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Cast-Iron cooking

with chef Adam Hayes

On Firefor Cast Iron

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by ALICE DETERS photography by WHITNEY OTT

When he's not creating the weekly menu at Canyon Kitchen, Adam loves to cook outside over an open fire.

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In many respects, Chef Adam Hayes is a modern-day cowboy. The executive chef at Canyon Kitchen at Lonesome Valley outside Cashiers, North Carolina, enjoys cooking over an open fire with his cast-iron skillets whenever he can. He wears his chef’s knife

in a holster on his hip at all times. Willie Nelson and Sturgill Simpson can often be heard playing in his kitchen. And, above all else, he holds a deep and abiding love for the land. Adam grew up in a very small town in central North Carolina. “I’m from Randolph County, North Carolina,” says Adam. “I say “county” because the town is so small that it’s hard to claim, but it’s called Trinity.” Perhaps this is why he seems to have found his home at Canyon Kitchen, a place where he can get back to his roots and truly be himself. Tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Lonesome Valley is a community that spans nearly 800 picturesque acres. The area hearkens back to a simpler time, with much of the landscape untouched. Canyon Kitchen, Lonesome Valley’s restaurant, sits in a meadow at the base of the mountain, presenting diners with breathtaking views at every turn and breezes from the open doors that surround the dining room. Canyon Kitchen’s menu changes nightly, and dishes are always full of the seasonal f lavors that ref lect the area’s Southern heritage. “Working at Canyon Kitchen in Lonesome Valley has always been a dream job,” he says. Adam comes from a long line of cooks, and his childhood included weekends in his grandmother’s bakery in downtown Asheboro. His mother regularly cooked family dinners and his father was an avid griller. Following in his father’s footsteps, Adam says his first true cooking experience came when he started grilling after going off to college. “Any time I would visit home, my mom would send me back with coolers full of meat to grill. I had no idea what I was doing, but I started experimenting and really got the hang of things.” Adam’s time at college was short-lived; he couldn’t keep his grades up and returned home. “When I got back home, my dad sat down with me and told me that I really needed to figure something out. I took a job as a fry cook at a sandwich shop in town. It was so high energy and high stress—just the kind of environment I thrive in. I was hooked.”

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He continued to work as a fry cook that summer and learned as much as he could from the cooks he worked with. “I started dating my now-wife, and she eventually asked me to go to culinary school with her. I agreed, and we both enrolled at Guilford Technical Community College in Greensboro. She hated it. I loved it. And the rest is history.” Prior to joining Canyon Kitchen, Adam spent many years working in resorts across the South. He found his greatest success at the Grand Bohemian Hotel Asheville, where he served as executive chef for five years. While there, he revamped the hotel’s menu to focus on the farm-to-table movement and won a number of awards, as well as an invitation to host a dinner at the James Beard house in 2013. However, in 2014, Adam was ready for something new. “I wanted to get back to what I knew—my roots and traditions—and back into more of the restaurant scene so I could focus on developing my culinary skills and face a new challenge. Lonesome Valley checked all of those boxes.” Adam has quite a few plans for Canyon Kitchen in the coming months. “I want Canyon Kitchen to function like my kitchen would have back in the day. We want to focus on preserving and pickling. We also want to expand the gardens here as well as amp up the foraging. Other than that, I plan to keep learning as much as I can and trying out new things, while not forgetting the things I know best.” His words drip with passion, and it’s clear that Adam has found his home at Lonesome Valley. He’s a natural preparing food the old-fashioned way—letting it cook slowly in cast iron over an open flame. And why wouldn’t he be? He’s living the cowboy dream.

Canyon Kitchen is open Wednesday through Sunday for dinner, mid-May through early November. You can make reservations by calling (828) 743-7967 or visit their website lonesomevalley.com/project/canyon-kitchen. Canyon Kitchen is located at 94 Lonesome Valley Road in Sapphire, North Carolina.

Adam makes the sausage served at Canyon Kitchen using a vintage sausage stuffer he inherited from a friend (photo on page 94).

