In the true spirit of Southern hospitality, every person involved in the event as a host or a guest will be giving back as they celebrate the local culture. Guests will mingle with industry leaders and celebrities including:

Gail Simmons, Food Writer and Judge on BRAVO’s “Top Chef”
John T. Edge, Food Writer and Director of Southern Foodways Alliance
Sean Brock, Executive Chef, McCrady’s and Husk Restaurants
Ford Fry, Executive Chef, JCT. Kitchen
Kenny Gilbert, Executive Chef, Nipper’s Beach Grille
Kirk Gilbert, Executive Chef, The Inn at Palmetto Bluff
Kevin Gillespie, Executive Chef, Woodfire Grill
Tory McPhail, Executive Chef, Commander’s Palace
Chris Hastings, Executive Chef, Hot & Hot Fish Club
Frank Lee, Executive Chef, Slightly North of Broad
Andrea Reusing, Executive Chef, Lantern
Hugh Acheson, Executive Chef, 5&10
Raj Parr, Wine Director, Michael Mina
Paul Hobbs, Paul Hobbs Winery
Jasmine Hirsch, Hirsch Vineyards and Winery
Dave Miner, Miner Family Vineyards

And many more!

Weekend packages for the days of Friday, November 18-Sunday, November 20 are available for guests to book now including:

Whole Hog Ticket Package: Friday, November 18 – Sunday, November 20; $825 per person. Limited to just 150 guests, this package is sure to put your taste buds in over-drive. The Whole Hog Weekend Package offers multiple culinary experiences for the foodie in you.

As a part of the package you will enjoy:

· Coastal Living Porching Party
· Sip n’ Screen Symposium
· Friday night Potlikker Block Party
· Entry in the “Hair of the Dog” Road Race Saturday morning (don’t worry you don’t need to be a tri-athlete for this one!)
· The Saturday Culinary Festival
· A traditional Oyster Roast Saturday night on the banks of the May River (available only as a part of the Whole Hog Weekend Package)
· After Parties at the Fire Pits with live entertainment Friday and Saturday night
· Sunday Rise & “Shine” breakfast
· Swag Bag (one per couple or single booking)
· $50 of every ticket goes directly to Second Helpings, a Lowcountry organization dedicated to ensuring that no one in our community should have to worry about whether or not they will have enough food to eat today.

Whole Hog and a Bed for your Head Package: Friday, November 18 – Sunday, November 20, 2011; $2750 per couple. Put your taste buds in over-drive with the Whole Hog Weekend events and then retreat and rejuvenate in the comfort of your own private hideaway.

Your package includes:

· 2 nights in a spacious cottage with 1,140 luxurious square feet of indoor/outdoor space
· 2 Whole Hog Ticket Packages
· Access to the #1 Spa in the US & Canada (as voted by the readers of Travel + Leisure), and the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course
· Complimentary kayaking, biking, fishing, bocce, tennis and use of two fitness centers.

*Based on double occupancy, plus taxes and fees. The Whole Hog and a Bed Package must be booked online or by calling 866.706.6565.

For more information about Music To Your Mouth, or to book a ticket for the event visit www.musictoyourmouth.com or call 866.706.6565.

About Palmetto Bluff:

As the largest waterfront property on the East coast, Palmetto Bluff is evolving as a residential community and conservation preserve. Located in Bluffton, SC between Savannah, GA and Hilton Head Island, Palmetto Bluff is characterized by extensive nature preserves, river access and walking trails, a vibrant Village center, distinctive cuisine, Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf, an elegant Inn and Spa managed by Auberge Resorts (named the “#1 Best Resort in the US and Canada” by the readers of Travel + Leisure), and residential neighborhoods. This graceful, comforting world-class destination embodies the romance of the south and offers a luxurious getaway for all. This is the fourth year that Palmetto Bluff has hosted “Music To Your Mouth” pairing live entertainment with celebrity cooking demonstrations and the best food and wine the South has to offer.

Orchid Paulmeier needed a winner, something that would stick out for the judges. Paulmeier, 39, of Bluffton, South Carolina, attended an open call audition last August for the seventh season of the popular cable reality series The Next Food Network Star—her third attempt in as many years.
“I just figured three times a charm, or three strikes, you’re out. It was going to be one or the other at this point,” recalls Paulmeier, a chef and partner at One Hot Mama’s, a popular eatery in Hilton Head Island. “This time I was really just like, ‘Let’s just go for it, and we’ll see what happens.’” And go for it she did.
On the second day of the Atlanta-based audition, she was asked to present judges with a dish that would be representative of her culinary approach. Staying at a nearby hotel, she ventured out to a local market and purchased her ingredients. She decided on a plate of poached salmon with a black bean couscous, a nice dish anytime of the year, to be sure, but what put it over the top was Paulmeier’s ingenuity.

