Curt Butler, of Gastonia, North Carolina, talks about his art, “I have spent most of my life around woods. One of the many fascinating things about trees and woods is the shapes and variety of spaces as you wander through them; they are truly a world you can get lost in.”

Picture this: You’re working the edge of a hay field turned brown, cut months before in late summer. A lanky young German shorthaired pointer plunges in and out of the thick brush bordering the field, working the cross wind. Without a moment’s pause, he dives again and again into the tangled mass of thorny raspberries, dried goldenrod, and buckthorn, quartering briefly out into the field for a gulp of chaff-free air between plunges. An older shorthair works the brush farther in from the edge, tracking bird scent along the single moist strip of ground bordering a rise of ledge.

When it comes to his cooking values and principles, Rob McDaniel is a chef one could consider a modernist and a traditionalist. With the current trend of “getting back to local,” Rob is a model for sustainability and trading locally. His passion for these elements stems from his belief that good food comes from making everything from scratch–which, in his kitchen, is everything but ketchup. “That’s what we hang our hats on,” he says. Rob does this by sourcing as much as possible locally and regionally. “The fact that you can talk about where the food came from, who grew it, how it was grown, the process behind it–that’s all part of the story of what goes on the plate,” he says. The act of storytelling is something Rob incorporates into his restaurant to include and connect his customers to the experience of what they will eat.

Recipes include

1 -Shrimp and Grits

2 -Smoked Quail Terrine

3 -Beet and Radish Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

4 -Lamb Burger with Harissa

5 -Sticky Toffee Pudding