Kentucky: Exploring Louisville's epic food scene

NZ Herald

2 days ago

Matt Jamie, owner and founder of Bourbon Barrel Foods, at work in his soy sauce microbrewery. Photo / Josh Merideth
Matt Jamie doesn't believe in luck. He was just ready.
The chef and entrepreneur guided us through his soy sauce microbrewery in Louisville, Kentucky, his hometown. Inside, a whiff of aged bourbon oak barrels simmered beneath the skin, spices smoked up, and a thick sludge of soybeans and wheat just carried on fermenting. All of those things are from the Bluegrass State. Delicious.
Jamie is the kind of guy who could just as easily fit in as a venture capitalist of a hip start-up as he does as a bourbon experimentalist. A strategic artist you don't want to mess with. His tangents feel useful. He loves efficiency. And he's driven as hell. When asked why he got into soy sauce, Jamie's answer was simple: 'No one else was doing it'.
He said he noticed there were plenty of similarities and parallels to the distilling of bourbon when he first started researching how to make soy sauce.
'I looked at that as an opportunity to really showcase what we can do with our native spirit, you know, both with just the barrel but using it as an ingredient and at the same time showcasing all the things that Kentucky has to offer culinarily, because we have such a great history with it.'
That was 19 years ago. Today, he has around 54 people working for him at his company, Bourbon Barrel Foods, which produces over 150 products. If you visit a mainstream grocery store anywhere in the US, chances are you will see his spices, sauces, sweets, and snacks. And it's all made here.
'When people come to Louisville to experience bourbon in the city, it's like going to California to experience wine. You fly into San Francisco, you go out and visit your winery, it's a very romantic experience.
'And so, as Louisville started to position itself as the gateway to bourbon country and offering those experiences with visiting the distilleries, eating in our restaurants, it was missing what I started, which was that specialty food component,' he said.
We then had a tasting of Bourbon Barrel Foods soy sauce products. It felt fancy and cool. Two things I am not. Nevertheless, the standout for me was the Bluegrass Soy Sauce, which my cheat sheet described as meaty, brothy, leathery, and briny with a subtle sweetness. I thought it was bloody good and different.
bourbonbarrelfoods.com
Biscuit Belly
Biscuit Belly in Louisville, Kentucky. Photo / Go to Louisville
Lauren Coulter's mum wasn't much of a cook.
Growing up, her best friend's grandma, 'Dit Dot', made fresh biscuits every morning. It's not a biscuit in the way Kiwis would expect - think scone but with more butter, fluff, salt and circular perfection.
Lauren remembers Dit Dot rolling out dough in a warm kitchen, flour dusting the countertops, while they waited for that first golden pan to come out of the oven.
'Biscuits weren't just food — they were a signal that we were about to slow down, gather, and love on each other a little bit," Lauren told me.
That fond memory eventually became a seed for what would become a real-life dream with Biscuit Belly, a 'Southern with swagger' restaurant franchise she co-owns with her husband. Today, there are 19 branches across the South - the first one set up right here in Louisville.
But the couple weren't always restaurateurs. Before they decided to take the plunge and shift gears into a new industry, Lauren and Chad had successful careers as pharmacists.
'We joke that we went from pills to pimento cheese, but the truth is we were craving something more personal, more creative, and way more fun,' says Lauren.
Lauren Coulter.
Customers often remark that their biscuits are 'damn good'. For Lauren, it means this: 'A damn good biscuit is one that makes you stop mid-bite and say, 'Well, hell yes.' It's flaky, buttery, just a little crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and sturdy enough to hold up to gravy, fried chicken, or a runny egg.'
'There's something sacred about a classic: a fluffy biscuit smothered in scratch-made sausage gravy. But the best way to enjoy it? With a strong cup of coffee, in good company, on a slow morning. Maybe even in your sweats. Let it drip. Lick your fingers. That's the vibe,' she explains.
It was still proper morning (before 10am) when I tried the Gravy Train: mini biscuits with pots of three gravies to try - sausage, mushroom and smoked gouda mornay. It's still very much Southern but a far cry from traditional. And that's sort of the point.
'We're not here to compete with your granny's kitchen—we're here to evolve the category. Southern breakfast has deep roots, and we're proud of that heritage, but there's also room for innovation, humour, and a little over-the-top indulgence," Lauren explains.
'We want people to walk away saying, 'I didn't know breakfast could be this fun.''
Unapologetically, it was a 'hell yes' from me.
biscuitbelly.com
JJBakes & Co
When chef Jackie Joseph lost her job during the pandemic, she took a gamble and applied to compete in season four of the Food Network's show Best Baker in America in 2021. It paid off - she won.
'So many times in the series I thought this is it ... I'm going home. I think it was just my own mental battle ... I felt I'm such an underdog going into the competition because I hadn't been in a kitchen for over a year,' Joseph told local news channel WHAS11.
Four years later, I'm at the store Joseph set up with her $41,980 prize money (US$25,000). It's called JJBakes & Co and it's inside the Omni; a 4-star hotel a short drive from the city's airport.
I eyed the banana bread. It was Jackie's grandma's recipe, the sales assistant told me. In the cabinet, it was a giant loaf and I thought I would get a slice. I was naive. This was the US, and they gave you the whole loaf.
Now, I know most of the world's population hates this word - and I'm sorry but not really - this was incredibly moist. And incredibly banana-ry - that's key. The only downside was that it was also quite rich and I couldn't finish it. Regrets? I have none.
Chef Jackie Joseph. Photo / The Food Network
jjbakescompany.com
Checklist
KENTUCKY, USA
GETTING THERE
Fly from Auckland to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas with Air New Zealand, then direct to Louisville International Airport via United Airlines.
DETAILS
gotolouisville.com
The journalist was a guest of Travel South USA.