Chef Jacob Sessoms, Table, Asheville, NC, North Carolina, Where to eat in Asheville, Atlanta, New York, Stores, Beers, Amaro, Liquor, What To drink, where to drink, Where to shop. Store Recommendations, Stores, Food Stores, Food Purveyors, Charleston, SC, South Carolina, KY, Kentucky
Who
Jacob Sessoms is the chef / owner of Table in Asheville, North Carolina.
Why
Chef Sessoms returned to Asheville after working with chef Jonathan Waxman at Washington Park and chef Peter Hoffman at Savoy in New York City. Table serves inventive New American cuisine with a contemporary twist on traditional Southern dishes.
Recommendations
Jacob Sessoms’ recommendations for where to eat, drink and shop in Asheville, Atlanta, Charleston and Lexington.
Chef Jacob Sessoms | Table
January 10, 2012
Table
Asheville
Contemporary American
48 College Street
Asheville, NC 28801
T: 828.254.8980 (Book a Table)
Website:
Asheville, NC
Q & A with Chef Jacob Sessoms
Q. Tell us about about Table:
A. Table is a seasonal, New American restaurant focused on all culinary traditions, but with a strong bent towards our Southern roots.
We are committed, beyond marketing slogans and current trends, to cooking what is fresh, local, and should be seasonally prepared each day. As an environment, Table is a small, contemporary space with about 45 seats and an inviting, open kitchen.
Q. You moved back to Asheville from New York, what brought you back?
A. My family and I left the city to sell our house, here in Asheville, to move elsewhere. However, Asheville offered a comfortable lifestyle for us and an easy place to open our first restaurant.
Q. What do you miss about New York?
A. I miss the restaurants... the true ethnic offerings, the new trendsetters, and the great standard bearers of fine dining. I miss city life in many ways, life is of a different pace in a small city.
Photographs courtesy of Table & Jacob Sessoms
Advice / Tips
Pantry Item Not To Be Skimped On | Fresh Vanilla Beans
I never hesitate to keep fresh vanilla beans. Regardless of price, we will not use any substitute for fresh beans.
Cost Cutting Secret | Juanita’s Canned Hominy
It’s our favorite cheap go-to ingredient. I love it and most people outside of the South or Latin communities seem to have much connection to it. The saltiness is good and the kernels are big and plump. We do posales for brunch a lot. Traditional braised pork and hominy, Mexican style soup. The most frequent use for us is simmering it in cream.
Cost Cutting Secret | The Whole Animal
Another way we work towards value-packing our production is whole animal use. A half calf, whole pig, or whole lamb gives the kitchen so many options to charge well for premium cuts and stretch lesser cuts into all manner of slow-cooked, cured, and interesting offal preparations.
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A Chef’s Recs | Asheville, SC
Find | Local Markets
Asheville City Market
Photographs courtesy of: Asheville City Market
Asheville City Market
The local greenmarket scene is really good on Saturdays.
Foreign Affairs Oriental Market
It’s run by an Asheville local who is married to a Filipino woman and they have a really good southeast Asian selection of products. That would be the best source in Asheville.
Montford Farmers Market
This is a new one and there is as much offered here as you would find in the Union Square Greenmarket in New York. To be in a small town and see that is pretty cool.
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Drinks | Beer & Liquor
Beer | Hudepohl Beer
Just tried Hudepohl. Good Cincinnati beer. It’s a cheap amber lager.
After Dinner Drink | Averna Amaro
I’m into Italian bitters. Averna Amaro is the most readily available one. Bitter is great when you’re a chef. When you are constantly tasting salty and sweet and meaty, the easy go-to is to experience something different or heavily spiced or bitter. I like my food really spicy and my drinks bitter!
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Recommendations
Details of Jacob Sessoms’ recommendations for where to eat, drink and shop in Asheville, Atlanta, Charleston and Lexington.
Recipes
I like to travel for my eating dollars and Charleston and Atlanta are easy destinations that we chose to go to every couple of months.
Atlanta, GA
Eat | Restaurants
Restaurant Eugene
Holeman & Finch Public House
I’m friends with [chef] Linton Hopkins, so I really like to go to his restaurants.
Cakes and Ale
We had a really good meal here. Really simple neighborhoody kind of spot and really good food.
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Charleston, SC
Eat | Restaurants
In Charleston, my favorite restaurant, by far, is FIG. Of any restaurant in the Southeast, the menu is very close to mine. Mike [chef Lata] doesn’t change the menu as often as we do. I’ve eaten there many times and every single dish that comes out of the kitchen is good, if not fantastic and everybody I send there has the same response.
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Lexington, KY
Eat | Restaurants
Table 310
The most interesting modern eating experience I’ve had recently. It’s small plates. I’m not all that down with the whole small plate format, but the food is simple, locally inspired, awesome wine list, and a really hip spot
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New York, NY & Online
Find | Favorite Online Resource
Kalustyan’s
I used to shop there when I lived in New York City and then I discovered that I could easily find and purchase all the stuff online that I was missing.
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Eat | Restaurants
Chicken at Rocky’s | Cucina 24 | Mama’s Fast Food
Photographs courtesy of: Rocky’s | Cucina 24 | susanlee828 [flickr]
Where to Take A Visiting Chef | Cucina 24
I always go here for fairly straightforward Northern Italian.
Where to Take A Visiting Chef | Taqueria Gonzalez
Me and all my cooks eat here. It is a truly authentic taqueria, with Saturday and Sunday entrees and soups, very traditional. As a chef, you know our favorite thing is truly authentic food, not always going out to fine dining. It’s completely undiscovered, which is awesome.
Where to Take A Visiting Chef | Rocky’s
Friends of ours just opened up this Nashvile-style hot chicken joint. It’s pretty fun and they’re doing Prince’s-style fried chicken.
Upscale | Limones
It’s California/Mexican. It’s really good for appetizers and cocktails. Their cocktails are really good.
Upscale | Fig In Asheville
I have a lot of respect for Bill Klein, he’s a very good chef. The ownership has put his creativity on lockdown, unfortunately, after years of being able to write really good menu items. Now they’re doing straightforward bistro stuff. But he’s very good and he’s French classical in his training.
Authentic North Carolina Experience | Mama’s Fast Food
It’s a grubby place and my partner in the kitchen, we’ve been friends for 16 or 17 years, we go here for fried chicken livers. It’s a little hole in the wall.
Authentic North Carolina Experience | Tastee Diner
It’s a straight up meat and three. It’s fun. Nothing but old fogies in there.
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Drink | Bars
The Sazerac at Asheville Sazerac | The Bar at Asheville Sazerac
Photographs courtesy of: Asheville Sazerac
Asheville Sazarac
We always end up drinking here. It’s very well designed and always empty. The beverages are good and it’s really nice on Saturday night when we get out of work at midnight to go to a bar that is not filled with frat boys. It’s hard to plug it to anyone because there only like 8 people in there!
The Prospect
Totally the shit! New, but legit! Shitty street, cheap beer, no fancy cocktails. There are pretentious ‘dive bars’ and some crazy, old, scary redneck bars, but The Prospect is for real.
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