July 15--Aaron Martinez, who made a name for himself as chef de cuisine at Quince in San Francisco and Commis in Oakland, will become the third chef-in-residence at Rich Melman's rotating-chef concept, Intro (2300 N. Lincoln Park West).
Martinez will make his debut July 30; his menus will be featured at Intro through Oct. 17.
Starting Oct. 22, Stephen Gillanders, a former winner of S. Pellegrino's "Almost Famous" culinary-student competition and currently executive chef of Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Jean-Georges Management in New York, will become Intro's fourth chef-in-residence, through Jan. 16.
Gillanders won the S. Pellegrino competition in 2004 and followed that up with jobs at Vongerichten's Prime and Jean-Georges Steakhouse, both in Las Vegas, where he rose to sous-chef and executive sous-chef, respectively. After Intro, he plans to head to Los Angeles, where he hopes to open his own restaurant, S.K.Y., sometime next year.
Martinez rejoins Intro after he left the program to become chef de cuisine at Iliana Regan's Elizabeth restaurant (4825 N. Western Ave.), a partnership that ended agreeably but very quickly.
"Things just happened," Martinez said. "I respect Iliana, but it just wasn't a good fit. I'm just glad Rich put (Intro) back on the table when we talked."
The chef describes his food as light and vegetable-driven, and is looking forward to running the kitchen in summer, when Illinois produce is at its peak. One of his dishes will be a composition of tomato and summer melon, with Benton's country ham, tomato water and seaweed "jus."
Look also for such dishes as king salmon with kohlrabi and frozen mustard; striped bass with cabbage, lemon verbena and shellfish butter; and beef with eggplant, cherries and onion.
"I keep (my cooking) bright and clean, nice acidity, nothing masked," Martinez said. "Simplicity is the hardest thing to do."
Martinez will feature a six-course menu ($85, wine pairings $50), but only on Saturday. Tuesday through Friday, he'll offer a four-course ($55, wine pairings $35) menu.
"It's summertime here, and everybody wants to be outside," he said. "I definitely wanted to offer a smaller menu for those who don't want to sit down for two hours."
Reservations, available via the Tock prepaid-tickets system, go on sale July 15 at introchicago.com.
Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic.
pvettel@tribpub.com
