(buoyant music) - [Presenter] Welcome to Atlanta, where the city's diversity is celebrated through its unique culinary landscape.

Today, our talented SCAD students will tag along with host, Bilal Sarwari, to connect with Terry Koval's familial approach to cuisine at Deer and the Dove.

After learning about ethical sourcing at White Oak Pastures, the students accompanied the host and chef to make a meal that is destined to bring together this lively community.

From the first bite to the last, we're discovering the soul of the city one dish at a time.

This is "Chef ATL."

(flames whoosh) (bright music) - What drew you to Chef Terry and The Deer and the Dove?

- I actually read he's on the Michelin Guide.

- Yeah, he won a James Beard award too.

- And I really wanna see how his restaurant is different from others, 'cause apparently, everything here is ethically sourced, from the farmers, to the food, and the animals.

- [Maria] What's your connection to Chef Terry?

- My connection to Chef Terry is through a movement, called Slow Food, and we work to achieve good, clean, and fair food for everyone.

(upbeat music) - [Terry] We operate our restaurant, is very family-driven.

You'll see my son every day, right after school, he walks to the restaurant from school.

My wife definitely has the energy going in the front.

Typically if you walk in the front door, you will see Jen try to make it not feel like work.

Even the design of the kitchen was designed to make the high stress tone down.

There's a yellow line that goes through the dining room and it goes into the kitchen, around the kitchen.

- Hi, how are you?

- To connect the two, because there is no front of the house, back of the house.

- Hey, how are you?

- There's one house.

- Nice to meet you.

- Thank you for having us.

- [Jen] Yes, come on in.

Yeah.

- [Bilal] Hey Terry, good to see you.

(upbeat music) - Chef, I'm actually curious though, before we get started, so why specifically, did you decide to name your restaurant The Deer and the Dove?

- So actually I didn't name it.

My wife named it.

- Oh.

- So yeah.

So she named it after our spirit animals.

How cute, right?

- That's sweet.

- Yeah, so she is the dove and I am the deer.

- And speaking of family, how do you keep the balance between your family and your business, and how do you run it together?

- So, you know, it can be really challenging at some points, you know?

Fortunate for us is we own the restaurant, so, (chuckles) we do hire people to do the job and kind of let them, you know, grow in their own way and try not to micromanage it as much.

But as far as balance, you know, this is our second home, you know, so it is our home.

We are here just as much as we are in our own homes.

So you will see my son running around at points, you know, maybe my daughter popping in to eat a harvest plate 'cause she loves the healthy-ness of the harvest plate.

- [Maria] This is very crunchy.

I love it.

- [Terry] Texture's important, you know?

- Yeah, for sure.

- Especially raw vegetables, you know, you get those nutritions out of that.

- Have any of your children taken a liking to like cooking because of this environment?

- Yes.

I mean during, you know, the pandemic, you know, all the homeschooling that was happening, Jackson was here rolling bagels with me almost every single morning, you know, and pretty much mastered it.

And then was also working in the kitchen a little bit, just picking herbs.

And still to this day, when he comes in from school, he'll walk here from school, come right in.

All the boys are like, "Cook Jackson!"

(everyone laughs) - Yes, my mom is actually also a chef, so I can tell you from the other side, it's great whenever we have time to cook together in the kitchen, and like do stuff.

I feel like I bond with her more, so I'm sure your children feel the same.

- Yeah, during holidays, when Olivia comes home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, one of her things that she loves to do is come here in the morning when we're closed, and make like an apple pie.

We've made apple pie from scratch, done the lattice, and all that.

She'll kind of help me prep some of the dishes here, and that's a really special time for both of us.

- What do you all think of the food so far?

- This is awesome.

I was gonna say, Terry, you really like opened my eyes to the whole concept of raw vegetables.

- These are really cool.

So this is something that you only get to see not that often.

This is a daikon radish seedling pod.

This is what happens when it goes to seed.

Typically they allow that just to kind of fall and go to seed.

- Yeah, when I was farming, I was like, well the crop's done.

(chuckles) - Yeah, these are incredible.

So I got these from Ups and Downs Farms, the Freedom Farmers Market in Carter Center, and they're incredible.

- And so that's a radish.

- Everybody should try one.

It's really good, you got a little spiciness, a little heat to it.

- Sounds crunchy too.

- Yeah.

(gentle music) This is our beef tongue dish, which we- - Beef tongue?

