Almost exactly a decade ago, Tripp Taylor left his position as sous chef at Bonterra. He and his wife were growing their family, and needed dependable health insurance. He took a position working in a corporate kitchen for those benefits, staying two-and-a-half years before deciding that career path wasn’t right for him. He returned to the restaurant world with a job at Mama Ricotta’s; now, after two more positions and a few more years, he returns to Bonterra Restaurant  & Wine Room as the restaurant’s executive chef.

“I spent so much time and I learned so much from Blake in the get go, it’s like going home,” Taylor says. “It’s wonderful. Some of the people that worked there when I worked there are still there, because people don’t leave Bonterra once you go there. It’s like going home; it’s just peaceful.”

Taylor, a graduate of Center Piedmont Community College’s culinary program, grew up in Anderson, South Carolina, spending time with  his grandmother in the kitchen each weekend.

“We would go over to Grandma’s house every Sunday, and basically I just sat there on the stove and hung out with Grandma and learned how to cook,” he says. “She taught me extremely Southern cooking.”

Though he still can’t recreate his grandma’s collard greens, her love of cooking — the kitchen was always stocked with produce she’d canned herself — passed on to Taylor, who decided to pursue a culinary career. After graduation, he worked at The Melting Pot on Kings Drive, then at 300 East. He took a position around the corner at Bonterra, where he worked for eight years, starting “at the bottom of the barrel,” as he says, before becoming sous chef and pastry chef.

Returning to Bonterra a decade later, Taylor recalls the legacy of the restaurant he is stepping back into fondly, calling Bonterra a “unicorn.”

“At most restaurants, it’s always about the mighty dollar —it’s always about, your food cost has to be this, your labor cost has to be this, your numbers have to be this, everything has to match up,” Taylor says. “Bonterra, from [owner] John Duncan’s perspective, he’s not necessarily as concerned about the numbers as he is about the food and about the experience that the guest has. If your numbers are a little off this month, that’s fine because everybody this month had a great time.”

Bonterra has been a go-to fine dining spot in Charlotte for nearly 20 years. (Read our review of the restaurant). Like Taylor, former executive chef Blake Hartwick also worked at the restaurant, left, and returned to become executive chef. Hartwick and his wife, Heather, now own a restaurant on Lake Wateree in South Carolina.

Taylor says he doesn’t anticipate significant menu changes, but is introducing new events, like an upcoming whiskey dinner. He also plans to add his personality to the menu with subtle tweaks.

“Blake put his Southern twist on everything, but my Southern twist is different than Blake’s Southern twist,” Taylor says. “So personally, I really don’t want to change much about Bonterra because it’s wonderful the way it is. My goal is to just keep the legacy alive, but with my Southern twist on it.”

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