Chef Jonathan Dupriest’s story is a hometown story told through food.
By Pamela Jouan, Photographed by Cristi Marshall
Chef Jonathan DuPriest isn’t just cooking in Summerville—he embodies it. As the chef/owner of La Chev 208, now housed in a beautifully restored 100-year-old home in historic downtown, DuPriest’s culinary journey is a true hometown story, flavored with French finesse and Lowcountry heart.
A 2001 Summerville High graduate and among the final classes at Johnson & Wales in Charleston, DuPriest got his start early — working at the Woodlands Resort in high school under the exacting eye of Chef Ken Vedrinski. The Woodlands, then the only South Carolina property to hold both Forbes Five Star and AAA Five Diamond ratings, became DuPriest’s benchmark. “Ken was tough. Nothing was perfect—but if you worked hard, he taught you everything,” DuPriest says. “One day he told me, ‘You’re going to be a chef.’ Coming from one of the standard-bearers of the Charleston culinary scene, the seed was planted.That seed grew through years spent cooking in Charleston, Mount Pleasant, James Island, and Beaufort. But eventually Summerville beckoned him back home.
As for his cooking style, he was drawn to French cuisine—its “complex simplicity,” as he calls it. “A crème brûlée has four ingredients, and every step matters. That discipline appealed to me.” Combining that with Lowcountry cuisine was a no brainer. “My mom’s a Southern farm girl raised on Southern dishes. If it makes Mom happy, it’s good with me.” He points out that a lot of classic French cuisine started off as peasant dishes. “Take coq au vin or bouillabaisse — they were perpetual stews; throwing what they had in a pot.” Using the Escoffier Cookbook as his bible, and the Lowcountry as his true North, he says “I do French dishes in a Lowcountry way or Lowcountry dishes in a French way. It’s interchangeable. They mesh well.”
Today, DuPriest’s menu at La Chev 208 is a culinary memoir. French bread pizzas nod to his latchkey childhood and frozen Stouffer’s lunches. “I didn’t want to just do sandwiches—this felt more personal,” he says. “Sunday’ sauce, a simple marinara, honors his Italian nanny, Ms. Rina Knight, who left a hospital job to raise him. And “Chicken ala Harriet” elevates his mother’s classic potluck chicken and rice into a rosemary garlic confit over vegetable risotto. It’s still essentially chicken and rice—but through his lens.
Each dish tells a story—of mentors, memories, and milestones. “The menu is me—a little bit in every dish,” DuPriest says. That authenticity resonates with diners, many of whom know his family or share similar experiences. Isn’t that what being part of a community is all about?
Summerville has changed since his childhood — “When we got a McDonald’s, we thought we were highfalutin,” he jokes—but DuPriest is proud to be part of its evolution. “We’re light-years beyond what I ever expected.” And yet he’s right where he belongs.
As La Chev 208 settles into its new home, DuPriest plans to rotate seasonal specials, but his guiding principle remains simple: “I want diners to leave happy. If they leave amazed—great. But happy? That’s the goal.”
