Nickolas Abbott runs the USDA-inspected kitchen at Chop Shop Butchery and Provisions in Asheville, North Carolina, where his work includes developing recipes for prepared foods, sausages, and cured meats, coordinating private events, and connecting local chefs with proteins raised in Western North Carolina. His approach to cooking is rooted in the region’s agricultural traditions and shaped by the belief that food can preserve both personal memories and a community’s heritage.
Abbott began working in the culinary industry as a teenager, but his earliest influence came from his grandmother, whom he calls Nana. A lifelong resident of Western North Carolina, she transformed produce from her garden into meals intended to be shared with family and friends. Abbott credits her with teaching him how simple ingredients can become lasting memories, an idea that continues to guide his cooking.
For Abbott, the foodways of Appalachia are inseparable from farming, hunting, foraging, and the people responsible for bringing ingredients to the kitchen. He describes his culinary style as natural, refined, and venerative, or grounded in reverence. His long-term ambition is to develop a restaurant concept that celebrates Appalachian cooking while working directly with hyperlocal farmers, ranchers, butchers, and other producers.
Abbott’s path to the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition grew partly from a professional disappointment. In 2023, he competed as a member of the ACF Southeast Student Team of the Year, which finished second at the national competition. After he was not selected for the following year’s team, he entered the individual ACF Student Chef of the Year competition instead. Abbott won the 2024 Southeast regional title and earned a silver medal at the national competition.
His signature dish for the 2026-27 Young Chef Academy Competition is smoked pork loin with fennel and cheese slaw, sweet potato, asparagus, and fried sausage. Developed with ingredients sourced from local farmers and butchers, the dish reflects both Abbott’s competition experience and his connection to Western North Carolina. Its flavors balance the sweetness of the potato, the brightness of mustard, the richness of smoked pork, and the contrasting crunch of sausage.
Abbott hopes the dish will introduce the jury to the ingredients and hospitality of his home region while acknowledging the farmers and ranchers whose work begins long before a product reaches his kitchen. For him, advancing to the global Grand Finale would bring a responsibility to continue refining the dish, learning from his mentor, and representing the community that shaped him.
Nickolas Abbott is one of 10 chefs competing in the 2026-27 S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy U.S. Regional Final. Meet the other finalists vying for a place at the global Grand Finale.
