Intro Music plays Chef Vivian- When I was a kid we had a small strawberry patch around our pump house.

I cared for, picked, sugared, crushed, all the strawberries that came out of that little garden.

Strawberry shortcake made from those berries is something I will always remember and the benchmark for every strawberry dessert I try.

The Avett Brothers perform "Will You Return" Chef Vivian-I'm Vivian and I'm a chef.

My husband Ben and I were working for some of the best chefs in New York City when my parents offered to help us open our own restaurant.

Of course, there was a catch.

We had to open this restaurant in Eastern North Carolina, where I grew up and said I would never return.

[Music plays] Chef Vivian- So this is my life.

Raising twins, living in the house I grew up in, and exploring the south, one ingredient at a time.

Chef Vivian- Previously on A Chef's Life [Sirens ring] Chef Vivian- We had a fire in the kitchen.

The kitchen is pretty much demolished.

You know, everything starts running through your mind.

You know, What if we have to close?

What if we can't reopen?

What if we haven't kept up on our insurance?

What if our staff gets other jobs?

Everyone who works here works paycheck to paycheck.

It's really hard to look at something that you have put your whole being into and it's so destroyed and you know.

It's really overwhelming.

There's a lot to like, wrap your mind around.

Just, you know, we're basically having to start over.

So.... [Tools working] [Music playing] Painter-This is killing me.

Ben-Alright, you guys cutting those side slats?

Really, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

I'd like to get this done today.

Did you guys happen to have that sandwich prep that we ordered on that truck?

Why don't you start drilling there?

Why don't you start drilling there?

Put a level on it.

Hit the sides.

You can go ahead and crank this out in ten minutes.

Crank it out.

Ben-Let me show you what's going on back here.

This, they've already set this.

This has to come out and then they can lay the tile.

But these guys have to get access up there on either side of this.

They're not going to finish that.

Chef Vivian-So, will they work this weekend?

Restaurant people are the only people who work on the weekends.

Ben-We're the only people who work on the weekends.

Chef Vivian laughing Chef Vivian-You know, everyone in the community, every time we see them, they say, oh, I'm so sorry about the fire.

You must have hated that but you know, it could have been worse.

It could have been worse but it could have been better too haha.

Ben-It's January 7th.

The fire was about 9:26 in the morning yesterday.

This is what our kitchen looks like.

This is the next room over.

These were glass racks.

The heat from the next room was so strong that it just melted those off the wall.

Then you get in here and you know, you hear your condenser on your cooling unit sound like that... there ain't no way to clean that soot off that.

I mean, it's caked everywhere and it's been sucking in that soot through the whole smoke period.

It's gonna be unsalvageable.

Chef Vivian-This is where the fire started.

We still don't actually know what caused it.

I hate telling people that cause they all have the same reaction.

It's suspicion.

Ben-Right.

You don't know what caused that fire?

Chef Vivian-Right.

But it did start right here in a trash can and it was probably something like spontaneous combustion of towels.

Ben-It has been learned that's one of the biggest causes of kitchen fires.

Chef Vivian-Initially after the fire we thought it may take a month before we could reopen.

Turns out, it took over a month to just clean the building, much less rebuild the kitchen and dining room.

Ben-So where we at this morning?

Worker-Uhhh just getting everything out of the way so we can start tearing out this sheet rock.

Chef Vivian-Right after the fire Ben and I didn't really know what to do and we had all this staff wondering when they were going to see their next paycheck.

Chef Vivian-I was just going to say, we don't know how long it will be and we're not going to make any assumptions but it will be longer than 3 weeks.

Ben-We'll make sure everyone has what they need.

All this stuff is covered by the insurance in terms of the labor to help you guys.

Chef Vivian-We were very lucky that we had what's called business interruption insurance so we continued to keep our staff on board throughout this rebuilding process.

[Laughter] Ben-Look at that.

B.A.

Baracus, back in action.

Jamie-We got the offices set up in the back and we got some of the wine shop done but as you can see, I think there is still a little bit more to go.

Staying home, ummm we are getting paid but it's not like making cash money.

Ben-How's this week been for you guys?

Female employee-Busy.

Ben-It's been busy.

Female employee-I think we've gotten a lot done though.

Ben- We've gotten a lot done.

Chef Vivian-Ever since the fire Ben has been dying to get the restaurant reopened.

So, before we even knew when we would be ready he went ahead and booked parties to kind of like, set a deadline and we just aren't looking like we're gonna be quite ready to open.

Chef Vivian-So next week, no parties?

And then, starting on the 23rd we have a party?

Ben-We have a party on the 23rd, the 24th.

Both of those I can cancel.

Chef Vivian-Can we?

Ben-Not right now we're not going to cancel.