- Yeah.

This is something that kind of, I started to play around with in 2010.

- This is my first time having like beef tongue, and it's reminded me of all these other different meats.

Like I'm tasting bacon, I'm tasting chicken, like the tenderness, the softness- - Pastrami maybe?

- Pastrami, yeah.

Pastrami, maybe rose beef.

This is cool.

- Do you plan on trying to get more unconventional meats to a wider audience?

- For sure.

I mean, we're kind of known.

I mean if you look at our shirts, weird meat, you know?

So, sometimes you'll see beef heart on the menu, you'll see sweet breads on the menu.

- So smart, 'cause you can sort of get every part out of the animal, but also sort of like mix up the menu and always present something new, but from that same animal.

- Yeah.

- That's so cool.

- And it's kind of, instead of like, I mean, typically in most restaurants when they get that stuff, they just throw it away, you know?

Like it helps the restaurant being more sustainable, and income, you know, and how we are not wasting anything.

You know, we're using everything.

- You're not even only helping the restaurant, you're helping the farmers and the ranchers that grew the meat, that raised the animals with so much care.

I've watched chefs like you have those orders come in for beef tongue, and parts of the animal that we used to throw into compost are now being shipped off, profit for the farmer.

That money goes directly back to the people who grew the animal, and then you're able to create like a culture around the dish that we used to eat, but is really cool now.

(upbeat music) - So I'm sure you'll notice the pita on the table.

So this is not on the menu, but this is something that my daughter and I cook together, something that she kind of takes with her to Lexington.

She goes to University of Kentucky for dietetics, and she likes to eat healthy and responsibly.

So this is something that's very easy to prepare, and quick to prepare, and I thought I would share it with you.

- So what you're saying is I can make this in my dorm?

- Yes.

- Oh, okay, awesome.

I'm curious, you keep mentioning that they're very fresh.

How fresh are we talking here?

- So, I mean, Rolo just dropped these off from Snap Finger, these turnips, literally like 30 minutes ago.

- So they're fresh out of the ground.

- So this was probably harvested yesterday.

- That's amazing.

You really are living the slow food movement, celebrating the joy of food with the pursuit of justice.

- I mean, one of the best things is that we're choosing where to give our dollars to, right?

We're not giving it to the big box companies.

We're giving the dollars to the folks that are growing food in our community, and the best thing and the big reward to that is when you come out of the dining room and you have, you know, Chris or Isa in the dining room, sitting down having dinner, and you're like, "Wow, that's incredible."

So I think, you know, what would be a really great idea is if you all went to White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, and check out everything, a farm field trip.

I mean, you could see the abattoir, you could see where Bilal used to farm.

I mean, you can see it all.

It's an incredible place.

- I'm excited.

I can't wait.

- Yeah, same.

(birds chirping) (gentle music) - [Terry] Our sourcing is our number one priority.

So yeah, who are we buying our food from?

Who are we giving our dollars to?

You know?

That's very important.

If you're gonna buy something from someone, you need to go to their farm.

You need to see how they farm, what are their practices, you know?

So I think I learned really quickly that, you know, a cucumber that was grown, or tomato that was grown in a well-nourished proper farm might not be perfect.

You can still utilize those things.

You just have to be more creative in how you're gonna use that.

One thing, I think, slow food is really good at is kind of helping us educate our clientele, you know, our guests.

You know, when they see that slow food thing, "Oh, slow food home, what's that mean?

Slow food?"

- It's the opposite of fast food.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, slow food started in Italy decades ago as a challenge to a fast food restaurant that was going to open up around major cultural center in Italy, and people wanted to protest.

Instead of showing up with protest signs, they showed up with bowls of penne, saying, "We don't want fast food here, we want slow food."

And from that, a movement was born.

And I think what you've touched on a lot is that the community that you build around food, it's not just about eating and nourishment, it's about connecting, it's about your son coming home from school to the restaurant and the stories that come from that.

And yeah, education is one of the pillars that slow food stands on.

Education, biodiversity and advocacy.

- Yeah, for sure.

- No, I really didn't know, like the full progression of like how you got into this, and you never went to culinary school.

You learned it all on the ground.

- Yeah, - That's incredible.

- Like I said, I've always worked in kitchens since I was 15.

My first job was pouring coffee at Waffle House on Christmas day with my mom.

