Ty Ware

Cooking Up a Successful Career

November 2024 IssueTyWare1124

by Edwina Hoyle
Photography by Lindsay Pettinicchi Photography, LLC

Ty Ware loves to succeed, and her inspiration for her success is her 6-year-old daughter, Olyvia. “I wake up every day and make sure she’s okay. I want the best for her, so I set high standards and teach by example. Being a Mama Bear is everything. Structure is important, and she’s a really good kid, so there’s no need for discipline. I believe in a higher power,” Ty said.

Ty, a St. Helena native, is a sous chef at Sea Pines Resort. She’s a single mom who co-parents Olyvia with her ex-partner. She said because she has a great co-parenting relationship, she can drop Olyvia off at 7:30 a.m. to make her 90-minute commute from St. Helena to Sea Pines.

In high school, Ty wanted to either work in a veterinarian or culinary setting. She chose culinary. Her first job was at Taco Bell, and she regularly progressed to higher and higher positions at Macaroni Grill, Carrabba’s, Olive Garden and Red Lobster because of her work ethic, willingness to learn and leadership skills. As a supervisor, she said people responded to her as a leader, so she decided to take a step further and apply at a golf resort.

Through the Technical College of the Lowcountry’s culinary program, she landed an internship at Sea Pines Resort in 2015, and a year later, she was hired as a basic line cook, then promoted to a lead cook.

Ty has a photographic memory and is a hands-on learner. Once she cooks something one time, she never forgets it. She doesn’t even have to write it down.

Last January, Ty was promoted to sous chef and now oversees everything in the kitchen. “It took me a while to accept this position. I had a fear of not being respected as a woman chef. But everyone at Sea Pines treats me with respect as long as I do my job. In the military, males are usually the ones with authority, so I had that experience,” she said.

Ty grew up as a “military brat” with both parents in the United States Army. “I lived a military life, moving every three years to different countries or states, leaving new friends and starting over. But it made me more resilient in life.” She actually joined the Army and served for a year until she got a medical discharge due to rheumatoid arthritis. She then moved to Colorado Springs. “At 29 years old, I left Colorado Springs. City life got hard, so I packed up all my belongings, took my dog, and came back to St. Helena,” Ty explained.

“I’m happy with my life, my career, and where I’m at now,” Ty said. “I have the ability to connect with the employees. They really respect me and love my leadership. I learned leadership skill sets in the military. They taught me to follow the rules and to be punctual and disciplined. Overall, my military experience and living with two military parents has served me well.”

As a military child, Ty took field trips to different castles every week with her class. One of her most poignant memories is a field trip in fifth grade. “We took a field trip to Poland, where we were each paired with a blind student who spoke no English. We had to learn a little bit of Polish and hold hands to help them and guide them for a whole week. I will never forget that trip. I learned my compassion and caring that week. What an experience!”

Chef Ty works long days, and by the time she gets home, there’s not much time left to spend with Olyvia, so she makes the most of it. “Olyvia loves sports, singing and acting, and is the youngest student in her first-grade class. She started reading at age 3. My vision is that she has options. We are very close, and I want her to know she can be anything she wants to be,” Ty said. On days off, the two of them enjoy going to Sands Beach to look for sharks’ teeth, going to arcades and bowling, as well as watching movies together.

Not only does Ty want the best for Olyvia, but she also said, “I want the best for every race and every gender. I want to be very selfless, compassionate, caring, and understanding. I’m wholeheartedly a good person.”



Up Close:


• Ty’s favorite Sea Pines Resort food comes from the in-house smoker at Fraser’s Tavern. Chefs and cooks smoke meats every night for 13-14 hours. Her favorites: brisket and ribs paired with collard greens. At home she loves pork chops smothered with mushrooms, onions, and gravy. She also enjoys fried chicken, turkey wings and all Southern cooking.

• To de-stress: “I love the water, so I find a dock somewhere to be alone in the wind and sit quietly in a meditative state.”

• Ty and Olyvia have a rescue cat named Wanda.“The cat’s cool, but I’m really a dog person. I had a pit bull for 13 years. I got him at 6 weeks old and named him Hydro.”

• Generations of her family hail from Penn Center. Ty is Gullah Geechee and left St. Helena when she was 7 years old due to her parents’ military service. She is glad to be home.