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A rising star on the Chicago culinary scene, Executive Chef Chris Pandel has honed his craft at Courtright's Restaurant, the famous Café Boulud in NYC, Tru, Osteria Via Stato and more.
Pandel began his career with a job at the Chew Chew Café in Riverside, outside of Chicago, that turned into a career. "It was a little place in my hometown, and I helped to open it by painting chairs and hanging awnings, but the chef pulled me into the kitchen and gave me a real job, and I've been working my tail off in the kitchen ever since," Pandel recalls.
Pandel made the rounds at Courtright's Restaurant, a nationally recognized fine-dining restaurant in Willow Springs, where he learned the possibilities of the culinary arts. He attended Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, and landed an internship at Tru under the chef who would become his mentor, Rick Tramonto. "I was the first intern invited to work the dinner service, as opposed to just slicing chives in the prep kitchen," he adds.
Upon graduating, he headed to New York City, where he worked under celebrity Chef Daniel Boulud and Chef Andrew Carmellini at Café Boulud. "That [experience] was like graduate school; you go to NYC, are a poor cook barely surviving, but you are afforded the opportunity to work with incredible world-class chefs," he says. "After six years on the East Coast, I got homesick for Chicago." He returned to Tru and worked as Sous Chef for a few years before Tramonto tapped him to become Executive Sous Chef at Osteria via Stato.
"Osteria gave me the best direction for the kind of food I cook now, which is flavorful and humble at the same time. I try to use as much locally-grown product as I can and attempt to allow the ingredients to be the star," Pandel says. "Working in a more casual concept took away the pretense of the four-star kitchen. Just being able to feed people a good meal and see smiles on their faces is a lot different than working in a kitchen with 19 people putting out a 14-course tasting menu. Not that I don't miss that side of cooking, because I do, but I'd rather have a perfectly cooked bowl of pasta these days."
Pandel followed Tramonto to Cenitare, a restaurant group operating three eateries in Wheeling: Osteria di Tramonto, Tramonto's Steak & Seafood, and RT Lounge. This time, Pandel was the Corporate Chef, working with head chefs at all three locations. "I was essentially responsible for designing menus with the chefs, designing the kitchens and was financially responsible for the performance of the kitchens," Pandel says.
Pandel met John Ross at Cenitare and the team soon joined with Phillip Walters to develop a neighborhood restaurant. Pandel says he looks forward to being a hands-on cook again. "At The Bristol, I'll be using everything I've ever learned from my past experiences, from processing whole animals, making homemade pastas and more," he says. "Most of the menu is about simple, Midwestern-style dishes, not just meat and potatoes, but good honest food."
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