As a teenager, Tyiquan McDuffie would skateboard past a restaurant in Olde Towne Portsmouth.
Now the 30-year-old works in that historic building as the executive chef of Still Worldly Eclectic Tapas, which opened in 2008 and focuses on serving small, shareable plates of food with several whiskeys, cocktails and mocktails in a speakeasy-style environment. He leads a team of cooks and creates menus for each season, special events and weekly features.
“Still Worldly changed the way our community viewed food because there weren’t many places around doing tapas at that time,” McDuffie said.
This style of dining, he said, encourages guests to taste multiple dishes through shared experiences with their companions. The menu also inspires them to try something different — without large portions and tabs.
Though he’s held positions in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and New York City, it’s from this community, his hometown, where he aims to make his mark.
“Chef Ty is a master of fusing cuisine that helps tell a story,” said Still Worldly owner Eric Stevens, who hired him in September.
Chef Ty grates Parmesan over his duck confit ravioli at Still Worldly Eclectic Tapas. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
For example, while McDuffie doesn’t have a signature dish at Still Worldly, he uses Nigerian spices on the chicken wings that trace a path of migration to the States and to Portsmouth, Stevens said. In a similar fashion, McDuffie adds Ethiopian spices to the shrimp and grits and Caribbean spices to a French dish called Jerk au Vin, a hit among customers.
McDuffie said his inspiration comes from putting together global flavors whose origins range from the Philippines to the Caribbean to West Africa. The concept for the braised beef and fry bread has Haitian and Native American influences.
He also makes duck confit ravioli stuffed with goat cheese, ricotta, caramelized onion and mushrooms in a beurre rouge, or French “red butter” sauce. The braised lamb, served with crispy falafel, rice and hummus, is also popular.
McDuffie describes his food as fun without being too pretentious, and inspired by the chefs he’s met or worked with.
Food anchored his upbringing in the Park View neighborhood, where the Elizabeth River meets Scotts Creek. Crab boils and cookouts would bring family and friends together. His grandfather taught him how to skin the eels they found in the creek. When he wasn’t watching his mother and grandmother in the kitchen, he was watching food shows on PBS.
McDuffie recalled getting a steak from Golden Corral and then putting his own spin on it at home. Still, the chef in the making couldn’t eat what he wanted because of his family’s financial situation. That frustration inspired his career path.
The I.C. Norcom High School alum graduated from the culinary program at the Art Institute of Virginia Beach in 2015, and his education didn’t stop there.
He’d get off work early at Food Lion and skate about a mile to Town Center’s Yard House, where he washed dishes. After completing his tasks, he would study the techniques of the chefs and sometimes retrieve items for them as needed.
McDuffie’s fascination with the culinary spilled over to his next career move, as a kitchen manager at a major hotel chain in Virginia Beach. One day, he decided to create a crabcake different from the one on the menu. He remembers giving it to a 76-year-old woman from Maryland — who was almost brought to tears because it reminded her of her mother’s.
Chef Ty’s finished duck confit ravioli: duck confit ravioli (stuffed with ricotta, goat cheese and caramelized onions), with mushroom conserva, chive oil, Affilla Cress, a beurre rouge sauce, lemon zest and Parmesan. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
In 2017, McDuffie accepted a position at a new restaurant that holds a special place in his heart, The Butcher’s Son in the Hilltop area of Virginia Beach. He and Jayda Albert worked together there as line cooks. While McDuffie left for a stint at Codex in Norfolk just before the pandemic, he returned to The Butcher’s Son in 2023 as the sous chef for Albert, who had risen to become the executive chef.
Albert, now executive chef at Hawthorn Senior Living in Virginia Beach, said he would love to work with McDuffie again because of his hands-on approach to getting things done in the front and back of the house. Albert said he learned to level up his creativity and patience — and to make focaccia bread — from McDuffie.
Albert envisions his friend owning a restaurant some day: “Hands down, Ty’s got some of the best food I’ve ever eaten.”
That might happen sooner than he thinks if McDuffie keeps learning from celebrity chefs such as Andre Fowles, a three-time Food Network “Chopped” champion, and “Top Chef” alumnae Tiffany Derry and Nyesha Arrington.
He met and worked alongside the top chefs when he volunteered at The Family Reunion at Salamander Resort in Middleburg, Virginia, in 2014. The annual, four-day Black food festival, hosted by restaurateur Kwame Onwuachi, another “Top Chef” alum, celebrates diversity in the hospitality industry.
On his first day there, he said, chef Gregory Gourdet, a restaurateur and three-time James Beard award winner, offered him a job in New York. He declined because he had family commitments and a home in Virginia. Then Gourdet asked him again, for a job in Portland, Oregon. McDuffie initially declined but later called him back. He didn’t want to have any regrets.
In January 2025, McDuffie flew to New York to prepare a three-course tasting for Gourdet. He got the job — helping Gourdet open four of five food and beverage outlets.
The days and commutes were long, the work was hard and McDuffie was still paying a mortgage in another state. He decided to go back home that April.
“It was a great experience,” he said. “It didn’t necessarily work out the way that I wanted, but it worked out the way it’s supposed to be.”
Chef Ty McDuffie works in the kitchen at Still Worldly Eclectic Tapas in Portsmouth on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
Chef Ty McDuffie places his duck confit ravioli onto a sheet pan to be chilled in the fridge before the dinner rush at Still Worldly Eclectic Tapas in Portsmouth on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
Chef Ty McDuffie drizzles beurre rouge sauce over his duck confit ravioli at Still Worldly Eclectic Tapas in Olde Towne Portsmouth on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
Chef Ty McDuffie outside Still Worldly Eclectic Tapas in Portsmouth on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
Still Worldly Eclectic Tapas sits at 450 Court St. in Portsmouth’s Olde Towne, as seen on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
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Chef Ty McDuffie works in the kitchen at Still Worldly Eclectic Tapas in Portsmouth on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
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The move back to Portsmouth helped him find a work-life balance, which can be hard sometimes. The father of two praised his partner and future wife, Sherett, for holding him down for 12 years.
McDuffie’s journey since 17 has molded his personality as a chef. He’s not aggressive; he doesn’t yell or throw things. Stevens agreed, describing him as a “new age guy that brings a passion that doesn’t boil over and get into those stereotypical chef roles.”
The young chef takes pride in talking about Still Worldly’s beauty — its exposed brick, cool paintings and low lighting — as an environment where people socialize, share and sip. He loves walking around the dining room, talking to customers about their experience. Their reactions and feedback — particularly when folks say it’s the best food they’ve had there in years — fuel his joy.
Stevens, also the majority owner of The Public House in Norfolk’s Ghent, said he thinks both parties take a lot from those interactions.
“We love that about him,” he said. “Glad he’s here and experimenting and we’re just happy to share space with him.”
Albert echoed the sentiment about Chef Ty: “He makes a great representative for this restaurant because he loves his city.”
Rekaya Gibson, 757-295-8809, rekaya.gibson@virginiamedia.com
*A correction was made on Feb. 9, 2026: Because of a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misstated Eric Stevens was also an owner of Olde Towne Public House in Portsmouth. He is not an owner of that establishment.
Dining and Cooking