DINING GUIDE
FOOD SCENE STARS The Lowcountry’s restaurant and hospitality industry has risen to national prominence because of many talented, hard-working people. Here are a few key leaders who have made and continue to make a difference.
Mickey Bakst Mickey Bakst is in the business of making people feel good, whether in the luxurious surroundings of Charleston Grill or the plain dining area of a soup kitchen. Bakst set the bar higher for hospitality when he took over as general manager and maitre d’ of Charleston Grill in 2004. He has a natural gift of connecting with each guest as if he or she is the most important person in the room. He soon emerged not only as a man
Mitchell Crosby with a big personality, but with a big heart to match. He conceived and organized efforts to help people devastated by 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. He led a half-milliondollar fundraiser for the families of the “Charleston Nine” firefighters who perished in 2007. Two years ago, Bakst brought together chefs and restaurateurs to launch Charleston Chefs Feed the Need. Through the initiative, the first of its kind in the country, chefs and their staffs regularly prepare meals for the area’s hungry. The National Restaurant Association hailed the initiative as a model for its 400,000 members this year.
Sean Brock Whether talking about Jimmy Red corn, the virtues of Virginia lamb, canning tomatoes or his food tattoos, chef Sean Brock expresses the wide-eyed amazement of a teenage boy. It’s totally captivating. Some tried to typecast the chef as a molecular gastronomist — into the science of food — when he began cooking at McCrady’s in 2006. He did embrace modern technology to turn out such oddities as cubes of gelatin that tasted like chips and salsa and boiled peanut cotton candy. But that was just one dimension of this culinary whiz.
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Charleston native Mitchell Crosby knows how to throw a party — a really nice party. He is the epitome of Southern charm and hospitality, but also has a wicked sense of humor in the “bless-her-heart” kind of way. He seems to know everyone and, remarkably, manages to stay in touch with most of them. An event planner for more than 20 years, Crosby has introduced and showcased Charleston and the
Lowcountry to thousands of people. Corporate meetings, fundraising galas, weddings and other occasions have been the canvas on which he paints a lasting impression of the city and its people. Crosby’s creative thinking led to the use of the Arthur Ravenel Bridge for 12 private events raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for nonprofit groups before the span was opened in 2005. He and Denise Barto co-produced major events for the BB&T Charleston Wine + Food Festival for six years. They were an integral part of making the festival a success beyond expectations.
Lee Brothers Brock, with a deep reverence for his small-town upbringing and Southern food, soon was growing vegetables and herbs for the restaurant. That evolved into a passion for seed preservation — saving old-timey varieties from extinction — and heirloom crops. Along the way, he cooked twice for the James Beard Foundation and won a “Next Great Chef” episode on the Food Network . He was nominated for Beard awards numerous times and claimed its “Best Chef Southeast” title last year. Brock is set to appear on “Iron Chef America” this fall. As if that wasn’t enough, he took on opening another restaurant, Husk, in the fall of 2010. The concept is gutsy: its food is sourced from only the South, and the food determines the daily menu.
They own and operate a boiled peanut catalog from Charleston, not a restaurant. But the Lee Brothers have done more than anyone in recent years to put Charleston on the national culinary map and make it a dining destination. Matt Lee and Ted Lee weren’t born in Charleston, just raised here. No matter, they have the fierce love, memories and loyalty of native sons. As young adults, they went north, got degrees from Harvard and Amherst, and moved to New York City. And then they started writing about the South, particularly Charleston and its food. Their stories appeared in The New York Times and Travel & Leisure. They wrote a James Beard award-winning cookbook. Now the Lee brothers are celebrities,
Matt
Ted
still writing but also appearing routinely on food TV and network cooking segments. They also have introduced a line of cookware on the Home Shopping Network. The fame hasn’t gone to their heads, thankfully. They’re still personable, down-to-earth, funny as heck. They are our No. 1 ambassadors for the pleasures of Lowcountry eating.