Paul Kahan

Expert Interview: Paul Kahan

Behind the Chef

What were your favorite foods growing up?
My dad owned a deli, so we ate a lot of smoked fish.

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
Sophomore year in college, after joining an organic food co-op

Where and when did your career in food begin?
I started cooking at Metropolis for Erwin Drechsler. I worked there for almost 5 years.

Who or what has shaped your cooking the most over the years?
Seasonality

How would you describe your cuisine?
I just cook what I like to eat, but I suppose American.

What influences your cooking style and particularly the menu at your restaurant?
The chefs de cuisine are in charge of the menus at each restaurant and they cook great food.

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?
Love

What is your favorite secret ingredient?
Love

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Have balance in your life.

What qualities to you look for when hiring cooks for your restaurant?
Commitment to learning and a track record of staying in one job for a while

What was the most challenging meal you had to make?
Cooking for Ross Perot, Jr. and 18 guests in a yurt in the Teton Mountains — eight courses on a barbeque and a four-burner stove...Plus, I'm a liberal.

What is your least favorite food?
Foam

What is your beverage of choice?
Beer

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
I am not really into trends.

When you are not eating at your own restaurant, where are you eating?
Chicago has a lot of great young chefs and diverse ethnic restaurants. I try to get to as many as I can.

Which foreign country inspires your style most?
Right now, I am interested in Morocco; tomorrow, probably somewhere else.

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
When I first started out as a cook, all the grand meals blew my mind. I wish I could get back to that time of excitement…

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
Use fresh, local food.

What do you eat when you are home?
I eat a lot out of my garden when the weather lets me.

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Expert Profile

Executive Chef/Partner Paul Kahan has become the nationally recognizable face for a new guard of Chicago chefs. With an ever-growing list of international accolades for Blackbird and avec and The Publican. Kahan was honored as a James Beard nominee for Outstanding Chef in 2007 and winner of James Beard Best Chef of the Midwest in 2004. Passionately seasonal, unconventionally creative and dedicated to the inspiration of classical cuisine, Kahan has earned the praise of many who claim him to be one of America's most influential working chefs.
"I grew up around food," Kahan said. "My father owned a delicatessen and a smokehouse in Chicago. When I wanted to make a buck, I would help my dad take the fish out of the brine, hang them on the racks and wheel them into the smokehouse." After a brief post-college stint as a computer scientist, Kahan took a job in the kitchen of Erwin Drechsler's Metropolis, where Kahan quickly realized his own true calling. Throughout his 15-year apprenticeship and advancement in Drechsler's kitchens at Metropolis and erwin, Kahan developed his own relationships with Midwestern farmers and integrated many of their offerings into dishes that he created for Drechsler's restaurants and later for award-winning chef Rick Bayless at Topolobampo.

In 1999, shortly after Blackbird opened, Food & Wine placed Kahan on the year's Best New Chefs list, recognizing his highly individual approach to cooking and talent that Chicago diners have celebrated for years. In 2007, Kahan was honored with a nomination for James Beard Outstanding Chef. He earned his nomination by working five days a week in the kitchen with "his guys", commuting year-round on his bicycle.

Photo Courtesy of Michael Stryder