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Responsibilities: John is the Corporate Executive Chef of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc® (LEYE). Rich Melman, Founder and CEO of LEYE is delighted to have John join the Consulting team as the Executive Chef. "In this capacity he can use his versatile talents to work with me directly on client’s projects and developing new concepts," said Melman.
Consulting Experience: John has been involved with all of Consulting's culinary initiatives since the inception of the Consulting Group. He was especially instrumental working on initiatives with Chili's, Fresh Fields, Kraft Foods, Delaware North and Wild Oats Markets.
Industry Experience: For more than 20 years, John worked at over a dozen LEYE restaurants ranging from Avanzare, The Pump Room and Scoozi! to Wildfire Chicago. Made Corporate Executive Chef in August 2002, John manages the development, creation and maintenance of all menus and recipes as well as to oversee every aspect of a restaurant's operations including the preparation, presentation and service of the actual menu items.
Even as a young entrepreneur, John was destined to be in the restaurant business. At the age of 10 his mother remembers when he opened his first 'restaurant' serving cheese sandwiches and hotdogs to his brothers starting at ten cents. A native of Chicago, John began his professional career bussing tables at My Π Pizzeria while in high school and received his first cooking job at Gordon restaurant in Chicago.
After his start at Ambria in 1981, John was on the opening team for Avanzare, a classic Italian restaurant, and served as the saucier until 1984 when he was promoted to sous chef. In 1987 John's hard work paid off when he became the head chef at Avanzare. In 1992 John became the Executive Chef at Scoozi! where he continued his Italian creations using simple and fresh ingredients. Always looking to improve and create, John believes, "what a canvas is to a painter the onion is to a chef." In 1994 John joined the Corporate Chef Team and had the opportunity to work at many Lettuce restaurants often filling in as interim chef. These restaurants included Tru, Brasserie Jo and Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba to name a few
Personal: With a love for chocolate and a nickname to follow ("Chocco-latte" pronounced in Spanish) Chiakulas's continuing passion is the excitement and flexibility of working with varied concepts and kitchens. John also enjoys teaching cooking classes and working with children.
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