- Welcome to Atlanta, where the city's diversity is celebrated through its unique culinary landscape.

Today our talented SCAD students will join host John Gidding to visit award-winning chef Steven Satterfield at his restaurant Miller Union, where they'll get a fresh look at his root to leaf approach to plant forward cuisine.

After gathering ingredients at a local market, everyone will chop it up in the SCAD kitchen to create an easy to make sustainable meal from the first bite to the last.

We're discovering the soul of the city one dish at a time.

This is chef a TL.

- So John, we are so happy that you're here and joining us for chef a TL.

It really means a lot to us.

- I'm so - Glad to be here.

- Honestly, Atlanta's one of my favorite towns.

So we're going to Miller Union today and we're gonna talk to Chef Steven Satterfield.

Have you heard of him?

Of course, - Yeah.

James Beard winner.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Fantastic.

- Yes, I read that vegetables were his muse - And as a vegetarian, I love to hear it, - Huh?

Yeah.

Are you all vegetarians?

- No, but I used to be a picky eater, so I'm really exploring the whole vegetable root.

So I'm excited to try.

- I was a very picky eater growing up.

My palate was really sensitive.

There were certain things that spoke to me that really resonated.

One of them was my grandmother's cooking.

She was just a master at simplicity, but everything was always perfect.

I call it the Midas touch.

There's certain people that just have a, a def hand with food and everything they make tastes great.

Hey, come on in y'all.

Hi.

Welcome to Miller Union.

- Thank you.

So - Happy.

Let me take you back.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Good to be here.

All right guys.

- Awesome.

Looks amazing.

Thank you.

These - Colors, - I'm in love.

Yes.

- Y'all can start serving yourselves with these two and, and I'll, I'll portion this out 'cause it's easy for me to do.

- Guys, I'm so glad you invited me.

- Yes, yes.

- This is why we invited you.

- The colors are exploding off the plate and it totally speaks to fall.

- Yes, it definitely says that - We're right.

The oranges and the yellows.

It's beautiful.

Is this color coming from the squash or the saffron?

- It's a, it is a little bit of both.

So it's, it's a bit of the pumpkin seed and because it has an orange color, but also because of the turmeric that's in there too.

- Hmm.

- Okay.

We're just gonna keep going around the Yes.

Nobody has one real plate.

Right, right.

It's, we're all just sort of sharing as - We go.

It's like Thanksgiving.

- Majority of the ingredients are, are locally sourced.

So it's fun to play with the provenance of the flavors.

- Ugh.

It smells so good.

- Yeah.

It look amazing - And fresh.

Like the freshness is part of the smell.

- Absolutely.

- And this is all a part of the experience.

Like we haven't even tried it yet, but already you described the ingredients.

It's amazing.

Already smelling it.

Its amazing.

They already taste it.

- Yeah, exactly.

- And our, our servers are really knowledgeable about the food, so they can always describe things.

They can answer questions.

'cause we, we do a lot of training about, you know, the ingredients are a big part of, of what we do.

- Yeah.

You know, I was noticing them talking to some of the customers.

It seems like they know everything about the dish.

Yes.

From where each ingredient is, from how they've been cooked.

Is that part of the experience here?

- A hundred percent.

At the beginning we'll tell them some of the highlights of the menu.

And if they seem like they want to learn more, then we're gonna give 'em all the information they want.

- Well, yes, us as students, we could definitely learn a lot here.

- Yes.

A lot of what you were saying about where you find these ingredients, like you said, that these are local and I'm thinking to myself, well these look really fancy, but they're all local.

So I, I just felt like I was contradicting myself as to, you know, fancy stuff has to be from far away.

- Atlanta is a, has a, a wonderful growing scene.

There's tons of farmers here.

Farmers markets are very thriving and almost anything grows here, you know, because it's just like you look around, it's just, we're surrounded by green, so it's a very fertile place.

We're a city in the forest, but there's plenty of land to grow on and there's lots of people doing some great stuff and growing beautiful vegetables.

- Hold the presses because I think I've just fallen in love with this dish.

I - Know.

Isn't it incredible?

- It's so flavorful.

Is it a bean salad?

Peanut salad?

