Former CIC Student Micah Garrison Featured in Charleston Magazine's Chef's Table

Quick Bite: Vintage Vittles

Written By Kinsey Gidick Photographs by Kristen Williams

Chef Micah Garrison shares bygone flavors made from heirloom produce

"What with its stableyards, slave cabins, and Versaille-inspired landscape, Middleton Place has long served as a venue for experiencing plantation life. But, did you know that thanks to a green-thumbed chef and his heirloom garden, visitors today can truly taste the past? “I spent days researching the vegetables that would have grown here when it was a plantation,” says Micah Garrison, chef of Middleton Place Restaurant. Following stints at both 82 Queen and Cypress, Garrison took over the Middleton kitchen as executive chef, and subsequently gardener, in 2009. “We grow okra, cucumbers, beans, 15 different kinds of heirloom tomatoes, and peppers,” he says. It’s a lot of work, he admits, but the pay-off is on the plate. Even if you don’t have a garden full of heirloom veggies, Garrison says making an historically reminiscent meal from your own late summer crops, or farmers market substitutes, is easier than you think."

For the recipe and the rest of the story, please see: http://www.charlestonmag.com/charleston_magazine/feature/vintage_vittles