[announcer] Smyth County, Virginia, located in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, offering outdoor adventures and small-town charm.

Details online at visitsmythcountyva.com.

[uplifting music] [Chef Missy] I've learned a lot from getting married later in life.

Every minute is so precious, and we want to celebrate our love every day, but it's not always so easy when you work together.

Couples that work together definitely have a unique set of challenges.

Daily tasks woven with likes, dislikes, opinions, forming ideas, and finding solutions to move forward, all coated with our unique personalities.

But, like my husband says, personality traits matter.

If we were the same person, one of us would be unnecessary.

Recent studies discovered that cows each have their own unique personality.

Some are timid while others show natural leadership.

They dislike separation and form affectionate friendships.

And of course, they love eating together.

[♪♪♪♪♪] Hi, I'm Chef Missy, and I'm the French Magnolia, a true-blue southern gal with French ancestry running through my veins.

My husband, Thomas, is a wine expert and hospitality veteran.

Throughout our careers, we've worked for some incredible restaurants and hotels, from Atlanta to New York City to Charleston, South Carolina, to the edge of a mountain at a five-star Relais & Chateau.

But pretty soon, the French Magnolia, a luxury movable feast company, was born.

We pour into your home and set an elaborate stage for a multi-course culinary and wine experience.

We settled in Bristol, Virginia, a good place to live.

And when we're not working, we love connecting with local farms and Appalachian culture.

From farm, field, garden, and stream, to Chef and Somm, to the table, all in one day, this is the French Magnolia Cooks.

Today, I'm following the call of Appalachia into the quiet but luxurious Lebanon, Virginia, where I had the deep privilege of visiting with Dave and Cathy Cheek and their granddaughters at River Mountain Farms, where they raise Heirloom Piedmontese cattle on 200 acres of mountain property.

Hugged on two sides by the Clinch River, home to more than 400 rare plants and animals, this area has been declared "the most ecologically diverse region of Virginia" by the Nature Conservancy.

We also learn all about how to process beef from Double L Processing in Jonesville, Virginia.

And Thomas, once again, shares extraordinary world-class wines, ringing in our tenth wedding anniversary.

Dave, thank you so much for letting me be here and tread upon your land.

-Gosh, thank you for coming out.

And, you know, I really admire what you're doing, bringing so much knowledge and, also, you know, understanding the Southwest Virginia and what people are trying to do here, especially the local food scene.

That's something that, you know, it's easy for people to talk about but not do.

And it takes people willing to do to make a difference.

So, thank you.

-You're so welcome.

It's my pleasure.

It's my privilege.

Dave, how did you become a farmer?

-I've always had a love for land and love for trying to do what's right, whether it's with nature, with animals.

And so, Cathy and I had opportunity to buy River Mountain Farms, actually put it together from three different farms.

We did that.

-Dave, there's so many beautiful cattle ranches in Southwest Virginia.

What made you decide to focus on the Piedmontese cow?

-The main reason we did it is the characteristics of the beef, and the way the cow performs on grass.

One of the things here, if you finish on grass, we got good land, we got good grass, but it takes a lot of grass.

So, you need a breed that has that characteristic in it so they can create those dining experiences off the grasses on the types of soils that are common in Southwest Virginia.

-What I love about your Piedmontese beef is the flavor profile, the fat content, the protein content, the marbling, but yet it's still so lean.

-Hm-mm.

-Amazing!

-The cow itself, the pure cow, has a gene in it that makes the muscle fiber shorter.

It doesn't grow as long.

-I need to make sure that I understand this properly.

You plant rye and Canadian forage oats so that the cows will eat those plants, and it directly affects the flavor of the beef.

-Yes.

It will, it keeps a neutral flavor, and also allows us to graze well into the winter because one of the biggest cost items for a farmer, a cattle farmer, is hay.

-Okay, Cathy, educate me on how you decide what cow goes to market.

[Cathy Cheek] Okay.

It can be a steer or it can be a heifer.

