A view behind-the-scenes reveals the hot and cold of curing ham. At a New York dinner party hosted in her honor, Vivian serves up a gift of North Carolina seasoning meats --the pig tails, ham hocks, and fatback that give Carolina cuisine its quintessential kick. While in the Big Apple, a visit with her publisher reveals an itinerary certain to make for an ambitious autumn.

Vivian, her parents, and Flo pluck pears from a tree that’s been in the family for 100 years. The arrival of Vivian's cookbook sparks a well of emotions as the reality of wheeling a food truck around the country sets in. In order to get a better handle on the truck, Vivian and her crew do a practice run at the farmer's market and serve up Tom Thumb with pear relish.

Chef Vivian Howard and her husband Ben leave New York to open a restaurant in her small North Carolina hometown. Vivian revisits the Southern tradition of “putting up” corn and shares her method for making smoked corn relish. As the episode concludes, a devastating setback threatens their new life.

Burgers. Oysters. Beer. Hallelujah! Vivian and Ben are on the cusp of opening their new restaurant, the Boiler Room, and they are facing a new challenge: how to make a veggie burger stand out. Vivian waxes romantic about the beloved butter bean and chooses it as the star of her new burger, but quickly learns that the butter bean is a straight up diva when it comes to growing conditions.

A new manager signs on at the Boiler Room; and a family reunion features an impressive spread of home-cooked casseroles.

Spring onions kick off the season in high gear as Vivian takes a break from penning her first cookbook to prepare a benefit dinner at Lomax Farm in Cabarrus County, NC. Even though The Avett Brothers make an appearance, the underdog onion steals the show, playing both star and support.

After a summer away, Vivian returns to the restaurant and a staff of new faces. She also asks a favor of an avid home chef: test her cookbook recipes.

Vivian’s summer itinerary picks up with a 14-day photoshoot as she preps for a first-time trip to Feast Portland. Sam Jones and Miss Lillie share old-school cabbage recipes that influence what Vivian prepares for the festival.

Flo and Theo's pre-school class visits the restaurant, but slow service makes everyone antsy. In other events, Vivian turns to an old friend for help when a sunchoke dish doesn't work.

With Summer heat high and rain levels low, Vivian struggles to scrounge up enough green beans to add to the menu at Chef & the Farmer. Her kitchen capers continue as she stumbles to find her rhythm with a new chef firmly in place. Mrs. Tessie Mae offers levity by giving Vivian a golf cart tour of her garden, an intro to pickled pork, and a lesson in snapping pole beans.

Vivian visits one of her favorite farmers and an eastern North Carolina restaurant known for its fried livers. She learns that not all livers are created equal, but are equally good for you. Back at home, Mrs. Scarlett prepares a humble, old-school dish of beef liver and onions, which inspires Vivian to introduce a fancy, controversial liver dish to the restaurant's menu.

While enjoying some time at home, Vivian films a segment for a morning TV show where cornbread takes center stage. She then stops by a Kinston institution that merges cornbread with another Southern signature to create a handheld delicacy called “the pig and a puppy,” and creates her own version for a charity dinner. Back in the kitchen, Mrs. Scarlett & Ms. Lillie team up in a cornbread cook-off.

Vivian and Ben rebuild their restaurant against the backdrop of the Southern harbinger of spring, the strawberry. Their twins go on their first strawberry-picking excursion, and Vivian and a friend develop a recipe for coconut cornbread strawberry shortcake with basil whipped cream.

Vivian preps for a Southern Foodways Alliance luncheon. Food enthusiasts from around the country are coming to study BBQ & Vivian plans to serve them the ultimate tomato sandwich. She weighs the risk of serving something so simple to this discerning crowd, but in her gut she believes it will be the highlight of their trip.

On a short hiatus from the book tour, Vivian takes the twins to pick persimmons off Mrs. Betty's tree and learns about the different varieties of the fruit. She then takes that knowledge to Atlanta where an event called "Hired Guns" pits chefs and their dishes against each other. Back in Kinston, Vivian gets a pudding lesson from chef Bill Smith of Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill.

The restaurant gears up for a practice service when the new equipment and new menu will be tested in real time - but nothing is going as planned. One of the big changes to the restaurant's menus is the addition of a section called "Pimp My Grits," where Vivian exalts the lowly, quintessentially Southern ingredient in four distinct ways.

Vivian, Ben and the entire Chef and the Farmer staff hustle to complete the mammoth preparations necessary for her big luncheon at the Southern Foodways Alliance symposium in Oxford, Mississippi. Vivian take the women in her life as inspiration for her menu, honoring those who have made her the woman she has become.

Vivian heads to NYC where her book launch means a full itinerary. A celebration dinner at Bon Appétit Kitchen follows her appearance on the Rachael Ray Show where Vivian finds that a shot of bourbon goes a long way. Back at the shop, Ben and crew ready the food truck for its first stop in Nashville. While there, a lack of rain leads Vivian on a challenging hunt for broccoli.

Vivian plans a respite from the road during the holidays, but finds herself equally busy at home. She volunteers at a soup kitchen and does one last book signing in Kinston before the holidays. Vivian also visits Sunburst Trout Farms and prepares a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner at the restaurant where trout — from roe to filet — shines.

Vivian goes about christening the restaurant's new "whole animal, no waste" program with two little pigs from Warren Brothers' farm. She uses everything - including the skin - and, on her father's recommendation, demonstrates how to make sweet potatoes with cracklins.

Vivian’s plate is full of everything. Except tomatoes. As Chef & the Farmer turns 10 years old, Vivian embarks on a fruitless search for the season’s first ripe tomatoes to serve at the restaurant’s birthday party. For the celebration that brings back familiar faces and dishes, she concocts a menu that represents a decade of professional growth, and then seeks the wisdom of Mrs. Mary and Ms. Lilli.

What begins as a dinner at Maker’s Mark in Vivian’s honor ends as an American history lesson. A tour of Maker’s Mark and Jefferson’s distilleries illuminates the differences between whiskey, scotch, and bourbon for Vivian who also learns how Frank and Jesse James fit into Kentucky’s boozy biography.

Vivian goes to Cedar Island to explore the new culture of farm-raised oysters in the Southeast. She and Ben share plans of opening an oyster bar across the street from Chef & the Farmer in hopes it will be a place that adds character and variety to the tiny town's "dining scene." Vivian and her dad orchestrate their family's first-ever oyster roast and are blown away by how much everyone enjoys it.

Ben, Vivian and the twins pick muscadine grapes at a small local vineyard while learning the history of this native grape. Vivian visits Mike and Gator, her grape suppliers, and makes homemade wine. Back at the restaurant, Vivian makes a pizza with mulled muscadines, and Ben tests this new creation during their first stressful pizza night in the wine shop.

Conclusion. Charleston, S.C., is visited. Included: the Waffle House Smackdown; the proper way to open a clam; and clam hash.