Back Burner: Five questions for Chef Sera Cuni

Meet Chef Sera Cuni of The Root Cellar

As co-owner and head chef of The Root Cellar Café and Catering in Chapel Hill, North Carolina since 2013, Chef Sera Cuni has focused on local and seasonal food served casually, where “you don’t need a Ph.D. to read our menu—you can come get a great meal that’s affordable and not have to wear a suit.” Cuni has since opened a second location, Café Root Cellar in Pittsboro, and founded a nonprofit. Let’s hear more from the overall do-gooder in her community.

What was your first job in the industry?

“My grandfather ran an Italian-American club, and I would spend time with him in the summers. He ran the kitchen, so I would go with him and stir pots of sauce and peel onions. I also remember going to Disney as a young kid and seeing the chefs in their jackets and their toques, and thinking they were really cool.”

What seasonal ingredients are you excited about for summer?

“Strawberries, heirloom tomatoes and peaches that come from right down the street. Oh, and North Carolina corn—it’s the base of our popular catfish dish with succotash.”
 

Do you have a love/hate ingredient?

“Yellow squash and zucchini. I know they’re the epitome of summer vegetables, but I’ve never liked them—too squishy. But I’ll work with sweet potato leaves, pickle peanuts and make kimchi out of carrot tops.” Read more about and get the recipe for Cuni’s corn esquites, a street corn bowl for summer (LINK TO Corn Esquites: The Street Corn Bowl Trend Your Summer Menu Needs article submitted with the digital articles).

How do you work with farmers?

“The farmers will text me what they have, and I’ll plan my menu around that. At one restaurant we change the menu every week. But we also work with them to plan ahead for the season.”

What do you do in your spare time?

“I run a nonprofit called Feed-Well Fridges, where we take leftover food and ingredients from sporting events, restaurants, grocery stores and caterers and make meals out of them. Then we stock fridges throughout the county, and people can just walk up and take what they need. In six years, we’ve made 85,000 meals and rescued over 100 tons of food—the equivalent of 28 large African male elephants.”

More Five Questions Interviews

Check out last issue’s 5 questions for Steve Ewing, owner, Steve’s Hot Dogs in St. Louis 
And our 5 questions for Joshua Hedquist, Chef/Owner of OG ZaZa Pizza in Minneapolis
Here are our 5 questions for Chef Mike Perez of Loro Asian Smokehouse & Bar in Austin, Texas
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