[Laughter] Ben-I mean if you guys have to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to get ready for the party on Monday and Tuesday... people haven't freaking worked for four months.

I don't care if they gotta work 15 hour days for that week.

They've been getting paid for four months.

They got four months of vacation.

Chef Vivian-If things go as planned we will be opening in about three weeks and my extended vacation, putting my children to bed, putting myself on the couch, and being at home every weekend will be over and fast.

I'm having quite a bit of anxiety about it and although I'm looking forward to the restaurant reopening, I'm really torn.

[Music playing] Chef Vivian-Pick the berry.

Pick the berry.

Come on, let's pick a berry.

She's eating the green top off of it.

Thank you.

Okay I gotta take the green part off of it.

Ooooooh haha.

What do you think Flo?

Oh, she's going to take it away from him.

Chef Vivian- One of the greatest things about moving back home and being here in the south is being able to come out to a strawberry farm like this and pick strawberries and I'm thrilled that they're just now being able to pick them and stuff them in their mouths.

Chef Vivian-There's a big fad in high end restaurants all over Europe right now serving green strawberries.

So what you would do is balance them against some of the sweet strawberries and serve them in a salad or pickle them and serve them with rich meats like duck or pork.

I'm not quite sure Lenoir County is ready for that but we'll see.

Chef Vivian-I know we're going to open in May and May in North Carolina is like a strawberry bonanza.

Now when you buy strawberries in the grocery store, they're huge and when you bite into them there's like a hole there.

What is that?

They're fiberous.

They aren't sweet and they're certainly not tender.

My strawberry farmer, Steve Putnam from Putnam Family Farms grows a strawberry called a Sweet Charlie and they're like pure sugar.

Chef Vivian-Steve, you're the expert, so can you show me what would be the perfect Sweet Charlie?

Steve-Traditionally, earlier in the year I like to have one that's a little bit riper.

But even in the middle to late part of the season, these berries tend to be sweet even when they have a little green on the end and I actually tend to prefer them at that point in time.

If they'll have a green tip similar to this berry, it seems like the little sour on the end with the tremendous sweet part gives it a great flavor, a great bite.

Chef Vivian-Wow, that's like a Chef talking.

I mean you got the balance of flavor in one berry.

Steve- It's got a little more... it's got a little firmer texture to it that way.

Chef Vivian-Uh huh.

I like that.

Steve-I do too.

Chef Vivian-I think something like this would be great in a green salad with some nuts and maybe some goat cheese where as these really sweet ones... that's dessert.

So, we go to the farmer's market, we get strawberries.

Do they go into the refrigerator?

Steve-How quickly you are going to eat them is the key there.

Refrigerator will stop the ripening process and so, a berry that continues to ripen at room temperature can get over ripe.

Chef Vivian-If I were going to make a jam or preserves, what type of strawberry would you recommend?

Steve-I would recommend some of the firmer berries.

We found that when you make those we this particular berry that the sugar content is so high that they're actually too sweet.

The folks that make jams and jellies out of these will back their sugar off at least a half.

But the texture is not there either.

If you're making a jam or a preserve you want some texture in it and so we will usually suggest that they use some of the other varieties.

Chef Vivian-I love working with you and using your produce and you always have it before anyone else and that's important for me.

Although, right now I don't have anyone to serve it to haha.

[Music plays] [Tools being used] Chef Vivian-Sorry, I thought that was tea.

Ben laughs Chef Vivian-I woke up this morning.

Well, actually I hardly slept.

I had anxiety all night long.

We've got 2 and a half weeks before we are supposed to open.

Our equipment is not here.

Our staff is all over the place and I'm feeling a lot of pressure.

Ben-We gotta get the construction guys outta here Monday or Tuesday next week and then we'll start setting up the kitchen.

Chef Vivian-Making sure all the new stuff is gonna work.

Making sure our staff still remembers how to work.

Ben-We got about two months worth of work to do in about 14 days or 15 days.

Have you ever had to put one in like this before?

Worker-Nope Ben-That doesn't make me feel good.

[Laughter] Ben-I had planned on working all weekend.

I don't think it would be a bad idea to get the baby-sitter in for a little bit.

Chef Vivian-I don't want to do that.

You know we had a babysitter Monday through Friday all week.

We had a babysitter over night last night and you see where that got us.

I'm not going to just totally stop seeing my children and I don't see the reason for you to work all weekend either.

It just makes you really grumpy.

Ben-Not all weekend.

It's gonna be a lot grumpier if it's more chaotic.

Chef Vivian-Awesome.

Don't ya'll wanna open a restaurant?

Sorry.

Music plays Chef Vivian-Running a seasonal kitchen, I'm always trying to think of how I can extend the growing season.

