Photo: Chef Randall Baldwin of Dyron's Lowcountry Restaurant in Mountain Brook offers his thoughts on the importance of eating fresh, whole foods. The Chef will be preparing the Farm to Fork dinner using only Cullman grown foods. (Photo courtesy of the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce)
CULLMAN – Chef Randall Baldwin, of Dyron’s Lowcountry Restaurant in Mountain Brook, will be this year’s celebrity chef at the 2016 Farm to Fork Dinner, which kicks off the annual Farm Y’All Festival in Cullman.
The dinner, now in its fourth year, is sponsored by Alabama Farm Credit, and hosted by the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Center, with support from the Farm City Committee and the Cullman County Master Gardener’s Association. The intent of the event is to bring together local farmers with people from various walks of life who are interested and concerned about where their food comes from and how it is grown.
The event, always a festive and fun-filled affair, is famous for its Cullman Cuisine, wonderful entertainment, lavish floral arrangements and convivial atmosphere. The food, though, is the star of this event; Cullman’s finest harvests, showcased by a Master Chef. This year’s venue will be Camp Meadowbrook’s lovely new facility just outside Cullman.
Mark your calendars for Aug. 20. Tickets are available at the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce.
For Chef Baldwin, this event offers a golden opportunity to work with some of his favorite people, Cullman area farmers. “My week starts on Tuesday mornings when I go in early to meet with the farmers. One of my favorite things about being in the restaurant business is building a relationship with the growers who bring their fresh produce to us. When that door opens and I see people like young Dawson Boyd coming in staggering under the weight of bushel baskets filled with fresh peaches and I can just see how proud he is of them because he grew them himself, it just makes my job so much more meaningful,” said Chef Baldwin.
The produce that the farmers bring to Baldwin weekly changes throughout the year. “What they bring me is the basis for our daily menu,” he explained. “That is the true meaning of ‘farm to table’ cuisine.” He loves fresh ingredients and he embraces the idea that with great ingredients, you don't need complicated dishes.
Baldwin knows whereof he speaks; having grown up in a family that always had a garden, always cooked delicious meals and stressed the importance of the family table.
The Southern antebellum house in Saraland, Alabama, was always filled with the smells of the season coming from the big kitchen. “The hood vent was placed so that the smells came up the second story walls,” he described. “One of my earliest memories is the smell of breakfast coming up through that vent every morning.”
Baldwin’s love affair with food began early in life. He watched his grandmother and his mother prepare wholesome foods which they grew in the family garden. As he got older he graduated to helping them in the garden, growing things like peanuts, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes and other fresh vegetables, then helping prepare and cook them. “I loved cooking but always made a mess,” he laughed. “There was a lot of gratification in cooking. I loved reading cookbooks, and I dreamed of someday being able to cook in a restaurant.”
He also developed a passion for fishing and cooking his fresh catch the same day, experimenting with flavors and methods of enhancing all types of Gulf seafood.
His dreams became a reality, but he started on the bottom. “My first job was at the Adam’s Mark Hotel, where I was assigned the job of cutting vegetables,” he recalled.
After high school he spent a few years serving our country in the U.S. Marine Corps, a service for which he deserves our thanks and gratitude. Later, he decided to follow his passion for cooking, pursuing his formal training at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York. While at CIA, Randall began to study the methods of former Cullman native, renowned restaurateur, Chef Frank Stitt, and the young man’s goal became to work in Stitt’s kitchen. He achieved this ambition, earning an externship spot at Bottega during his last year of school.
Baldwin’s talents didn’t go unnoticed; he was offered a full-time position at Bottega after he graduated from CIA, and was later promoted to Chef de Cuisine at Chez Fonfon. Eventually, Chef Baldwin was named the kitchen manager at Highlands Bar and Grill.
In 2011 he became executive chef at Dyron’s Lowcountry Restaurant in Mountain Brook. The restaurant, owned by Dyron and Sonya Powell, is one of the most authentic lowcountry- style restaurants in the area, focusing on providing the Birmingham community with fresh, local food made with whole ingredients. Dyron's Lowcountry is famous for its unique, authentic taste which has its origins in the laid-back lowcountry of Carolina and Georgia.
Chef Baldwin looks forward to the upcoming Farm to Fork dinner, where he will prepare Southern favorites with a twist, like fig salad, chicken and sausage gumbo, made with north Alabama farm-raised chickens from Munchkin Rebel Homestead. Chef Baldwin is noted for his method of separately sautéing each ingredient in this extraordinary gumbo. He will also be preparing braised grass-fed beef short ribs provided by Brickyard Meats, with puree of sweet potatoes and for dessert, succulent seared Cullman peaches, all grown right here in Cullman County.
The Chef will be assisted by culinary students from the Cullman Career Center.
Guests will also be treated to a special mocktail demonstration by general manager at Dyron’s Lowcountry, bartender Ward Halliday, featuring Tahitian vanilla bean lemonade, peach limeade and a delicious virgin sangria. Appetizers and drinks will be served on the deck overlooking a panoramic view of woodlands featuring a serene lake.
The evening’s entertainment will be provided by the Fairview’s FFA String Band, and special headliner guest, "Mean" Mary James – the Gypsy Girl born in Geneva, Alabama.
Information:
Tickets are available at the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce, and are $65 or a table of six for $450.00.
Date: Aug. 20, 2016
Time: Mocktail Social 5:30 p.m.
Dinner Served 7 p.m.
Location: Camp Meadowbrook, 2344 County Road 747, Cullman, AL 35058
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