Nick Lacasse
Executive Chef, The Drawing Room
Some Favorite Places to Dine in Chicago: Urban Belly, Lula Cafe, Boka
Food Philosophy: Seasonality, global influence, fun to eat

Nick Lacasse is happy to be a part of the premiere season of Around the World in 80 Plates. Having auditioned for Bravo’s Top Chef a couple of years ago, which did not work out, he is glad that the door to experience opened when another had closed.

“I got pretty far in the casting process for Top Chef a couple years ago, and am happy that it didn’t work out, so that this ended up being my first foray into TV,” he says.

A grandson of rural dairy farmers as well as a Vermont native “with maple syrup for blood,” cooking was a fairly common occurrence for him. In fact, two of Lacasse‘s earliest cooking memories are of his mother teaching him how to make breaded zucchini and churning out popovers for breakfast with his grandfather. It was not until the age of 18 that he wandered out to the Pacific West, where he sought to continue his food service education in Seattle.

“I had a room waiting for me, but everything else was left to the universe,” he says. “I’ll never forget what I must have looked like, with dyed bright red hair and fat skater pants, walking around Seattle asking people where the nice restaurants were so I could find a job — hilarious.”

After stints in Burlington, Vt. and Seattle, Wash., Lacasse enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute where his encounter with Rob Evans (a James Beard award-winning chef based in Portland, Maine, who currently is the owner of Duckfat Restaurant and is the former owner of Hugo’s) as an intern at Hugo’s in Portland, Maine gave him inspiration as a cook that he had not been given before.

“The lifestyle, and attitudes of my first couple chefs/mentors, didn’t inspire me to get into it, it was only years later when a deeper understanding of seasons, flavor combinations, and more progressive thinking chefs had an impact on my views on it,” he explains.

No doubt, Evans contributed to that deeper understanding of ingredients for Lacasse. Evans taught him to really focus when working with food in the kitchen. It seems as though this guidance was effective in the molding of Lacasse as a chef mentally and skillfully.

“In his very small and [do-it-yourself] kitchen, there was no banter about sports, or politics, or whatever. He inspired his cooks to think about food all the time. It wasn’t militant, or strictly disciplined; just an environment that welcomed creative thought, and a feeling that anyone who took part in cooking and eating at Hugo’s was part of something very special. And we were,” he says, reminiscing of his time at Hugo’s.

Expressing pride in being a member of the food community in Chicago, Lacasse alludes to the environment encouraging him to aspire to be beyond great. Just as Evans was an inspirational talent during Lacasse’s time in Portland, the same is present in Chicago and seemingly widespread. And according to the young chef, he has derived a constant learning source in those who have established a name for themselves in the city.

“There are so many talented chefs working here from many different generations,” Lacasse says. “From the old school — Joho, Gabriel Viti, Rick Bayless and Charlie Trotter — to the next generation — Paul Kahan, Shawn McClain, Giuseppe Tentori, Susan Stegner — to the futuristic minds of Grant Achatz, Dave Beran, Homaru Canot. It’s the city of broad shoulders, but for a Vermont import like myself, it’s also a city of large shoes.”

As executive chef at The Drawing Room, Lacasse is the boss of the kitchen, overseeing back of house operations and menu planning. The restaurant, also known for its award-winning bar, is located in one of Chicago’s ritziest neighborhoods. It sits in the same vicinity as high rated restaurants, such as RIA and Gibson’s Bar and Steakhouse, and holds its own.

“The Drawing Room is a black sheep on a block known for extravagance, giant steaks, and obscenely big martinis. We are a small, very personal, very seasonally driven restaurant and cocktail lounge that is unique to Chicago, let alone the Gold Coast,” he says, adding that the mixology program is food focused and encourages patrons to pair their meals with cocktails.

In the food industry, it is customary for restaurant menus to change, particularly with each season. Lacasse is no stranger to this trend, with his current favorite menu item consisting of braised lamb breast with mint puree, roasted asparagus, and rhubarb; a dish that is bound to transform into something entirely new and varied over the course of a few months. As with many creative types, he has a process for coming up with new recipes for mouthwatering dishes, a process that begins with a specific ingredient and ends in experimentation.

“My creative process is to start with an ingredient, or a preparation, and fill in the blanks as to what has been done with it, what hasn’t been done, and what I find interesting,” he says. “There are, of course, classic combinations that work famously, but any two ingredients can be combined in a number of ways.”

Aside from working at The Drawing Room, Lacasse has found time to be socially conscious and give back to the community by teaching others his craft. He has mentored students from Chicago public schools, and has also worked with The Greater Chicago Food Depository’s culinary boot camp.

In the near or distant future, Lacasse hopes to be a business owner, author and, more personally, a husband and father. Also, the international nature of the show definitely speaks to Lacasse’s alternative plans outside of food. He says that if he wasn’t a chef, he would be a teacher.

“[I hope to be a] general positive influence to whatever community I should spend time in…Maybe Nicaragua, or Iceland, or Sri Lanka will allow me to fulfill my pre-kitchen aspiration of being an elementary school teacher,” he states.

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