Before the shoot, I had eaten sous vide food in restaurants, but had never seen it prepared. I was hooked after this shoot. For those of you who are not familiar with sous vide, it is a French term for “under vacuum.” Sous-vide is a method of vacuum-packing food, then slow–cooking at low temperatures for [...]
My first experience with Common Threads came on Saturday when I attended the 61st Street Farmers Market with Stephanie Izard. She and her sous chef David Gollan worked with some wonderful kids from Common Threads and served the lucky market-goers a spicy sloppy joe with a creamy slaw. I myself brought home green and purple asparagus [...]
After working to document the construction journey of the Girl and the Goat for a few months, Chef Stephanie Izard asked me to come shoot one of the last of the Wandering Goat dinners. I can see why tickets are gone as soon as they are posted online! This venue was the Logan Square Kitchen, [...]
It’s been several months now since I started photographing the space which is slowly being transformed into The Girl & the Goat. Pizza and Bread anyone? With a little imagination, you can see the pizza oven nestled into the corner just adjacent to the silver ventilation shaft. The bar has made quite a transformation in [...]
Just spent the afternoon with a very talented group of teens, High Street. They were looking for an edgier look and hopefully I gave it to them. High Street is a rock band based on Chicago’s North Shore. They play classic and alternative rock and are exploring originals in the same genres. “We’re bringing rock and roll [...]
We all know that Chicago is a mecca for food — boasting some of the finest restaurants in the United States. Too often, however, I feel that women chefs have not been as recognized as some of their male counterparts. To that end, I am starting a series of photographs to depict Women Chefs of [...]
After experiencing two amazing nights in the kitchens of Vie and Boka, I used the action photos of the chefs and their staffs and created a book for the chefs. The book visually captured the unforgettable food, the staff and chef interactions which, in my mind, makes these chefs so special. Steph then asked me [...]
The four chefs assembled in the photo above (Giuseppe Tentori, Paul Virant, Stephanie Izard and Ryan Poli) lived and worked in Vie and BOKA’s kitchens Dec. 9-10, in celebration of the Mangalista Pig. Very few of these were available, and Paul and his staff had made a special trip to Triple S Farm in Stewardson, [...]
What strikes you about Paul Virant’s kitchen at Vie is the easy-going, good-natured espirit de corps of his kitchen staff. Vie, located in Western Springs, opened to much fanfare in 2005, and has never lost its dazzle. One of Paul’s secret to the success of his locally-driven restaurant is his unwavering support of local farmers and [...]
