Farm to Table in Charleston SC: An Inventive Food Tour
One of the many courses during our Farm to Table Food Tour
Don’t just take a food tour—be a part of it with a Farm to Table experience in Charleston SC!
This unique twist on Charleston’s food scene will leave you with an appreciation for the inventive cuisine in the Holy City and the talented people who make those meals happen.
Charleston’s restaurant scene is incredible, and this tour allows visitors to jump into the process of cooking creation by serving as an important link between farmer and chef.
As a native of Charleston, I can promise this: your experience here will be unlike anything else in the city!
Updated 8/2022 | Written 12/2017
This post was made possible by TripAdvisor who provided two tickets to my husband and I to attend. All opinions are my own.
Fresh veggies at the Charleston Farmers Market
The Farm to Table Tour in the Charleston SC historic district is run by Charleston Culinary Tours
NOTE: we've taken other food tours with this same company, and they've all been fantastic!
For this tour, we had Hoon Calhoun, who was lighthearted and informative.
He served as the perfect host to one of the best food tours in Charleston, and, as a fellow Charleston native, he came at the material from a great perspective.
What is the Farm to Table Charleston SC Food Tour Like?
This particular culinary tour is different than others we've experienced since it has four distinct parts.
It also encourages visitors to become an integral part of the cooking process, which is wildly unusual for a food tour.
NOTE: this tour has changed slightly in its formatting since we went. In 2022, this tour first stops at the Veggie Bin on Spring Street to select ingredients rather than the Farmers Market as was done on the previous iteration of the tour.
The rest of the structure of the tour remains the same.
>> Explore even more of the Charleston foodie scene with the Upper King Street Culinary Tour! <<
1) Selecting the Ingredients
Making my selection: green onions, which ended up in our market pizzas
The group gets a quick culinary history from the guide as an introduction to the tour.
Then, each guest gets to choose an ingredient from one of the local produce booths at the Charleston Farmers Market.
If you’d like to stop by the same stall, it’s run by Freeman Farms in Johns Island.
There were a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs that we could choose from. These were complemented by local meats and cheeses that the chef picked up from another of the stalls in the market.
Once an ingredient has been chosen, no one else can claim it, which makes for a varied display at the end.
2) Touring the Charleston Farmers Market
After the chef for the day confirms that there weren't any vegetable and fruit duplicates, the group leaves the chef to procure enough of each ingredient to feed the entire group.
The guide and the tour participants then stop by several other booths including a local dairy, Green Grocer Dairy, and the butcher for Altman Farms, where you’ll learn about the process of bringing their specialties to market.
3) Tasting Our Way through the Market
We were left to roam the farmers' market for about 40 minutes as a way to sample a few treats.
The Marion Square Farmers Market was named one of the top farmers markets in the nation by both Esquire and Travel + Leisure, so a few moments to explore on our own was greatly appreciated.
We sampled locally made pasta sauce and honey, the latter of which is produced in adorable McClellanville, South Carolina.
We also drank some deliciously bold coffee from one of the food carts.
4) Eating the Unique Meal Prepared for Our Group
The group reconvened and headed to the restaurant for a 5-course meal composed completely around the foods that the tour members had selected earlier.
The tour partners with different chefs and restaurants depending on availability, but we had Nate Whiting, who heads up the kitchen at Juliet.
NOTE: Juliet closed in 2019, but there are other Upper King restaurants who have taken up the helm of hosting this tour!
Inside the Juliet, which was opened just for our group
>> New to Charleston? Read through my First Time Visitors Guide to Charleston to get familiar with the city and discover the must-dos! <<
The 5-Course Meal: Where Creativity Meets the Kitchen
From the start, Chef Whiting acknowledged the challenge of constructing a fresh menu for 15 nearly on-the-spot, but he seemed to take the daunting task in stride.
No stranger to Charleston, Chef Whiting has also worked at local favorite Tristan and Mount Pleasant Coffee Collective Co.
As of 2022, he works as a freelance chef and food writer at Hot Dogs and Cavier.
I like to let the market dictate the meal. It's more exciting than a restaurant which has to be consistent. That's what make a good restaurant where you have to keep doing things the same 10 out of 10 times. We only have to do something amazing once here!
-Nate Whiting
Working from the produce we selected, Chef Whiting created a meal that was both unusual in its tastes and flavors and stunning in its blend of local and exotic inspiration.
By the time our group sat down to eat, we were hungry and ready to try anything Chef Whiting served up.
One great thing about having a small number of participants on Charleston cooking tours is that you get to know the other participants.
We'd gotten to talk with and learn about the other people in the group (which was almost evenly split between locals and visitors), so the meal felt more like a gathering of old friends than a bunch of strangers who happened to be at a big table together.
Course 1
Our first course was zucchini fettuccini and featured raw shaved zoodles in a garlic bath.
My husband, who detests zucchini, even loved this dish.
It came served twirled around a fork on a rustic wooden tray.
Our forkful of Italian inspired zucchini
Course 2
Eggplant puree on serving tray
The second course was a charred eggplant puree with garlic and olives on fresh bread.
The puree was smoky and filling and the perfect texture for a dip.
It went nicely with the whole wheat sourdough bread, which was chewy with a great crust.
Course 3
Our sweet—not savory!—tomato sampler
Our third course was another appetizer: heirloom tomatoes with vanilla vinaigrette and white chocolate sauce.
It was topped by pistachios for a bit of a crunch.
I adore tomatoes, but haven't ever had them in a sweet dish. Given my association with them as a savory food, I was unsure of what to expect with this offering.
However, the tomatoes paired surprisingly well with the richness of the vanilla and chocolate!
Course 4
The main course came next and featured all sorts of incredible fresh veggies.
The market pizzas, as Chef Whiting called them, were topped with pickled okra, freshly prepared pizza dough, and topped with rendered pork jowl bacon.
He also had a separate version with additional veggies for those who requested a vegetarian option.
Market pizzas piled high with veggies and bacon
Course 5
The fifth course, our dessert course, was actually split into two since Chef Whiting had had enough materials to prepare separate sweet dishes.
The first dessert was a mustard and collard green risotto with Parmesan, mushrooms, and pickled blueberries.
Other than the blueberries, I'd never seen any of the other ingredients served in a dessert, so the intertwining of the sweet and savory was surprisingly tasty!
Our meal ended on a perfect note with roasted plums and grits, which was topped with creamed corn and a bit of brie.
Like much of the rest of the meal, it challenged my assumptions about Southern food (like grits) in the best way possible.
It showed me that there are so many other ways to experience it than the typical stand-by versions like cheese grits or butter grits.
Final Thoughts on the Charleston Farm to Table Tour
Overall, I cannot say enough wonderful things about this farm to table tour.
Not only did it provide what I think might just be the best brunch in Charleston SC, but it very well could be the best food tour in Charleston.
Period.
The farm to table tour goes above and beyond the typical history-and-samples approach to most Charleston cooking tours.
Plus, its focus on local food in Charleston is the perfect way for visitors to get to know the area.
Even natives like myself will learn a thing or two in the process!
If you're interested in taking this tour, it runs every Friday and Saturday.
The price includes a 5-course meal and a 45-minute history tour of the Charleston SC historic district, and is worth every penny.
Because the tour is capped at 15 people, you'll want to book as far out as possible to ensure a spot on the tour: popular weekends fill up fast.
Have you visited Charleston yet? What culinary tours have you taken and enjoyed?
