Episode 70: Cooking Authentically with Jennifer Cole

Update: 2023-03-15

Description

About this Episode:

In this podcast episode, I interview Jennifer Cole, a successful chef who has won the competition show “Chopped” and has been cooking professionally for over 25 years. We discuss her career path, including working in Atlanta, New Orleans, Paris, and Spain before returning to her family farm in Haywood County. Cole emphasizes her interest in working with local farmers and using locally sourced ingredients in her cooking. The conversation also touches on topics such as the importance of creativity and understanding recipe rules as a chef, favorite ingredients like olive oil and heirloom beans, and the growing trend of farm weddings.

Connect with Jennifer Cole:

Transcript:

00:00 : 27–00:01 : 01 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Hello. This is Joseph Franklyn McElroy here with the Gateway to the Smokies podcast. I have with me today my guest Jennifer Cole, who is a native of western North Carolina. And her family has actually been in Haywood County for generations. And she’s had a successful career as a chef for over 20 years, including winning chopped on in season 8. Hello, Jennifer, how are you doing?

00:01:01 –00:01 : 02 Jennifer Cole: Good, how are you?

00:01:02 –00:01 : 03 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Yeah, cool.

00:01:04 –00:01 : 05 Jennifer Cole: Good to be here.

00:01:05 –00:01 : 11 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: How was that how was that? Was that exciting to win the season? Was it a difficult challenge?

00:01:11 –00:01 : 20 Jennifer Cole: Well, you know, it was a lot of fun. I think a lot of people didn’t really expect an old gal to be able to win it.

00:01:20 –00:01 : 21 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Yeah.

00:01:21 –00:01 : 23 Jennifer Cole: Yeah, So it was a lot of fun.

00:01:24 –00:01 : 25 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: And what did you cook?

00:01:25 –00:01 : 28 Jennifer Cole: Oh, God, it was a lot of stuff. Three different courses.

00:01:29 –00:01 : 31 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Really? They give you the ingredients, say, make it.

00:01:31 –00:01 : 40 Jennifer Cole: In a basket. It’s actually one of the few TV shows. It’s real. They actually give you a basket, and you don’t know until you open it.

00:01:41 –00:01 : 44 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Really? Wow. And then you have to figure out so can create and be able to fly. So creativity is very big.

00:01:44 –00:01 : 45 Jennifer Cole: Very important.

00:01:47 –00:02 : 13 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Well, when you reach out to us after moving here, I sort of gave you the challenge in a spot to come up with a guest chef menu here at the Homecraft at the Meadowlark Motel. And you did a really fantastic job. We had a lot of people show up. What were the three dishes were a moose.

00:02:13 –00:02 : 40 Jennifer Cole: I did a Mexican chocolate mousse is the dessert. For the appetizer, I did roasted beefs with field greens that I picked on my farm. That was with local trap that I cured overnight. And then for the entree, I did a red one braised local beef cheeks with goat cheese Ballinta. I mean, goat cheese risotto.

00:02:41 –00:02 : 53 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Wow. Yeah. That was really fantastic. That was good. Well, you said you’ve been cooking as a professional for 30 years. For 20. What was your first cooking job?

00:02:53 –00:03 : 18 Jennifer Cole: Well, I put myself through college waiting tables and cooking. I was waiting tables, and they were short of line cooks, and they’re like they asked for a volunteer among the wait staff. And so I was like, I’ll go home. So started doing that. Also worked for a catering company in Chapel Hill. The Chapel Hill Catering Company, which still exists. And that’s how I got started.

00:03:18 –00:03 : 27 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Yeah. And then did you experiment with other careers for a little while or anything, or did you just go straight into cooking as a career?

00:03:28 –00:03 : 45 Jennifer Cole: Well, studying political science at Chapel Hill to go into law, and then decided the decided, there’s a lot of lawyers out there. I want to do this. I like the instant gratification of seeing people’s face light up when you let them try something new.

00:03:45 –00:03 : 46 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Right. Yeah.

00:03:46 –00:03 : 57 Jennifer Cole: So went to Atlanta and did an 18 month apprenticeship with a very well known at the time chef in Atlanta and started there.

00:03:57 –00:04 : 12 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Cool. And what do you think is more important in being a chef? Is it understanding the science and the rules of recipes or creativity?

00:04:12 –00:04 : 20 Jennifer Cole: Well, science and rules usually go more toward pastry or baking. You have to understand the rules so you can bend them.

00:04:20 –00:04:21 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Right.

00:04:21 –00:04 : 26 Jennifer Cole: And you have to be able to be creative to bend them. So a little bit of both.

00:04:26 –00:04:45 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Cool. All right. I took one class, I think, in New York City. Was it Culinary Institute? And I think there was a question at one point said, what’s your favorite ingredient? What’s the best ingredient? Baking or butter?

00:04:47 –00:04 : 48 Jennifer Cole: Well, I think olive oil.

00:04:48 –00:04:52 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Olive oil, okay. There you go. Good. Olive oil.

00:04:52 –00:05:02 Jennifer Cole: I mean, I was in Spain for twelve years and that was beaten into my head. Butter is France, olive oil is Spain and southern Italy.

00:05 :02- -00:05:05 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Okay. And it’s better for you.

00:05:05 –00:05:07 Jennifer Cole: Yeah, I mean, butter’s a lot of fun.

00:05 :07- -00:05:17 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Yeah, butters is a lot of fun. Yeah. Especially on biscuits. So you’ve lived in, you were here, you were in Atlanta, right?

00:05:18 –00:05:40 Jennifer Cole: I cooked in Atlanta for five years, and then I moved to New Orleans for a couple of years, and then I moved to Spain for twelve. I was in Paris for two, and then moved to New York when the economy tanked in 2008.

And then moved back to New Orleans in 2015 and have just moved home to my family farm.

00:05 :40- -00:05:44 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: That’s fabulous. Of all those places, where did you have the most fun cooking?

00:05:44 –00:05:49 Jennifer Cole: I have fun cooking wherever I go. I mean, you got to have fun.

00:05:50 -00:05:56 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Yeah. Well, it sounds like Madrid was the biggest experience, so that must have been very formative.

00:05:57 –00:06:07 Jennifer Cole: Spain was very formative, and Spanish cuisine is amazing and diverse and regional. And you can find something new every day. But you can do that up here too.

00:06:08 -00:06:15 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Of course. Both New Orleans and New York City are food towns. Right.

00:06:15 –00:06:19 Jennifer Cole: Frankly, in my opinion, new Orleans beats New York.

00:06:19 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Really?

00:06:19 –00:06:27 Jennifer Cole: Yeah. You got four full growing seasons. You got fresh produce all the time.

00:06:28 -00:06:30 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: That’s good. You got great seafood,

00:06:30 -00:06:41 Jennifer Cole: you got great seafood, you got great charcutory, you’ve got great local farms, which is very near and dear to my heart. So, all that.

00:06:42 -00:06:49 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Well, we’re filming here at the Meadowlark so we’ll get a little bit of background noise. I hope everybody doesn’t mind. Hope you don’t mind.

00:06:50 Jennifer Cole: I don’t mind.

00:06:50 -00:06:54 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: So what inspires you to move back to Haywood County?

00:06:55 -00:07:16 Jennifer Cole: Well, my family is from here. I own a farm with my two brothers, and we’re not doing anything with it, so I wanted to move home. And while I am working as a chef, I also want to do some stuff on my farm. We got a lot of lands to play with.

00:07:17 -00:07:18 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Yeah. How many acres you got