MoxieTalk with Kirt Jacobs #244: Ouita Michel

Since 2001, when Ouita & her husband, Chris, opened the Holly Hill Inn in Midway, KY., she has made locally grown ingredients a priority in her world-class cuisine within her family of rests. where many a bourbon aficionado will find her restaurants along the KY. Bourbon Trail-such as Holly Hill Inn or Wallace Station Deli & the Midway Bakery ALL in Midway, KY. or the Windy Corner Mkt. & Rest. or Smithtown Seafood or Smithtown at the Summit & HoneyWood all in Midway, KY. Michel's restaurants since inception have collectively purchased over $2 million of KY-grown meats, dairy & produce-not too shabby! She has been a James Beard Fdtn. Award nominee as Outstanding Restaurateur, & Best Chef in the Southeast. Ouita & Chris are graduates of the Culinary Institute of America in NY., is a member of Slow Food USA; deacon & free community supper coordinator for Midway Christian Church; Bd. member of FoodChain, a non-profit food incubator in Lexington, Ky., & Woodford Forward, a land-use group; Hindman Settlement School, which is dedicated to enriching Central. Appalachian culture; a member of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. Other honors include the Fayette Alliance Agricultural Excellence Award & Bluegrass Tomorrow's most prestigious honor, the Josephine Abercrombie Award, given to a person who contributes tirelessly to improve quality of life in the Bluegrass, not to mention she is also the Chef-in-residence, Woodford Reserve Distillery, Versailles, Ky. & Michel & her restaurants are regularly featured in local & national media, such as CBS This Morning, USA Today, Southern Living & Garden & Gun-not too shabby! She, Chris & their lovely daughter, Willa, live in Midway in a 200-year-old cabin with an expansive garden adjacent to where else? The Holly Hill Inn.