Yeah, I definitely had some other things going on.

- I want to hear about those other things.

Can you tell me about your beginnings as a skateboarder?

- So, yeah, I mean, a lot about my early up upbringing, you know, like kind of a little rogue, you know, little misfit and you know, skateboarding was kind of there to kind of keep me in the lines, keep me in the road.

Just the camaraderie and the brotherhood of that was really important to me during that time, you know?

And you know, kind of just segued kind of into cooking and kitchens, and with your friends, and met some friends of a lifetime.

Worked at this restaurant called John Paul's Armadillo Oil Company.

- Armadillo Oil Company?

(pair laughs) That's amazing.

In Columbia, South Carolina, when you realized- - I realized, this is it, you know, like I was blown away.

I mean we sat down, I had foie gras for the first time in my life.

They had a fish called skate, and I was like, "What is this, skate?

Blew me away.

We ended up moving to Atlanta.

I got a job at the Buckhead Diner, and put my head down.

That's where I learned, call your chef, "Chef."

This is a mandolin.

This is a chinois.

What is mirepoix?

Nine months at the diner, Adolfo, one of the food runners, who was a food runner at Canoe, was like, "Hey, they're looking for someone at Canoe."

And at the time, Canoe, it was very big institution.

Still is an institution.

They were like, "Come in, it's a working interview, you work for free."

I was like, "I'm there."

So come in, work (indistinct) all night blown away, just by watching every, like, I had no idea that restaurants operated like this.

Everything was from scratch, you know?

Like, nothing was coming out of a box.

My time at the hotel with Chef Nicole Targ was crucial to my success as well because I remember my first month there, I was brought on as sous chef, and I had my first review, and my review was not so great, and I was really upset.

And so he pulled me aside, and he was like, "So great, you know how to cook.

You're a great cook.

Do you know how to read a P and O?

Do you know how to cost out a plate of food?

Do you know how to make a schedule?

You know, do you know finances?

Do you know how to even use Excel?"

- Right.

- I didn't know.

And he was like, "You'll never be a chef unless you know this part of the business.

You'll always be a really good cook."

And that really stuck with me, like it hit me, you know?

So instantly, I just started teaching myself how to do Excel, started taking things slowly away from him, off of his plate, and learning them and doing them myself.

And I think that has a lot to do with our success, owning our own restaurant, you know?

- What's it like to run a restaurant with your wife?

And do your kids share your affinity for cooking?

- Yeah, I mean, the funny thing is, you know, when we decided to open our first restaurant, you know, my wife's role wasn't the role that she plays now, intended.

You know, the bigger difference is, you know, I thought I'd open up a restaurant so I can be in charge, but I am now at the lower totem pole, 'cause my wife literally runs the restaurant- - Right.

- Which is incredible.

We were thinking about opening our first restaurant, you know, we really wanted it to be casual.

You know, we don't say it enough, it is a neighborhood restaurant, you know.

I want folks to come in, in shorts and flip flops, and have, you know, foie gras, you know, or have caviar, casual fun dining.

You know, I want the food to be very focused, you know, very on point, but I want the atmosphere to be very relaxed.

The one thing we always talk about, when we went into the space, there was a door on the kitchen, and I took the door off immediately, 'cause I wanted people to see in the kitchen.

If I would've had it my way, we would've had an open kitchen, you know?

'Cause I want folks to see production, you know?

I want them to see the energy in there, you know?

- How do you create that atmosphere?

- You let folks do the job they're hired to do, you know?

You have to trust them.

You know, you have to be able to let them make mistakes, you know, and be creative, you know?

We play music in the kitchen, you know?

If I walk in the kitchen and music's not playing, you're like, "Who's in trouble?"

We have this thing every day.

During the day, we have lights on, the typical lights, I like to call 'em classroom lights.

And the way our kitchen's set up on the island that we cook on, we have LED lights, and those are on, and they have lights above where we're plating food.

Well, every day around 4:20, someone hits the light switch, and everybody says, "Vibes."

And so the lights in the kitchen come off, and then you just have the LED lights.

Now it's time, prep is typically over around this time.

It's time to cook for service.

And I think it brings down the energy, and I think that sets the tone.

- It sounds like parts of it come naturally, but also parts of it are things that you have cultivated and been very intentional.

- I think we really owe it to our community.

Purchasing and giving your dollars to someone who is working in your community is epic.

