Chef Stephanie Izard
Experience
In Chicago, my restaurant Scylla and before that sous chef at La Tache, roundsman at Spring, line cook at Vong. In Phoenix, line cook at Christopher’s Fermier Brasserie and other restaurants. In 2008 I was the winner of Bravo’s Top Chef.
Hometown
Born in Evanston, IL but grew up in Stamford, CT.
Education
University of Michigan, with a degree in Sociology, then headed to Arizona, where I attended the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Arizona.
Chicago Love
In a very spur of the moment decision, I decided to just pack up and move to Chicago nine years ago from Phoenix. It is such a great food town, with a wonderful community of chefs. I plan on staying here for a long time.
Scylla Seedling
I was working at La Tache and in charge of creating the seafood special every day. One day a colleague told me I should open my own place, and I thought “wow, he’s right.” I am a very spur-of-the-moment person, and when I set my mind to something, I go for it 110%. So I quit and a year later, I was able to open Scylla. The first time around was a one-woman battle since I was doing everything on my own, so it will be great to be able to have more resources with the next one!
The Drunken Goat
It’s definitely going to be representative of my style. There will be a lot of seafood, definitely a lot of pork products and some fun flavor combinations going on. I will take comfort-style foods and just bring them that one step further. It’s going to be a lot of tasty food.
Early Years
Growing up, my parents were very global in their cooking. Not necessarily gourmet all the time, but every month they would have themed dinner parties where they would cook different cuisines and dress up around a certain country, so I was lucky enough to have a variety of international flavors in my youth.
For more about Stephanie, please visit www.stephanieizard.com.
