What This Chattanooga Chef Does with 900 Pounds of Figs

Chef Erik Niel was born in Texas and raised in southern Louisiana where, when it comes to cooking culture, there’s little to no separation between food and folks. “It’s all around you, and that’s how you talk about people: ‘This is Miss Betty. She makes the best okra gumbo we’ve ever had.’ You are the thing that you cook. I thought everybody was like that everywhere. That was my childhood,”...