the restaurant creates modern interpretations of traditional southern dishes, often collected from members of her family's eastern north carolina community. in 2018, howard said "older folks in our community teach me how to make something very simple. one of the things i like about "a chef's life" and dislike about modern media, in general, is that [our culture is] very young-person-new-ideas driven, and i don’t think people call on the wisdom of older folks very much. to learn from them and share has been wonderful."