[Chef Missy] A female cow is a heifer and a male cow is a steer?

-Well, a female cow is a heifer if she hasn't had a calf.

-Ah!

-And a male cow is a bull until he is castrated, and then he's a steer.

[Chef Missy] How old is the female cow or the steer when they go to harvest?

-Eighteen to 24 months.

-Okay.

Good.

I wanna go meet some cows.

[♪♪♪♪♪] It's the day of harvest for one of these cows.

We're here to tell the story that food does not come from the grocery store.

[♪♪♪♪♪] We are in Jonesville, Virginia.

[Frank Vixon] Jonesville, Virginia, Double L Meat Processing.

[Chef Missy] Double L Meat Processing.

We are in Southwest Virginia, but really, isn't this where Virginia begins?

-Yes, it is.

Here at Double L Meat Processing, if you're a chef and you want a certain product brought in, we're very chef friendly.

You can come in, tour the plant.

And we've even had people come in as we've done their product to be there, standing there, pointing things out, to have it cut a certain way, trimmed a certain way.

So when you receive it, you're very satisfied with the end result.

This is the beginning journey.

[♪♪♪♪♪] As you being a chef, this gives you the opportunity to request a seven-day aging process or a 14-day aging process.

This animal here has got a very nice fat cover, which means it was fed good.

So this animal is gonna age well.

[♪♪♪♪♪] -Tom and I have had the best couple of days, first at Dave Cheek's River Mountain Farms where we learned all about Piedmontese cow.

And then, Double L Processing where we learned all about how to process a cow.

It was a big deal, an amazing business.

Tonight, Tom and I are celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary.

Woo-hoo!

Ten years married.

It's a big deal.

Tom and I actually love to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries at home.

We love to cook together, and just be together in our house.

Tonight, we're gonna have filet mignon .

I'm gonna teach you how to make the best filet mignon ever.

We're going to have it with compound butter, the readymade French sauce in the refrigerator, and mushroom twice-baked potatoes.

The first thing you need to do is get four raw organic baking potatoes, and smear and smother them with organic extra virgin olive oil.

You might be wondering why I'm doing four, and that's because I like to cook once and eat twice.

Sprinkle with a little sea salt.

Just make sure the skin is good and smeared.

And get your potatoes in the oven on bake at 375 for 90 minutes, but check the potatoes at 60 minutes to make sure that they're not getting overdone.

Every oven is slightly different.

Some ovens cook very, very hot.

Okay, pop these in the oven.

I love compound butter for so many reasons.

One, it involves butter, and as everybody knows, I love butter, but it also creates a readymade French sauce in the refrigerator.

Mise en place , everything in its place.

I love an organized kitchen.

The first thing you'll need, three sticks of good, high quality, organic salted butter, one 16-ounce wheel of Brie cheese with the rind cut off, and two tablespoons of fig preserves, five to six cloves of garlic, four shallots, and at least one package of organic fresh thyme.

The first thing we wanna do is give our shallots a quick chop.

Give your garlic cloves a good smash.

This releases the oils, and the garlic is easy compared to those shallots.

I'm really looking forward to celebrating my anniversary with Tom tonight.

Go ahead and take a little bit of butter, add your garlic and your shallots, give it a nice generous pinch of salt, freshly cracked pepper.

You wanna sauté these shallots and garlic until the shallots turn brown.

Onions are very high in sugar and so, when you sauté them, the sugars release and become sweet, and that's really what we're going for.

This is how you work thyme.

Grab it at the top, not the tippy top, but almost to the top and just pull it down like that.

And then, you can just pinch off the very top because it's nice and soft, and then toss your stem.

Easy peasy.

One easy thing to do that will keep you from over-chopping your thyme and turning it brown is take your fingers and put it at the end of your knife like this, and just kind of rock back and forth over your fresh herbs.

These shallots look gorgeous.

This is exactly how I want them to look.

Nice and toasty, caramelized, mm, sweet and delicious.

I'm gonna get these shallots into a vessel and get them into the refrigerator while I build the compound butter.

