When the economy was strong, many food service workers enjoyed their jobs and were focused on growing within the industry. The pandemic has inspired some food service employees or owners to question their path and to find creative outlets that are not food related, or have a stronger pathway within food service to success, financial reward, and satisfaction.

I spoke with a variety of local chefs who have made changes during the past year. Here’s who ended up where, and why they decided to do something different.

Tim Groody, The Good Kitchen

Tim Groody is the first chef I met when I moved to Charlotte 16 years ago. He was executive chef at Sonoma on Trade and Tryon streets at the time, and I managed a wine store across the street. We did some wine dinners together, and I really enjoyed his food. Groody was one of the culinary leaders of featuring the local bounty of North Carolina farmers in his menu. He went on to work at the corporate level for Frank Scibelli of FS Food Group, developing new menu items across the various concepts and stabilizing operations and costs. He and his wife then opened Fork! in Cornelius and Ramen Soul in Mooresville. The latter closed in 2019, and they sold Fork! in 2020. Groody was hired by Marriott Center City as executive chef of Stoke just before the pandemic closed restaurants. As he evaluated his career, he realized his expertise in farm-to-fork purchasing, menu development, and cost control made him a good candidate to work with a food business that focused on healthy, sustainable meals. He has partnered with The Good Kitchen in menu development and ingredient sourcing. He said that he works normal business hours and he likes the change. The Good Kitchen delivers meals that are paleo, keto, or vegetarian throughout the United States.

David Quintana, Haymaker
Chef David Quintana has been working in food service since his teenage years as a dishwasher at a country club. He received an associate’s degree in culinary from Johnson & Wales in 2008, and has since worked in restaurants in New York, South Carolina, and Charlotte; taught culinary students; and until the pandemic worked in an executive chef role for corporate dining. He took a position as chef de cuisine for Haymaker in Uptown during the pandemic. He liked the stable environment with the corporate kitchen, but his creativity is flowing into his food while working for Haymaker owner and chef William Dissen, who challenges him daily. The biggest difficulty in his job now was deciding when to add staff. While business is improving, it is still erratic, so the added cost of staff has to be integrated slowly, he says. Quintana enjoyed being with his four children during his down time, and he looks forward to taking some art classes. He’s now returned to his role as executive chef at a corporate kitchen.

Nick Kepp, The Loyalist Market
I had the pleasure of meeting Chef Nick Kepp while he was a culinary student at the Art Institute of Charlotte, where I taught culinary business classes. It was apparent when he was a student that he has the right skills and demeanor to be successful in food service – calm, confident, respectful, always wanting to learn, and intelligent. Kepp worked for a few preschool culinary programs, feeding hundreds of children and guests daily. He then helped to open the culinary training program at the Community Matters Café, in affiliation with the Charlotte Rescue Mission. The restaurant is open to the public and trains at-risk adults in basic culinary skills. The staff was laid off during the pandemic, and the chef took a few months to catch his breath and think about the future. He became a Geocaching game enthusiast, and he and his wife Casee Jo decided to start a family. Kepp is now working for The Loyalist Market in Matthews, which offers him regular hours and a decent employment package. He sees the slowdown as an opportunity for change within the industry regarding pay and benefit packages to enhance employee retention. He predicts that consumers are going to have to adjust to higher food costs.

Sam Diminich, Your Farms, Your Table

Chef Sam was raised in Italian restaurants run by his family in Myrtle Beach. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and worked in fine dining in Philadelphia, South Carolina, and most recently was executive chef at Upstream in SouthPark. While he worked at Upstream, he became very involved in the local farm community. He was quite concerned about what the impact of massive restaurant closings would have on the local farm community, so he decided to start a home delivery service of meals that support Charlotte farms. At first, he only made 40 meals a day, showcasing the produce of local farmers while creatively cooking high quality, three-course dinners. Your Farms, Your Table has grown in numbers of meals per day, number of employees, and range of delivery service while maintaining standards. Diminich says he is very happy with the change in career as he now has more personal time with his family. He sees growth opportunities in home delivery of meals, and his income has slowly improved. In the future, he says, he will only work in a restaurant if he owns it.

Rob Clement, Meshugganah
Chef Rob Clement started his career at age 15 on Long Island, working in a diner kitchen as a summer job. He has cooked in Boston, New Orleans, and locally for Paul Verica at Heritage and Rare Roots Hospitality’s The Porter’s House as executive chef. During the pandemic, he realized that he wanted to have his own food business and chart his own course. He also wanted a better quality of life and more family time. He and his wife started to do pop-up meals at various breweries in Charlotte, featuring Jewish deli-style foods. He was very successful and the sales kept growing. His concept is named Meshugganah, which in Hebrew means crazy. Clement says he wants to apply his fine dining techniques to basic Jewish cuisine to elevate the quality and presentation. He has partnered with pastry chef Hannah Woociker, and they are currently looking for a permanent space to expand their offerings in a restaurant setting. Clement has also become a leading voice in the Charlotte food scene to promote better wages, working conditions, and benefits for restaurant employees.

Patrick Garrivier, Patrick’s Gourmet

Patrick Garrivier was born in France and trained there in culinary arts. He moved to the United States and worked for 25 years at various restaurants in New York City before moving to Charlotte. Since moving here, he was general manager at Georges Brasserie, general manager at Tom Condron’s Lumiere, and managing partner at Aix en Provence. He was operations director of Upstream prior to its closing. He has now started a catering and home food delivery service, showcasing his fine dining French and Mediterranean cuisine: Patrick’s Gourmet Catering. What he enjoys best about his new concept, he says, is doing private dinners at clients’ residences. He likes the immediate feedback from diners who appreciate his specialty dishes. He also enjoys the shorter days — he’s finished by 7 or 8 p.m., a dream for most of his career. He uses that extra time to connect with family, especially his granddaughter. He would consider owning and operating a fine dining restaurant again in the future, but says for now, he is content to work five days per week at something he enjoys.

Other moves:

Amanda Britton left Bardo and Vana to become lead mixologist at Orto.

Chef Daniel Wheeler has joined The Stanley as chef de cuisine.

Former Zeppelin executive chef Vince Giancarlo is chef de cuisine at The Jimmy.

Oscar La Fuente will be the chef at the new JW Marriott in Uptown.

Brian Lorusso, formerly of Little Mama’s and Dogwood Southern Table, has left the industry.

Bob Peters has left Grinning Mule to return to consulting

Chef Whitney Thomas has left Charlotte for a position in Atlanta.

Alex Verica has left The Stanley for a chef de cuisine position at upcoming Para.

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