Hospitality Design - October 2015 - 114

Photo by ANTHONY TAHLIER

special feature

chefs

1

2
Photo by HUGE GALDONES

STEPHANIE IZARD

1. The Studio K
Creative-designed Girl
& the Goat features
burnt wood walls.

Girl & the Goat and Little Goat
Diner
Business school to cooking school

Stephanie Izard is synonymous with Chicago
food from cooking at local restaurants-Vong,
Spring, and La Tache-to her own popular
eateries-Girl & the Goat and Little Goat Diner.
Though she was born in the Windy City, she
grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and studied
business at the University of Michigan but found
"there was nothing that really interested me
except the football games." Because she loved to
cook, her dad suggested culinary school. "The
minute I walked into the [Scottsdale Culinary
Institute in Arizona]," she says, "I knew I was in
the right place."
She's been cooking and making a name for
herself in Chicago for the past 15 years, starting
when she quit her job as a sous chef and opened
her first restaurant, Scylla, in 2004. She soon
found herself competing on the fourth season of
Top Chef, which she won (she's the first woman
to do so). Then the idea for Girl & the Goat
started to come into focus. She teamed up with
Boka Restaurant Group and opened the eatery
in 2010, with Little Goat Diner launching a few
years later. Since then, the James Beard Awardwinning chef hasn't slowed down, with Duck
Duck Goat (interiors by AvroKO) set to open
this fall.

First food memory

You could say it was a crêpe that changed
her life. An 8-year-old Izard was on a family
vacation to Epcot when a trip to France-Disney

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October 2015 hospitalitydesign.com

2. Little Goat Diner,
crafted by Toronto's
Anacleto Design.

2
World's version, at least-introduced her to a
ham, mushroom, and cheese crêpe that she
immediately recreated when she got home. "My
mom always told the story that it tasted just like
ones we had [at Disney World]. From that point
on, I was always cooking."

On making guests happy

Along the way, Izard has picked up lessons
from every chef she has worked with, and she
"continues to learn from chefs everywhere I go,"
but it's her food philosophy that has earned her
staying power in Chicago. "I just try to make
your whole mouth happy, hit all the flavor points
with bold, in-your-face flavor, and not forget to
have a variety of textures in every dish."

Big picture priorities

Successful restaurants aren't just about food
or service or design-but rather all of those
things working together, Izard says, which she
prioritizes when working with her partners
and design teams. "The design sets the mood
and gets guests in the right mindset for the food
you are creating. If we suddenly painted Girl &
the Goat white and closed the kitchen, it would
completely change the experience. Even if we
served the exact same food, it just would not
taste the same. The hustle and bustle of the open
kitchen, along with the reclaimed wood and
burnt wood walls, create the comforting but fun
mood that our guests should feel to enjoy the
food."

Chicago's food revolution

It's the people of the city who inspire Izard. "I
am fortunate that I get to travel all over, but I
just love the people that live in Chicago. Plus,
the restaurant industry is very supportive of
each other. We all want it to be the best in the
country."

What's next

Chinese concept Duck Duck Goat "is going to
give the feel of Chinatown with various areas
of open kitchen so the guests can see the fire
from the woks and the grill, watch the butchers
prepare the Peking duck, and see the cooks
making soup dumplings," Izard says. "Having an
open kitchen in all three Goat restaurants just
helps make it fun. Plus, the cooks and sous chefs
can see the guests enjoying the food, which is
the best reward."

Lessons learned

"You can't do it all yourself. You have to find
people you trust and delegate. Surround yourself
with people who have the same passion for the
industry, who you enjoy spending time with,
who you can bounce ideas off of, and who you
can work together as a team with-those people
make everything work and make growing the
business possible."
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