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Greg Cox

Greg Cox is the restaurant critic for The News & Observer. He was born in El Paso, Texas, and grew up in North Carolina on a diet of Southern fried chicken (the real thing, cooked up in a big, black cast iron skillet), fried okra, sweet sliced summer tomatoes and the best biscuits on the planet. He has cooked, catered, waited tables and dined in Europe, Canada, Mexico and much of the U.S. (especially the South, Southwest and Midwest).

Though not a graduate of a professional culinary institute, he has been a passionate student of the world’s cuisines for more than three decades. He learned to make a soufflé from Michel Pasquet, erstwhile owner of a Michelin two-star restaurant in Paris. He explored Moroccan cuisine with Paula Wolfert, long before couscous was cool. Jean Yueh, author of "The Great Tastes of Chinese Cooking," taught him a few chop sticks tricks. Biscuits, of course, he learned from his mom.