Top Chef Competitor Tristen Epps to Cook at Guard and Grace Fundraiser

Chef Troy Guard, who started the Denver-based TAG Restaurant Group empire including Guard and Grace, one of the top steakhouses in the world in 2024, is reuniting with a TAG alumnus, current Top Chef contender and Chopped champion Chef Tristen Epps for a special four-course dinner on June 25. Proceeds will benefit Work Options, an organization that helps adult students prepare for, find and maintain meaningful careers in the food service industry.

Epps was with the TAG team for two years, according to Guard, and was executive chef at Guard's now-closed Mister Tuna. A Trinidad-born, Virginia-raised chef, Epps has since taken his Caribbean-influenced cooking all over the country. He's now in Houston, where Guard operates a second Guard and Grace restaurant (a third will open in Charlotte, North Carolina, next year), and the two have collaborated on popup events in Texas. This is the first time Epps and Guard will join forces for an event back in Denver, though.

Guard has enjoyed following Epps' award-winning career. "He's doing amazing on Top Chef," he says with pride. "Obviously, when we hired him, he had just done Chopped, so we knew he had that background, but we hire on personality and, obviously, skill. And he's a great guy and we've kept in touch since he worked with us."
The upcoming fundraising event, Guard says, will be a special homecoming. "We stayed in touch as colleagues and now here we are, coming full circle. I'm just trying to, you know, be a friend, be a mentor.

"I've always wanted to reconnect with some past chefs here and there," he continues, because I think it's fun for our guests to be like, 'Oh, yeah. I remember him.' He had a big impact with us at TAG Restaurant Group. And you know, now that he's on TV, and you know, Mr. Celebrity, it's fun for him, fun for us and fun for our guests."

The fun will be for a good cause. Work Options is a Denver-based non-profit that was started in 1996 as Work Options for Women but changed to a broader mission in 2021 to offer work training and internships to underskilled employees in the hospitality industry, including people who had been incarcerated. Epps chose the organization to support, Guard says/

"I think any type of charity work is great. Any type of community work is amazing," Guard adds. "I understand and support the charity work options that Tristan suggested, and we're excited about it."

The hospitality business is "a very, very, very tough industry," he notes, slipping into his cultural heritage — he's the fourth generation of his family from Hawai'i — to explain it.

"I consider the restaurant business is like the ocean," he says. "There's never two waves the same, and the ocean comes in, it goes out, it can be rough. So you just have to be able to ride that wave. And sometimes you get knocked off. Sometimes you ride it in. Sometimes you're just paddling for your life, or just sitting out there, just still in calm as can be. A career in restaurants is definitely a tough choice. I love it, but it's been a lot more challenging lately.

"Still, I think everyone should do things that they love and that's fun," he adds. And he's determined to make his night with Tristen Epps a fun one.

The Top Chef Meets TAG event runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, at Guard and Grace, 1801 California Street. Tickets are $150 for dinner and $225 for dinner with wine pairings. Make reservations at guardandgrace.com/happenings/top-chef-meets-tag.