N&O forum will explore the local restaurant boom

There’s a revolution going on in the Triangle. It’s being waged with knives and forks. It’s a foodie revolution and diners are winning time and again.

At the N&O’s next Community Voices forum, we’ll report from the front lines on what’s new, what’s hot and what’s driving the quality of Triangle restaurants ever higher. The Triangle has gone from burgers, steaks and barbeque to a place that is now home to a dozen chefs who’ve won or have been in the running for the prestigious James Beard Award.

A panel of chefs and food watchers will assess how much dining in the Triangle has changed and facets of the revolution you may have missed. Those include the most interesting new restaurants and significant changes at well-established ones.

Our panel will include Cheetie Kumar, one of the Triangle’s most original and intriguing chefs. A recent semifinalist for the James Beard Award, Kumar works her wonders at Garland, the restaurant she co-founded in Raleigh. Kumar, a native of India, gives local foods an exotic flair. When not doing the high stress work of getting an entree just right, she channels her creativity into playing guitar for rock bands, most recently Birds of Avalon.

A second panelist, chef Roberto Copa Matos, exemplifies the kind of exacting attention to detail and restless imagination that has put Durham on the map as one of the nation’s most interesting places to have a meal. His Durham restaurant, COPA, draws on cultural influences of Africa, Asia, and especially Spain. News & Observer restaurant critic Greg Cox gives COPA four stars and a blanket endorsement: “It’s hard to go wrong here, no matter what you order.”

Rounding out the forum’s panel are two keen observers of the Triangle food scene, food and beverage podcast host Max Trujillo and the News & Observer’s food writer, Drew Jackson.

Trujillo is a former Los Angeles sommelier who moved to North Carolina in 2013. He worked at Raleigh’s Midtown Grille and Standard Foods before joining with another hospitality industry veteran, Matthew Weiss, to devote himself full time to a podcast – NC F&B. The podcast interviews chefs, wine experts and distillers involved in North Carolina’s burgeoning food and beverage culture.

Jackson has covered Triangle restaurants since 2017 and often focuses on what he says are “the personalities behind the dishes.” All food is on Jackson’s radar from food trucks to fine dining. He says the Triangle’s cuisine is rooted in southern agricultural, but has flowered into a rare diversity of offerings that reflect cooking from around the world.

Cox, The N&O’’s restaurant critic since 1995, has had a seat at a thousand tables as the Triangle’s offering of restaurants has evolved. He says dining establishments keep opening and keep getting better. “Based on the four-star reviews I’ve awarded — and I’ve gotten a little stricter over the years — it’s still going strong,” he says. “There’s a new generation of chefs, an amazing diversity of food and it’s spreading beyond Raleigh and Durham to other towns, especially Cary.”

Restaurants are not only about dining. They offer a window into the Triangle’s changing culture and tastes. They are a measure of our creativity and our taste for new tastes. We are what we’ll go out to eat.

The Community Voices forum on what’s hot in Triangle restaurants will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 27 at the N.C. Museum of History. You can reserve a free ticket at eventbrite.com.

This story was originally published March 21, 2019 at 5:38 PM.