Over its eight-year span, Music To Your Mouth has grown beyond our wildest dreams, and we’ve made some great memories along the way. For our 9th year, we are pushing our big ideas even further to give guests more of what they love – with a few surprises in store, too. By getting back to what it really means to celebrate Southern cuisine, we foster an intimate, personal experience for each guest, which leads to a deeper exploration of why and how food is so important in the South.

This year, we are pulling together engaging members of the food world and curious eaters and thinkers to explore a particular topic about food and drink so that guests can walk away with a more lively knowledge of food and wine. We have taken some MTYM favorites and made them even better, with a focus on the people, places, processes and ingredients that make the Southern foodways so compelling – and in our opinion, oh so tasty.

Culinary Salons: Welcome to Our Kitchen

We’ve reimagined the ways that guests interact with our chefs and personalities to take the experience of eating and drinking back to the good ol’ days – around a table, with one-on-one interaction – and you may even get to lick the spoon. Each Culinary Salon will take place in an intimate setting where guests can engage directly with the chefs and personalities of Music To Your Mouth, making those connections (and the food) even tastier.

Some dishes are born of a chef’s recent trip, some are the product of conversation, some are inspired by music or literature or art, and still others are driven by an intriguing ingredient or preparation technique. The salon format allows us to talk about some really great ideas that we haven’t dug into before – topics like oyster harvesting, vegetable preserving and cocktail culture. As a guest, you will have access not only to the finished dish, but the process and the thought that went into creating that dish.

Exploring Place, Process and Ingredients

From your grandmother’s famous blackberry pie to the most decadent filet and foie gras, every meal has a story, assembled in a special place, by a certain process, with specific ingredients. This year we are deconstructing the South’s best recipes to understand and appreciate the labor of love that goes into each meal and the stories that follow. Each event will uncover the places, the processes and the ingredients that make Southern food so captivating and delicious.

Playing With Your Food, Reinvented

We’re finally listening to our moms and making breakfast the most important meal of the day (both days, in fact). On Friday night we’ll uncover the secrets of our guest chefs’ favorite potluck recipes, and on Saturday night everything will be cooked over an open fire as we count down to the ever-popular surprise concert. You’ll also notice the Culinary Salons are the new events during the day on Friday and Saturday. These personal events offer guests a behind-the-scenes view of what it really takes to prepare (and eat!) great food and drinks in the South.%GALLERY%Culinary Salons

As an intimate experience between guests and chefs, Culinary Salons allow you to explore the places, processes and ingredients of Southern food in a whole new way.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Ingredient: Greens

From straight-up Southern to fancy microgreens and Indian spices, Steven Satterfield and Asha Gomez will teach you how to have your way with greens.

Ingredient: Apples

Diane Flynt of Foggy Ridge Cider will talk cider and tackle apples with pastry chef Lisa Donovan. They will discuss how apples differ for pie and cider and explore hand pie pairings. (Bring your sweet tooth.)

Process: Masters-Level Mixology

Master mixer Tiffanie Barriere will teach you how to infuse, bruise, stir and shake insanely-good libations, making you the most useful guest at any party.

Ingredient: Cheese

Chef Anne Quatrano will lead a discussion on the best cheeses being made in the American South and then will demonstrate how she incorporates these flavors into her recipes.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Process: Tending the Hogs

Rise and shine with a little hair of the dog (we’re talking Bloody Marys) to check in on our pitmasters to make sure all is on track for the Open Fire BBQ Bonanza. (Yes, we just used the word ‘bonanza,’ and that is a first!)

Ingredient: Oysters

Bluffton oysterman Jared Mayhew will take you through a day in the life among the May River oyster beds as Chef Mike Lata prepares a dish using Jared’s fresh oysters.

Place: Italy in Tennessee

Michael Hudman, Philip Krajeck and Andy Ticer are Tennessee boys born-and-bred, but they will share about how they cook with the soul (and the larder) of Italy.

Process: Preserving

Chef Spike Gjerde will partner with canning expert Cathy Barrow as they explore preserving place and cooking with local ingredients year-round.

Process: Cook at Home

Chef Ashley Christensen will teach you how to show off when all you have are grocery store ingredients, a regular stove and no sous-chef.

Ingredient: Ham I Am

Sam Edwards from Edwards Virginia Smokehouse and Chef Sean Brock will explore ham and whiskey pairings with master distiller Drew Kulsveen from Willett Distillery.

Place: Southern Sips

Diane Flynt of Foggy Ridge Cider, Steven Grubbs and Tiffanie Barriere will discuss the renaissance taking place in the Southern beverage world.

Photography by Bonjwing Lee