Lewis Donald, a Piedmont Culinary Guild member since 2016, owns and operates the highly praised Sweet Lew’s BBQ in the Belmont neighborhood. Although BBQ is the name of this game these days, he wasn’t always laser-focused on the Southern cuisine.
In the fall of 2012, PCG Professional Members Andrew and Alyssa Wilen had an idea. Six years, 18 employees, 1,000 classes and 20,053 students later, Andrew and Alyssa’s idea has also had a lasting impact on the Charlotte community.
The paths that lead to restaurant life are as varied as the foods they serve. Some are born into the business while others seek it out, driven by dreams of culinary greatness. For PCG Member Siggy Sollitto of Siggy’s Good Food, the motivation has always been to nourish the community with “food that is good and fair.”
Ashley Boyd has been the pastry chef at her family’s Dilworth restaurant, 300 East, since 2014. She never intended to join the family business. She wanted to paint and sculpt. “Food gradually took over my brain,” she says. “I finally got a job in a restaurant and never looked back.”
If you owned and ran one of Charlotte’s most beloved restaurants for nearly three decades, you’d probably exude a good dose of confidence. But there’s depth to the quiet ease with which PCG Member Bonnie Warford sits down at the table in the sun-infused dining room of Carpe Diem.
Anyone spending time in The South learns that New Yorkers hold a special place in the Damn Yankee hierarchy. Then there are Yankees like Tim Grandinetti, who remind us of the pitfalls of stereotyping. The chef at Winston-Salem’s Spring House Restaurant Kitchen & Bar moved to the area ten years ago, and couldn’t sound more appreciative of his new southern home.