She ran tap water through the hotel room coffeepot four times, to get the water up to temperature, and then seasoned it to make a modified poaching liquid. She then poured the seasoned broth over the fish and couscous separately to cook the dish.
The judges were impressed with her crafty use of everyday objects. Heck, even MacGyver would’ve been impressed with the impromptu display.
“The [judges] were like, ‘How’d you make this again?’

And I said, ‘In the hotel room.’
‘With what?’
‘The coffee maker.’”
And just like that, as quick as you can say drip-drip-drip, she’d beaten out over 3,000 hopefuls for one of 15 spots for the upcoming season.
For the uninitiated, the show pits 13 contestants against each other in a series of unique culinary challenges. At the end of each show, one candidate is usually eliminated based on a judge’s decision. At the end of the season, a winner is crowned and is given their own show on The Food Network.
Taping started in January and ended seven weeks later in March. But since the show wouldn’t air until June, the normally outgoing and animated Paulmeier had to keep things under wraps.
“I had to have a cover story. That was the funny part,” says Paulmeier, a mother of three originally from Orland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. “It was my own little secret. I had just had this wonderful experience and no one knew about it.”
So she kept her candidacy hush-hush, only telling her husband, Michael, and her business partner, Chris. As far as friends, family and restaurant colleagues knew, she was out of town doing some restaurant consulting work.
“On sabbatical,” she recalls wryly.
By the time the show aired the first Sunday in June, Paulmeier already began to feel the initial tinges of celebrity. She found herself spending most of her workday on the floor at One Hot Mama’s, signing autographs and telling stories to locals and vacationers. Business more than doubled, and she had to hire additional staff to handle the surge.
Her warm smile, lively personality and apparent on-camera comfort quickly endeared Paulmeier to the online masses, as she won the preshow fan vote in a landslide with 54% of the tally. Several online message boards, including some on the Food Network website itself, tapped Paulmeier as an early favorite for the show’s top prize. Even the judges picked her as a frontrunner, going as far as telling her on one of the early shows not to change anything.
The competition itself started auspiciously enough for Paulmeier, who won the two challenges on the season’s first episode, which featured an appearance by Dinner: Impossible host Robert Irvine, a Hilton Head resident. On the season’s fourth episode, Orchid won another challenge, as the finalists traveled to the set of the hit ABC television show Cougar Town to feed the crew. In a bit of Southern karma, that episode’s special guest ended up being none other than Food Network luminary (and fellow Lowcountry native) Paula Deen.
So, it was with shock that viewers saw Paulmeier eliminated in the season’s sixth episode, a substitution of canned oysters for abalone leading to her ultimate undoing. The show’s season finale tapped Jeff Mauro as its winner.
Like many talent-based reality television programs, the end of the show is not necessarily the end of the line. In fact, for many, it’s a new beginning. Orchid still thinks about a conversation the contestants had with celebrity chef Guy Fieri, a guest on the season’s fifth episode and winner of the show’s second season.
“I remember he pulled us all aside and said, ‘You know, this is your year to make something happen. If you want to get ahead in the world, this is the year to do it,’” recalls Paulmeier. She’s taken the advice to heart. Paulmeier is eyeing additional television opportunities, has partnered in a second Hilton Head restaurant (The Lodge), and is marketing her signature line of One Hot Mama’s sauces. “Whatever doors open up, I’m just going to go for it,” she says. “There’s obviously a reason I did this and had this great opportunity.”

A true family operation, Ferguson has run the farm since 2003 with his wife, Debra, their youngest son, Hunter, their oldest son, Anthony, and daughter, Kristen, who also live and work on the farm with families of their own. For Ferguson, who was raised on a small family farm in Appling County, Georgia, Hunter Cattle Company represents the realization of a lifelong dream. After 25 years of operating his own business in the Savannah area, Ferguson, along with his family, began the farm with the goal of raising quality animals. “We try to do it like it was a hundred years ago,” says Ferguson, who was inspired to pursue an all-natural, grass-fed, free-range approach to farming after his wife read about the health benefits associated with eating meat from naturally raised animals.

