Chef Ken has vegetarian greens. You may think “Yeah, so?”, unless you know that Chef Ken’s is all about Southern food.

And, as you may  know Southern vegetables are not vegetarian. Some form of pork is almost always included in the ingredients in southern vegetables. It can be salt pork, bacon, bacon grease, fat back, ham hocks, side meat, or one of the many other creative ways the lesser cuts of pork and pork fat have been prepared or preserved by the people of the southern states. I should know. From the time I was 8, I cooked with these prepared pork parts. We always had a can for bacon grease sitting on our stove top. Yes, sitting on the stove top, day after day, not refrigerated, waiting to be added to vegetables or used to fry meats.
My corn bread was cooked with bacon grease as an ingredient and with bacon grease in the cast iron pan to season the pan and release the corn bread. The pan is put into the hot oven with a several tablespoons of bacon grease in it. After the pan is hot and the bacon grease melted pour the cornbread batter into the bacon grease. You will hear the batter sizzle in the grease as it hits the pan. And, you will see the edges of the cornbread batter cook. When the cornbread is done, turn the cast iron pan over onto a plate. The cornbread will easily slide out of the pan and have a crunchy, crispy crust, on the bottom and sides. Ho’ Cake is made the same way. A big, yummy biscuit made in a cast iron pan.

But, this post is supposed to be about Chef Ken. Ken is a pro chef with many years experience and many years training in his mother’s and grandmother’s kitchens. In 2006 he opened his own place, Chef Ken’s, at 7135 Germantown Avenue in the heart of Mount Airy, Philadelphia. He features healthy southern cooking, the kind I had to learn to cook after I left my parent’s home and was cooking for my family. My favorites are the greens, spare ribs, and blackened tilapia.

To learn more about his experience and wonderful restaurant watch this video: