lililililililililililililililili >> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. >> the name of chef mike lata's south carolina says it all. fig, which stands for food is good. lata, the winner of last year's james beer award for best chef in the southeast has a reputation for using only local ingredients and making it taste so good it will buckle your knees. here is tonight's plate list. >> notoriously, i'm a hands on chef and my peers will tell you the same thing, i have a hard time letting go. i think wakes up and enjoying what you do is the most important thing. it's nice to do what you love. we have peppers, some fennel, some celery and red onion. to that mixture, we're going to add roasted tomatoes, pine nuts and garlic. red win vinegar. more olive oil and we have sauteed eggplant that we diced up and sauteed quickly. a little touch of tomato sauce. so now you can see the vegetables have softened. perfect. when i was growing up, i was a latch-key kid for the most part. and so i had a little repertoire of things i would make for myself, i was a big pancake fan. loved pork chops, shake and b