Erick Williams

Last updated
Erick Williams
Born1974or1975(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.

Contents

Early life and education

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

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

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

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

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References

  1. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 3 Kessler, John (14 November 2022). "Review: Erick Williams Gives Cajun Soul a Chicago Twist". Chicago Magazine . Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  3. 1 2 3 4 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. 1 2 3 "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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