FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Research Triangle Park, NC, 8/19/24 — PBS North Carolina announces season three of the Emmy® Award-winning seriesThe Key Ingredient with Sheri Castle. In each episode, famed food writer and teacher Sheri Castle traces one cherished ingredient from source to table through visits with local food producers and experts and cook-alongs with renowned chefs. Along the way, she explores the stories behind each ingredient and shares her inventive recipes and signature tips.
Season three of The Key Ingredient with Sheri Castle will premiere Thursday, October 3, at 8 PM, on PBS NC, as well as online and on the free PBS app. New episodes premiere each week through the end of November. The season will be available to PBS member stations for distribution through American Public Television (APT) beginning October 1, 2024.
In the new season, Sheri dives deep into the rich tapestry of food and heritage as she explores eight magical ingredients: sweet potatoes, collard greens, mushrooms, honey, crab, peaches, hot peppers and watermelon. Episodes also celebrate the culinary innovators and sustainability stewards redefining Southern foodways.
“This season on The Key Ingredient, Sheri explores stories that are as flavorful as the ingredients themselves,” says Heather Burgiss, the show’s executive producer/director and PBS North Carolina’s director of original productions. “Whether harvesting honey, crabbing on the coast or foraging for mushrooms, she draws upon her natural curiosity and our guests’ heartfelt experiences to create engaging narratives that will no doubt inspire others to celebrate their own culinary traditions and maybe even try a tasty key ingredient.”
This year, Sheri cooks alongside several esteemed chefs—including James Beard Award honorees Cheryl Day, John Fleer, Cheetie Kumar, Daryl Cooper, Oscar Johnson and Camille Cogswell—and notable guests like documentarian/food historian Von Diaz and Glenn and Dorsey Hunt, famous for their Lumbee collard sandwiches.
“Each guest’s eagerness to share their stories and expertise is exciting and contagious,” says Sheri Castle. “Our conversations are spontaneous—we film what happens rather than create ‘scenes’ to film. I believe PBS viewers appreciate and trust that authenticity and sincerity.”
The season also includes a special holiday episode, where Sheri shares her favorite home recipes perfect for family gatherings and winter celebrations.
“Our foodways are an evocative part of our lives, families, communities and culture. I hope the culinary adventures featured in The Key Ingredient offer insight, connection and inspiration,” says Sheri. “You don’t have to be a cook to enjoy our great stories and learn something new.”
In March 2024, Sheri was recognized as “Best Home Chef in a Series” at the 15th Annual Taste Awards, one of the highest honors for food, fashion and lifestyle media. In 2022, The Key Ingredient received an Emmy® Award for best lifestyle program at the 37th Midsouth Regional Emmy Awards for the episode “Cornmeal of the Castle.”
“I receive lovely emails and messages from viewers across the country about how much they enjoy the show,” Sheri adds. “Some of them share their own special recipes and food memories with me. This is more evidence that people everywhere are excited about well-told stories and great recipes.”
The Key Ingredient with Sheri Castle is funded in part by The Forest at Duke.
Check pbsnc.org/schedule for updates. Previous seasons are available online and on the PBS app.
Episode 1: We’re Sweet on Sweet Potatoes
Thursday, October 3, 8 PM (stream beginning Tuesday, October 1)
Sheri Castle visits a farmers market to explore sweet potatoes of all shapes, colors and sizes. She then heads to the kitchen to share her favorite recipes for sweet potato casserole and twice-baked sweet potatoes. Asheville-based chef J Chong demonstrates a twist on Cantonese cuisine with her sweet potato and pork dumplings, and Sheri shares how to create the perfect sweet potato puree.
Episode 2: Turning Over a New Collard Leaf
Thursday, October 10, 8 PM (stream beginning Tuesday, October 8)
Sheri offers a new take on collards with recipes for green curry and coconut creamed collards as well as collard salad with bacon dressing. She shares how to use every part of the leaf and explores an amazing range of collard varieties with Utopian Seed Project’s Chris Smith. Sheri then meets Glenn and Dorsey Hunt of the Lumbee Tribe at a street festival and makes their famous collard sandwiches.
