Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2019 - 71

F L AV O R S

LEFT: Rich Cundiff makes sure sides
like macaroni and cheese and green
beans are at least as good as the
chicken.
BELOW: Cundiff (left), a former
Whole Foods and Earth Fare executive,
says one of the keys to the success of
Rocky's is hiring "really good people."
FACING PAGE: Chicken choices
at Rocky's are not limited to hot and
spicy. One of the restaurant's biggest
sellers is a house-made chicken pot pie.

other people usually call hot. Our hot is pretty hot."
The next level is Rocky's hot, described by Cundiff as
"an extreme flavor experience. The people who eat that
won't eat anything else because it's the big boy."
There is an extra hot, too. "And I don't personally recommend it," Cundiff adds. "It's got ghost chili in it, and
ghost chili is not something that I think is particularly enjoyable. We used to do extra extra hot, but we don't do
that anymore. People were hurting themselves."
Cundiff encourages diners to start at the lowest gradation of heat and work up until they find their comfort
level.
"We recommend that, because we want you to have a
good experience. Sometimes people come in and they're
more focused on the machismo than the experience of
enjoying the food."
To accommodate diners who desire milder fare, Rocky's
introduced a house-made chicken pot pie, in a seven-inch
diameter bowl with top and bottom crusts. Especially in
wintertime, Cundiff says, "It'll feed your soul."
Before a slice of Coca-Cola cake and a jar of banana
pudding come to the table, as we talk about side dishes,
Cundiff credits two more people who helped form his attitudes about food: his mother and his grandmother.
Peggy Cundiff, Rich's mother, was both a serious cook
and a dietitian who believed that every meal should have
an entrée as the center of the plate, at least two vegetables,
a salad, and a dessert, all homemade. And when it came
time to select side dishes for Rocky's, Cundiff thought immediately of his grandmother Margaret Stroud's sweet potato casserole, flavored with orange juice and brown sugar
and packed with pecans.
"It's like what I grew up eating at Thanksgiving,"
says Cundiff, "but we think every day should be
Thanksgiving."
Among the macaroni and cheese, collard greens, corn
pudding, fried okra, and potato salad at Rocky's is a side

dish that combines two of the South's favorite ingredients,
pimento cheese and grits, ground just down the road at
Farm & Sparrow in Buncombe County.
"We've been as successful as we have because we don't
compromise on our ingredients, and we hire really good
people," Cundiff explains.
The well-traveled Cundiffs have adapted perfectly to
the ways of Western North Carolina.
"I came here for a job, not expecting to want to stay,"
Rich tells us. "And we got here and fell in love with the
place. I'd never really lived where there are four seasons.
I'd never really lived where people ask how you're doing
and stop and wait for an answer, and expect one. And
if you don't have one, you're rude. We got here at the
right time. Asheville was just starting to take off, and we
were able to endear ourselves here. We're here. We're not
going anywhere."
Surrounded by people who care so deeply about what
they serve, we understand how hot chicken warms both
the body and the soul.
Fred and Jill Sauceman study and celebrate the foodways
of Appalachia and the South from their home base in Johnson
City, Tennessee.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2019

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