Chefs also work long hours at hard physical labor in one of the world's most demanding professions. And far from considering themselves celebrities, one on one they are insightful, wistful, honest, funny and down to earth. We played Ten Questions with six of Chicago's finest, chosen at random.
The questions:
1. How old were you when you started cooking?
2. What was your first job?
3. When did you decide you wanted to be a chef for life?
4. Most memorable food experience?
5. Favorite and least favorite food? Favorite wine? Favorite dessert?
6. Whom among fellow chefs do you admire and why?
7. If you weren't a chef, what would you be?
8. If you could say one important thing to your customers, what would that be?
9. What is your pet peeve?
10. When you're not in the kitchen or at the restaurant, where are you?
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JEAN BANCHET
proprietor
Le Français
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In 1973 Jean Banchet opened Le Français restaurant in Wheeling, Illinois, pioneering French haute cuisine in the Midwest (some say in the country at large), and winning so many fine dining medals, stars and awards in America and in France that if he tried to wear -- or hold -- them all at once, he would collapse under their weight. He was born in Roanne, France in 1941, the first of triplets. After an early apprenticeship with the famous Troigros brothers, he subsequently cooked and trained at La Pyramid in Vienne, France -- at that time the most famous restaurant in the world. From La Pyramid Banchet went on to the Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo; the French Army for two years; Eden Roc on the French Riviera; and eventually to his own kitchen in a London, England, casino -- where he met his wife and partner -- Doris Banchet. Chicago restaurateur Arnie Morton convinced Banchet to come to Chicago, where he opened Le Français. In 1989 Banchet leased out Le Francais to the husband-and-wife chef team of Mary Beth and Roland Liccioni who operated it to great acclaim until 1999. During his 10-year absence, Banchet opened and sold two successful restaurants in Atlanta: Ciboulette and Riviera. In 1999 he returned to Le Français as chef-proprietor. Started cooking? I was thirteen and a half years old.
First job? A plongeur -- I washed pots and pans -- in the restaurant kitchen of Jean and Pierre Troisgros.
Decided to be chef for life? Well, not at first. It was dirty work and pretty hard. But my family was very poor, and the restaurant gave me room and board and $1 a month. But then I was promoted, began working with vegetables and meat. But when I started working at Fernand Point's La Pyramid -- that was for me an explosion!
Most memorable food experience?Just recently, at the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta. I tasted food for the next millennium, food 2000. It was prepared by a young chef, Joel Antunes. But I have memorable food experiences every week! I've had them at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, at Daniel, Lespinasse and Jean Georges in New York. All those young people! I had a memorable experience just reading Thomas Keller's new French Laundry cookbook -- three times.
Favorite food? Grilled fish and some vegetables and fruit -- and a good soup. Since I lost 80 pounds 15 years ago I have changed my way of eating.
Least favorite food? Mexican and Chinese.
Favorite wine? Gevrey-Chambertin -- a good year.
Favorite dessert? Tarte Tatin with ice cream
You admire? Joe Doppes at Bistrot Margot and Michael Foley -- he has a really different cooking style.
If you weren't a chef? A truck driver. I love to drive big trucks. And I can drive for 18 hours, no stopping -- sometimes all the way to Miami.
To your customers, you would say? Please don't put salt and pepper on the food before you taste it. We try to season perfectly, so taste it first.
Your pet peeve? When the entrees come to the table and customers get up and go outside to smoke. The food is ready, meat cooked to medium can become well-done in the waiting.
When not at the restaurant, where are you? In winter reading, or watching TV. In spring, summer and fall in the woods (I still ride my motorcycle) watching animals, taking pictures. And shopping. I love shopping. I love to see beautiful things even if I don't buy them. I never get bored. But I am rarely not at the restaurant. I even come here on Sunday by myself.
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RICK BAYLESS
chef-proprietor
Frontera Grill and Topolobampo
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Among the most famous American-born chefs, Rick Bayless is among the most modest -- and the most iconoclastic. He has hosted his own public television cooking series, authored three cookbooks -- including the ground breaking Authentic Mexican, Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico (William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1987) -- and he was named Chef of the Year in 1995 by both the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. But the route he has chosen to these and prolific professional laurels has been far off the beaten established path. He was one year away from his PhD in Spanish literature and Latin American culture when he took the proverbial year off to pursue his interest in Mexican food. He never went back. Before opening his trailblazing Frontera Grill restaurant in 1987 he and his wife and partner Deann Groen Bayless traveled mostly by bus more than thirty-five thousand miles in the regions of Mexico researching, writing and learning to cook regional Mexican food. Then they wrote the cookbook. In the years that followed, he has singlemindedly followed his vision: not only to share his love and knowledge of authentic Mexican food, but -- in the midst of his business and profession -- to look for and share what he calls "a deeper respect for the beauty of human nourishment." Bayless says, "I have a hard time relating to chefs who think of food as an art form. To me food is the glue of culture."
