Award-winning chef Vivian Howard coming to the Outer Banks Dec. 19
North Carolina chef will be signing copies of new book
MANTEO, N.C. — Award-winning North Carolina chef Vivian Howard is coming to the Outer Banks promoting a new book with recipes like “Gas Station Biscuits” and “Little Green Dress.”
Howard will sign copies of her book, “This Will Make It Taste Good,” at Outer Banks Distillery in Manteo on Dec. 19.
“It ’s about making simple foods really exciting,” Howard said in a phone interview Tuesday.
She loves visiting the Outer Banks to see friends and visit some of her favorite shops and restaurants here, she said. Her pickled shrimp recipe will interest Outer Banks seafood lovers.
Howard sold T-shirts after Hurricane Dorian to raise $41,000 for Ocracoke restaurants damaged by the storm.
The signing will be a socially-distanced, drivethru event, said Downtown Books owner Jamie Hope Anderson, who invited Howard to come. Customers must buy tickets to reserve a 15-minute block of time between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Dec. 19. The $53 ticket gets a signed book, a snack and a photo with Howard.
“Rest assured, we’ll follow all CDC guidelines, masks will be required and you will be asked to stay in your car for the entirety of your visit,” she said.
Anderson expects brisk sales, she said.
“She has a fan base that is pretty rabid,” she said.
Howard is the chef and owner of a restaurant in Kinston, North Carolina, about halfway between Raleigh and the Outer Banks. Her PBS series “A Chef ’s Life” ran five seasons and won two Emmys, a Peabody and a James Beard Award. She has written one previous cookbook, “Deep Run Roots,” with recipes from her home region.
Her latest book includes dozens of simple recipes organized around one of her 10 “flavor heroes” such as Little Green Dress. It’s a spread that goes well with many favorites, including baked potatoes, hot dogs and her recipe for gas-station biscuits.
“It goes well with everything, like a little black dress,” Howard said Tuesday. “It’s my favorite.”
In the book, she tells stories of the stress facing book deadline, pressures on her family life and hard decisions to close one of her two restaurants and reduce staff amid the pandemic.
“The restaurants were understaffed, guest counts were down across the board and morale was at an all-time low,” she writes in the book. “Maybe it’s a stretch that Little Green Dress and this pain-in-the-ass of a book saved my business as well as my sanity, but I don’t think so.
Tickets for the book signing can be purchased by going to https://www. duckscottage.com/event/vivian-howard-drive-thrubook-signing.