Get your three sticks of organic high-quality salted butter, then add 16 ounces of soft Brie, and I cut the rind off.

Then two tablespoons of fig preserves, and then our fresh thyme.

Okay, the perfect kitchen tool, clean hands.

Just smash and mash it all together, and your clean hands give you an opportunity to really smush and smash the brie and butter together.

The garlic and the shallots are now very cool, perfect to add into the compound butter.

I'm gonna come back with a big metal spoon and really work the caramelized shallots and garlic into the butter.

Get a nice generous piece of Saran wrap.

Put your compound butter at the end closest to you.

Just shape the butter into a nice long log.

It does not have to be perfect.

I'm gonna show you in a minute how the Saran wrap will help create the log shape.

Take the Saran wrap and just fold it over.

And then, once it's folded over, and drag it towards you and roll it.

Now I'm pulling pretty hard on these ends, keeping them nice and tight.

Keep pinching, pulling, rolling.

And then, at the end, you can just kind of roll it back and forth.

There, I think this looks absolutely gorgeous.

And this is the diameter that I like.

Then you can go back with your fingers and kind of pull it so that you don't get a crevice at the end.

Gorgeous!

Woo!

Now a lot of people think that twice-baked potatoes are very common or old fashioned, not fancy enough.

But, like I always say, the ingredients are what make something fancy.

And we're gonna start with, you guessed it, butter.

This is about one quart of chopped mushroom caps.

Now, this looks like a lot of mushrooms, but remember, the mushrooms cook down and get super tiny.

Add three to four minced shallots, and five to six minced garlic cloves.

Hot mitt, needed.

Sharp knife, needed.

You're going to just work across the top with a towel.

Just work your way around the outside of the potato, and gently scoop out the potato.

Add a cup and a half of full fat sour cream.

Two heaping tablespoons of fresh horseradish.

Alright.

Let's add these mushrooms.

I love how the twice-baked potato becomes so elegant when you add elegant ingredients.

Just squeeze it in.

I love this salty Pecorino.

[door creaks open] Hi.

-[Thomas] Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

Look what I brought.

-Oooh!

-Isn't that cool?

-Wow.

-You like a little Rosé, right?

-Yeah.

Hello.

-Hello.

I also brought our wedding glasses.

[Chef Missy] [gasps] Oh.

[gasps] This is what we drank out of at our wedding.

[Thomas] It was.

Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Happy tenth anniversary.

-Happy tenth anniversary, baby.

-Veuve Clicquot.

-Okay.

-Okay.

First of all, this house started in 1772, all right?

Says right there, okay.

1772 by Philippe Clicquot.

Then 26 years later, his son married a lady, his son's name was François.

He married a lady named Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin.

Then, seven years later, François dies.

So at 26 years old, she's now a widow.

In French, "widow" is "veuve."

So, the Widow Clicquot, right?

Veuve Clicquot.

And there's her picture on top of the cork.

That's what she looked like.

-[Chef Missy] Wow!

-On the back, it has her full name, Widow Clicquot Ponsardin.

First of all, at 26 years old, a widow in 1805, she says, "No.

I'm gonna be the boss.

I'm gonna take care of this vineyard and winery, and I wanna make some great champagne."

-Thank goodness.

-Right.

Five years later, she created the very first single vintage champagne.

The 1810 was the first champagne with a date on it, which is a vintage.

Today, only about four percent of champagne is a vintage.

And then, eight years later, in 1818, she created the first Rosé from red wine.

Before that, they were using elderberry to make Rosé.

In the process of that, she created what is we call the riddling table.

The method that people use today to create champagne is created by her.

-Wow, that is such a cool story.

[Thomas] The yellow label, okay, she created that color, which they still use today, kinda like Tiffany's created that blue, right?

She created this yellow, right?

So, it's about 50 percent Pinot Noir, 30 percent or so depending on the year, Chardonnay, and then the rest will be Pinot Meunier, which is a blending grape.

-She's really elegant and kind looking.