Hunter Cattle Company, and several other local farmers with whom they partner, operates under the guidelines of the American Grassfed Association and the organization Animal Welfare Approved. Under these guidelines, all the animals on the farm—pigs, chickens, cows, or even the turkeys currently being raised for Thanksgiving—receive no growth hormones, antibiotics or processed grains, and are free to move throughout the pasture. According to the American Grassfed Association, some of the health benefits of grass-fed beef include higher contents of Vitamin A, CLAs, Omega-3 fatty acids and a dramatically lower risk of E. coli. As Ferguson puts it, “It’s better for the animals; it’s healthier for us as far as consuming it; and it’s better for the environment and the land.”

But for Ferguson, the benefits are endless. “People have a disconnect with their life and where their food is coming from,” says Ferguson. “Part of my job is trying to educate people about where their food comes from and why it should be done the natural way.” And to that end, the Fergusons love visitors and host events throughout the year, such as Farm Day tours during summer months and a true Southern farm supper each spring and fall. “We’ve got some people that come out here and they just sit on the porch, and I don’t even ask them if they want to buy anything,” says Ferguson.
In the small office of the farm’s country store, Ferguson beams with genuine satisfaction as a voicemail plays and the speaker relays how much a recent customer enjoyed some steaks. “Now that makes it worth it right there” says Ferguson enthusiastically. “Even if we aren’t getting rich, it don’t matter if we are able to do it for those people.”
While the Fergusons make their meats available to Coastal Georgia through a variety of venues, from farmers markets like the one in Forsyth Park to some of Savannah’s most popular restaurants like Green Truck Pub to stores like Brighter Day Natural Foods, it is worth it to take the opportunity to see life out at Hunter Cattle Company—even if you just need a quiet porch to sit on for a while.

WRITTEN BY Mike Kelly

Paula Deen did something this summer she hadn’t done in a very long time: she took the summer off. “It was the longest span I’ve not worked in 22 years,” she says. “It was my time of getting back in touch with Paula.” Come fall, however, Paula got right back to work.
On October 11, Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible goes on sale. Paula calls this book “my proudest achievement so far.” With more than 300 recipes, it’s full of tips and illustrations “actually showing how to do things,” explains Paula. “Hopefully this book will fall in the category of classic cookbooks like the Joy of Cooking—something people will want in their kitchens for a long time.” This fall also continues with the third season of the Real Women of Philadelphia, the online cooking competition with Paula and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

As for Jamie and Bobby, Savannah’s favorite sons each have a Food Network show set to air in the spring. Jamie’s show will be shot in Savannah and will focus on “busy families trying to come up with family meals. … We’re going to break outside of the kitchen and show off the beauty of Savannah”—which is important to Jamie, who famously walked away from the Food Network’s 2006 hit show Road Tasted to spend more time with his family.

“I chose family first in all things. If I had stayed, I would have missed the first year of Jack’s life.” Jamie, now 44, and his wife, Brooke, were “blessed again” last May with their newest addition to the family, son Matthew. Enthuses Paula about her grandsons (including her stepdaughter’s newborn, Henry), “I’m in hog’s heaven!”
Bobby, too, is pumped up by the possiblities: His show, which will be shot in a studio kitchen in Brooklyn, will involve taking a lot of his mom’s dishes and, he explains, “trying to improve them by taking things away. So, I may cut the butter in half, or instead of sweetened condensed milk, use skim milk.” Says Paula, “He’s a workout fiend. He’s 41 and built like a brick house.” Bobby laughs, “My mother is my biggest cheerleader. She admires the fact that I have embraced a lifestyle different from what I grew up with. Don’t get me wrong—I love fried chicken and mac and cheese, and cobbler and collard greens. I’ve just learned that moderation is key.”
Each show will have a special guest, and Bobby is hoping he can play up the interview aspect so that “the show can be tweaked into something completely new. I want to continue to do TV, but I don’t necessarily want to do food TV forever.” He stresses that the show will be very personal. “You’re going to see me in this show—my life.”
Also up for Bobby is The Chew. He is the food and sports correspondent for this new ABC daytime food and lifestyle show, and he’ll continue dividing his time between New York, Savannah and L.A., where his girlfriend of two years, actress Katy Mixon (Mike & Molly), works.

Chef and food stylist Libbie Summers has cooked for presidents and Paula Deen. A few times over, she’s sailed around the world scouring fresh food and culinary secrets from locals of all flavors. She’s got an insatiable passion for food, and it all started with a few hogs.

