The Chopping Block Cooking & Wine Blog

Behind The Scenes: Prepping for a Restaurant Part II

When you work as a cook in a restaurant, getting food from raw ingredients to finished dishes can, in some ways, be more straightforward than cooking at home, or less, depending on your point of ...

Behind the Scenes: Prepping for a Restaurant

What goes on in the kitchen of a restaurant can be a bit of a mystery. Even if the restaurant has an open kitchen, by the time the public at large is looking on, almost all the work has already been ...

The Unsung Hero of the Kitchen: Staff Meal

As a chef, my life revolves around food. From the crack of dawn to the dead of night, I’m immersed in a world of flavors, techniques, and relentless passion for culinary artistry. But amidst the ...

5 Ways to Celebrate International Women’s Day Through Food

International Women’s Day is fast approaching, and it’s one of my favorite holidays of the year. No matter who you are, there’s a woman in your life who deserves to be celebrated, and this holiday is ...

What’s For Dinner?

It’s an age-old important question: what’s for dinner? Maybe you’re only feeding yourself, or maybe you’ve got a roommate, partner, or kids to consider when making your decision. Most nights I cook a ...

Top Ten Fancy Chef Books for the Fancy Cook in Your Life

If you’re one of those among us who celebrates one of the winter gift giving holidays that terminate near the end of December then by the time this post comes out you will technically still have some ...

Chicago’s Finest Eateries

Working at The Chopping Block, one of the most common questions I get asked as a chef actually has nothing to do with cooking at all. Guests always want to know “What’s your favorite restaurant?”

Crossroads Diner at Smyth: “Come As You Are” Dining in West Loop

To start off this edition of Crossroads Diner: At the Intersection of Hospitality & Community, I wholly and unabashedly admit to huge bias towards the restaurant featured in the ensuing piece. I ...

Dinner and a Show at Alinea

The past few months have been a whirlwind of epic meals: birthday dinner at Le Bernadin; Nashville Hot Chicken at its birthplace, Prince’s; rabbit and truffles in a cave in Rome; and salsiccia ...

First Encounter with a Purple Pig

It has been a while since I have ventured out to try a new restaurant, so last weekend I made plans with my girlfriend to stay downtown and try something different. We decided to visit The Purple Pig ...