I feel like I really have to take advantage of the strawberry harvest.

So making preserves is something that we do a lot of in our restaurant but it's also something that housewives in the south have been doing for generations and generations and they're the true masters of it.

Today, we're going to make strawberry preserves with Annette Brothers, the mother of Warren, one of my favorite farmers.

Chef Vivian- So, Mrs. Brothers, can you tell me a little bit about this recipe?

Mrs. Brothers-This is my grandmother's recipe.

It was written down on the back of this old Joy of Cooking.

Chef Vivian-Oh wow, this is so neat.

Right here.

Four cups berries, five cups of sugar, start on low.

Berries need to be on the bottom so the sugar doesn't burn.

We're going to boil them 12 to 15 minutes and pour it into a platter over night.

And when I read that I thought, oh this will all take about 30 minutes.

Mrs. Brothers- Yeah, that's what I thought you were going to think when you saw it said cook them for 12 to 15 minutes.

Chef Vivian-And I started about nine o'clock last night and I was barely done by 11.

Mrs. Brothers-Haha yeah, it takes longer than you think.

Chef Vivian-It does have to go slow.

You have to really follow the directions.

Warren's always coming to the restaurant and I'll be doing something with some of his vegetables and he will come and look over my shoulder and say, uuhhh well now that's not the way Mama would do it.

Mrs. Brothers-Oh shoot.

[Laughter] Mrs. Brothers-I wouldn't believe anything from him.

Chef Vivian-So now I often ask him, what would your Mama do?

[Laughter] Mrs. Brothers- He doesn't know.

He doesn't stay around long enough to find out.

Chef Vivian-So, tell me about this.

Mrs. Brothers-This is the real wax paraffin that you melt and put on top of the jar when you leave them over night and put them in the jar.

Chef Vivian-So you bring it to a boil and let it boil for like 12 to 15 minutes and then it sits in this platter over night.

What does that accomplish?

Mrs. Brothers-It lets the berries soak up the juice.

See those berries plumped up after they cook.

Chef Vivian-Personally, I've made jams and I've never made jelly per say but this is, I think, way easier and it looks so much better than like a crushed down jam.

Mrs. Brothers-Why don't you just take the paraffin and put on it.

Chef Vivian-So it just seals it in?

Mrs. Brothers-It just seals it, yeah.

Chef Vivian-Well if that's all there is to it then let me just tell you that beats the hell outta pressure canning.

Mrs. Brothers-It really does, yeah.

[Laughter] Mrs. Brothers- So that's it.

Chef Vivian-Well almost anyone can do that.

[Laughter] Mrs. Brothers-That's right.

Chef Vivian-Thank you so much Mrs. Brothers.

Mrs. Brothers-You're quite welcome.

Glad to do it.

Ben-Smell that.

Chef Vivian-I mean, it's terrible.

Ben-It's terrible.

All my furniture really smells.

There's no way that he was running the ozone over there.

All of it really smells.

There is no cleaning it.

We've cleaned some tables five or six times and they just flat out wreak.

Chef Vivian-This whole time we've had the tables and chairs stored off site.

We moved them out the day after the fire.

We wiped them down.

We just assumed that they were fine and now that we start moving them in here they smell like smoke.

Ben-Sitting in there for five months.

If he had been ozoning it we wouldn't have this problem.

The fact of the matter is I don't think he ozoned it and all the molecules sat on this finish for five months.

Food is gonna smell.

Everything...

Chef Vivian-I feel as though the tables definitely have to be addressed.

Definitely, no doubt.

They smell terrible.

The chairs, I don't' smell anything.

Well, in my opinion I'd rather have to refinish the tables than the chairs.

Ben-We wouldn't be able to open next week if we had to refinish all these...

Chef Vivian-Yeah, so this is not the worst case scenario.

Ben-I'm sorry.

This whole situation that's happening today is as close as the worst case scenario to be right now, for us.

Keep that in mind.

We can probably go rent a couple of sanders.

Sand this out.

Twenty four tables will probably take a day.

To coat, you're going to need four or five coats of urethane and sanding.

Sanders going.

Chef Vivian-So what do you feel about possibly...

I mean pushing the opening date back?

Ben-Ummm I'd like to wait to see how much progress we make in the kitchen next week to decide that.

Chef Vivian-Okay, I just feel a lot of pressure.

I know I don't act like it.

[Laughter] Chef Vivian-I just feel like, you know, we're not going to have any of this equipment until it seems like, two days before we are going to open.

Two pieces of equipment I have never worked on.

Ben-Well I kind of would like to hold it as scheduled because if we don't start taking revenue days in then we are going to have a cash short fall so that's why I've been trying to push these jokers out of here because every day that they're in here and we can't do what we need to do....

Chef Vivian-I understand.