Bean and peanut, yeah.

Peas.

Peas and peanuts.

I can see why it's become an - Institution and you know, peanuts are a legume.

So I, to me it's a, it's a legume salad.

A legume is just like all these different types of vegetables that are grown in a pod, like green beans, peas, pento beans, chickpeas, all those things are in the same family.

I like that.

These are both like southern ingredients.

Georgia's the largest producer of peanuts in the, in the states.

Oh wow.

So we have a lot of peanut farmers in Georgia and we get, we get fresh locally dogged peanuts in the late summer.

- And these peanuts are kind of soft.

Are they boiled, did you say?

- No, it's a southern delicacy.

Oh.

Have you never had boiled peanuts?

I don't think I - Have.

Fuck.

You've never, you've never seen like driving and you see like the boiled peanuts.

- Yes.

- Wow.

- Is this a thing that you guys eat frequently?

- Yes.

Really?

This is like so nostalgic too.

'cause I would always see like the oil peanut stand like driving.

Yes.

- You pull ever on the side of the road and get 'em, they serve 'em hot in a bag.

So it's a, it's a very, it's a iconic southern - Yeah.

- Flavor profile.

And that's why it's, that's why this dish is such a hit with, I can see why my customers, because it triggers a, like something on your pallet.

And also who doesn't love the fuel piece?

I mean all the different varieties are so good.

It's one of my favorite things from, and they still carry on into the fall.

We're still getting locally sourced lady peas and crowder peas and zippers and pink ice.

There's all kinds of different varieties.

Yeah.

- So this dish over here with the chicken, you said Pharaoh and can you explain to me what that is?

- Pharaoh is an ancient grain.

Okay.

And essentially it's been around for thousands of years.

It's having a moment right now.

- Okay.

- Because everyone really loves how easy it is to cook.

It has a, a wonderful nutty flavor.

- Okay.

- And it just, to me, it goes really well with all ingredients.

But there's all different ways you can, you know, kind of judge it up.

- You said it's easy to cook.

How do we go about cooking this?

Is it kind of similar to rice?

- Somewhat.

I mean, it's a, it's a whole grain and rice, rice is too, but maybe it's, maybe it's the same as cooking brown rice.

Okay.

And I do it on the stove top, but I think there are other ways you can do it.

I've actually done like a, you know, like what risotto is.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes.

I've done a Otto before where you That's cool.

Cook it in the style of risotto.

Or you could probably do it in a rice cooker.

I don't own one, but I'm sure you could.

Us being college students, we definitely have rice cookers.

- Do you guys cook in your dorm rooms?

- Try Yeah.

Attempt.

Not anything like this.

- No.

So I think right now my whole thing is me as a student, I try to be very habitual about, you know, going to class, going to the gym and meal prepping.

But you know, of course that takes up a lot of time.

And being within our dorm rooms, like there's only so much that we can have.

Like we might have a rice cooker, we might have a mini fridge.

And we're never in a position where we can have all of the ingredients we want and more so the fresh ingredients that we want, which is hard.

- Well, and some of these dishes are more complicated than others, but like the faroh for instance, you could easily recreate it at home in your dorm room.

It's simple ingredients, but the marriage of them together creates a harmony that's, and it's not that hard to, to make a lot of the markets are open on Saturdays and I already did all the shopping for the restaurant.

But on Sunday there is one in Grant Park that you can go to.

So I would recommend that you go hit that one up tomorrow morning and look for some of these ingredients and, and then we can meet back at at school and we can do a little demo.

- That's perfect.

That'd be incredible.

- Well now that we've tried all four dishes and chef is gonna join us tomorrow, which one should we try to recreate?

- When I travel to other cities, I always try to find a local market to go to, whether it's in Europe or or somewhere else in the States or Mexico or whatever.

You always get a really great sense of the neighborhood, the community, the different foods that grow in different areas.

It's fascinating to me.

Hmm.

And and you just get a great snapshot of of a place, A sense of place.

Yeah.

When you go to our markets, so what I recommend to first time market shoppers is to first get there as early as you can because some things may sell out and there may be some lines.

But the first thing I do if I were new to a market is just do a survey of the whole thing.

