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.”
Piedmont Culinary Guild member Chef Steven Goff’s story doesn’t start off in a predictable way. The young chef-to-be didn’t grow up in his family’s kitchen, watching his mother cook or learning hands-on with a grandmother. Instead, Steven had a bit of a crazy childhood.
Piedmont Culinary Guild member Qian Zhang learned how to make dumplings from her grandmother. “I don’t have a culinary background. I grew up watching my grandmother cook,” says Zhang. The inspiration for many of the dumpling and noodle dishes coming out of Zhang’s food truck, The Dumpling Lady, are inspired by her grandmother’s recipes …
PCG Member Chef Matthew Krenz, Executive Chef of The Asbury at The Dunhill Hotel, learned how to cook at a very young age, so he’s always had a strong relationship with food. Krenz grew up all over the South: born in a small suburb of Charlotte, NC. He then made his rounds through Atlanta, Tampa, Houston, and eventually looped his way back to the Queen City.
With experience ranging from working in a swanky Michelin Star restaurant to teaching chef-driven college courses, Chef David Quintana faced all facets of the cooking world. Currently, Quintana leads the kitchen as Executive Chef at distinguished Charlotte speakeasy Dot Dot Dot.
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.
Joy Turner has worked with some of the most lauded chefs in Charlotte. She now carries double titles of Catering Director and Head Catering Chef at Project 658. But ask her what she does for a living, Turner’s first response is “the farmer’s wife.”
Chef Geoff may go by his first name around here, but Bragg is all business when it comes to preparing students at the Community Culinary School of Charlotte for real life in the hospitality industry. As supervisor of the in-house café, he leads students through breakfast and lunch service and preparing heat-and-eat takeaway meals.
While he will never shake the French soil from his soul, his new love of the Panthers and efforts to foster the next generation of local chefs make it clear that Chef Charles Sémail’s Carolina roots have grown deep and strong.
Chef Greg Collier and his food have a lot in common. Both seem straightforward at first glance: breakfast means eggs, grits, potatoes, sausage. Collier, a formidable presence manning the grill in his t-shirt and half apron, means plate after plate of simple, hearty food that won’t break the bank. But in both cases, you’d be missing the point if you looked no further.