- Michael Gebert
- Joseph Heppe of Oak + Char
Food media loves stories of prodigies who always knew what they were meant to do—young Rick Bayless grinding masa for his PB&J tortillas, young Grant Achatz spherifying his Froot Loops. But few of us are really like that—we start out pretty clueless, we learn something here or there, we get to be pretty good at it, and we put our experiences and influences together to make something of our own. It’s not genius—it’s professionalism. The guy or gal who knows how to do what he or she does and gets it done at a high level without a lot of fuss is the guy or gal who keeps the world moving.
I graduated college after seven years—I was working full time so [college] was kind of off and on. I worked at a couple of different restaurants, and I worked with a chef who had worked at Spago here back in the day, and he would tell me stories about working there, which introduced me to more of a fine dining approach—truffles and foie gras and that kind of thing.
Michael Gebert: Your first head chef role was at Untitled, which—speaking of controlled chaos—is a busy River North bar kind of place, more than a restaurant like this.
So I had to find positions where I could balance myself between my financial requirements and doing some kind of an elevated cuisine. So that bounced me around from a place like Vermilion to Mercat, and that kind of organically developed my style.
