PITTSBORO — Sera Cuni rarely meets a competition she doesn’t want to enter.
Whether it’s Strong Man matches around the state or Guy Fieri’s Grocery Games on the Food Network, Cuni will take her talents wherever she can compete.
Recently, Cuni made it to the grand finale of the 2022 N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association’s Chef Showdown, where she showcased her smoked barbecue rubbed porchetta, southern Panzanella salad, grilled peaches, watermelon, corn, pickled peanuts, cornbread croutons and chow chow. She didn’t win the top prize, but she does have the distinction of being the only female finalist among the savory chefs.
“The Chef Showdown was so much fun,” she said while sitting in her café on a recent warm August day. “It was wonderful to see friends from all over the state who came out to cheer for me and to taste my food.”
Cuni, co-owner and chef of The Root Cellar Cafe & Catering in Chapel Hill and the Café Root Cellar, a sister restaurant in Pittsboro, was also one of two Triangle area chefs to make it to the finals.
The Chef Showdown kicked off its sixth season last March with more than 60 participants vying for top awards. Savory chefs, pastry chefs, bartenders and distilleries competed in different categories, said Chris Mackey, chief strategy and communications officer for the NCRLA.
“They competed in front of a panel of industry experts and were judged based on the presentation and taste of their dishes,” she said. “As well as the best use and number of North Carolina ingredients on each plate.”
The 26 finalists made it to the live rounds at the Angus Barn on Aug. 8, where members of the food-loving public bought tickets to sample food and drinks and vote for their favorites.
Oscar Johnson, owner of Jimmy Pearls in Charlotte, won the Chef of the Year award. Lydia Green, of Machete in Greensboro, was named Pastry Chef of the Year, and David Bowen of the Ginger Fox, representing Broad Branch Distillery in Winston-Salem, took home the NCRLA Mixologist & Distillery of the Year award.
“While it is always great to win, it’s even greater for the chefs to have fun and learn from each other,” Cuni said. “There are a lot of us out here and we enjoy the camaraderie because we’re all in it for the same reasons.”
Cuni — who spent most of her growing-up years in Connecticut and Florida — settled down in Pittsboro to be closer to members of her family, who now live in Wake County.
She attended Green Mountain College in Vermont on a soccer scholarship before returning to Connecticut where she graduated from culinary school and embarked on her lifelong dream of becoming a chef.
Some say our love affair with food often comes not simply from the food itself, but from the memories associated with it. Cuni can identify with that sentiment.
Growing up in a family of self-taught cooks who embraced their Italian and Czech heritage through food led her to embrace it too.
She recalls a childhood of spending long days in the kitchen with her Italian grandparents from her father’s side and her maternal grandmother who was Czech.
“My grandfather worked at an Italian American club, where he ran the kitchen, and I loved to help him stir the sauces and cut up onions and do little things for him,” she said. “I also tried to help make cannolis, but I mostly ate the filling.”
Cuni also recalls dinner parties and cookouts with her family and everything was cooked fresh.
“My parents always cooked meals and we never ate pre-made food,” she said. “Every Friday night we went out for pizza as a family and we always went to a real Italian restaurant.”
Breakfasts were never packaged brands or boxed cereals, instead, Cuni grew up with full, homemade morning meals of eggs, French toast, pancakes and all the fixings.
On Saturdays, she enjoyed watching Julia Child on PBS.
When Cuni started her career, she veered toward fine dining establishments like the Fearrington House Inn where she could be found wearing a chef’s jacket and making up perfect presentations. Then Sara Foster, owner of Foster’s Market in Chapel Hill, hired her as chef and kitchen manager in 2006. She moved up to general manager in 2008. In 2013, Cuni and her wife, Susan White, purchased the Chapel Hill marketplace and re-branded it as The Root Cellar.
“We kept it pretty much the same,” Cuni said. “We changed a few things, but we still serve breakfast and lunch.”
The restaurant also caters meals and prepares family dinners for take-out.
The couple chose the restaurant’s new name carefully, and it is laced with meaning.
“We chose ‘Root Cellar’ because everything comes from roots — my family’s roots, and Susan’s southern roots,” she said.
And in New England, Cuni grew up around root cellars, underground structures used to store vegetables, fruits, nuts and other foods, particularly root crops, like carrots, potatoes, turnips and beets.
In 2018, Cuni and White opened Café Root Cellar as an anchor establishment at the new Penguin Place near Chatham Park at Russet Run and Suttles Road, where they hoped to take advantage of new development and projected residential growth.
Construction delays and the COVID-19 pandemic meant the café got off to a slow start, but that didn’t slow the couple’s dream. They simply became strategic with their plans. And it’s paying off.
During the pandemic, the café only served take-out, but stayed busy the entire time. For fun, Cuni staged pop-up events featuring foods from different U.S. regions and other countries.
While French cuisine was popular among customers, Cuni was not prepared for the sensation she created over Thai and Indian food, “which just goes to show that this town can use some food diversity,” she said.
Today, the café has settled into a regular schedule and is open for supper Thursday through Saturday and for Sunday brunch. From her pop-up experience, she created a system of offering different menus every week. A recent August offering featured a variety of entrées, including Caprese and prosciutto flatbread, Asian noodles, steak, crab cake, Cajun shrimp and andouille.
Despite her quest to mix it up each week, she caters to those who have their favorites and sometimes keeps favorite items on the menu for as long as a month. She describes her cuisine as “seasonal American.”
“I’ve always said that I consider the restaurant an extension of my kitchen table,” Cuni said. “We have regular customers and I feel like I need to keep it fresh because they’re coming every week.”
For customers, fresh means a new and different menu every week, but for Cuni, it also means the freshest of foods, from seafood to vegetables. If tomatoes are not in season, they won’t be on the menu, she said. And while she visits area farmers’ markets to buy as many local products as possible, she’s not shy about going out of her way for something special.
“I was just down at the Outer Banks where I met a fisherwoman who sold me 20 pounds of shrimp,” she said. “So, shrimp will be on the menu this weekend.”
Despite her early career in fine dining, Cuni has learned to appreciate the beauty in simple pleasures and to find the fun in cooking and serving food from her kitchen.
“As long as food is fresh or in season, I’ve learned it doesn’t have to be fancy to be good,” she said.