And you're buying something from them, and you see them in your restaurant eating, I mean, that's incredible.

They're as passionate about growing their food as we are about cooking and preparing their food.

Big thing for me too is like, if I can sit there and have a conversation with someone, they're coming through the door, I can slap 'em a high five.

- Yeah.

- We both win.

- Amazing.

- Amazing.

- Okay, I have some rapid fire questions for you.

Are you ready?

- Rapid fire.

- Baking or brazing?

- Brazing.

- Beef tongue or veal brains?

- Beef tongue.

- Breakfast or dinner?

- Breakfast.

- Eighties or nineties rock?

(Terry stumbles over decision) Eighties or nineties rock?

(laughs) There is a right answer.

(Terry hesitates) - I'm a nineties kid.

- Oh.

- Chef Terry or Dad?

- Dad.

- Dear or dove?

- Always the dove first.

- Oh, good to know.

Thank you.

And when you reflect on your culinary journey, is there a milestone that you've reached in your career that you're exceptionally proud of?

- I mean, the James Beard one is definitely, I mean, I would've never have dreamed that would ever happen in my career.

It was just like, I cannot, but like what?

You know, I'm in the same category as, you know, some really talented chefs, you know?

And sometimes I really don't think of myself like that.

You know, like, once in a lifetime opportunity.

I don't think anything like that will ever happen again.

You know, I owe my staff for it, you know, the amount of hard work that they put forward, you know.

Working in a restaurant is very, very hard.

It's very, very demanding.

I lost pretty much my whole entire daughter's childhood because of this industry, you know?

And looking back at that time, like how hard I worked, how driven I was, you know, how to try to just put yourself out there.

Life's different now, you know?

I mean, I wanna spend every second I can with our son Jackson, you know?

So I'm very thankful to be able to have our restaurant, and that notoriety kind of seals the deal on your restaurant.

It's gonna sustain itself to have that notoriety, and I'm incredibly thankful for that.

(upbeat music) What's up y'all?

Y'all doing all right?

Y'all ready to make some lamb pita?

- Yes.

- I think so.

- So this is something that my daughter, Olivia, and I cook at home all the time.

(upbeat music) First, we're gonna dice our onion.

We wanna do like a small dice.

- [Shakeenan] Ah, that's cool.

- You can go slower too.

(everyone laughs) So now we have that, we're gonna slice inward two times.

So what's happening is that root is holding that together, right?

- Great.

- Okay, oh.

- [Terry] And then we'll kind of, kind of come across and you see that dice.

- Yeah.

- Easy.

- [Terry] Easy, right?

- Terry, I'm noticing a lot of, kind of classic Mediterranean ingredients.

- When I think of Mediterranean food, I think clean, healthy, easy.

My daughter likes to eat very healthy, so this is a dish that she enjoys thoroughly.

- So aside from it being a healthy meal, is there any other reason why this is your daughter's go-to dorm meal?

- You can get lemons, cucumbers, garlic, tomato, pretty much anywhere.

- That makes sense.

(bright music) - So we have our diced onion, we have our diced tomato.

Let's go ahead and let's start with the tzatziki.

Go ahead and put that yogurt in that bowl, and then I'm gonna go ahead and start with the cucumber.

Cucumber, you want to kind of get a seedless cucumber.

So the European cucumbers are great.

The little pickling cucumbers are great as well.

And then you just kinda wanna take off the ends of them.

I like to start by cutting it right down the center just to make sure there is not a lot of seeds in there, and if there was seeds in there, you just take a spoon and just kinda- - Just scrape it out?

- Okay.

It comes off easily?

- Yes.

All right, so we're gonna add the cucumber to there.

Yep, yeah, I'm gonna kind of just do this number.

So first we're gonna zest the lemon zest.

So that's gonna give that a really good citrus... Do you wanna try that?

- I'll try it.

- Little shake.

Get in there.

- Am I doing it right?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

(laughs) - yeah, a lot of food, you need that acid to kind of balance everything out and kind of give that punch of flavor.

Like get all that goodness off of there.

And then you are gonna squeeze.

Just hold that over your hand.

Did you see any of those seeds come out of there?

So next, we have our whole garlic.

I smash it with the skin on first.

At the restaurant, we only bring in whole garlic because of the freshness.

- Oh yeah.

