Wild Olive's Larson on slow food, fried chicken and patience

Jacques Larson began cooking in Charleston at Peninsula Grill in 1996.

After a few years as executive chef of Basil's Trattoria and Wine Bar in Greensboro, N.C., Larson returned to the Lowcountry.

He is now executive chef of Wild Olive on Johns Island.

Q: You've been cooking professionally since you were 21. How has your cooking style evolved since your career began?

A: I continue to simplify my approach to everything. Less is certainly more. I was making salsa for a staff meal this week and I remembered the first time I made salsa. There were about 12 ingredients in it. This week's salsa had all of five ingredients and I am sure blew the doors off of my first take.

Q: How is what you are doing with Wild Olive different than what you were doing at Mercato?

A: The commitment to local product is No. 1. Second, I think I am getting back to a more personalized style.

Q: I know that you are trying to emphasize fresh and local ingredients at Wild Olive. How much of your menu is local?

A: I really couldn't guess how much is local. Though we purchase hundreds of dollars each week in produce, produce only makes up a small fraction of inventory. The commitment really comes down to focusing on the farms in the area and the farmers. Before, someone would bring me three dozen squash blossoms and I would do a special with them. Finito. Now it is a matter of forecasting seasonal crops for writing seasonal menus. It is a much greater effort to feature as much local produce as we are using.

Q: You are committed to the craft of salumeri. Can you talk a little bit about that? What it is and why it is so important to you?

A: Since I can remember, I have always been fascinated by salumeri and charcuterie. Salumeri is slow food on steroids. For most all the salumeri that we feature, there is at least a 2 1/2-month wait to see how what we did turned out. It requires a lot of patience. I think I also love it so much because like many great epicurean foodstuffs, it was born out of necessity. It was a way to fully utilize and preserve a precious commodity in a land where meat wasn't always so commonplace. Thus, being the resourceful people they are, Italians developed a way of preserving something for the long term that would normally spoil in a week or less.

Q: What is your guilty pleasure food?

A: Anything that is fried. We have chicken tenders at work, for the kiddies, that are all too easy to drop in the fryer and cook. Tuesday night, fried chicken dinner night at the Glass Onion is where I like to get my fix; outside of work, easily the best fried chicken I have ever had. Thank God my girlfriend does not work there anymore. The only thing worse for you than fried chicken is fried chicken at midnight after work. There should be a 12-step program for those things.