-She is.

-And obviously very smart.

-Sophisticated.

Yep.

And sophisticated.

-And sophisticated.

Yay, leave it to a woman to make champagne.

-Elegance.

Here's to elegance.

-To elegance.

The mushroom twice-baked potatoes are done and they're ready to be put back into the oven and cooked the second time, this time at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Okay, Piedmontese beef, but even better, the filet mignon .

Start with an excellent quality meat and then, just don't mess it up.

Dave Cheek actually gives his Piedmontese cows special vitamins and minerals in their water, especially the weeks leading up to harvest.

Okay, number two, the steaks need to air dry in the refrigerator, wrapped in paper towels to drain off as much of the liquid and blood as possible.

Number three, secret, do not salt your meat until about 30 minutes before you're gonna cook it.

You wanna drain off the blood but you don't want to dehydrate it.

Okay, secret number four, trim your steaks.

Quality equals flavor.

The last and most important secret, you have to make sure that you let your steaks come to room temperature.

If you pull your steaks from the refrigerator an hour before your event, it's going to feel room temperature on the outside, but it's still going to be very cold at the center, and it's going to be very difficult to cook evenly.

So these steaks have been sitting out at room temperature almost all day, and that's the way you want it.

Take a really small amount of organic extra virgin olive oil, one wet hand, one dry hand.

This beautiful rub that I put together, it's sea salt and dehydrated garlic, lemon peel, mustard seed, chili pepper, paprika, and the Wild Porcini Mushroom Powder.

Look how beautiful this compound butter is.

Look at that.

It just makes such a beautiful present as well.

Whew, the gift of butter.

I am looking for blood to start popping up on this side of the steak.

Oh, that is beautiful.

And don't be afraid of a little char.

I am going to just feel the sides of the steak.

These are almost done.

The steaks continue to cook in the resting process.

That is very, very important.

This is done.

Beautiful!

Number three.

I can't wait to see what you've done in the dining room.

I know it's special.

That is a perfect anniversary dinner.

-It sure is.

-[both laugh] [♪♪♪♪♪] -Wow.

-[Thomas] Come on in.

-Wow.

Heavenly father, we come before You in the name of Jesus, Lord.

And Father, we just praise Your name.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [Thomas] That's really good.

It is a world-class Bordeaux from Margaux in Bordeaux.

It's a Grand Cru Classé wine, and the Grand Cru Classé started in 1855.

They created a classification system of Growths, which are five tiers.

Chateau Margaux is one of the five First Growths, and Chateau Margaux is in a location, an Appellation, which is a wine growing region called Margaux.

And lots have happened in changing hands of ownership over the years, and even recently into a new corporate situation where they've really sunk a lot of money into this particular château, which dates back to the 10th century.

So, this is a great way to have a fantastic wine without the First Growth price.

It's a lot of history, and you can taste that in the wine.

[♪♪♪♪♪] That's the way you eat a baked potato.

-It's the quality of the products that make it elegant.

-It's amazing.

So great.

You know, there's food for fuel, right?

Grabbing a bite to eat, right?

To get to the next thing in our lives.

But then, slowing down... to dine... for a meaningful meal... makes food an art form.

There's a particular way of putting it all together so that it's elegant and makes sense.

And that takes skill.

This steak, this potato, this meal with this wine, it brings it home... to us.

-[Chef Missy] Yay Yod.

-[Thomas] Yay Yod.

[Chef Missy] Whether it's a grassy knoll on the slope of a mountain or gathering around the stove, there's meaning in meals.

It's important to slow down and make time to celebrate our unique personalities because it's our differences that make us stronger together.

No matter where it's shared, a meal heals and bonds.

A meaningful meal forgives the past, shares the desires of hearts, discover solutions, seeks possibilities, and builds a legacy.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [announcer] Smyth County, Virginia, offering a business friendly environment, with partnerships like Smyth Strong, fostering entrepreneurship and growth.

Details at smythcounty economicdevelopment.com.

[♪♪♪♪♪]