This business owner and chef has helped put Florida on the James Beard Awards map with Rocca, his Italian-inspired restaurant that earned recognition from one of the nation's most prestigious culinary organizations after more than three decades in the hospitality industry.
While Florida has been home for several years, the path that led Bryce Bonsack to becoming a James Beard Award finalist began far from Tampa. From washing dishes in Alabama to training in New York and immersing himself in Italian cuisine overseas, each step helped shape the vision behind Rocca.
ALSO READ: How a chef is preserving beloved recipes as a 'love letter to Tampa dining'
Founded in 1990, the James Beard Awards recognize excellence in the culinary arts, hospitality, media and the broader food system. Winners are selected by a panel of judges through a process overseen by committees within the James Beard Foundation.
Speaking on "Florida Matters Live & Local," Bonsack said his career in the restaurant industry began around 2009 while he was attending school in Alabama. What started as a job washing dishes at a local barbecue restaurant quickly turned into something much bigger.
Although Rocca is inspired by the flavors and traditions of Italy, Bonsack said his culinary education was rooted in classical French cuisine. Throughout his early career, he gained experience working in both French and Italian restaurants, helping him develop the style that would later define his own kitchen.
While living in New York City, Bonsack worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, where he was exposed to the fast-paced environment and high standards of some of the country's most acclaimed kitchens.
“I worked at some Michelin star restaurants there, sort of like just dived in head first and opened up Rocca in 2019,” Bonsack said.
Before opening Rocca in Tampa Heights, Bonsack spent a year living in Italy's Piedmont region. During that time, he immersed himself in the local food culture while refining the concept for the restaurant, drawing inspiration from the region's ingredients, traditions and style of dining before bringing those ideas back to Florida.
The interview below has been edited for clarity and brevity.
You were a finalist for the 2026 James Beard Awards. How was that experience for you?
It's unreal. It's a much different stage. It feels like you are in the Academy Awards. I can't really relate to that, but I mean, you're walking down the red carpet, cameras everywhere, a million journalists asking you random questions and it's very fun and exciting. We hope to be a part of that for years to come, whether it's myself, part of our team or our company as a whole showing up there, for there's lots of various accolades that you can, you could rack up there — whether it's best chef, South finalist, or upcoming emerging chef, or outstanding restaurant, or wine program, bar cocktails — all sorts of stuff.
How do you get into that process of being nominated?
It's a little bit of a mystery to me. I think your local journalist needs to sort of champion you quite a bit, but I'm not officially like aware of how they operate.
Do you know when there's a critic in the restaurant?
We can recognize them, but they won't come in under their name. We just have to be on our toes and same thing with Michelin. They are completely anonymous, and we don't know who they're or when they're coming. That just adds to the pressure of every single plate that goes out.
Where do you see your cultural or gastronomical lineage coming from?
I think everything that I do will always have some Italian influence and some French influence. Culinary school is very classic French training, but you also received some background here and there, and then the restaurants that I've worked at were all over the place, but mostly French and Italian. We also have every one of our restaurants an executive chef, so I'm overseeing them and advising them as their chef and culinary director. Each of them have a background that's a little more specific to that, and I like this.
We are about to open up a Spanish concept called Lumbre, so our executive chef that we had there, Nick Orr — who was my first hire at Rocca — we sent him to Spain for like four or five months to train out there and to learn.
Being on the red carpet: Does that come with the territory now?
There's parts of me that just wanted to delete my Instagram years ago, but I realized it's probably not the best finance or like business move.
There's also chefs out there that all they do is promote themselves and they don't spend any time in the kitchen, but I think a good combination, a good balance of both is important, but you know, it kind of does come with the territory.
It's obviously exciting and it's thrilling, I got to pinch myself every once in a while, but there are times where I'm just like, remember when I was a broke line cook, sleeping on my friend's couch in Atlanta or in New York.
Why is Tampa the place that you set up your restaurant?
Tampa is where I have all my support. I mean, I grew up here, I went to Tampa Catholic High School, I went to Carrollwood Day for middle school. My parents live a few blocks away from me, my brother lives a block away from me. Lot of my friends growing up are here and then my business partners are all here as well.
ALSO READ: This headbanging funnel cake business aims to 'bring foodie back to food trucks'
Going to school here in Tampa, could you have seen yourself doing this?
Not necessarily when I was in high school, but I always sort of was curious about being a chef and then when I decided to go through this, I wasn't really planning on coming back to Tampa.
Tampa just wasn't really on the map, because when I first started cooking, you had to go to New York, you had to go to Chicago or California if you really wanted to train at the “big boy” restaurants, but that's not so much the case now. The last five to 10 years, you've seen this massive shift in just absolutely world-class restaurants opening up across the country in smaller cities.
Is Tampa part of that shift?
I think we're trying and I think there are chefs out here doing really good food and working towards that goal. I don't think it's gonna happen overnight, but I think you're seeing a dramatic change now, and you will really notice it over the next five to 10 years.
This story was compiled from interviews conducted by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full interview with Bryce Bonsack here or in the video below.
