Travis Grimes

The Climb

Training at Johnson & Wales University gave Travis Grimes the technical base, but the progression that followed shows the more useful lesson: how to move through a kitchen by learning service, repetition, and place. In Charleston, SC, that progression continued through some of the city’s closely watched kitchens: Sous Chef at McCrady’s in Charleston, SC (2003–2006), Head Chef at Husk in Charleston, SC (2010–2015), and Executive Chef at Husk in Charleston, SC (from 2015). Since 2022, Grimes has been co-founder / chef of Iron Clay Catering, carrying that same attention to region, season, and the labor behind ingredients into a different format. What is notable in that path is the way it stays tied to the Southern table as a working subject, not a marketing phrase. Each step adds more control, but also more understanding of how food reflects the hands, harvests, boats, fields, and timing that shape it. Grimes’s career reads as a steady conversion of experience into judgment: the ability to turn landscape and memory into food that is clear, grounded, and unadorned.

Today

At Husk, the kitchen’s point of view is set by a direct line to regional foodways: "At Husk we very much celebrate the traditional South." That line is not being used here as branding. In Grimes’s kitchen, the traditional South functions as a practical framework built around sourcing, seasonality, and the people who make the work possible. The food starts before the pass, in the fields, on the water, and with the growers, fishermen, and purveyors whose labor is part of the plate even when their names are not printed on it. That is why he returns to the same principle with no embellishment: "We support local farmers and fishermen; if it’s a quality Southern product, we want it at the restaurant." Taken together, those statements describe a kitchen that treats provenance as a standard, not an accessory. The plate is expected to carry the character of where it comes from, and the measure of the work is as much integrity as technique. At Husk, that means keeping a culinary inheritance intact while letting the best local product determine the shape of the menu.

Signature

Travis's signature dishes include wood fired chili. The dish fits the shape of his cooking: smoke, depth, and direct flavor handled without excess. It relies on fire as a structuring tool, using heat to build richness and concentrate what is already there. In a kitchen centered on Southern ingredients, wood fired chili reads as a clear expression of warmth, restraint, and low-drama intensity.

In Their Words “In our chili we included smokehouse cooked Wagyu beef from local farms and heirloom tomatoes and onions, produce grown right here in Charleston.” “We support local farmers and fishermen; if it’s a quality Southern product, we want it at the restaurant.” These lines lay out the priorities plainly: specificity, locality, and respect for ingredients as they come in from farm and field. The detail is doing the work here. Smokehouse cooked Wagyu beef, heirloom tomatoes, onions—ingredients chosen and combined in a way that locates the dish in Charleston through sourcing as much as through flavor.

Recognition

Travis's honors include StarChefs Rising Star Chef Award. That recognition matches the record already on view: a chef whose work has been shaped by discipline, regional loyalty, and a steady advance through kitchens that reward precision and point of view.