Among a few other things, the contract Libbie Summers signed to publish a cookbook had to have one thing: a certain number of permissible curse words. It’s not that she’s excessively vulgar by any means; in fact, both she and her work are quite refined. But she also has a certain homegrown grit sprouted from spending her youth on a rural Midwestern boutique farm, complete with—her favorite part—packs of heritage breed hogs.
Summers, who most recently worked as the culinary producer and senior food editor for Paul Deen Enterprises, says, “I watched pigs being slaughtered, and I wasn’t really squeamish around it. I used to play jump rope with intestine; but you don’t really want to know that,” letting out her booming, signature laugh. Much like the pigs she spent time with as a young girl, the culinary creative embodies this balance between grace and grit in everything she does, and her first book, The Whole Hog Cookbook, couldn’t be a more perfect example. After all, her tagline of choice for the book, which includes almost 200 glossy pages filled with stunning photography and a charming design, goes something like this: It teaches you how to use a whole pig from snout to shitter. The phrase is a succinct way to describe the work and is also a nod to her grandmother, Lula Mae, who she says gave her a “colorful vocabulary,” a love of pork and a waste not, want not cooking philosophy.

“[My grandparents] were into that way of eating long before it was this wonderful chic thing to do. That was the only way to do it,” she says. “Nothing was put to waste; they cooked everything!”
In typical Summers fashion, after growing up playing on the farm, she then spent the majority of her career beginnings sailing all over the world on high-end private yachts, cooking for fabulous people in fabulous locations. Along the way, she amassed an encyclopedic knowledge of cuisine that she now shares with her colleagues and a rapidly growing fan base that includes the entire Deen clan and many of their devoted followers, former President Jimmy Carter (whom she just recently served Tipsy Pork Liver Pate, Buttery Potted Ham and The King’s Belly Sandwiches, among other dishes), Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay, Ellie Krieger, Bon Appetit and Country Living.

In all of her travels and cooking experiences, she also gathered a number of laugh-out-loud stories that she weaves into the cookbook, which is a collection of over 100 different ways to cook pork—every part of it. She tells about the first time she tasted a heavenly pork tenderloin sandwich, which she describes as “big and so divine you’d give up your virginity and your only ride home just for a bite.” And she tells tales of a hot-tempered Mexican cooking queen she had to beg, plead and cook with into the wee hours of the morning in order to get a pork tamale recipe. But then, just as you’ve wiped your tears of laughter, she sweeps in with touching family stories that show just how important this one animal can be to a person, a family and entire cultures all around the world.

Grilled Fish Tacos
Bonna Bella Yacht Club
Bonna Bella Yacht Club is a casual, waterfront dining spot and local secret that was recently featured on the Food Network’s Chefs vs. City. Chef Ben Melton, newly relocated here from Atlanta, says, “Our focus here is on fresh, flavorful food, including wild Georgia shrimp.” Their specialty of the house – a perfect pair of fresh fish tacos, created with your choice of three different preparation options: Caribbean spice with curried papaya relish, South American spice with tomatillo salsa verde, or lemon pepper spice with Pico de Gallo and a creamy caper sauce. Plated next to Caribbean-style rice and beans, these tacos have just the right amount of spice to give them zip! 2740 Livingston Avenue, Savannah, 912.352.3133, bonnabellayachtclub.com

View the complete story on our latest issue!

1. Live Oak Restaurant Group

A true Southern gentleman, Ansley Williams began his group of restaurants with a casual little joint called Spanky’s down on River Street in 1976. Since then, Spanky’s expanded to two locations and was joined by five other establishments that take Savannah dining from one end of the spectrum to the other. With easygoing lunches of sandwiches, fries or chicken and top cuts of steak and lobster, the many venues under the Live Oak umbrella cater to every taste or mood. With this empire of fantastic fare, there could have been room for trouble with the economic variations of late.

2. The Lady and Sons

A gorgeous, prime location downtown, mixed with regular television shows and several cookbooks, The Lady & Sons is one of Savannah’s most well known dining attractions. But its owners will never forget the struggles of its modest in-home beginnings, crediting its longevity to the successful location of the city, and the people of Savannah and the Southeast. “We are so fortunate that we aren’t in any other place,” Jamie Deen says. “With the location of our city, people that may normally travel farther away for trips are now taking car trips, and we are so easy to get to, right off I-95.” 102 W. Congress St., Savannah, Ga., 31401, 912.233.2600

