Jeremy Charles

Training at St. Pius Culinary Institute gave Jeremy Charles the base he would carry into leadership at Raymonds, where he served first as head chef and later as co-owner. In that role, the kitchen’s identity was shaped by steady execution and a clear point of view. That same approach continued at the Merchant Tavern, where he became co-owner and extended a consistent sensibility across another room built around hospitality, rigor and place.

Jeremy Charles’s career is marked by the ability to turn a local inheritance into cooking that is polished, direct and memorable. The work reads as practice, not trend: ingredients handled with care, service-driven precision, and a close hold on the foods and traditions that have fed Newfoundland for generations.

Wildness is one of Jeremy’s signature dishes, and the name fits a style of cooking that stays close to the force of the ingredients themselves. The menu language points toward what is seasonal, hunted, fished and gathered, then subjects it to restraint rather than excess. That same register shows up in his grandmother’s “fish and brews,” a traditional Newfoundland dish composed of salt fish, hard bread, pork fat and potatoes. In that dish, the practical work of feeding people and the act of carrying memory are the same thing.

Jeremy’s honors include City of St. John’s Legend Award (2016) and EnRoute Best New Restaurant in Canada. Taken together, they mark a career recognized for clarity of voice as much as for accomplishment, with technique, memory and home all held in the same frame.