Camden Lifestyle Magazine Issue 02 "The Outdoors"

BOOK NEWS
Written by Whitney Otawka
Photography by Emily Dorio
In 2010, I knew it was time to venture out on my own. I was
ready to cook dishes that were a reflection of who I am, my inspirations
and my influences. As I daydreamed of how I would
get to this next step, Cumberland Island presented itself— a
chef I was working for mentioned it in passing. It was not a
well-known culinary destination at the time; oddly enough I
had learned about it years earlier watching a PBS special about
national parks. Cumberland Island is a remote barrier island,
a national seashore off the coast of Georgia. Most who see
the island see wild beauty and undeveloped coastline. I saw the
opportunity to create a truly unique culinary program. Hidden
away on this island sits a sixteen-room inn, Greyfield, with a
two-acre organic garden and access to the undeveloped seventeen-mile-long
island that surrounds it. I wrote a letter to the
proprietors of Greyfield proposing that they appoint me as
their chef. I visited the island, cooked a dinner for the guests,
and I was hired—as simple as that. Ben and I sold almost everything
we owned and we moved to this protected national
seashore with a permanent population of around forty-five
people. On Cumberland Island Ben and I quickly learned that
cooking is not confined to the kitchen. There are wood grills
and smokers, with stacks of freshly chopped cedar and oak
ready to be burned down into coals. The intracoastal waterway
is visible from the kitchen window—shrimp and fishing boats
can be seen passing by daily. Outside we collected bay leaves,
fig leaves, wild mushrooms, muscadines, and wild blueberries.
Citrus trees are prolific and wild banana trees are rooted in a
marshy corner of the garden. The honey produced by the numerous
beehives on the island is a golden elixir with a unique
cinnamon quality.
- An excerpt from the Saltwater Table