Started cooking? I must have been five. I asked for and got an Easy Bake Oven, and I was cooking something in it and my sister stuck her hand in and got it burned on the light bulb. I remember spending time in my family's restaurant. I'd go into the walk ins and put things together and then make it. Sometimes it was good, sometimes not.
First job? I was eight. Bussing tables in my families restaurant, and working in the non-alcoholic drinks station.
Decided to be a chef for life? I was almost finished with my PhD. But during graduate school I had opened a one-man catering business, and over that year I realized how much I wanted to learn and devote myself to food -- that it was the right place for me.
Most memorable food experience? When I was nine my grandmother -- always in charge of canning -- said all the grandchildren were old enough to go with her to a peach orchard. We picked 10 bushels and spent the next two days canning pickled peaches, peach butter and peaches. For the first time I got to do all the peach butter, batch after batch. I felt I had contributed something to the family.
Favorite food? Anything in a crust.
Least favorite food? Tomato juice.
Favorite wine? If I could only have one more bottle in my lifetime, then a 10 to 15-year-old Burgundy. That's just magical.
Favorite dessert? Hardly ever met a dessert I didn't like, but I have to say -- peach cobbler.
You admire? Alice Waters. There are plenty of great chefs and plenty of chefs who are activists. But I think she's the best cook and philosopher. I respect and admire her focus. She never lets technique get in the way of the ingredients.
If you weren't a chef? Writing. It's hard. Cooking has always come easy. And visual arts. I would like to take a course at the Art Institute.
To your customers, you would say? To have fun at the table. Food is one of the elements that creates that fun. It's a memorable experience -- to relax around the table. And somebody has invested time in creating food, something wonderful.
Your pet peeve? I see red when someone doesn't treat me or anyone else with respect -- any time, any where.
When not in the restaurant, where are you? With my family and especially with my daughter -- ice skating, having a pillow fight. Having a child is the most remarkable thing we have ever done.
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SUZY CROFTON
chef-proprietor
Crofton's on Wells
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When Suzy Crofton opened Crofton's on Wells in August of 1997, the restaurant reviews were all glowing, creating high expectations that she has managed to meet , putting Crofton's on Chicago's culinary map. She majored in art for two years at art school in Minneapolis. "I loved it, but couldn't make a living." So she moved to Lake Forest, Illinois, taking a job as a cook at the Ragsdale Foundation, an artists' colony. There she heard about Sinclair's restaurant and applied for a job with then-chef (now celebrity Miami chef) Norman Van Aken, who asked her to describe a bechamel sauce. She answered with a bearnaise. She wasn't hired -- until a kitchen staffer suddenly quit and she got a call: Can you be here in an hour? She could. Her training began under then-sous chef Carrie Nahabedian; she devoured Gaston Lenotre's pastry books and started giving classical French pastry an American spin. From Sinclair's she learned savory cooking at Cricket's in the Tremont hotel, Chicago, and then worked under Jean Banchet at Le Francais. She was opening chef at Montparnasse in Naperville, Illinois, and stayed for 6 years; had a nine-month stint as executive chef of Cassis, Chicago, and in 1997 opened Crofton's. "I'm an American who likes and cooks seasonal American food with French classical techniques."
Started cooking? With my mom. Very seriously. When I was 12.
First job? At the Magic Pan when I was in high school in Minneapolis, and then at Dudley Riggs Brave New Workshop -- a coffee shop-dinner theatre -- making pastries.
Decided to be a chef for life? At Sinclair's while working under Carry Nahabedian.
Most memorable food experience? I come from a big family. We lived in Long Grove, Illinois. We were in our bathing suits at the swimming pool and Mom brought out a couple dozen ears of corn fresh from the farmers market and cooked them. I remember devouring the hot fresh corn with melting with butter and then jumping back into the pool.
Favorite food? Potatoes.
Least favorite food? Snoballs -- those coconut coated things.
Favorite wine? The one I just drank: La Tache Romaneé-Conti 1969.
Favorite dessert? The one I just made: Blackberry crisp with goat cheese ice cream.
You admire? Chef Jean Louis Palladin, his cookbook, his use of different food stuffs, his creativity.
If you weren't a chef? I'd be an interior designer. I love fabric and textiles.
To your customers you would say? Thank you for supporting me. It's a tough business.
Your pet peeve? Waste -- of time, energy, food, water, electricity, natural resources.
When not at the restaurant, where are you? At home sleeping or reading. I'm pretty much here most all the time, even on Sunday -- for eight hours.