So walk around, look at all the different farm stands, make some mental notes about like the location and what they had.

You can even take pictures.

Chances are the person selling to you is the farmer or somebody that works on the farm.

You can ask questions, you can see what they're doing and, and you know, I mean they might be busy, but they're always proud to talk about what they do.

- So you eat the, the bowl part of the plant and then you can treat the, the leaves like a collar.

- What are the issues that I have with big buck supermarkets is that this food has often traveled a very long way and has been away from its life source for a long time.

Sometimes weeks.

And it's unfortunate because when you go to a, a local farmer's market, they usually harvest the day before or that very same day.

When you taste local organic produce, it tastes different than what you can get that's been shipped across the country.

The quality just changes.

It's also a gift to the guests because we have these special goodies that they're gonna make the food, the dishes shine.

Hmm.

And when you start with great ingredients, sometimes you don't have to do very much to them.

- You've mentioned a couple vegetables already, so I'm just gonna take a quick aside and do a quick fire.

Okay.

Question here.

Arugula or romaine?

- Arugula.

I, it's, it's like one of my favorite things.

I love the peppers but I'm not gonna discriminate against.

- Okay.

- I like the crunch.

Okay.

Sweet potatoes are regular for french fries.

I mean, I should say sweet potatoes 'cause it's a little healthier, but I love a good french fry.

So do I can't help it collards or kale as a southern boy, I should say collards.

But I like, I like kale better.

You can't help it.

There was a lot of things that I, I didn't like and most of them were vegetables.

Funny enough there, I have two theories about it and my mom's gonna kill me if she watches one of them is that she was the best preparer of vegetables, but I think it was also a sign of a time.

She was also a working mother, so she would come home and didn't have much time to pull things together.

My, my grandmother had a lot more free time on her hands and loved cooking for us.

But after I finished school in, in, in Atlanta, my final year was studying abroad in Paris.

And I think that's where a lot of things clicked for me about food.

I lived in an apartment alone in the first RD small and right in the center of the city.

And I cooked for myself a lot because I didn't have the money to go out to eat.

I was a poor college student.

So I also was vegetarian at the time, partially because of financial reasons.

And I found myself going to the, the market streets, you know, the one in my neighborhood to, to buy fresh produce, to get a little cheese and a little bread and maybe a little wine and, and just like throw something together at home.

And I really started to notice that within those vegetable markets that there was seasonality and you know, we grew up with that a little bit with my grandmother, but ultimately in, in the states there's, there's sort of like this, you can have anything you want anytime you want it attitude and the, and the food system follows that, that desire.

And I think that's when my light bulb click that there, that there really is true seasonality to the world of produce and if you follow it, it can guide you in, in a really divine way.

- It makes so much sense to me that this realization came to you in Europe where - Yeah, - There's a much stronger connection to the local farmer community farm are smaller in fact there and - Yes, but I also think that we've turned a corner here in the states where there's a lot.

Okay.

In Atlanta, when I started cooking professionally there was one farmer's market and there were maybe five local organic farms.

And now we have probably 12 or 13 markets in the metro Atlanta area.

They're all local growers and not just produce but pasture raised poultry and handmade cheese and locally amazing sourced grains and, and all kinds of things.

And so there is a demand for that that didn't use to exist.

- You can feel the energy too.

Definitely in ways you can't be too nostalgic at what's been left behind because you're looking forward.

- So many of the things that are are mantras or our mission statement from the very beginning are still in place.

We, we compost any food scraps that can't be consumed and that includes post-consumer diner scraps and we recycle and we use every part of the plant, which is something I write about and in my books.

- Are all vegetables effectively edible entirely from what we see or by and large?

Most of them, - Yes.

I mean like there's a lot of parts and pieces of vegetables that get tossed into the compost bin that I would first make a recipe with.

Yeah.

And then maybe tossed a different part.

- Of course the compost is something else that in my profession I'm also pushing, you know, as a landscape designer there's this strange intersection between what I do and being an eco-conscious, sustainable focused homeowner.

And it turns out you actually have a lot of power from the perspective of someone with a little bit of land to work with.

If you compost your waste, you can put that into your property instead of buying store-bought fertilizers.

