Chef Bryan Cates Hosts Dinner in the Garden
Four courses of fresh fare plus an artisanal bread course from Chris Wilkins

The Básico garden is overflowing with fresh produce this time of year, and Executive Chef Bryan Cates is excited to showcase the bounty with a summer-themed al fresco dinner on Monday, June 1. Cates and farmer Chris Miller of Sow Seasonal work closely to grow fresh produce and special ingredients right outside Básico’s kitchen door. Currently, the garden boxes are producing herbs, cabbage, spring onions, carrots, celery root, and lovage. Elsewhere on the Mixson property, Miller is cultivating a one-acre farm which promises to add even more vegetables to the mix in the coming months. 

Dinner in the Garden will begin with a snack reception followed by a special course of artisanal bread from Chris Wilkins, formerly of the Florence in Savannah, Ga. In a recent review of that restaurant, the Post and Courier’s Hanna Raskin gave the bread course a big thumbs up: “the bread slate was arrayed with slices of crusty, open-crumbed farm bread; seed-edged filone emblazoned with golden raisins; and dimpled focaccia with toasty tops, sliced tidily as tea-party sandwiches.” 

At this dinner, Wilkins’ bread will be served with Fishing Creek chevre (made in Chester, S.C.), charcoaled date, and smoked olive oil. A four-course dinner will follow with lots of vegetables, a fresh local catch, and heritage pork. 

Menu

First: cabbage, garden herbs, cold walnut, citrus

Second: roasted hog snapper, grilled carrot, spring onion, rice grits. 

Third: Carolina Heritage Farms pork loin, hen of the woods mushrooms, celery root, lovage

Fourth: hazelnut ice cream and caramelized whey