Charleston, South Carolina

Ben Sargent discovers the foundations for Charleston's current culinary renaissance is the region's rustic lowcountry cuisine and its seemingly timeless union with all things fresh and aquatic. He experiences firsthand the essence of that union in rustic institutions like Bowens Island Restaurant, a local marsh-side oyster house where it's a monumental understatement to say the amenities are sparse. Whether pan-searing sheepshead fish at Husk in historic downtown Charleston or preparing stuffed blue crab at T.W. Graham & Company in nearby McClellanville, Ben's ingredients are nothing if not local.