PatchPicks: Top Local Chefs

Every Thursday, Patch Picks highlights editor and reader picks for great local businesses, destinations, services, organizations, ways to spend a day off and more.  

You’ll find useful lists to help you, your family, friends, and significant others find the best places for everything from Sunday brunch to New Year’s Eve celebrations, pumpkin patches, date night destinations, florists, girlfriend nights out, kids’ party places, parks and more. 

Today’s list is a list of local “Top Chefs.”

1. Robert Burcenski -  Chef Robert Burcenski opened Tallgrass restaurant in Lockport in 1981, and, together with maitre d' Thomas Alves, has set and maintained high standards for cuisine, wine, and service. Burcenski prepares every detail of the cuisine, even plating his own plates and bowls. The chef and restaurant have won numerous accolades throughout the years, including the 2011 AAA Four Diamond Award.
2. – This Joliet Junior College culinary arts pastry instructor, a Plainfield resident, just took first place on Food Network’s “Food Network Challenge Show” with the assistance of Heather Schreiner, a 2009 JJC culinary arts school graduate. The duo won $10,000 for first place, and judges nicknamed Chlebana “The Sugar Zen Master.”
3. Tim Bucci – Joliet Junior College culinary arts professor Tim Bucci is a member of the 2010 U.S. Culinary Olympic team. The team will compete against the best chefs around the world at the 2012 Culinary Olympics in Erfut, Germany. Bucci was also selected in 2008 for the same honor and helped the U.S. culinary team to place third in the world at the Villeroy & Boch Culinary World Cup. Bucci runs the Friday night dinner series and the Tuesday a la carte lunches at the JJC Renaissance Center in Joliet.
4. Jerome Bacle - The executive chef at the critically-acclaimed Courtrights restaurant in Willow Springs hails from France and has worked at Michelin three-star and Mobil five-star rated restaurants. Bacle has received several awards for his work including Diplomas of National Competitions in France, and was also a finalist in the Pennsylvania, “Preferred Best Chef Competition,” at the 2007 Harrisburg Farm Show.
5. Paul Virant - This critically acclaimed chef of Vie restaurant in Western Springs has not gone unnoticed as he serves up contemporary American cuisine while supporting local farmers and artisans. Virant is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has worked at some of the best restaurants in the U.S., including Charlie Trotter's. Virant himself has received numerous culinary awards including Best New Chef, Food and Wine and Chicago magazines; Jean Banchet Rising Star Chef; Rising Star Chef, Restaurant Hospitality Magazine; and Rising Star Chef, Starchefs.com. His work has helped Vie restaurant to receive several prestigious awards including Top 40 Restaurants in the USA by Gayot Restaurant Guide and Top 25 Farm to Table Restaurants from Best Life Magazine.

We couldn’t write a “Top Chefs” list for the Chicago area without mentioning Bravo’s Top Chef Season 4 winner Stephanie Izzard. Izzard was born in Evanston and has settled in Chicago to run her restaurant The Girl & the Goat. The restaurant opened last summer and has already received acclaim, including being nominated for the James Beard Foundation Best New Restaurant of 2010.