Joe Cash never planned on being a chef. Growing up in Greenville, South Carolina, he was more interested in baseball and football. Family gatherings had given him an early appreciation for food, but his interest in cooking took hold after he quit sports and got a job at a Lone Star Steakhouse. The kitchen’s live-fire grill caught his attention.
“I loved the fire on the grill,” he says. “Just the energy, and everything that was going on was so cool.”
After cooking at restaurants in Greenville and Charleston, Cash moved to New York, where he spent four years working his way through the ranks at Thomas Keller’s Per Se. There, he built a foundation in classical technique before moving to Copenhagen to cook at Noma.
“I'd come from such a regimented facility at Per Se, and Noma was like the wild west,” he says. “The understanding of what has to hit the plate has to be perfect every single time. There's no exceptions.”
Back in New York, Cash joined Major Food Group, serving as executive sous chef at Torrisi Italian Specialties and later executive chef at The Pool. He also cooked at Dirty French.
Cash returned to Greenville in late 2020 and secured a former Indian restaurant space downtown. After a year and a half of work, he opened his French bistro, Scoundrel, in October 2022.
At Scoundrel, Cash applies his classical training to French bistro dishes such as steak frites and escargot. His menu also includes his grandmother’s chocolate cake.
The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in November 2025. In 2026, Cash became a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: Southeast.
“When we opened here, Michelin was never on the table,” says Cash. He didn’t think the guide would come to Greenville. The star is an honor, but his priorities haven’t changed.
“What matters,” he says, “is that every single thing that we do, every single dish we make, every single day, we should leave it out on the field.”
