Chef Info

Executive Chef William Murphy's initial foray into the restaurant business was less than glamorous, while dropping a girlfriend off at work he was asked if he could fill in for a no-show dishwasher. He did and after three years and now the sous chef, the business was sold and he lit out for Mexico where he spent the following year studying the Aztec culture and conquest by Spain. Broke and unpublished he wandered up to Reno and was accepted into an apprentice program at the newly opened MGM Grand. There he cooked omelets for showgirls and croupiers in the employee cafeteria, haute cuisine for the Shah of Iran in the prestigious Gigi's and anything else needed for the hotels seven other restaurants. He returned to Columbia and worked under Malcom Hudson digesting the historic foundations and intricacies of French cuisine. After a couple of years working the seasonal resort circuit he was named chef de cuisine of a small hotel with large aspirations before he was appointed personal Chef to Governors Riley and Campbell. But as a reporter longs to write the Great American Novel so does a chef want to open the Great American Restaurant and with that he opened a small French restaurant for five years in Camden where he was recognized by numerous national publications. After a stint at a country club to work on his newly found passion but unable to break 80 he and Leigh Talmadge along with Paul Pittenger gave birth to Hampton Street Vineyard.