Observer staff report
Executive Chef Daphne Bennink, owner of Ocracoke’s Back Porch Restaurant, has joined the NC Catch Chef Ambassador Program, the organization’s first to represent Ocracoke Island.
From the coast to the mountains, the chef ambassadors sing the praises of real, local, fresh, North Carolina Seafood.
Raised by French parents on Long Island, she learned about the treasures and bounty of the shore and sea.
“My father would take us out on the island where we would forage for mussels, long neck clams and these tiny snails that we would steam and pick the meat out with pins,” Bennink told NC Catch. “We summered on Ocracoke Island where we dipped bluefin crabs along the seashore. On a good day we scooped up a trash can full, then steamed them up with lots of Old Bay and feasted.”
Alice Pipitte Spirkel, who lived with Bennink’s grandparents and did all the cooking, taught young Daphne the basics of French cooking. By the time she was 11, Daphne could make a simple cheese souffle or a caramel flan.
At the Back Porch since 1998, Bennink’s cooking blends traditional French technique with Southern coastal flavors, focused on seafood and local produce.
Bennink says 90% of her seafood is locally sourced. Items such as calamari are not locally fished.
“But the majority of the fish that I purchase is from local fisher men and women,” she said. “That’s something that is important to me, and that I’ve really focused on the last several years.”
One of thoses local sources is her son Dylan’s oyster and clam operation called Blackbeard’s Tears.
Buying local, including produce, is important to local economies.
“Not only does it benefit our state, but it also benefits the carbon footprint by reducing shipping,” she said. “I’ve always recycled and composted and support the local economy. It’s not always an easy place to make a living. So, any way we can support our local industry and economy I think we should do that.”
The Back Porch was founded in the mid-1980s when Debbie Wells and the late John Ivey Wells, after having co-operated The Pelican Restaurant (now DAJIO), purchased the real estate for the Back Porch along Back Road.
The restaurant industry is challenging, she said.
“It requires a lot of staff, and it’s very challenging because the expenses are pretty astronomical these days,” she said. “When you’re lucky like me and you’ve had a a great staff that’s been with you a long time, you you need to compensate them as best as you can. Small, independently owned restaurants are constantly facing a lot of challenges, and it’s important to for communities to support them.”
