Crossroads Chapel Hill's new chef comes home to Carolina
Brandon Sharp flexes his award-winning skills with a full turn on all The Carolina Inn's menus.
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Growing up, the Greensboro-native’s grandparents, Evelyn and Albert Graham, lived here and would take Brandon and his brother to The Carolina Inn – of all places – on occasion. “I have fond memories of that,” Brandon says. His mother, Jane Graham Sharp, and father, Trevor Sharp, met at Chapel Hill High School, and Brandon himself even attended UNC for undergrad, working at Weathervane part-time. “I always thought of [Chapel Hill] as a second home,” he says.
After UNC, Brandon headed to The Culinary Institute of America. “Once I got out of college, as a philosophy major, the only thing I knew how to do was cook,” he says.
After settling in Napa Valley for a while – and helping to earn and maintain a Michelin star for the restaurant Solbar where he served as chef – Brandon left late in 2016 for North Carolina.
For lunch, Brandon is all about the banh mi, utilizing hot and cold pork elements with Crossroads’ own pickled veggies.
And for dinner? “My favorite entrée uses Guilford Mills grits, finished with smoked cheddar and braised Tuscan kale with confit pork shoulder,” he says. “It has all the elements of breakfast in North Carolina, but it's an entrée.”
Moving into spring, look forward to field peas, asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries to hit the menu. “And I’m crossing my fingers for a good stone fruit season,” Brandon says. “It requires a certain discipline, and, honesty, to cook seasonally no matter where you are, but I’m excited to find what’s great here and feature it,” he adds.
And the excitement spills out into daily life, too. Brandon, wife Elizabeth and children William, 9, Charles, 7, and Mary-Evelyn, 3, are happy to be rooting on the Tar Heels. “Man, they’ve got Carolina fever,” Brandon says.
