Chefs

Erling Wu-Bower Talks Life At the Head of Avec

As we recall, Time Out Chicago tweeted a howl of despair that Avec was over, man when Koren Grieveson left the much-beloved gastropub, or whatever you’d call it. Knowing the bench strength of the Kahan organization, we were far less worried (or worried that Jackie Shen would be announced shortly), and the next day we were once again proven to live in the best of all possible worlds when Erling Wu-Bower was promoted from The Publican/Publican Quality Meats to run Avec. Trained under Grieveson, a longtime #2 to The Publican’s Brian Huston, and the mad scientist behind much of PQM’s sausagemaking, Wu-Bower was the perfect choice to grow into his first full chef job at this high profile gig. And TOC marks the fact with a frank interview with him in which he touches on everything from expectations (“I think one of the things you don’t think about when you’re a sous chef is what it’s going to feel like to be a chef. You think you know what it’s going to be like to be a chef, but you have no idea”) to Paul Kahan’s management style (“I called Paul and was like: I’m struggling, dude. And he said, that’s why I’m here, man”). Well worth reading, check it out. [TOC]

Erling Wu-Bower Talks Life At the Head of Avec