Chef’s Bio… Rustic Version

Then...

There’s a formal bio available on request by F.U. Public Relations Company (Foss Unlimited) at thepickledtongue@gmail.com. If you have the backbone however, this version paints a better picture.

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Phillip Foss smoked a lot of pot during high school and didn’t know what he wanted to do when he grew up. Needing money, and having been fired from almost everything else – including Baskin Robbins where he was known as “The Malt Man” – Foss got a job in a diner as a short order cook where he learned the intricate technique behind grilled cheese sandwiches.

A fellow cook that was attending the Milwaukee vocational cooking college told him there was good money to be made as a chef. Being incredibly gullible, but liking the kitchen atmosphere enough, Foss decided this was for him.

Upon hearing that he was interested in culinary school, a restaurateur Foss was working for then suggested he attend his alma mater, the Culinary Institute of America. Upon relaying the 411 to his mom, she insisted on it.

He graduated in 1991 and moved to New York City on a whim. Here he was green, but very fortunate to be exposed to 3 NY Times 4 star restaurants including the Quilted Giraffe, Lafayette and most influentially, Le Cirque. At Le Cirque, Foss spent 5 years and worked his way up the ranks to sous chef. He was one of only 2 chefs to be retained in the move from the original location to the second.

Believing he was wise beyond his years, Foss got married in 1992 at the ripe age of 22. At 28 he realized he was actually a dumb ass, and started working on a divorce. With the marriage already in shambles, Foss had an epiphany and decided the time had come to leave his wife and Le Cirque, to have sex with as many women as he could, and to find a way to fulfill a dream of cooking in Europe. Still amazed as to the debauchery with how it all went down, he managed to high tail his way out of New York City to be a private chef in Florida in 1998. This served its purpose, but Foss was just testing his wings at this time and couldn’t stand being at another’s disposal… as mentioned, he was just divorced.

After a brief stop in Milwaukee for a little re-grouping, Foss travelled through Europe for 8 months with a  stop for work in Utrecht, Holland for 1 month. Here he wasted all of his meager earnings keeping journals and smoking weed in the infamous coffeeshops. From there, he left to do a 3 month stagier with Jacques Maximin in Provence.

Foss then returned to the States, and spent his first stint in Chicago as the chef de cuisine of Bistrot Margot from 2000-2002.

Burnt out from the kitchen – and a lost 32 year old boy – Foss left for Brazil. He returned 6 months later as a man, but still lost. He also says that he, “…highly recommends Bahia (and Brazil in general) to everyone, but even more so if you’re a promiscuous, light skinned, light haired, and blue eyed man… it really should be a right of passage.”

Foss returned to the States running away from the Brazilian authorities. He didn’t really know where he wanted to be, but he did know he neither wanted to be in a Brazilian prison nor go through the upcoming Wisconsin winter. He then decided  to move to Hawaii where he spent the next 2 years with the 4 Seasons in Maui.

After 2 years on Maui, island fever was upon him and he was craving  the cuisine, culture and crowds of the big city. Upon the news his brother was getting married in Israel, Foss left Hawaii with his backpack & meager belongings over his shoulder armed with the plans to travel through Asia. However, once he set his eyes on all the gorgeous women in Tel Aviv, Foss had a glimmer of hope that perhaps he could be a good Jewish boy and find himself a Jewish wife. With this in mind, he decided to become a citizen of Israel and procured employment as the chef of the fine dining restaurant in the famous King David Hotel.

Having realized that he had sewn so many oats that he was afraid of running out of thread – and also having met an AMAZING woman - Foss then got married again and moved with his wife to Bermuda. Other than its geographical beauty, neither he nor his spouse found anything redeeming on this island. So with their 1st child 3 months away and no health insurance coverage, they decided to throw abandon into the wind,  jump ship and move to the States.

The 1st night Foss spent in Milwaukee he saw a position open at the Palmer House. Relatively desparate – as it was looking like he’d be settling for a position in Milwaukee – he decided to follow his application up and make the trek down to Chicago the next day.

So to make a long story short (as Foss does have other things to do today), he was on his way out of the hotel not having been able to speak with the important parties. While he was in the hotel, he received a phone call from the GM involved in the new restaurant project that would become Lockwood, who wanted to know if he was still in Bermuda. He informed him that – no, he wasn’t in Bermuda, but in the hotel lobby. After a 2 hour interview and a lot of formalities, he was brought on as the executive chef.

Lockwood was awarded 3 stars by the Chicago Tribune & Chicago Sun Times, 4 diamonds by AAA, named as Chicago Tribune’s Top 10 Best New Restaurants, and Chef Foss was awarded 1st runner up as the Best New Chef by Chicago Social. The Pickled Tongue  blog has been lauded as one of the best chef blogs  not only for the amazing cuisine and photography featured, but also for its inspired, humorous, and brilliant writing. Chef Foss is also well known for his humble character.

Having moved on from Lockwood, Chef Foss has his eye on bringing an end to the food truck prohibition that is Chicago’s biggest embarrassment since the notorious foie gras ban, and launch one of his own. In the meantime, he is looking to cook for, “…anyone who needs their stomach filled.”  In the meantime, Chef Foss plans on ‘popping up” in restaurants around Chicago to make sure his ends meet, and is also about 50,000 words (and still five years from the present) into the memoir of this long strange trip that has been his life.

Regarding where he is, Foss has this to say, “Life’s amazing… I have a beautiful family and I can’t believe how I got to where I am. By a lot of accounts, it’s pretty incredible that I’m even alive.”

When asked what advice he’d give to an aspiring chef, this is what he has to say, “Keep your eyes and ears open, be engaged, and work clean. You never know around which corner Mother Destiny is waiting for you. So be unrelentlessly persistent and always be ready to follow her when she shows up. And if you ever wind up working for me, do what I say… because in this kitchen, I am Mother Destiny’s daddy.”

... and now.