(laughs) - It's so nice hearing you talk about produce in this way, 'cause it takes nine months just to get one bulb of garlic, and then seeing this prepared so carefully, you've used every single part of it.

As a farmer, it feels good knowing that food is nourishing bodies, yeah.

(upbeat music) - What we got going on now is we're bringing our saute pan up with olive oil to a high heat.

The reason for that is when we put our ground lamb in there, or the onions in there, we don't want it to stick to the pan.

So we're gonna start off really high and then we're gonna drop down.

See how we have a little smoke right there?

- Yeah.

- So as soon as that happens, we want to put that in.

- Okay.

- So we're gonna add a little salt to this.

That kind of helps, one season it, and two, we're trying to bring out some of the liquid of the onions.

(onions sizzling) (upbeat music) All right, then we're gonna add the garlic.

You want to sweat it, and you want it to be translucent, but we're building flavor right now with the garlic in the onion.

- Flavor and smell.

I can already smell that.

- Yeah.

Let's go ahead and bring the lamb over here, like that, yeah, and then we're gonna add our ground lamb.

- If it's not lamb, what would- - Ground beef, ground pork, ground turkey, ground chicken.

Even veggies, I mean, if you just had, like if you wanted to like julienne some carrots and some celery and some zucchini, or some squash, and lightly cook it the same way, and put that in, absolutely.

We're gonna add some olive oil.

If you find yourself with your food sticking to your pan, you can add a little bit more olive oil to it.

- What's the trick to knowing when to stop?

- You'll just see that you no longer see any pink.

You know, you want to cook it definitely all the way through.

So we're gonna throw in a little added bonus here, okay?

Olivia loves avocados.

- Who doesn't?

- And so we're gonna definitely slice up some avocados for these things 'cause I think it'll be delicious.

I wait until after we've cooked and drained the fat, because I don't want these flavors to go in that bowl.

We have our (indistinct) All right, so we're gonna season this.

Probably about a tablespoon.

Smell that?

- And so you want to add that in like afterwards- - At the end, because I want it to stick.

I don't want those flavors to go in here, and then when we drain the fat, they all go in there.

So it looks like we're pretty ready.

We're gonna toast off our pitas.

We're gonna slice 'em.

We're gonna stuff 'em with the lamb.

We're gonna put some tomato in there, some of our tzatziki, some added avocado, and some mint leaves.

I think that would be really tasty to have the mint leaves, so when we get a bite of freshness in there.

(upbeat music) All right, our pitas are nicely toasted.

We're just going to slice them in half.

- Some giant pitas, Chef.

- Those are big.

And then we are going to add our ground lamb.

- [Maria] So why is it that you use a toaster oven?

- Everything I cook at home is pretty much in my toaster oven.

I mean, you can do everything in a toaster oven, everything.

Right, so we have our ground lamb.

We're gonna add our tzatziki sauce to this.

Make sure everything's in there.

We're gonna add our tomatoes, which my 10-year-old loves the tomatoes.

Make sure that they're pressed in there a little bit.

And then we're gonna go with the avocado.

- You just kinda go how you feel about the order of the ingredients, or you just throw it on there.

- I think the order and the layers are important 'cause it's how you're going to eat it.

I like the mint 'cause it really gives it another layer of flavor, but you can also use iceberg lettuce, or any other greens, and then olive oil to finish.

- My mouth is watering already.

- See?

That's great, right?

- Awesome.

- I wanna hold those ingredients in as much as we possibly can.

We're gonna do that, and then you wanna hand me a plate?

- My stomach's crying for a taste right now.

(laughs) - Try it.

Let's try it, right?

- Yes.

- Let's get in there.

I'll be sure.

(group expressing approval) (upbeat music) - The fact that I can make this in my dorm room is crazy.

- This is delicious.

Cheers.

- Thank you.

- Cheers everybody.

- All right, all right.

Great job chefs.

- Props to your daughter because the avocado is everything.

- It was a nice touch.

- Very nice touch, yeah.

- Chef Terry, thank you for sharing all these experiences with us.

I'm really blown away.

You've connected culture, you've connected farming, restaurant work, being a student.

- Our time together has been great, and I just leave y'all with thinking of where your food comes from, how you're sourcing it, where you're buying it from, who are you giving your dollars to.

So, cheers.

Thanks.

- Thank you Terry.

- Thank you so much.

(gentle strumming music) (gentle strumming music continues) (gentle strumming music continues) (bright music)