Hugh Acheson grew up in Canada, but discovered his passion for food in Georgia. He spent his early childhood with his dad, an economics professor with a basic dinner repertoire: “Dad made us fish sticks, burnt rice, and canned yellow wax beans. He tried, but the culinary arc of an economist was limited,” Acheson recalls. When Acheson moved to Georgia (and later South Carolina) to live with his mom and stepdad, he got a taste for Southern food and life—fried okra, his stepfather’s collard greens, barbecue, as well as a healthy dose of football and tailgating.
Back in Canada a few years later, he spent his days “skipping school, playing pool, drinking” and, along the way, “cooking a lot.” His first job came at fifteen, when he became a dishwasher at a bar/restaurant. He then cooked his way through college in Montreal and left school to focus on food. A stint with Rob McDonald at the famed Café Henry Burger in Ottawa taught Acheson the importance of poise in a busy kitchen as well as stylized French cuisine.
He followed his ex-wife, then a student, to Athens, Georgia, a college town made famous by the B52s and REM in the early 1980s, but not exactly known as a food mecca. That changed in 2002, two years after he opened his first restaurant, Five & Ten, when Food & Wine magazine named him one of the best new chefs. Acheson followed up that success with more restaurants in Athens and Atlanta. Today he’s finding a creative outlet with his new podcast, Hugh Stirs the Pot. “I’m known for being a bit of a jackass and outspoken. So the podcast is me sitting in the restaurant talking with food critics and chefs about life and chefdom and all sorts of stuff.”
When he’s not managing his restaurants, podcasting, or writing cookbooks, you can find Acheson hanging out on his back porch at home or cooking with his daughters. His kitchen is cozy—shelves filled with cookbooks line its perimeter, there are worn Persian rugs on the wood floors, and a cast-iron kettle sits on his electric stove. Over in the corner, there’s usually a terra-cotta kimchi pot filled with homemade vinegar, ready for making one of his favorite pickled sides. His fridge also contains multiple glass-jar experiments in fermenting and pickling; he’s concentrated on kimchi after a few kombucha fails.
As he made plates of farro, which we ate outside on his porch with some cold kombucha, we talked about food—and the inside of his refrigerator.
CURRENT HOMETOWN: Athens, Georgia
RESTAURANT THAT MADE HIS NAME: Five & Ten, Athens
SIGNATURE STYLE: Southern with a nod to French/Italian technique
BEST KNOWN FOR: His gig as a judge on Top Chef; four cookbooks; six James Beard Award nominations; and his slight unibrow, which he only shaves for charity events
FRIDGE: Kenmore
- BREW DR. KOMBUCHA—“I tried to make my own but it’s hard to do live culture when you travel a lot. Sometimes my kombucha experiments blew up in the fridge.”
- ATHENA PARADISO BEER—“They’re from Creature Comforts Brewery, a wonderful locally owned brewery right here in Athens. They’re very refreshing.”
- HI-WIRE GOSE BEER
- CHAMPAGNE / FRANCIACORTA SPARKLING WINE
- VERDICCHIO
- GOCHUJANG
- BROWN MISO
- HOMEMADE VINAIGRETTE—“This is a classic French-style vinaigrette that I’ve been using for at least thirty years. It’s made up of three parts olive oil, one part red wine vinegar, garlic, Dijon, salt, and pepper.”
- PORK LOIN, BACON, MEXICAN CHORIZO
- PICKLED OKRA—“I started pickling when I was very young. In chefdom it’s very important to understand the necessity of saving a season. My favorite things to pickle are probably wild ramps, okra, green tomatoes, green beans, and onions.”
- HOMEMADE DAIKON GREEN KIMCHI
- PICKLED HABANERO PEPPERS
- RED MULE GRITS—“These are great grits made nearby. The mill was built out of old transmission parts, and a mule powers it by walking in a circle.”
- BOILED PEANUTS—“They’re a big Southern staple. I boil them in water with salt and spices like star anise and chili. I eat them as a snack, but they are also good in salads.”
- PICKLED BEETS
- HOMEMADE CHICKEN STOCK—“I make soup probably once or twice a week. When I’m not in the restaurants, I work a lot from home, and soups are an easy, from-scratch meal to cook.”
- BEEF SIRLOIN
- TURMERIC, GALANGAL, FLAT-LEAF PARSLEY, FENNEL
- “MYSTERY MEATS—“If I had to venture to guess I’d say oxtail, steaks, ground beef, and boneless lamb leg. I should probably get better at labeling my home fridge.”
- CHESTNUTS—“I roast them and use them in stuffings. I keep them in the freezer because they don’t keep for very long after being roasted.”
Q & A
What do you eat when coming home from a long day at work? Roast chicken, gravy, turnip greens, and rice.
Do you cook a lot at home? I do. We all should. It completes the day. I make soups. Salads. Food at home is about nourishment and simplicity—roast chicken, stews.
It looks like you have the quintessential bachelor’s fridge. Divorced human fridge is more like it. Bachelor implies young and carefree. I am old and anxiety-ridden—but happy for the most part.
What do you do with kimchi at home? I fold it into cooked rice for a simple rice bowl or use it minced combined with cream for a simple sauce or for vinaigrettes. There is a ton of umami flavor going on.
How did you get started making it? I started making kimchi a number of years ago after eating it at Korean restaurants and reading about it. Folks like David Chang had a big influence on that. It is a chef’s quest to take a global idea and make it in their own way. I make cabbage and radish kimchi in the classic way, but also sometimes use collard greens and stems, kale, Brussels sprouts, spring onions, and a number of other things. It’s pretty much always in my fridge, whether it’s homemade or store-bought. It just adds a lot of flavor to food.
Do you test new ideas at home? When you’ve got a number of restaurants I find you cook at the restaurants less. So you experiment a lot at home. But a lot of it is thought process before execution.
Why refrigerate your grains? A lot of grains are sprouted and they go rancid if not.
What do you cook for your daughters? I grilled some steak the other day, with stewed greens and pommes Anna. The kids meander over from their mom’s house. They come for dinner a lot.
What would we never find in your fridge? Tomatoes. They should never live in the fridge.
What foods do you hate? Or what foods would you never eat? Not much really. I’m not a huge kidneys fan.
What is your favorite junk food? Arby’s fast food.
Where do you go food shopping? Kroger. It ain’t fancy but it is convenient. Also the local farmers market and a huge Korean store called H Mart.
What do you pick up there? I most often buy kimchi, Chinese greens, bok choy, lemongrass, lots of ginger, and galangal. I also buy a lot of fish there because they have a wonderful fish counter. My most recent trip I bought a bunch of ruby-red shrimp and Newfoundland snow crab.
What are some of your favorite local produce or products to use? About ten types of field peas, chilies of all shapes and sizes, tiny turnips, spring leeks, Vidalia onions, tender young collards, okra of all shapes and types. It’s the South!