CHARLOTTE'S NOBLE EMPIRE
The Chef Talks Turkey--and Roosters
Charlotte's Jim Noble self-identifies as being "possessed by promise". But that is quite an understatement. As a highly successful chef and restaurateur, an ordained minister, and devoted husband and father, Noble makes and keeps myriad promises to himself and to others on a regular basis.
A native of furniture-focused High Point, North Carolina, Noble's father was--appropriately enough--in the furniture business. After graduating from North Carolina State's Furniture Manufacturing and Management program in 1977, the future chef briefly followed in his father's footsteps. Then in 1982 he took a life-changing trip to Napa Valley restaurants and wineries. Noble's first restaurant, the fifty-five-seat J. Basul Noble, opened in High Point in 1983. He was all of twenty-eight years old. Other successful restaurants followed, including the Queen City's groundbreaking Noble's Restaurant (now closed, but may resurface in a more intimate setting); Noble's Grille in Winston-Salem; Rooster's at Southpark and the recently opened Rooster's Uptown, both in Charlotte; and The King's Kitchen, a unique not-for-profit restaurant in the heart of downtown Charlotte that trains high-risk youth, recovering addicts, former convicts, and others to work in the restaurant and return to the workforce. The King's Bakery is just around the corner.
In 2006 Johnson & Wales University College of Culinary Arts honored Noble with its Distinguished Visiting Chef Award for his continuing contributions to the culinary arts on a local, regional, and national level. He and his wife, Karen, have three children: Margaux, Olivia, and James III. They are the founders and operators of Restoration Word Ministries.
Originally published in The Local Palate