3. Elizabeth on 37th

Nestled amid the Spanish moss, a 1900s mansion stands perfectly reflecting old Savannah’s grandeur, housing a timeless cornerstone of Savannah dining: Elizabeth on 37th. Originally created by Chef Elizabeth Terry and her husband, Michael, Elizabeth on 37th’s current owners, Gary and Greg Butch are preparing to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Gary and Greg began as employees of the Terrys and have evolved with the business almost from its inception. They’ve kept the venerated identity, though, by “respecting their past.” They are able to maintain the high standards and quality of the restaurant’s original fine dining concept by keeping their seafood and produce local, and even using the restaurant’s own house-grown herbs and edible flowers. Items like local black sea bass with South Carolina quail hash and live local blue crab keep the menu elegantly Southern. 105 East 37th St., Savannah, Ga. 31401, 912.236.5547

4. Garibaldi Cafe and The Olde Pink House

From their beginnings as an old firehouse and a home, later to become a bank, the buildings housing Garibaldi Cafe and The Olde Pink House each have many tales to tell. Donna Moeckel and her partners acquired Garibaldi Cafe in 1980 and then, 12 years later, The Olde Pink House, with each venue offering diners totally different elements of Savannah hospitality. The Olde Pink House: 23 Abercorn St., Savannah, Ga. 31401, 912.232.4286; Garibaldi Cafe: 315 W. Congress St., Savannah, Ga. 31401, 912.232.7118

To read more, pick up the latest issue of South magazine!

Photography by Andy Silvers

After graduation, she moved to Savannah to attend graduate school at Savannah College of Art and Design, however, the self-proclaimed “hands-on, get dirty type of artist” soon felt out of place in her computer-centric program of choice. Finding herself in the midst of a quarter-life crisis, she discovered the art of cake design.

“I had seen some cake shows on television and really came to see how cake could be my new medium. The use of color, shape, line and balance are all things that cake designers use on a daily basis,” O’Connor explains.

Before long, she found herself working as the lead cake designer under the guidance of Minette Rushing, a longstanding Savannah expert in the luxury cake making field who was more than glad to share her talents with the budding artist. O’Connor admits, “I had absolutely no baking experience, just art.” Her newfound medium led her back to school at The Classic Pastry Arts Program at The French Culinary Institute in New York City. But Savannah’s charm drew her right back following graduation. She proudly opened the doors to Kerry O’Connor Cake Design in May 2010.

Quickly excelling in the field, O’Connor has made several cake-related TV appearances. She was featured twice as a main competitor and once as an assistant on Food Network Challenge and assisted a fellow cake decorator friend on We tv’s Wedding Cake Wars. She reveals, “There was so much to take in: the lights, the cameras, the judges, the adrenaline—and the cake of course!”

Wielding paintbrushes and traditional food sculpting tools, O’Connor’s arsenal of choice also includes fondant and food coloring. A tremendous amount of planning is put into each piece. O’Connor explains, “I always sketch my designs first, which is great because it brings me back to my first love, drawing.” Alluring inspirations appear to her every day in the form of fashion trends, textile patterns, architecture and jewelry. The art of cake design, she says, “for me comes in making glamorous, bold or romantic cakes with texture upon texture, and unique use of color.”

In the very way a sculptor would use clay, O’Connor uses carvers, cutters, putty knives and molds to shape blocks of fondant icing, sugar paste and modeling chocolate.

“I also really love to do hand paintings on my cakes; only I am using food color rather than acrylics or oil paints,” says O’Connor. Handmade sugar flowers are a preference of hers. “They are amazingly realistic and works of art just by themselves,” she says. The artist in O’Connor embraces every design style, although she is drawn to the beautifully outrageous. She adds, “The cake is part of the celebration after all!” kocakedesign.com • 912.352.0556

Photography by Open Light Studio

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray loaf pan with non-stick spray.

In small bowl combine:
1/3 cup Ideal (Truvia) or Splenda
2 tsp cinnamon
(set aside)

In a large bowl combine:
(whisk together)
1 1/2 cups oat flour + 2 scoops vanilla whey protein
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Ideal (Truvia) or Splenda

In a medium bowl combine:
(whisk together & add to large bowl)
2 egg whites or 1 whole egg
1 cup unsweetened almond milk (Almond Breeze)
1/3 cup or 1 4oz jar of babyfood applesauce

Pour a shallow layer of batter into the loaf pan (about 1/4 of the batter). Sprinkle heavily with half of the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining batter & cinnamon/sugar on top. Draw a knife through the batter to marble.

Bake for 45 to 50 min. Let cool for 10 min. Bread will be dense.

Makes 12 servings: 
70 calories
 ⎪ 1.34 g fat
 ⎪ 8.4 g carbs ⎪ 
6 g protein