Greg Collier, owner of two Charlotte restaurants and a finalist for the James Beard Award, has taken on another culinary role in the Queen City: executive chef at Fine & Fettle, a hotel restaurant located in the Canopy by Hilton in SouthPark.
As executive chef, Collier is responsible for menu development, staff leadership and kitchen management. The restaurant’s menu under Collier’s culinary vision is set to debut in October.
Collier described the menu as a blend of Southern cuisine and French culture. “Most of the stuff we do in the culinary world is French,” said in an interview with QCity Metro.
In an interview with The Charlotte Observer, Collier said hotel guests will get to order a pan-seared duck breast served with braised collard greens and a house-made cornmeal gnocchi. Or a seared scallop plate served with pickled okra, a potlikker redux, and Hoppin’ John — a dish highly influenced by his roots as a Black American.
“I think Hoppin’ John is a dish that is going to be new to people,” Collier, a formally trained chef, told the Observer. (Hoppin’ John is a Southern dish with deep roots in Black foodways. It combines rice and beans, often infused with chunks of pork, but Collier said his version adds smoked turkey instead.)
The new position is a return to form for Collier, who cut his teeth in the culinary industry by working in hotel kitchens.
Collier is known for his restaurant concepts Uptown Yolk, 3rd and Fernwood, and the temporarily closed Leah & Louise, all of which he operates alongside his wife, Subrina Collier.
Collier said stepping into the new role while owning two other Charlotte concepts is “tough,” but he praised the “great leadership” he has at both restaurants.
“I was already kind of working to phase myself out of [3rd & Fernwood]. I had already paid myself out of Uptown Yolk,” he said. “We’re very fortunate that we’ve got very hard-working, loyal people almost everywhere we work.”
Dining and Cooking