Vivian Howard
chef and television personality
Born in Deep Run, NC, to tobacco and hog farming parents, Vivian Howard learned early on to appreciate the ebb and flow of eating with the seasons. Still, it took 23 years and a start in the advertising business to convince her a career in food was feasible. After college, Vivian moved to New York for work, but found the City’s food and restaurant scene far more intriguing. A server position at the Voyage in Greenwich Village made it possible for her to begin trailing under Scott Barton, the restaurant’s chef. She later went on to learn from creative, cutting edge chefs Wylie Dufresne and Sam Mason at WD-50 and later, as a member of the opening team at Jean Georges Vongericten’s Spice Market.
In 2005, Vivian, and her now husband Ben Knight decided to return to Vivian’s roots to open a farm to fork restaurant in the small town of Kinston, NC. They opened Chef & the Farmer in the summer of 2006 serving local, seasonal, creative cuisine. Over the past four years, Chef Howard has developed strong relationships with local farmers making it possible to source over 70% of the restaurant’s foodstuffs from within 60 miles. Chef & the Farmer has become beloved by locals and a destination for diners all over the state.
Vivian is the star of the PBS show, "A Chef's Life", a half-hour character-driven documentary. Each episode follows Vivian out of the kitchen and into cornfields, strawberry patches and hog farms as she hunts down the ingredients that inspire her seasonal menus. In Season 5, Vivian Howard finds plenty of reasons to celebrate, as Chef and the Farmer turns 10 years old and her first cookbook hits the New York Times bestseller list. Deep Run Roots is Vivian's definitive Southern cookbook, and it features her favorite family dishes, memorable meals from her award-winning restaurant, and traditional preparations. This cookbook is a culinary love letter to the region she has spent her life discovering.