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Adam’s Cast-Iron CollectionThe pride and joy in Adam’s cast-iron collection is aptly named “Big Daddy.” At nearly 21 inches in diameter, this skillet is certainly worthy of its name. Capable of holding five whole chickens, 16 steaks, or five pounds of bacon, Big Daddy turned Chef Adam into something of a local legend. After taking over as executive chef at Canyon Kitchen, he began planning his first big event, a cowboy breakfast cooked over an open fire. Knowing the event would mean quite a few mouths to feed, a friend jokingly told him to stop by Zoller Hardware in downtown Cashiers and pick up Big Daddy. Adam took him up on it. “When I took the skillet off the wall, there must have been an inch of dust on the thing,” Adam explained. “It had been there forever. Everyone was staring at me when I took it up to the counter. It seemed like everyone in town had always joked about getting the skillet, but they never had, and it threw everyone for a loop.” In addition to Big Daddy, Adam has a few other prized pieces of cast iron that he loves to use. He inherited from his wife’s grandmother both a large pot and a cornbread pan, which he uses at Canyon Kitchen. A 10-inch Griswold skillet is his go-to at home. One of his most unique pieces is a sausage stuffer that came from his friend Elsbeth’s grandfather. “I was helping them move her grandfather’s house after he passed away, and at the end of the day they asked me if I wanted anything. I had been eyeing the sausage stuffer all day, but I wasn’t sure if it was too much to ask for. I asked, sheepishly, and they agreed. We use it all the time to make sausage at Canyon Kitchen.”

Just a few of the much-used members of Adam's cast-iron arsenal.

The star of Adam's cast-iron collection, Big Daddy.

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the bottom of the bowl.) Remove collards from water mixture. Let drain.NEXT Heat a large cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and bacon. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to brown, 20 to 25 minutes.NEXT Stir in brown sugar. Cook until mixture is caramelized, 2 to 3 minutes. Add remaining 2 cups vinegar and greens. Stir in salt and stock. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until tender, 3 to 4 hours.LAST Stir in butter, hot sauce, and salt to taste.

COLLARD GREENS Recipe courtesy of Adam Hayes, Canyon Kitchen

Makes about 8 servings

Here’s a home-kitchen version of Adam Hayes’ campfire collard greens.

5 medium bunches collard greens2 cups plus 2 tablespoons apple cider

vinegar, divided2 medium yellow onions, chopped 2 pounds slab bacon, diced

2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar1 tablespoon kosher salt10 cups pork stock or chicken stock1 cup unsalted butter2 tablespoons hot sauceKosher salt to taste

FIRST Discard thick stems from greens; tear greens into small pieces. In a large bowl, combine greens, water to cover, and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar. Let greens soak, without stirring, at least 10 minutes. (Any extra sand on the collards will settle at

Tools of the Cowboy ChefIn one of his early jobs, Adam’s high energy and attitude earned him the nickname “Johnny the Gunslinger.” To live up to his nickname, Adam vowed that one day he would buy himself a top-of-the-line holster for his knife, so he could wear it on his hip at all times. After winning the regionals at Competition Dining, a cooking competition in North Carolina, Adam used his winnings to purchase a holster from Jackson’s Western Supply, a vintage western-wear store near Asheville. “I walked in, and they were kind of confused,” said Adam. “They asked me ‘So, you want an old-timey western six-shooter holster, but for your knife?’” Eventually all parties got on the same page, and the result can only be described as a work of art, full of Adam’s vision. It includes an outline of his home state of North Carolina with a star carved over his hometown of Trinity. Also included are images of the Blue Ridge Mountains and a waterfall scene, speaking to Adam’s love of the outdoors. When Adam and his team won Competition Dining at the state level, he turned to Athens, Georgia-based Bloodroot Blades to craft a custom knife for his new holster. Adam’s knife is truly one of a kind. The blade is made from reclaimed metal taken from an old North Carolina sawmill. The knife also features a reclaimed leather strap as well as a large stag horn that serves as the top of the handle, complete with a carved “H” for his last name.

The designs on Adam's chef knife and holster reflect his North Carolina heritage.

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