Chef Jeffrey

Teaches at The Chopping Block Lincoln Square

Chef at The Chopping Block since: 2022

Favorite class to teach: So far, Spanish Tapas     

Training/education: Associates in Occupational Studies of the Culinary Arts Le Cordon Bleu Portland, Oregon. 10 years as a chef in independent chef-owned fine dining restaurants including Ox, Portland OR. and Parachute & Wherewithal Chicago, IL. Currently pursuing a Business Degree at the University of Illinois Chicago in my spare time.

Cooking since: 2000, my first job was as a short order cook when I was 14.

Favorite childhood food experience: Making sausage scrambled eggs off a butane cooktop with my father and buddies in a duck blind at age 12.

What made you want to become a chef? I never wanted to sit down in my profession, I never have, and I still don’t want to.

What is your signature dish? At home, lentil curry with brown butter fried walleye. At work, healthy and inventive vegetable sides, seasonal of course.

What are the 5 ingredients you can't live without? Curry powder, all of them really. Legumes, ginger, microbes for fermentation, and eggs, of course.

What do you love about cooking? I can never truly complete my training, there is always a new cuisine or approach. It satisfies my desire to constantly study a new thing, and then eat it.