About the Event
Enjoy a reception + three-course family-style menu (marinated beef ribs, veggie yakisoba, Osaka and Hiroshima syle okonomiyaki & kakigori) at Gaijin restaurant with an introduction by Jean Banchet Chef of the Year winner Paul Virant.
Please note that all reservation(s) are non-refundable.
About the Speaker
Chef Paul Virant has long been an innovative force in Chicago’s local food movement. After honing his skills at March in New York, under Wayne Nish and Hilary Gregg, Chef Virant joined Chicago’s culinary scene, working at restaurants such as Charlie Trotter’s, Ambria, Blackbird, and Everest. In 2004, he opened Vie in Western Springs. With a focus on home-made pickles and preserves, Chef Virant’s contemporary American cuisine at Vie garnered regional and national attention, including a three-star review by Phil Vettel of the Chicago Tribune and a Michelin star. In 2011, he became partner and exectuive chef at Perennial Virant and helped open the J. Parker the following year. Chef Virant opened Vistro (now Vistro Prime) in Hinsdale several years later. In 2019, Chef Virant opened Gaijin in the West Loop, an okonomiyaki restaurant he describes as a love letter to his wife Jennifer and their family tradition of making okonomiyaki. A self-described gaijin, or “outsider”, Virant playfully embraces this perspective and honors traditional preparations and techniques, as well as his well-known passion for pickling and preserving.