Hôte Cuisine

In conversation with Neal Wavra. Neal Wavra was on track for a career in global trade policy — trained in commercial diplomacy and conflict resolution, a summer at the Hague — when his government supervisor flicked a proposal back across her desk without reading it and told him they weren’t in the business of innovating.That was twenty years ago. He's since attended the Culinary Institute of America, worked the floor at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago — at the time, the most demanding room in American fine dining, the place that trained a generation, ten James Beard Awards — and eventually found his way to a building on Main Street in Marshall, Virginia that's been feeding people since the 1800s.He and his wife Star have been running it as Field & Main for ten years. In 2023 they bought Red Truck Bakery — the business across the street — twice listed among the New York Times’ best food purveyors in the country and a favourite of everyone from Oprah to the Obamas. This year, Neal was a James Beard Award finalist — the only one from the great state of Virginia.But our conversation isn’t really about any of that. It’s about what happens when you decide the thing directly in front of you is enough — and the garden you’re standing in is worth the full force of your attention.Neal has views on all of it — on farm-to-table as an alibi for mediocrity, on what genuine connection between a kitchen and its community actually requires, on whether excellence needs external recognition to be real — and they’re not what you’d expect.Have something to say? I'm all ears. If this conversation meant something to you, share it — it's still the best way new listeners discover the show.The podcast is free and always will be. If you'd like to support the reporting, essays and interviews behind these conversations, consider becoming a paid subscriber.  Subscribe hereWant more between essays and episodes? Check out Below the Fold —dispatches on the stories worth paying attention to, from the people in my own backyard to those reshaping the wider world.Watch clips and video previews on YouTube Credits:Host: Meredith Ogilvie-ThompsonSound Editing: Dax Krishna and the team at SpeechDocsMusic: Ilya Kuznetsov