THE
FRESH
MARKET
COOK LIKE A CHEF
COOK LIKE A CHEF WITH
RICKY
MOORE
f
@ricky.moore.3766
James Beard award-winning chef and self-proclaimed North Carolina seafood
evangelist, Ricky Moore started cooking for others as a chef in the U.S. Army
before graduating from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. He worked
in some of the country's top kitchens from D.C. to Chicago, competed on Iron
Chef America, and then opened Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham, NC, in 2012.
A tiny restaurant with a big reputation, Saltbox serves up Moore's take on fresh
local seafood. Inspired by classic roadside fish shacks of eastern North Carolina,
the eatery features a menu that changes daily, depending on what's in season.
Moore authored his first cookbook in 2019, and in 2020, Saltbox was featured
in the Museum of Food and Drink's Black History Month exhibit.
How did growing up on the North Carolina
coast impact your decision to specialize in seafood?
I hadn't explored seafood exclusively as a chef until
Seafood moment
I rolled up on the location in downtown Durham
(where we first opened), it reminded me of a place where
I used to get hot seafood in my hometown of New Bern.
It just felt like the most organic thing to do in that location.
There have always been a number of seafood restaurants
in Durham, but I felt there was an opportunity to really
dig in and bring that experience back to the forefront.
Q You've called yourself the "evangelist oft mean to you?
Local seafood is my gospel and always has been,
BLACK
OWNED
BUSINESS
A
Best Chef Southeast by the James Beard Foundation-
the ultimate recognition for honoring my culinary heritage
and the place I call home. My vision and goal are crystal
clear: to source the freshest local seafood from North
Carolina fisher people and prepare it with integrity in a
manner that celebrates the regionality of our coastal cooking.
26 TheFreshMarket.com | shop.TheFreshMarket.com
As a child and as a member of the Armed Forces,
Q all any
places or regions that inspire your cooking?
A
Every place I've gone to, I've picked something up,
be it an idea, ingredient or technique. But if I had to
pick one place that has inspired me the most, I'd have to say
Singapore-in particular, the wet markets, where so many
cultures come together through the connection of food and
where each vendor specializes in one or a few dishes.
You can eat very well at an incredible value, and the quality
of the ingredients is excellent. You go to one stall for fantastic
noodles, then another for black pepper crab, and each dish
has been perfected after cooking them over and over again.
Those seafood stalls reminded me-in a way-of the fish shacks
that used to be much more common across the Carolinas.
That was my vision for Saltbox-to open a small seafood-
focused place with a limited menu using the best possible
ingredients, prepared properly day after day.
is Black History Month and a great time to discuss
the contributions of Black Americans to American history
and culture. Who are the Black chefs who inspire you?
A
Patrick Clark and Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, who might
