Named this year’s Grand Champion, Chef Jeff Carter is a long-time culinary talent in East Tennessee. “I cut my teeth here (at Dancing Bear), for seven years,” he says. “This was my first job after Blackberry Farm.” He was executive chef at The Sunspot for a number of years on the Strip before he returned to Dancing Bear four years ago.
When people come out here, they’re in a better mood, seeing the mountains and feeling close to nature,” said Executive Chef Jeff Carter. “We really lean into using local ingredients, regional suppliers—honoring the ways of Appalachian people over 100 years.”
The evening started with a cocktail, Beekeeper’s Bittersweet Buzz, conjured with Whistler Beekeeper’s Honey Whiskey, Vermut de Valdepablo, Rosemary Simple, lemon juice, and herb bitters. This was followed by a 2022 Scar of the Sea Rose of Pinot Noir, Methode Ancestrale, from Topotero Vineyard in California, as well as Brooklyn Brewery’s Fonio Rising beer, made from the ancient Fonio grain that has thrived in West Africa for more than 5,000 years. It flourishes in arid environments, regenerating the soil rather than stripping it and providing vital income to thousands of farmers.
“The pairing for course two comes from our sister company, Peaceful Side Brewery,” said sommelier Michelle LaBorda, “a Fonio Tripel.” A Belgian-style Tripel, it begins with a base of Pilsner malt, adds Fonio grains for complexity, and is enhanced with Belgian Candi sugar.
Carter’s appetizer was blackberry-glazed, South Carolina quail stuffed with Benton’s sausage and cornbread, with confit quail legs, cooked in duck fat, with pickled corn and pepper relish, indigenous watercress and frisee salad, Benton’s bacon vinaigrette, and blackberry gastrique. The flavors were enhanced by the 2022 Domaine Arnaud Dubreuil, Hautes-Côtes de Beaune from France.
The entrée was a smoked mushroom and peppercorn-rubbed venison striploin, sunchoke purée, roasted sunchokes, fermented honey glazed baby carrots, oyster mushrooms from Extraterrestrial Fungi, smoky venison-pepper jus, and sunchoke chips—paired with a 2021 Domaine Vincent Paris “Granite 30” Cornas.
The lavender-coated Cruze Farm hot milk cake featured Four Daughters Farm blueberries, an unexpected layer of sweet potato mousse, honeycomb candy, Sixmile Creek Farm pure honey, and sweet corn Anglaise, a recipe from an old Appalachian cookbook and utilizing indigenous ingredients—paired, appropriately, with The Perfect Ending cocktail of Licor 43, Dancing Bean Fresh Ground Coffee, Blueberry Cold Foam, and Orange Zest.
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