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Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook's Corner and from Home:
Seasoned Chef Bill Smith Presents His Collection of Crook's Corner Classics
On UNC-TV's North Carolina Bookwatch,
Friday, September 15, at 9:30 PM, and Sunday, September 17, 5 PM

For more than a decade now, Bill Smith has presided over the kitchen at Chapel Hill's Crook's Corner, bringing his instinctive and creative approach to cooking to an ever-growing, always enthusiastic crowd who have come to associate dining at Crook's with good company, great food, and a belief that every meal is a reason for celebration. Bill Smith's recipes are marvelously uncomplicated:  Tomato and Watermelon Salad, Fried Green Tomatoes with Corn and Mustard Butter Sauce, Cold Stuffed Pork Loin with an Artichoke Spread, Scallops with Spinach and Hominy, Really Good Banana Pudding, and Honeysuckle Sorbet. Structured around the seasons and inspired by the abundant local produce, these recipes not only reinvent classics of Southern culinary tradition, but offer up imaginative interpretations of bistro fare.

Smith's new book, Seasoned in the South captures the flavors of the freshest seasonal foods and the spirit of one of the South's liveliest and most innovative kitchens.

In this episode of UNC-TV's local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch, premiering Friday, September 15, at 9:30 PM,the ever-humble Bill Smith shares the traditional and classic Southern fare, featured throughout his book, that has marked the seasoned chef's unique style throughout his culinary career.

"I don't consider my recipes to be 'secrets,'" says Smith. "In fact, I've always considered it flattering when people ask for recipes. People have been telling me for years that I should write a book. I just finally got around to it."

A native of New Bern, Smith first trained as a chef at Chapel Hill's French-inspired La Residence before moving to Crook's Corner. An intuitive chef, Smith's move down the street to Crook's more than ten years ago influenced the fine Southern cuisine that makes this restaurant a Chapel Hill favorite.

"The leap from French to Southern food is not a big leap, honestly. They're both cuisines that are based on having once been very poor; so there's a need for economy, but also gentility; and then you are less poor, but you still like what you had when you were," explains Smith. "The only thing I did was transfer the way French people treat their food to Southern things-cooking things less and taking more care to each step of the process."

Don't miss D.G. Martin's all-new interview with Bill Smith on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 15, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airingSunday, September 17, at 5 PM,only on UNC-TV!

During this season of North Carolina Bookwatch, guests also include: Will Blythe (To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever), John Hart (TheKing of Lies), Sarah Dessen (Just Listen), Kristin Henderson (While They're at War), David Payne (Back to Wando Passo), John Hope Franklin (Mirror to America), Leah Stewart (The Myth of You and Me), Andrew Britton (The American), Allan Gurganus (New Stories of the South), Tom Carlson (Hatteras Blues), William Leuchtenburg (The White House Looks South), Dot Jackson (Refuge), Art Chansky (Blue Blood), Mark Ethridge (Grievances),  Paul Leonard (Music of a Thousand Hammers), and Angela Davis-Gardner (Plum Wine).

For more information about additional series guests and airdates, plus, the all-new Bookwatch blog and online book club, please visit: www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Funding for North Carolina Bookwatch is provided by UNC-TV members and by Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh's independent, full service bookstore, bringing readers and writers together since 1984.

North Carolina Bookwatch is part of UNC-TV's ongoing commitment to produce programs for and about North Carolina. UNC-TV is the statewide 11-station broadcast network of the University of North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

For more information about North Carolina Bookwatch and UNC-TV's other local productions, please visit our website at www.unctv.org.

-UNC-TV-