I understand.

I'm just saying that I feel pressure.

Ben-Yeah.

Yeah.

[Music plays] Chef Vivian- We reopen in May and there will be a ton of strawberries in the area and every year we do some kind of strawberry shortcake and every year I say, okay if we're going to serve strawberry shortcake it needs to be the best strawberry shortcake this person has ever tried.

And I don't think we've ever quite accomplished that so I've been using this time at home to try and develop a strawberry shortcake that represents the true aroma, taste, flavor of a strawberry.

Chef Vivian-Today we are at my house making the babies birthday cake.

I don't like to miss an opportunity to work on something for the restaurant so the babies birthday cake is actually gonna be something that we may use when we reopen.

I love the combination of strawberries and basil so we're making a coconut cornbread with basil whip cream and marinated strawberries.

I have my friend here, Cynthia Wong and she's a real life pastry chef.

She works in Atlanta at Empire State South.

I am not a pastry chef so to invite her in here to see all my little weaknesses in this area is making me feel a little naked.

Chef Vivian-Cynthia, what types of things do you do with strawberries?

Cynthia-I really like strawberry sorbet because you can really let the fruit shine and just do it's thing.

I just really do simple things with them.

Chef Vivian-So we're just gonna stir a little bit of this sugar in here and let it hang out.

Then we're gonna mix our cornbread but instead of using buttermilk or regular milk I'm gonna use coconut milk.

In here I have corn mill, obviously, a little flour, shredded coconut to give it some texture, some baking powder, and salt.

Cynthia, I think I'll let you explain why we are putting salt in a dessert.

Cynthia-Even though it's something sweet and it doesn't seem like it would need salt, salt really rounds out the flavor.

When you don't put it in sweet things they taste kind of flat.

Chef Vivian-That's a much better answer than I give my cooks.

I say, because I said so.

For the wet we have eggs and some vegetable oil.

We always use grapeseed.

Coconut milk, coconut extract, and some secretish ingredient, coco lopez.

Ummm do you ever use coco lopez?

Cynthia-I love coco lopez.

It's delicious.

Chef Vivian-Good, I was embarrassed actually that you were gonna see I was using it because it's ummm... Cynthia-I love it.

Chef Vivian-It gives everything that you are trying to make taste like coconut more coconut flavor than anything else.

Cynthia is going to add the wet to the dry and it's really as simple as that.

I am going to start our basil whipped cream.

In my pot I have heavy whipping cream and some basil leaves and basically I'm just going to bring that up to a really low simmer and then turn off the heat and let the basil steep in there so that this cream tastes like basil but it's not going to turn green or anything.

Once it steeps we will have to then cool down the cream.

So basically I'll strain it and then sit my bowl in an ice bath just to chill it down before we whip it.

So whenever you're making corn bread of any kind you wanna pre heat your pan in the oven so that it has less of a tendency to stick.

In the oven for about 15 minutes.

Cynthia and I have chilled the cream.

You can not whip the cream with it being warm, can you?

Cynthia-It will turn to butter.

Chef Vivian-Okay good, I didn't actually know that.

So, Cynthia will you put this in this mixer?

Cynthia-Sure Chef Vivian-This is really cool.

It's my grandmother's from the 70s.

You might wanna back up because this is serious stuff here.

[Blending] [Music plays] Chef Vivian-Now we're going to build our little cakes.

I'm going to have filling in here and stack another corn bread and have filling in there and then some whipped cream on top.

Cynthia-Awesome.

Chef Vivian-I think mine actually looks better than yours.

[Laughter] Chef Vivian-Alright well I take that back, what I said earlier.

Yours definitely looks a little better than mine.

We've got coconut cornbread shortcake with strawberries and basil whipped cream.

It's been pretty fun.

Cynthia-It was really fun.

Chef Vivian-And the birthday party will be more fun.

Cynthia-The babies are going to love it.

Chef Vivian-They will.

They will.

And if they don't, I'll eat it.

Cynthia-Yeah.

Laughter Ben-Woooooo Chef Vivian-There we go Ben-Look at him.

Laughter [People singing Happy Birthday] [People singing Happy Birthday] Chef Vivian-Blow it out.

Ben-Woooo [Cheering] Ben-He's scuba diving [Laughter] Chef Vivian-I think the babies loved the little strawberry shortcakes.

I mean, it was really the first cake that they had ever had.

I think I can tweak it slightly and have it as one of the opening desserts on our menu.

Maybe we finally gotten that awesome shortcake.

Time flies and I can not believe they are a year old and my time as a stay at home mom is over pretty much.

For more information on A Chef's Life visit PBS.org/food A Chef's Life is available on DVD.

To order visit PBS.org or call us at 1-800-PLAY-PBS