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Seasoned Chef: STEPHANIE IZARD
Meanwhile, she waited tables at a mid-scale Southwestern-style restaurant in the morning while handling — as predicted — salads and cold food at Christopher’s Fermier Brasserie, an upscale French restaurant run by James Beard-winner Christopher Gross. Everything happens for a reason, and working for Gross left a lasting impression.
“He was a bit of a screamer,” she notes. “And I quickly learned that wasn’t the way I wanted to be.” Izard left school in 1999 with an associate’s degree in hospitality and restaurant management. “Afterward,” she says, “I went to Chicago to visit friends and loved it. So I had my stuff shipped and moved there.”
The first place Izard worked was Vong’s (now VTK) — an outpost of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Manhattan-based Thai-French restaurant — where she handled hot appetizers.
Now officially part of Chicago’s vibrant culinary community, Izard kept a lookout for new opportunities, eventually scoring the role of roundsman for Shawn McClain’s much-anticipated Spring. “I learned a lot because I worked at all the stations and helped to train people,” she says. “I got more pastry experience, ran the kitchen when Shawn wasn’t there and taught people how I wanted them to put out the food.”
That’s when her interest in seafood — and the camaraderie that can develop among kitchen cohorts — really peaked. “Shawn would get in a lot of interesting, different types of seafood,” she says, adding that although McClain would bar-hop with her after hours, she respected him as a chef by day (and early eve).
After leaving Spring, Izard went to work alongside Dale Levitski — a finalist on Top Chef’s third season — at La Tache in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood. “Dale didn’t know a lot about seafood, so he let me experiment with different things,” she says. “I started to realize that while there were a lot of great chefs in Chicago, not too many of them were doing interesting things with seafood.”
Izard’s creations at Scylla were an exercise in oral artistry, blending salty, sweet and acidic flavors. On her plates were pan-roasted halibut with creamy brandade, oven-roasted potatoes, cipollinis and garlic scapes with blackberry gastrique one night and grilled Copper River sockeye salmon with peach and summer squash ratatouille alongside arugula with caper vinaigrette the next. Izard also became known for her unique take on surf and turf-like pairings (think linguine with manila clams, wild boar sausage, sugar snap peas and horseradish crème fraîche).
Her mainstays — the things diners kept coming back for time and time again — were her grilled octopus dishes as well as those featuring scallops. “During the warmer months, I’d go to Green City Market for produce,” she says. “And I worked with local farmers whenever possible.”
Although Izard has since moved on — she’s currently traveling to further hone her palate and skills — she has fond memories of her time on Top Chef. “The competition on this year’s Top Chef was stiff,” she says, admitting she was addicted to the show long before becoming a part of it. “But I felt confident in my skills.”
While the final winner had not been announced and contestants were barred from discussing anything but the basics when this article went to print, Izard said she has (yet undisclosed) plans in store. “I traveled to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam,” she reveals. “I tried as much street food as I possibly could. I steered clear of pad Thai and anything else I could have in the States. I had steamed clams from this stand, and they were one of the tastiest dishes I’ve ever had. They were a dollar.”
Izard has also been throwing soirees for friends, playing with pairings like capers and fish sauce. “I have some thoughts and am taking time to find someone [to partner with] on a new project,” she says. “This time around, I’d like to take time to enjoy life, to be able to take a couple of days off instead of doing it all by myself. But what I do know is I’ll emerge with a new restaurant, somewhere.”
In the meantime, you might catch her at one of her favorite Windy City hangouts: Paul Kahan’s Blackbird, Michael Carlson’s Schwa or the Map Room, where she’s been known to tip back brews.