I’ve always wanted to go to culinary school. But Prince Charming wasn’t so keen on the idea knowing it was one more excuse for me to stay out late eating and drinking while he was at home with the kiddies. And really, I have a decent culinary acumen having grown up with a mother and grandmother who’s hearts were in the kitchen. With food, the learning starts at home. Thus, SCRATCH that off my bucket list. 

But then I had this nutty idea to follow a chef around for a day so I could fulfill my dream of working in a professional kitchen. I asked Chef John des Rosiers of Inovasi located in Lake Bluff, IL if he would mind me tagging along in his kitchen. A date was set and I already had questions. What time does he get there? How does the prep start for the day? How does he write his ever-changing menu? I wanted to be inside the fish bowl rather than the dining table. 

I arrived at 8.30 am at Inovasi to meet up with Chef John. Let me preface this post with the fact that I arrived slightly hungover, starving and somewhat disheveled, not the best way to start your day in a busy kitchen. Luckily, my good friend at Eater texted ahead with an official warning and order. Chef John surprised me with the best breakfast sandwich of eggs, homemade bacon, arugula and cheese. 

We first sat down, over coffee and my hangover treat, to chat about his menu, new ventures and his philosophy. We then hung out in the kitchen for a couple of hours prepping and  taste-testing some items and later headed to the roof to start his rooftop garden. It was a full morning of pro-kitchen activities. Not to mention I left with muddy paws after pitching in to plant some lettuce.

Chef John trained at CIA in New York and returned to Chicago to work under some of the best, Chef Gabriel Viti and Chef Charlie Trotter. He left those kitchens with a sense of structure but desire to create outside the traditional kitchen. Patrons of Inovasi get it and are thrilled to have a forward thinking chef outside the city. John changes the menu every six weeks. There are no recipes for the kitchen staff to follow. He creates, he shows them, and everyone needs to catch on quick. The majority of his staff has been with him since he opened and he will only hire people based on friends or family recommendations.  The menu changes are just a small part of their day considering John has branched out with his gourmet to-go Wisma locations, Lake Bluff and Libertyville, with more on the way throughout Chicagoland. 

The staff arrives at 6.30 am to start prepping for Wisma by making huge batches of everything on the menu. It’s then bagged and moved to each Wisma where the staff there packages everything. The concept is to feed customers high quality meals at great pricing. I can’t help but compare Wisma to Trotters To Go but with a whimsical, carefree environment. That probably comes from the design team behind Wisma, Robert Silton and Jenny Sweeney. While the notion is “to go”, it’s a place you will want to hang out. It breathes, “hanging with the cool the kids”.  John’s philosophy of Wisma exudes his passion as a chef. It’s hard not to get wrapped up in conversation with him and it’s clear he has an edge about the industry based on experience. 

Part of that edge comes from the fact that he went out on a limb and opened a cutting-edge restaurant outside the city limits. Whereas most chefs of his pedigree would try to open a place in the city, he knows he took a risk by debuting in Lake Bluff. But he still wants credit, rightly so, for an exceptionally composed menu. Michelin wouldn’t come out that far of Chicago to review it and most publications don’t regularly feature Inovasi which I’m sure has to do with location.  With 22 - 25 dishes and nothing staying on the menu for very long, Inovasi is a quite a production. They just celebrated their two year anniversary and John is going strong. Like most chefs these days, he buys mostly from local purveyors and only uses good sustainable sources. The kitchen is stocked more than most because of the frequent changes. The menu shows his personal side rather than listing dishes from a traditional category. Categories like: MUSIC, ON THE LINE, TRADITION OF COOKERY, CHILDHOOD + FAMILY and THE INGREDIENT ITSELF. This is a very small representation of John’s creativity. For example in MUSIC, he has a dish called BLACK AND GOLD, BY SAM SPARRO. It’s a Florida Panhandle Porgie, English cracker crust, Bolivian white quinoa, saffron-vanilla bean sauce. While this is long gone off the menu, it’s a great indication of where his head is in the culinary game. And the entire menu reads outside the box. Inovasi is a place to go to experience food in another context, it’s a not a place to go to just eat. The few times I’ve been able to hang out with John, I realized that cooking isn’t just about what ends up on the plate. It’s just as much about how it got there. He has this contagious passion for creating an out-of-this-world dining experience. John has figured out how to keep customers coming back for more. 

He also offers a blind course that not even the server knows what’s coming out. The dish is listed on the menu as: FISH SWIMMING YESTERDAY which basically translates to freshly caught yesterday and on your plate today. If you order it, it’s different every time for every diner. No two alike. It’s John’s way of saying, “trust me”. 

In the works is a cookbook based on foundation. It will address all levels of cooking and includes purchasing guidelines and relays common sense for cooking. The book won’t be about traditional recipes…go figure! John wants to give you a playbook for your kitchen and he promises by the end of the book, you will be a better chef. 

For more information on Inovasi, click here.

For more information on Wisma, click here.