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SUSAN GOSS
chef-partner
Zinfandel
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Susan Goss insists she and her husband-partner Drew got into the restaurant business through the back door. Her first career goal was "rocks and bones." Her college major was physical anthropology with a minor in geology. And she wanted to be an archaeologist. But after graduation in the late 1970s jobs in her chosen field were few and far between, so she took a year off and went to work at TGI Fridays in Indianapolis as a cook, and discovered that "this was a fun business." So much fun that she went to New York Restaurant School ("very business oriented, not like the CIA") where she met her husband Drew. After graduating in 1981, both wanted to open their own restaurant, knowing that "you have to be a good business person to succeed." Succeed they did -- eventually -- in 1983 at Carryout Cuisine, a 900-square-foot deli she calls "The Silver Palate of Indiana, where we made every single mistake in the book and some not even..." After five years, in 1989, they opened Something Different, a 65-seat fine-dining restaurant in Indianapolis in an old abandoned pizza parlor, doing all the demolition and rehab themselves. In 1991 they opened a second restaurant, Snax, a bar with a global tapas menu. In 1993 they opened Zinfandel in Chicago and in 1995 sold both Indianapolis restaurants.
Started cooking? I was 8. My mother went back to work full time. My dad got a subscription to Gourmet magazine. I remember making Caesar salad with him -- it took two of us. But I realized there was more to life than meatloaf.
First job? At TGI Fridays as a prep cook. My station was quiches, salads and onion rings -- I breaded onion rings.
Decided to be chef for life? In 1981 when I went to restaurant school.
Most memorable food experience? So easy and so silly. Octoberfest. Drew and I were in a Munich beer hall with our families. There were huge walls of rotisseries going and I ordered a chicken in a paper bag. It was crispy, salty, peppery and herb-crusted, and I stood there with the oompah band blaring on the sawdust floor and ate an entire roasted chicken with my fingers.
Favorite food? Potatoes. They're very versatile. I love them.
Least favorite food? Foie gras.
Favorite wine? Off-dry whites such as sauvignon blancs -- they're food friendly.
Favorite dessert: I don't care for desserts at all. But I do like a good cheese plate or else my own homemade fig newtons.
You admire? Alice Waters. I don't know her, but I admire her commitment. She's outspoken. She's in the community as much as in the kitchen. Also John Ash at Fetzer. He's more than just a cook.
If you weren't a chef? I'd be an archaeologist. But I'm writing my first cookbook -- about ethnic American cooking -- so I'm using my degree in that field somewhat.
To your customers, you would say? Relax. Enjoy. We have a lack of information about the important things and a lot of half-information about diet and nutrition. There is a world of wonderful things to eat and people shut out a lot of them because they just don't know.
Your pet peeve? Disorganization. I love to be busy, have lots of things going on. And I depend upon others to be organized.
When not at the restaurant, where are you? Reading -- I'm an avid reader -- or puttering or cooking at home. Or at a movie with Drew.
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JOHN COLETTA
executive chef
Caliterra
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At 23, John Coletta was chef de cuisine, cooking progressive French fare for three years, at Nikolai's Roof, an exclusive fine-dining restaurant in Atlanta appointed with only the best china, crystal and silver. The sterling silver salt cellars occasionally found their way into the pockets of inebriated guests, and when the gourmet petty thieves would neither confess their crime nor surrender their booty to the formidable French maitre d', he simply added the replacement cost, about $100, to their bill. Nikolai's Roof was a far cry from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas where, for three and one-half years, Coletta was executive chef overseeing 350 cooks, 40 chefs, and 10 restaurants, serving 11,000 covers daily. This chef can do -- and has done -- it all. He took pastry courses at The Culinary Institute of America and has a degree in culinary arts from New York City Technical College. He has cooked at the Waldorf Astoria, and the Four Seasons in New York, been executive chef at hotels and resorts from New York to Florida to Captiva Island, opening chef at hotels and hotel restaurants (Fairmont Hotel and Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers) He just left a dream job in Singapore, as executive chef at the Shangri-La hotel after two years, to pursue another dream. He and his wife returned to Chicago -- where they have family -- to start a family of their own.
Started cooking? At 15, with my dad who was a chef.
First job? With my dad. We had a family restaurant that he sold and he was a hotel chef in New York and I worked with him.
Decided to be a chef for life? I was 16 and I asked my Dad to get me a job at the St. Regis in New York, a very traditional kitchen dominated by Europeans -- French, Italian, Swiss, Austrians and Germans -- no Americans at the upper levels yet, I worked in the pastry shop there and then went to work for four years at the Waldorf Astoria, where we did everything from state dinners to making our own hamburger and hot dog buns. Chefing was natural, exciting. Such a diverse group; there was never a dull moment. I was consumed by it. You can work several hundred years and never really master this. Want to be a chef? You'll be a student all your life.
