Executive chef Brayden Kawack experiments with Midwestern ingredients and local flavors at Atelier
“Since taking over the menu, there are certain products I knew I wanted to use,” says Bradyn Kawack, now the executive chef of Chicago’s Atelier. After the restaurant was awarded a Michelin Star in 2023, Kawack was promoted to executive chef, overseeing the restaurant’s $170 tasting menu. For Kawack, creativity involves “finding the product first,” and letting the ideas flow from there.
Many of those ingredients are what he can find in the Midwest. He uses walleye fish, which “tastes like a Minnesota lake.” He subs green papaya for kohlrabi in a Thai salad. He breaks down a rogue poussin chicken for a roulade. “We make sure it’s not just vegetables that we use in season, but meat as well,” he says.
Chef-owner Christian Hunter is still in the kitchen, assembling crudo, creating the larder course, and in general lending his support to the new executive chef. After the two taste the salad, they agree that it needs shrimp paste, and Hunter suggests it still needs more sugar. “The whole intent is for chef Brayden [Kawack] to put his impact on the food,” says Hunter, and to have the opportunity to both make mistakes and to shine. But also, says Kawack, it’s about creating an equitable kitchen, a “do it yourself” space where everyone can learn and grow.
Watch the latest episode of Mis en Place to watch how chefs Kawack and Hunter create an inventive, award-winning menu.
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