—My Story—
Owner
James W. Phelan
Forging a Unique Culinary Path
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The pursuit of highest level cuisine has taken James Phelan on an incredible journey. Upon leaving college to pursue his culinary passions, James spent three years harvesting and honing his skills at the acclaimed Tuscan restaurant, Lo Spiedo di Noble, in Greensboro, North Carolina. By 1999, the next logical step was culinary school, and the choice was The French Culinary Institute in New York City. The culinary Mecca of American provided James with an advanced level of knowledge and skill and prepared him for the challenge of running his own kitchens.
With an honors diploma in hand, James moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2002. After pursuing a position with the Medure Restaurant Group, he was placed at Restaurant Medure, in Ponte Vedra, where he would have to prove his worth. In time, James would take the helm at Restaurant Medure, a position he would hold for three years. The next step within the group would be to become the Chef at the highly honored Matthew's Restaurant, as well as running the company's catering arm and a casual cafe, Take Away Gourmet. AAA recognized the restaurants at which James was the Chef with "Four Diamonds" for five consecutive years.
As his career was building, a new passion was growing stronger: health and fitness. Over the years, James noticed many gym-goers struggling with the diet part of their health. Most either ate a bland, redundant diet or cheated on their diet often. He knew he could create meals that would remedy these issues and allow people to fully reap the rewards of their hard work. In March of 2011, James left his position with the Medure Restaurant Group and started J. William Culinary, a company that produces healthy, fresh fitness meals for active people, as well as, catering high end events.
Since, J. William Culinary has grown and diversified, accommodating a wide variety of nutritional needs. Clients include elite athletes from the NFL, UFC, and CrossFit, fitness enthusiasts and busy professionals.
In June of 2014, James’ first cookbook, Paleo Grilling: A Modern Caveman’s Guide to Cooking with Fire, hit bookstore shelves and became available online. It has achieved awards from Paleo Magazine and was the answer to a question on the television show Jeopardy! James has also written for Muscle & Fitness, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Journal, Jacksonville Magazine and other local publications. This led to massive catering projects at fitness events, such as The CrossFit Games in 2014-16, in Carson, California.
In 2018, after years of local television, James took on a national culinary audience and a chef on the Food Network cooking show Cooks vs Cons.
Since, Chef Jay has been focused his efforts heavily on private dining experiences, backstage catering for music festivals and personal culinary endeavors. Current projects include Curated Culinary Experiences in such breathtaking locations as Alaska, Thailand Western US, Iceland, South Australia, Belize, Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, as well as writing a second book, The Adventurer Cookbook.