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By Taylor Fuller
Ocracoke Alive’s new YouTube series called “The Ocracoke Kitchen Project” will promote Ocracoke’s favorite recipes to people around the world.
The video project features local chefs sharing their backgrounds and favorite recipes.
The first episode opens with a camera flying over the island while a jaunty reel plays underneath, then catches host David Tweedie at the Community Center dock to interview the first chef, Daphne Bennink, owner of the Back Porch Restaurant.
The action moves to the Back Porch Kitchen where Bennink demonstrates a traditional classic French preparation of fish– flounder meunière, which is flounder dredged in flour and cooked in butter sauce.
Episodes will focus on a specific local chef, looking into the lives of the chefs in Ocracoke and give insight to their favorite recipes. Information about the chef’s family history and background is given, as episode one talks about Bennink’s French background and its influence on her cooking.
Tweedie said Ocracoke Alive decided to start this series to “showcase an important part of Ocracoke’s community,” looking to attract people to the local restaurants here on the island.
“We’re thinking of the series as a community-wide project, not restricted to merely businesses but also well-known chefs around the island,” he said. “The subject of local recipes on Ocracoke has been under-represented but it is such an important part of the community quality in terms of businesses and the care that the local restaurants put towards their food.”
By the end of the year, Ocracoke Alive aims to have all six episodes of the first season on YouTube.
Episode two will feature local chef and owner of Eduardo’s Food Truck, Eduardo Chavez.
On the upcoming episodes, you can expect to see local restaurant owners and other well-known chefs in Ocracoke showcasing their favorite recipes.
“We wanted to think of it as a way to help promote local recipes to the foodie who might be off the island and not aware of Ocracoke,” Tweedie said.
All episodes will be linked on the Ocracoke Alive website at ocracokealive.org, as well as on The Ocracoke Kitchen Project’s YouTube channel.
The series was filmed and edited by Gary Mitchell and Corey Yeatts along with volunteers Lachlan Howard and Daniela Garcia.
Island native Taylor Fuller is a sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill and is interning at the Ocracoke Observer.