- Yeah.

And - Herbicides, et cetera.

So the impact is almost immediate to your local community.

But it turns out we do have power in our hands and one of those things is in deciding how we nourish ourselves.

- It's a universal experience that anybody can participate in and it doesn't matter what your socioeconomic classes, it is available to, to all.

And I think that's one of the things that's important about food.

It should be a right, not a privilege.

- We should talk about your style of cooking.

- It's funny, I had my first sheep cuisine used to call it fussy rustic.

And I, I think that's almost like a great way to put it because the food is, is rustic and simple, but I have a very strong point of view.

And so it's really based on reacting to the farmer's harvest but also carrying a responsibility to, to the environment and to the ecology of, of Atlanta.

- Would you agree that, you know, part of the excitement of Atlanta is there's a lot of commotion and movement and direction here that the vectors of people's interests express themselves in creativity and cuisine.

So maybe you found an environment that welcomed the kinds of explorations that you were about to make.

I - I love the the saying Atlanta influences everything.

It's, it's a place where I feel like there's a lot of room for creativity and exploration.

There was a time in the nineties where a lot of my friends were moving to New York or LA to like find the next level of achievement and I was like, what about this place?

Like it needs more creative people, it needs more inspiration and I, I'm, I'm super proud of where Atlanta is today.

You know, it's funny, I think about Miller Union, I wanted to explore seasonality and really create in my mind what could be called like a green or sustainable restaurant.

I mean vegetables are living and they have a, they have a life force, you know, they're connected to the earth once they're harvested, they're still carrying that life force for a little while.

And that's what brings us so much nutrition and and energy.

When you eat them, the longer they are away from their source, their life force starts to dwindle.

- I feel like you've just given us like the crucial diamond nugget of what it is that you do.

You let the vegetables guide you and the closer they are to their life source, by the time they arrive at your kitchen table, the more you're gonna get out of it.

- Yeah.

- Nutritionally your environment's going to benefit.

The benefits just accrue to you.

The closer you can get to the moment that that vegetable is taken outta the ground, - The more we can get in tune with the earth's rhythms and cycles and the things that it can produce for us.

If we can just coexist peacefully with it and I mean that on every level, then we could really make some positive change.

Okay guys, we're gonna make a really simple fall dish that any one of you could make at home, but we're gonna use it a couple of ingredients that maybe you wouldn't think to put together.

It's just what came outta my mind.

And, and then I want you to take this idea and like you can interchange ingredients.

It doesn't always have to be this prescriptive.

So in the pan we're gonna put the, we rosemary the onion and we'll let that go for a little bit first.

Then we're gonna add the turnip, which doesn't take long to cook.

And because the pear is medium ripe, we're gonna put that in a little bit later.

We're also gonna have some kale and if the turnips had had the tops on them, we would've used those.

Okay, this is looking nice.

Our butter's nice and brown so I'm gonna go ahead and add some onion.

Oh wow.

Yeah, sizzle.

And every time something goes in the pan, I season it.

There's two reasons.

One is 'cause you want to get that flavor in there and have it just permeate through as it cooks, it also pulls the water out.

So it's gonna stop that browning process when there's water in the pan.

It won't brown any longer, it's gonna start steaming.

So I basically stop the butter from browning by putting salt in there.

- So season the moment you put it into the pan, - Every time I put something in I add a little bit of salt.

So now I'm gonna add some of this rosemary, we're gonna kind of like fry it up in the butter there.

- How long do you usually let the onions sit in all of this?

- So onions, the general rule is you want just cook them until they start to go translucent and that means that they're no longer crisp.

Oh, if you were to put acid in the pan right now, they'll never soften.

So I, I am gonna use some lemon at the end, but I'll do it at the very end because I want these to get tender first.

Acid stops the cooking process and kind of seizes it up.

- Okay, well I I've definitely done that before so I won't do that again.

In regards to the Pharaoh instead of a stove, because I don't have a stove in my dorm, would I be able to use a rice cooker?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Is it alternative?

Absolutely it could.

It's a grain.

You could just set it, probably set it for like the brown rice setting.

