After beginning his culinary career shucking oysters at Leon’s in Charleston, S.C., Chef Will Cammer began working at Church and Union Charleston as a lunch cook when the restaurant opened in 2015. Working his way up to the PM lead line in only 10 months, he trained under Chef Adam Hodgson, who was then Executive Chef of Church and Union Charleston.

In 2017, Cammer left Charleston for Atlanta to continue his training as a Sous Chef at The Optimist. He then returned to the Holy City once again to work with Chef Hodgson as the Chef de Cuisine of Tempest. In 2021, less than one year after the opening of Tempest, Cammer was named Executive Chef.

“When I began working under Chef Hodgson years ago, I gained a whole new perspective on food and really began developing my own cooking style,” says Cammer. “It has been unbelievably inspiring to join him again, contributing to Tempest in its earliest stages and playing a part in the creation of the menu and the story we are going to tell through our food.”
Cammer, who has helped create all of Tempest’s main dishes, shares a similar cooking style to Chef Hodgson and the entire Tempest team – cooking with the seasons and letting the ingredients speak for themselves.

“I whole heartedly believe a chef can only do 10% of the work, 90% is the product sourced.”

Inspired by seasonality, Cammer believes their locally sourced vegetables and fish as well as the conversations they are having with their fishermen and purveyors every single day is what ultimately sets Tempest apart from other dining experiences.