Episode 3: Mushrooms Are Having a Moment
Thursday, October 17, 8 PM (stream beginning Tuesday, October 15)
Sheri hunts for morels deep in the forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains with foraging experts Natalie Dechiara and Luke Gilbert. She then visits the home of farm-to-table pioneer John Fleer to use the morels (aka merkels) in a savory pie. In the kitchen, Sheri shares recipes for double mushroom soup and buttery sauteed mushrooms on toast, plus a tip for cleaning and keeping store-bought mushrooms.
Episode 4: Hey, Honey
Thursday, October 24, 8 PM (stream beginning Tuesday, October 22)
Host Sheri Castle is busy as a bee as she prepares honey-roasted peanut crispy rice treats and honey-glazed chicken thighs, plus offers a tip on reviving the crystallized honey in your pantry. She dons a bee suit with beekeeper Mary Garrison to learn why pollinators are so vital, and then makes a spiced honey cake pie with award-winning baker Camille Cogswell.
Episode 5: Crabs Galore
Thursday, October 31, 8 PM (stream beginning Tuesday, October 29)
Sheri explores delicious ways to enjoy crab, including deviled crab and warm crab dip with crostini. She then catches crabs off a Charleston river dock with Tia Clark of Casual Crabbing, and Charlotte chefs Oscar Johnson and Daryl Cooper cook one of their favorite crab recipes with her. Sheri also explains the differences between various types of crab meat and their best culinary uses.
Episode 6: Everything’s Just Peachy
Thursday, November 7, 8 PM (stream beginning Tuesday, November 5)
Sheri shares peach recipes, including peach sorbet and fresh peach and summer vegetable salad with basil-lemonade dressing. She stops at peach stands on her way to the coast and reunites with Cheryl Day, cookbook author and founder of Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice, who shows how she bakes her prized peach hand pies. Sheri also shares a tip to prevent peeled peaches from turning brown.
Episode 7: Warming Up to Hot Peppers
Thursday, November 14, 8 PM (stream beginning Tuesday, November 12)
Sheri Castle spices up your next potluck with recipes for a candied jalapeño cheese ball and a warm stew of roasted green chile, chicken and white beans. She also shares a tip for roasting peppers right in your kitchen. Sheri visits Moore’s Produce in rural NC to see what it takes to grow hot peppers in the South, then cooks along with Emmy Award-winning documentarian and author Von Diaz.
Episode 8: Watermelon Vibes
Thursday, November 21, 8 PM (stream beginning Tuesday, November 19)
Sheri visits an heirloom watermelon patch in Virginia with food historian Debra Freeman and journalist Joshua Fitzwater. She shares her recipe for a watermelon salad and a fascinating way to make watermelon rind pickles and slaw. Rock star chef Cheetie Kumar mixes up a refreshing watermelon and cucumber cooler cocktail, and Sheri demonstrates the most approachable way to cut up a watermelon.
Episode 9: Sheri’s Home Recipes for the Holidays
Thursday, November 28, 8 PM (tentative) (stream beginning Tuesday, November 26)
Sheri shares easy and delicious holiday recipes that are sure to be a hit at your next seasonal gathering. She whips up her mouthwatering roasted red pepper dip with pomegranate molasses and shares a brunch showstopper: savory bread pudding with ham, cheese and spinach. Sheri also shares her favorite recipe for a fluffy coconut cake and incredible tasty crab cake bites.
An award-winning cookbook author and cooking teacher for more than twenty years, Sheri Castle is renowned for melding culinary knowledge, storytelling and humor. Her well-crafted recipes and practical advice inspire people of all cooking levels to craft delicious dishes with confidence and enthusiasm. She’s written a tall stack of cookbooks, and her essays and recipes have appeared in dozens of magazines. In 2019, the Southern Foodways Alliance named Sheri among Twenty Living Legends of Southern Food, dubbing her The Storyteller: “She has revealed herself to be our best advocate for the rich history of home cooking.”
As North Carolina’s statewide PBS network serving the country’s third largest public media market, PBS North Carolina educates, informs, entertains and inspires its audience on air, online and in person. Through its unique partnership of public investment and private support, the network includes in-person engagement, digital-first social and online content delivery and four over-the-air channels: PBS NC, the North Carolina Channel, Rootle 24/7 PBS KIDS channel and the Explorer Channel. Its transformational events and content spark curiosity and wonder for all North Carolinians. Additionally, PBS North Carolina serves as the backbone for North Carolina’s state emergency services. To learn more about PBS North Carolina, visit pbsnc.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
-PBS NC-
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