“Chef Forrest Parker’s Undiscovered Charleston is a delicious walk through history”
By Melissa Hayes, Charleston City Paper
Chef Forrest Parker (aka Gump) asks us to meet him at the Pineapple Fountain at 10 a.m. on a mid-July Saturday morning. This gives him just enough time to get to the farmers market to pick up local, seasonal ingredients like chanterelles and heirloom tomatoes for the lunch he will later prepare, drop his haul off at Bistro a Vin, and meet our group at the fountain for a two-hour walking tour ahead of the midday heat.
He has a small group of five today — an ideal size for navigating narrow sidewalks and historic alleyways (though he says he can handle groups of up to 16 or 20).
Parker is not one of those overly animated or hokey guides that goes on about ghosts and Yankees in an exaggerated drawl. The entire experience feels more like a laidback chat with a knowledgeable chef-historian than a scripted performance. He’s simply himself — Chef Forrest Parker, history, culture, and cuisine devotee — who spends more time championing the city’s culinarians than speaking about the more than two decades of achievements under his own chef’s hat. “I want to evangelize,” he later says. “I’m getting out of the game. It’s very clearly not about the ‘me’ show. It’s about the ‘we’ show.”
So what you may not hear him say is that in 2016, Gov. Nikki Haley selected him as South Carolina’s Chef Ambassador. He’s also the only licensed and certified chef tour-guide in Charleston. He’s done extensive work as an agricultural archaeologist and has studied and helped revive a number of heirloom varieties. You can read about them on Undiscovered Charleston, a blog that he’s maintained since 2011. He even hopes one day to write a book detailing Charleston’s culinary history.
Other media coverage about Chef Forrest Parker
The New York Times 
Shrimp, Collards and Grits 
Azalea magazine 
Charleston Living 
Fundraiser with 98 Rock 
The James Beard House 
The Review 
The James Beard House, NYC
NPR podcast 
The Post & Courier
Discovering More About Chef Forrest
Undiscovered Charleston: an unparalleled, chef-led culinary history experience
Duck, Oysters and Rice Share a Skillet at Drawing Room
How to Define Southern Cuisine
Ancestral peanuts, Chilly Bears
Louisiana-Lowcountry Creole Cooking Charleston
Heirloom Peanut Makes a Comeback
Charleston City Paper, Old Village Post House Sizzling Shrimp Dinner
Charleston Post & Courier, Little Chef, Big Chef
ABC News4, Little Chef, Big Chef
Louie’s Kids, Little Chef Big Chef
Charleston Regional Business Journal, Old Village Post House 10th Anniversary, May 14, 2013
Charleston Scene, Old Village Post House Farm to Table Dinner, May 8, 2013
ABC News 4, Shrimp and Corn Maque Choux Salad Video Segment, April 23, 2013
Charleston Post & Courier, Elk Cove Wine Dinner, April 10, 2013
Lowcountry Dog Magazine, Bone Appetite- Top Chefs, Top Dogs, April/May 2013
Charleston Scene, Chef’s Feast, March 13, 2013
Lowcountry Food Bank, Chef’s Feast, March 13, 2013
Lowcountry Food Bank, Chef’s Feast, March 13, 2013
James Beard Foundation, Salute to the James Beard Foundation, March 18, 2013
2013 Charleston Wine and Food Festival, Forrest Parker Bio
Charleston Scene, Palmetto Brewery Dinner at Old Village Post House, March 21, 2013
The Local Palate, Bourbon Glazed Duck, February 18, 2013
Charleston City Paper, Golden Tilefish at Old Village Post House, February 15, 2013
Charleston Eater, Forrest Parker on the Vietnamese Scene in Charleston, February 1, 2013
Charleston City Paper, Will Nashville of 2013 Be The Charleston of 2012? December 28, 2013
Charleston Magazine, Forrest Parker & Kim Keelor Wedding, October 13, 2012
PR WEB, Sustainable Seafood Dinner with Chef Forrest Parker, September 10, 2012
WBCD News2, Chalone Wine Dinner with Chef Forrest Parker, August 8, 2012
Charleston Scene, Old Village Post House Crab Dinner, August 15, 2012
Charleston Scene, Peach Dinner with jimihatt of Guerrilla Cuisine, July 4, 2012
Charleston Post and Courier, Lend an Ear to a Family Favorite, June 20, 2012
Charleston Eater, Old Village Post House Review, June 6, 2012
Old Village Post House Review, Deidre Schipani, Charleston Post and Courier, June 6, 2012
Eater Charleston, June 7, 2012
Charleston Current, New Chef Relishes Warm Welcome (back) to The South, May 21, 2012
The “Lost” Recipe of William Deas, Allston McCrady, The Local Palate, March 30, 2012
French Estates Wine Dinner, Allston McCrady, The Local Palate, March 7, 2012
Chef Returns To His Roots, Adam Crisp, Mount Pleasant Patch, March 6, 2012
Charleston Wine and Food Festival, March 1-4, 2012
Old Village Post House Acquires Opryland Head Chef, Charleston Digitel, February 1, 2012
Food Network Southern Food and Wine Festival
Cascades Review, Chris Chamberlain, Nashville Scene, April 20, 2010
Kitchens.com: The Essential Chef’s Kitchen
Cruise Gourmet, Nashville Dining-Gaylord Opryland Has It All! Arie Boris
Hip Compass Points To Nashville, Carrington Fox, Nashville Scene, June 19, 2009
Taste of Elegance, Brett Thorne, Nation’s Restaurant News, May 7, 2008
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