Erick Williams

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Erick Williams
Born1974 or 1975 (age 49–50)[1]
Culinary career
Cooking styleBlack Southern cuisine
Current restaurant(s)
    • Virtue Restaurant & Bar
    • Mustard Seed Kitchen
    • Daisy’s Po-Boy and Tavern
    • Top This Mac N' Cheese
Previous restaurant(s)
    • mk
Award(s) won

Erick Williams is an American chef. In 2022 he was named Best Chef in the Great Lakes Region by the James Beard Foundation.

Early life and education[edit]

Williams was born in Chicago and raised in Chicago's Lawndale and Austin neighborhoods.[2][1][3] He first started cooking by helping his grandmother prepare dinner.[3]

Career[edit]

Williams worked for nearly 20 years at mk in Chicago's River North neighborhood, where he started as a salad chef and in 2008 became executive chef and eventually part owner.[2][4][3]

In 2018 Williams opened Virtue in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, hiring Damarr Brown, who had been his sous chef at mk, as chef de cuisine.[5] The restaurant serves Black southern cuisine.[6] Esquire and Eater named it to their lists of the best new restaurants in the country in 2019.[7][8][9] In 2022 Garden & Gun asked rhetorically, "Is it possible the best restaurant now interpreting the food of Black Southerners does business outside the South?"[10] In 2021, he opened Mustard Seed Kitchen in the South Loop and in 2022 Daisy’s Po-Boy and Tavern in Hyde Park.[2] He also owns a fast-casual restaurant, Top This Mac N' Cheese.[1]

In 2019 The New York Times named Williams one of sixteen Black chefs "changing food in America".[11] According to Crain's Chicago Business, Bloomberg News and Ebony, he "paved the way" and "fueled" the development of fine-dining Southern cuisine in Chicago.[12][13][14]

Awards[edit]

In 2019 Williams received Food & Dining's Gamechanger Award.[15] In 2020 the Chicago Tribune named Williams Chef of the Year.[5] In 2022 Williams was named Best Chef in the Great Lakes Region by the James Beard Foundation.[5] In 2023 Nation's Restaurant News named him Innovator of the Year.[16]

Personal life[edit]

Williams is married.[3] His wife's name is Tiffany.[17]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Wilson, Korsha (2023-04-24). "Two Chefs on Keeping Alive, and Redefining, Soul Food". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  2. ^ a b c Kessler, John (14 November 2022). "Review: Erick Williams Gives Cajun Soul a Chicago Twist". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  3. ^ a b c d Hautzinger, Daniel (2019-08-22). "How Chef Erick Williams Shows Kindness Is a Virtue at His Restaurant". WTTW. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  4. ^ "Chef/Restaurateur Erick Williams Keeps Virtue at the Center". Nation's Restaurant News. 2022-01-07. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  5. ^ a b c "Virtue's Erick Williams wins regional Best Chef James Beard Award". Hyde Park Herald. 2022-06-14. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  6. ^ Loria, Michael (2022-08-10). "Chef Damarr Brown's Southern roots at the heart and soul of his cooking success". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 2022-09-27. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  7. ^ Gordinier, Jeff (2019-11-13). "Esquire's Best New Restaurants in America, 2019". Esquire. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  8. ^ Wong, Grace (2019-11-18). "Hyde Park's Virtue restaurant named by Esquire as one of the Best New Restaurants in America". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  9. ^ Canavan, Hillary Dixler (2019-07-10). "The 16 Best New Restaurants in America". Eater. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  10. ^ "The Borderless South" (PDF). Garden & Gun. September 2022.
  11. ^ Eligon, John; Moskin, Julia (2019-07-16). "16 Black Chefs Changing Food in America". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  12. ^ Elleby, Sojourner (2022-12-19). "The Chef Fueling Chicago's Southern Cooking Revolution". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  13. ^ "The chef fueling Chicago's Southern cooking revolution". Crain's Chicago Business. 2022-12-19. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  14. ^ "MADE: The Chef Fueling Chicago's Southern Cooking Revolution". Ebony. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  15. ^ Vettel, Phil (2019-08-13). "Chef Erick Williams named winner of Food & Dining's Game Changer Award". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  16. ^ "Nation's Restaurant News announces 2023 MenuMasters winners". Nation's Restaurant News. 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  17. ^ Waxman, Naomi (2022-06-13). "Virtue's Erick Williams Wins Chicago's Sole James Beard Award". Eater Chicago. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
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