Rare is the Midwesterner who grows up on grits, but for chef Aaron Taylor, the dish was a staple in his childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio. He has his Alabama-born grandfather to thank for that, but something about grits was always missing for him. Until one day when, while visiting his cousins, he tried a snazzier version that would go down as one of his first real food memories. That version’s “secret”? Plenty of cheddar cheese.
Years after his grits conversion, Taylor is now the corporate chef of Atlas Restaurant Group, helping to oversee the Ruxton, a new steakhouse in Baltimore’s Harbor East neighborhood that opened earlier this year. Whipping up countless batches of the classic Southern dish throughout his career, he’s managed to perfect them just the way he likes: with charred and poached jalapeños and, of course, cheddar. “I came up with the jalapeño cheddar grits recipe as a way to have a side that had some spice, but wasn’t too hot or spicy. Not to sound corny, but it helped me always remember my family and where I came from.”
