ABOUT THE CHEF
SCOTT WALLEN
Scott Wallen was trained at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, N.Y., Wallen’s first professional cooking experience was at the Wolverine Country Club in Michigan in 1997, working for two CIA graduates who prepared him for his tour at the C.I.A. That experience led him to continue the tradition and foster young cooks to become leaders in their field.
Wallen’s 21-year culinary career has taken him from Michigan to Illinois to Nevada to North Carolina working at restaurants including Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Chicago and contemporary Postrio Bar & Grill in Las Vegas where he served as sous chef for four years. His tenor at Postrio garnished him the opportunity to collaborate alongside multiple world renowned Chefs such as Thomas Keller and Alain Duccase to name a few.
In 2003, Wallen moved to Charlotte and began an eight-year association with Harper’s Restaurant Group as chef de cuisine, followed by executive chef at Upstream in Philips Place. He also helped to reopen Zink American Kitchen in South Charlotte.
Wallen then went back to Wolfgang Puck and his team to open the first Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza Bar in Charlotte. After the launch of the Pizza Bar in Charlotte he traveled to Greensboro NC, Palm Desert CA and Tokyo Japan to open the next three Pizza Bar concepts.
Alongside the operations of the four Wolfgang Puck Pizza Bars, Chef Wallen helped the Wolfgang team oversee and create menus for multiple franchisee and licensee units for the group. Including the Wolfgang Puck Café in Walt Disney and the Cleveland Medical Center.
Chef Wallen’s career has led him back to Charlotte as the Corporate Executive chef for the Burke Hospitality Group (formally Harpers Restaurant Group), overseeing six locations including Upstream, Mimosa Grill and the three Harpers locations. Along with the existing locations Chef Wallen helped the Burke Hospitality Group to design, create and open a joint venture restaurant 1801 Grille with the University of South Carolina.
Chef Wallen’s role also includes the oversight of One Catering, an offsite catering arm of the Burke Hospitality Group. One catering focuses on large scale in house and offsite catering, intimate upscale offsite events and multiple limited service hotel contracts.
Chef Wallen then focused his attention on creating and opening Taco Molino in Fort Mill SC as the operating partner and executive chef. Wallen operated this chef driven Mexican concept for five and a half years before selling this location in 2024.
Chef Wallen has turned his focus to custom catering with Carolina Crafted Cuisine featuring events of any size including corporate functions, weddings, coursed meals and all special events that want to focus on a crafted feel with a quality culinary program. Chef Wallen is taking his extensive knowledge of global cooking and offering restaurant quality cuisine in a catered environment.