Most memorable food experience? In 1992 in Hong Kong at the Lai Ching Hin restaurant in the Regent hotel. It was so foreign, so exotic. Ingredients we are not used to -- dried abalone, shark's fin, fresh sea cucumbers. To see how these came together in a very authentic manner was like tasting the 5,000 years of culture behind it.
Favorite food? Seafood
Least favorite food? Mutton.
Favorite wine? For simplicity and approachability, the red wines from Provence.
Favorite dessert? A great hot chocolate soufflé.
You admire? Hundreds of chefs, because we are such a multi-ethnic society and every type of cuisine has chefs I admire. Even more, I admire chefs just beginning to learn. If they didn't, who would?
If you weren't a chef? Something in the arts, a field with a lot of creative freedom -- certainly not a 9-to-5 job. Or else a race car driver.
To your customers, you would say? Although they may not be thought of as such, restaurant meals today -- good ones -- are really a great value.
Your pet peeve? Working with people without passion, without team spirit. I don't like to be around people in any field who are just going through the motions.
When not at the restaurant, where are you? With my wife and daughter.
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MARY BETH AND ROLAND LICCIONI
chefs-proprietors
Les Nomades
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To call them the Dynamic Duo is to conjure an image of caped superheroes on a mission to save the world -- a picture at odds with this elegant husband and wife team. But if the mission is to save the world from mediocre food and drink, lackluster ambience and second-rate service, the shoe fits. Mary Beth is the pastry chef and Roland is the chef de cuisine, and the husband and wife partners are creating culinary marvels at their restaurant, Les Nomades, much as they did during their 10-year tenure (recently ended) at Le Français. Mary Beth -- whose Italian mother and Irish father were both great cooks -- graduated from Washburne in Chicago and traveled to France to work in "stages" -- unpaid employment "lower than apprenticeship," she says. But soon she progressed to higher stations in the kitchens of Taillevant, and Jacques Chibois at Cannes, and Roger Vergé at Moulin de Mougins. Back in this country she met and worked with Roland who was then-chef de cuisine at Carlos' in Highwood. Roland's father was Corsican, his mother Vietnamese, and food was central to family life. He graduated from L'Ecole Hotelier in Paris, and, after cooking his way through the kitchens of famous French restaurants, crossed the Channel and wound up as second chef to Michel Roux at Waterside Inn in Maidenhead outside London. He came to Chicago as chef of Alouette restaurant in Highwood and from there was chef de cuisine at Carlos' -- where he met, mentored and married Mary Beth.
MARY BETH
Started cooking? At 6 years old, standing on a chair with my brother, making fudge popcorn balls -- our entertainment. I was mad about this stuff. My parents both worked, there were five kids, and the first one home started dinner. First job? At Cricket's in the Tremont hotel under then-chef Guy Petit. It was a French kitchen brigade and I went from pantry to garde manger.
Decided to be a chef for life? After the Tremont when I got a job in pastry at Le Français with Jean Banchet.
Most memorable food experience? In France in the eighties with Michel Guérard at Pres Eugenie -- to see how he used his garden, the herbs! I ate there and worked in the kitchen there. The eighties were the revolution of cuisine in France as well.
Favorite food? Mache salad with truffles.
Least favorite food? Raw fish in any form.
Favorite wine? Krug Champagne.
Favorite dessert? Depends on the meal which precedes it. I like the one I make, a warm chocolate soufflé cake with lemon verbena ice cream -- I grow the herbs in my garden.
You admire? Many, many chefs. Among them Joel Robuchon. Even though I don't personally know him, he is a great perfectionist.
If you weren't a chef? I'd be a ballet dancer.
To your customers, you would say? Wherever you go to dine, you should have an open mind and be receptive to food so you can accept what the chef has spent his or her whole day -- maybe whole life -- creating.
Your pet peeve? Rudeness
When not at the restaurant, where are you? In our home in the countryside.
ROLAND
Started cooking? At home in Biarritz, France.
First job? In restaurants, as part of cooking school.
Decided to be a chef for life? After graduation. I graduated first in the class. My advisor said, "Go to Paris, and learn." He knew that I was very involved in soccer and that a professional club had asked me to play.
Most memorable food experience? At home when my parents used to have guests and would serve a Vietnamese feast.
Favorite food? French and Vietnamese
Least favorite food? Anything with cinnamon.
Favorite wine? Chateau Margaux 1982.
Favorite dessert? A Vietnamese dessert soup of tapioca, coconut milk and lemon grass.
You admire? Monsieur Jacob, my teacher in culinary school. We never called teachers by first names.
If you weren't a chef? A soccer player.
To your customers, you would say? To customers who will not even try something on the menu, I would like to ask them to be more respectful and at least give it a try -- to have respect for the chef and the restaurant.
Your pet peeve? Rudeness and people who feel they have a license to be rude.
When not at the restaurant, where are you? In my garden spring through fall, growing and harvesting herbs, vegetables, zucchini blossoms....