by Michael Nagrant

What does a reality TV chef from Houston who started out cooking Creole cuisine know about Italian food? It turns out a lot. In fact, you could say Sarah Grueneberg, executive chef and partner of Monteverde, a new restaurant and pastificio (a fancy name for a pasta or macaroni factory) in Chicago's West Loop, is a master and innovator of the form.

It wasn't always that way. "I'm a kid from Texas who grew up cooking at Brennan's in Houston where soulful Creole sauces were the thing," Grueneberg said. "When I first moved to Chicago to work as a line cook, my idea of Italian food was very Italian American, stuff like parmesan, ricotta, marsala. I was lost over the idea that you could make this fantastic sauce with only simple olive oil."

Read more

Source: http://www.redeyechicago.com/