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Recipe for Success

Humanities and Social Sciences dean Jeff Braden and Distinguished Alumna Vivian Howard at NC State’s 2015 Evening of Stars gala.

Editor’s Note: Earlier versions of this article appeared in our print magazine, Accolades, and online. 

Chef, restaurateur and TV star Vivian Howard can now add Distinguished Alumna to her long list of achievements.

Howard (English ’00) was awarded the Humanities and Social Sciences Distinguished Alumna award at NC State’s 2015 Evening of Stars gala.

Howard and her husband, Ben Knight, are the owners of Chef & the Farmer restaurant, a food mecca in Kinston, North Carolina, that serves local and seasonal food with a modern twist.

You may have seen her restaurant in A Chef’s Life, the Emmy award-winning PBS series that follows Howard in and out of the kitchen as she showcases ingredients and dishes that define the South. To further define her food legacy, Howard is now developing two cookbooks to be published by Little, Brown and Company in 2016.