks: "I like to pair ingredients that grow near each
other in dishes together whenever possible. In this
case a wild trout would be swimming in streams that
may be used to grind the corn used to make the grits.
Watercress would be growing in these streams with
marsh marigolds, dandelions and wild violets lining
the banks so the dish and plate-up is a mini snapshot
of that place in that particular time."
And that trout that was swimming in streams perhaps just days before?
"I am a fan of grits and fish, so pairing the two in
a dish was easy. To accompany it I wanted something
light, fresh, and seasonal. Ramps and morels, as well
as the other ingredients, all grow near and around
one another so it makes sense to pair them together
on the plate. The herbs and flowers add some fresh,
bitter, and slightly floral notes to the dish, while the
spring green emulsion helps to brighten up the grits
and form a sauce with the olive oil."
Local Roots
localrootsrestaurant.com
540-206-2610

http://www.earlygirleatery.com http://www.ashevillecheese.com http://www.imladrisfarm.com http://www.greentoegroundnc.com http://www.hickorynutgapfarm.com http://www.localrootsrestaurant.com http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com

Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2014

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