Chef Drew Ward of Noble's Grille is heading to Raleigh today, and he is taking 1,500 shrimp with him.
Noble's Grille of Winston-Salem is one of 13 restaurants across the state chosen to represent North Carolina food at the Governor's Inaugural Ball tonight at the Raleigh Convention Center.
"I'm pickling a lot of shrimp," Ward said. "It's definitely exciting. It's an honor."
The Governor's Ball is not a state function but a fundraiser organized by the Junior League of Raleigh.
"We've been doing this since 1933," said Nancy Bromhal of the Junior League. "This is the only Junior League in the country to host a governor's ball."
The chapter has a planning team of 110 women and about 300 more volunteers to pull off the two days of activities that culminate in tonight's reception for the governor-elect, Bev Perdue. The ball raises money to support community programs in the Raleigh area.
Bromhal said that about 4,000 guests are expected, but Ward won't be serving all of them. He will share that responsibility with the other restaurants from around the state that the Junior League team selected.
Noble's, which is donating the food and labor, was the only Triad restaurant chosen. Other restaurants include Simplicity at Mast Farm Inn in Valle Crucis, Wilber's Barbecue in Goldsboro and Elijah's Restaurant in Wilmington. A complete list and other details on the ball are available at www.jlraleigh.org.
Ward said that Noble's was initially contacted about the ball in December. Ward proposed several recipes, and the Junior League chose his pickled-shrimp salad.
Ward pickles the shrimp with red onion, lemon and jalapeno. He will serve it with mache greens, blood oranges and fried sunchokes (tubers that also are called Jerusalem artichokes). The salad will be completed with an avocado puree on the bottom and blood-orange vinaigrette on top.
"You get crunch and a nice sweetness from the sunchokes and creaminess from the avocado puree. And you get acid from the shrimp and lemon and oranges," Ward said.
He said he chose this dish partly for practical reasons.
"I knew I could get this 99 percent done here, and then mostly just assemble it down there," he said. Beyond that, the dish fits in with Noble's New Southern approach to food. "Pickled shrimp is a North Carolina dish, and I've got North Carolina shrimp. But I did a little bit more with it because what we're doing here is New Southern."
Though Ward is excited about participating in the ball, he said that he is also a little bit nervous.
"I've done a lot of big charity events," he said, "but I've never done a 4,000-person event."
■ Michael Hastings can be reached at 727-7394 or at mhastings@wsjournal.com.
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