I'm gonna go ahead and add, I'm actually gonna add the kale next because it's gonna take a little bit longer to wilt.

And again, I am also gonna add a little bit of water and this is gonna steam the bottom of the pan.

You hear that?

Yeah.

Right.

And it's going to just allow the kale to break down.

This is kale is a really hardy green and it has a lot of structure and fiber in it.

So it takes a while to break down and having some liquid in the pan just helps it steam a little bit at the bottom.

Right now that the kale is starting to wilt, the next thing that we'll go in is the turnip and the pears.

And we'll just cook them just a little bit.

You know you already tried this, the texture is exactly, it's got a nice sweet, soft texture to it.

But it will even get sweeter and softer.

But we can cook it too far and we don't want to so we're gonna make sure we do it just right 'em out.

- That seems to be the thing with vegetables, although I guess all - Things you don't wanna overcook them.

So I think texture is everything and I think about it a lot.

We have long conversations about it in the restaurant amongst the team and like when we do this dish at the restaurant, we actually pre roasts the pear.

We pre roasts the turnip so that we stop it at the cooking stage we want and then we just warm it through when we're making this dish and we're not waiting for all these steps to happen.

It just makes things faster and it's more controlled so when they get really busy they can't really mess it up.

Right, right.

So this looks good - And - We're gonna - Pop these turnips in next.

Is butter always gonna be like that key base or can you use like olive oil - Or?

I use olive oil all the time.

Okay.

This is just a dish that I think tastes better with butter.

We use extra virgin olive oil, we use canola oil.

So there's a - Lot of alternatives that you can use other than butter.

Yes, - Definitely.

Can I just put the pear in again?

Season it right away just a little bit.

So now I'm gonna go ahead and add the farro so that it can warm through.

- And you wanna add that in when it's like completely done?

- Yeah, basically.

I just wanna make sure it's hot, it's already fully cooked.

- Okay.

- If this were a different season, would would you make a similar dish just with a slight adjustment of produce?

- Sure, yeah, absolutely.

This could be the base of something and you can change it up.

You can use different pat, different vegetables, fruit, no fruit, doesn't matter.

- Whatever you see.

- Alright, so I mentioned earlier the purple top turnip puree that we make.

It's real simple, it's just onions, turnips, butter, a tiny bit of cream.

We blend it into this really velvety sauce.

This is how we serve the dish in the restaurant.

We do a little bit of this at the bottom.

Then we're gonna take, and then I'm gonna give the rest of this here.

So we have the turnips, the pears, kale, rosemary, brown, butter.

So already that bit a lemon for lift full.

Yes.

This is a very ottum dish.

All right, so we're gonna dig in.

I'm gonna go first 'cause I just wanna make sure.

Okay.

- Make sure it's not poisonous.

- Yeah, I mean a royal taster.

I think you're gonna like this.

Yeah.

Okay, let's get a shot.

Okay.

The rosemary comes through while you're chewing and wow you get like a little burst of the sweetness from the pear or the, - Did you get something new?

Every single, - Every - Single bite.

- Not too crunchy or too mushy.

Why don't we cook with pears more often?

One of my favorite fall combinations is the turnip and the pear.

'cause the turnip can be kind of earthy and a little, just like very savory.

It's something about the simplicity of this, but the layering it, it's like the sum is greater than the parts.

And that's, to me like that's some of my favorite recipes is when you can bring something together really simply, but somehow the way it marries is is just like it S sinks.

Wow.

Well Steven, thank you so much.

- Really from the bottom of my heart, you've given so much of your time.

So much, it was great.

And you've literally fed us over and over again and I can't thank you - Enough.

Awesome.

Yes, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

It's, it's a pleasure to cook with you all and I hope you take it home with you.

Yes, - Absolutely.

- Absolutely.

- Will do.

- I'm working on chef a TO and what it means to me is it's very important that we're highlighting sustainability, our food here, the rich food culture in Atlanta.

- I'm super proud of the whole team and it just made my life in that much more amazing, and I'm so thankful for everyone involved.

- The whole concept of the show has heart and intent and purpose.

So it's really purpose driven, professionally run, and just a super exciting project to be a part of.

- Thank you, Steven.

Thank.