It’s been a little more than a year since I first shared the news about Katie Coss officially taking over the kitchen at Husk as the executive chef, the first woman to take that role within the Neighborhood Dining Group that owns Husk, McCrady’s and Minero in Charleston, S.C. At the time, I was already impressed with the young chef’s confidence and competence in the kitchen, born out of the fact that she had worked every station in the line and trained just about everyone who now worked for her. I enjoyed bits and bites of her food at events around town and during lunches at Husk, but it’s been a minute since I sat down for a full dinner service at this essential Nashville eatery. So I set about to rectify that problem with a special night out.
First of all, it’s tough to write about Husk, because no matter whether I enjoyed a particular dish or not, the odds that a diner visiting on another night would even have the chance to experience that same menu item is iffy, since the dishes change daily based on seasonality and availability. Still, I came away from my recent dinner so impressed by the execution of Coss and her team that I feel confident about recommending the experience to anyone.
Working the pass under the watchful eye of St. Dolly Parton, Coss demonstrated an easy grace that also reflected from the rest of the kitchen crew. It’s not like she glared and intimated the cooks on the line; on the contrary, this was a team that knew what they were doing and took pride in what they do. That’s not a bad way to make a living.
Again, rather than comment too much on particular dishes that probably won’t show up on the menu again until the next time the ingredients used reach perfect ripeness next year, my memories of the meal revolve around the thoughtful and professional elements of each dish. A cut of Denver steak was properly sliced across the grain, allowing the sometimes tougher cut of beef to demonstrate the tenderness that can accompany the perfect beefiness of the Bear Creek Farm meat when it is treated with respect. Coss actually lives at Bear Creek, and surely saw that animal when it was still on the hoof, so it meant something to her to butcher it properly herself and prepare the meat to show it off as well as possible.
An order of oysters was, in a novel twist, topped with a perfect accompaniment of cantaloupe foam, but what stood out even more to me was the fact that the oysters were perfectly shucked, with shells that were clean and smooth but still filled with the luscious liquor of the oyster. I can’t even figure out how that happened! The ubiquitous Southern starter of deviled eggs was kicked up a notch with a silky egg puree offset by a sweet/heat crunch of crispy chicken skin.
An heirloom tomato dish that still haunts my dreams was another thoughtfully composed plate, with the perfect addition of biscuit croutons, baked to the right crispness where there was some crunch to them — but not so much that they shatter under your fork. After the meal, Coss told me she had probably already worked her way through six editions of that other omnipresent Southern saw, shrimp-and-grits. There are those who say there's only one right way to make that dish, the prototypical version created by the late Bill Neal at Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, N.C., in the early 1980s. The shrimp-and-grits dish Coss was serving at Husk the night I visited (note: the team may have changed again since then) was so delightfully far from Neal’s butter, bacon and cheddar edition (that I also adore), I’m confident that Neal would have wolfed down a couple bowls with great pride for what he had wrought.
Coss used the regional favorite Royal red shrimp, a sweet treat from Mobile Bay that taste more like lobster than a regular old Gulf shrimp. The grits were from Geechie Boy, an artisan grist mill known for using heirloom seeds to produce meals that are incredibly creamy and flavorful. The dairy came in the form of asiago cheese and buttermilk, adding a nice hint of acid to the dish. Additional layers of flavors came from the addition of summer corn, zucchini juice (!) plus exotic Moroccan spices, cayenne, chile oil and shrimp oil. A final topping of onion ash was sprinkled on because, well, because she could.
Even over the rest of the dishes I enjoyed during my meal, the shrimp-and-grits hit me right between the eyes and reminded a jaded frequent diner like me exactly why we go out to eat. I love to eat and I love to cook, but not just anyone has access to these sorts of ingredients and the creativity to use them properly to transform a plate that could easily become tired into a transcendent dining experience. I don’t know the next time I’ll order shrimp-and-grits, so Husk and Coss may get to retire as champion.
How can a restaurant that opened to such acclaim, and which is part of a restaurant group that has produced some of the best chefs of our generation from this region, fall out of the notice of the collective local consciousness? I don’t know. We certainly have lots of other shiny new things to attract our crow-like attention. But don’t sleep on Husk or Chef Coss. What she’s doing up on Rutledge Hill is ingenious, and Husk is still a very important institution, both locally and nationally. Make the trip up the hill again sometime soon, or else the tourists are going to take up all the spots on Resy!
In other Coss news, there will be a more casual opportunity to experience her brand of Southern food as she joins up with pitmaster Shane Nasby for the second edition of the guest chef series at HoneyFire BBQ on Oct. 3 at 6:30 p.m. Building on the success of his first guest chef event with John Lasater of Hattie B’s, Nasby has invited Coss to join him for a family-style dinner will feature a whole hog and smoked chickens prepared onsite at HoneyFire, along with farm-to-table side dishes made with produce from Husk’s partner farms.
Tickets are $50 per person, and are on sale now at HoneyFire.com. A portion of proceeds from the event will be donated to People Loving Nashville, a local nonprofit that works to bring hot meals and warm clothing to those in need.Tickets include a four-course family-style meal and soft drinks. The full bar will be open with alcohol available for purchase, including a whiskey list with 175 offerings.
Here’s the menu to get you excited:
Passed hors d’oeuvres
- Husk’s signature deviled eggs & fried chicken skins, served with Habanada hot sauce
Salad Course
- Simple salad with winter citrus pickled shrimp
Main Course
- Hickory smoked whole hog & smoked chicken
Side Dishes
- Spaghetti squash Johnny cakes
- Pumpkin braised greens
- TN smoked cheddar pimento mac n cheese
Desserts
- Pumpkin sugar cream pie
- Peanut butter banana pudding
