Greg Zanitsch
Greg Zanitsch
Owner, executive chef and wine director
The Fig Tree Restaurant
Some people are born into a profession. Others come to a career path later in life. Greg Zanitsch found his calling on the side of the road. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati in December of 1990, the philosophy major saw a sign for the New England Culinary Institute while driving through Vermont. He pulled off and filled out an application. A few weeks later, Greg was 8 days into a two-month trip through Europe when he found out he’d been accepted to the program.
“I packed up and headed back immediately. I don’t know what I was thinking,” Greg jokes. “I’d worked in a restaurant in college, but there was so much to learn. One of my French chef instructors said, ‘One day you’ll just get it,’ and he was right. I don’t know what that day was, but I knew I was good at it.”
After graduation, Greg worked his way through all seven restaurants at Maui’s 550-room Ritz-Carlton Kapalua.“I lived on the property and wore a beeper so I could jump in wherever I was needed,” he says.“Basically I was the guy straight out of culinary school who did everything.” He moved back to the mainland to work at Auberge du Soleil in California’s Napa Valley, where he learned two things that shaped his culinary style: the importance of high- quality ingredients and how to pair food with wine.
On his way to a job interview in Washington, D.C., Greg took a detour to Cincinnati and stayed for another seven years.Within the first year he’d worked his way up to sous chef at Prima Vista, a high-volume, fine dining Italian restaurant where he met his future wife, Sara. Greg also took a year off to work at Jungle Jim’s—a 200,000 square foot international market with a $12 million wine shop inside—to learn more about the business of wine.
When it was time to get back to the kitchen, Greg wanted it to be his own. He and Sara searched for spots in Cincinnati, but nothing felt right. “My parents were living in Charlotte and called to say they’d seen a place we might like,” Greg says.“We got on a plane, flew down, walked in and fell in love with it.”
After a year of renovations to the historic Lucas House,The Fig Tree opened in 2005 with a wine list and menu of country European classics that have garnered awards from outlets including Charlotte Magazine and Wine Spectator.
“Food is a good balance between science and creativity and that’s always appealed to me,” Greg says.“People say being a chef is hard work—and it is—but when you love what you do, who you do it with and the people you do it for, it seems a lot less like work.”