The Publican
- When
- June 4, 2025
- Where
-
The Publican
837 W Fulton Market
Chicago, IL
Join the Jacques Pépin Foundation, host Chef Paul Kahan, and the award-winning chefs of One Off Hospitality Group for an unforgettable dinner in Chicago’s iconic Fulton Market neighborhood. This French-inspired five-course seated dinner will be hosted by farm-to-table pioneering and James Beard Award-winning restaurant The Publican. Be our guest for this unforgettable evening celebrating Jacques Pépin’s 90th birthday!
Menu:
- Whole Wheat Bread with Cancale Salt and Le Beurre Bordier (Greg Wade, Publican Quality Bread)
- Eggs Jeanette with Tabasco Gribiche (Thomas Hollensed, Dove’s Luncheonette)
- Paté En Croute (Kyle Huff, Publican Quality Meats)
- Sable Fish En Papillote (Dylan Patel, avec)
- Duck à l’Orange (Rob Levitt, Publican Quality Meats)
- Crepe Cake (Natalie Saben, One Off Hospitality Group Executive Pastry Chef)
Highlights
- Chefs Thomas Hollensed (Dove’s Luncheonette), Kyle Huff (Publican Quality Meats), Dylan Patel (avec), Rob Levitt (Publican Quality Meats), Greg Wade (Publican Quality Bread) and Natalie Saben (One Off Hospitality Group) have collaborated to create a five-course meal inspired by Jacques’ culinary excellence.
- Guests can look forward to classic French preparations such as Duck à l’Orange and Crepe Cake.
- Opened in 2008, The Publican is the recipient of a James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant Design and has been honored as a Jean Banchet Outstanding Restaurant and one of Eater’s “38 Essential Restaurants in America.”
Details
- Prix fixe menu reservations will be available throughout dinner service, beginning at 5:00 pm. Regular dinner menu items will not be available at The Publican during this special event.
- Thanks to the generosity of the participating event host, a portion of the evening's proceeds will be donated to the Jacques Pépin Foundation to support our mission of expanding access to culinary education. We deeply appreciate your generous support.
- Jacques Pépin proudly supports our 90/90 Celebrations. While he can't be present at all of them, we invite you to check our website for details on the events where he will joining in celebration.
Event Host
Paul Kahan
Executive chef and partner, The Publican
Widely recognized as the face of Chicago’s dining scene, Executive Chef and Partner Paul Kahan has earned international acclaim for his hand in helping to pioneer the chef-driven farm-to-table movement, which subsequently swept across the country in the years to follow.
His restaurants, now considered institutions, are all part of the renowned One Off Hospitality collective and have included community pillars like Blackbird, avec, The Publican, Big Star, Publican Quality Meats, Dove’s Luncheonette, and Publican Quality Bread. Each establishment reflects Kahan’s commitment to working with Midwestern farmers—which helped him earn the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Chef in 2013, Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America in 2014, Best Chefs in America in 2004, and retain a Michelin star at Blackbird for all nine years stars were offered by the tire company in Chicago while the restaurant was operating. Kahan has garnered the praise of many who claim him to be one of America’s most influential working chefs.
In 2018, his cookbook “Cheers to the Publican, Repast and Present: Recipes and Ramblings from an American Beer Hall,” won the IACP award in the “Chefs and Restaurants” category. In 2019, Kahan released his second book, ‘Cooking For Good Times,” which was named ‘One of The Best Cookbooks Of The Year’ by the New York Times Book Review. Despite numerous accolades, Kahan’s biggest accomplishment remains his work as a mentor for young chefs. Kahan is a co-founder of Pilot Light, an organization dedicated to enhancing school children’s perception of food through hands-on education, and he is a passionate supporter of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for pediatric cancer research.
Guest Chefs
Rob Levitt
Head butcher and chef, Publican Quality Meats
Acclaimed chef and butcher Rob Levitt first got his feet wet in the culinary world working as a dishwasher while pursuing a degree in Jazz Performance at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Sparked by his new passion for the restaurant industry, Levitt continued to cultivate his skills at the Culinary Institute of America before landing at the Park Avenue Café in Manhattan.
With a desire to move back to the Midwest, Rob relocated to Chicago and worked his way through some of the city’s most popular restaurants including modern Spanish tapas spot, del Toro, Michelin-starred North Pond and acclaimed Italian eatery 312 Chicago before opening his first restaurant Mado, with his wife Allison in 2008. After three years of critical acclaim, the duo took the next step and opened The Butcher & Larder, Chicago’s first local, sustainable, whole animal butcher shop, which has been recognized for excellence in its craft by Food & Wine, GQ, The Travel Channel, The Food Network, The Good Food Awards and more.
In 2015, Levitt joined Chicago-based Local Foods, to share knowledge and further expand The Butcher & Larder’s offerings with café, retail and wholesale distribution opportunities. After nearly 20 years mastering his skill and with nine years of butcher experience under his belt, Levitt eventually caught the attention of James Beard Award-winning Chef Paul Kahan, landing the coveted role of head butcher and chef of One Off Hospitality’s beloved Publican Quality Meats.
Expanding upon Kahan’s signature “snout to tail” approach to butchery, Levitt captains the culinary program at PQM, creating a seasonal menu featuring rustic soups, gourmet salads, and sandwiches, while mastering an array of natural and organic meat products, house-made sausages and more at Chicago’s critically acclaimed butcher shop, neighborhood café, bakery and gourmet market.
Dylan Patel
Executive chef, avec River North and bar avec
Raised in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Dylan Patel became interested in food as a child when his uncle moved in with him and his family. Often cooking traditional Indian food or lighting up the grill to barbecue, Patel found himself drawn to watching his uncle cook. This spark would eventually lead him to enroll at Kendall College after high school to pursue a career in culinary arts.
While attending Kendall, he was recommended by his professor to intern at the James Beard award-winning restaurant avec by acclaimed Chef-Partner Paul Kahan and One Off Hospitality in Chicago’s West Loop. Under the guidance of then Chef de Cuisine Perry Hendrix, Patel expanded his culinary knowledge to all corners of the Mediterranean, learning to cook the popular shared dishes at the intimate restaurant. His internship ultimately led to a place on the avec team, and after a year or so, he was promoted to kitchen supervisor before becoming sous chef in 2017.
In 2020, Hendrix gave over the reins and title of chef de cuisine to Patel, allowing him to introduce the familiar flavors and portfolio of spices from his personal background to expand upon avec’s portfolio of creative, wine-friendly fare. At the age of 27, Patel was promoted to Executive Chef of avec River North and bar avec, the sister rooftop of avec’s second location, and was recognized by Nation’s Restaurant News on their 2022 Chefs “Power List” as well as being named a “Top Innovator” by CS Magazine for the culture he’s cultivated for the avec brand through the years.
Greg Wade
Managing partner, Publican Quality Bread
Leading America’s bread renaissance in Chicago is Greg Wade, Managing Partner at Publican Quality Bread, the renowned bakery under the Publican family of restaurants by Chicago’s nine-time James Beard Award-winning One Off Hospitality Group and Partners Donnie Madia, Paul Kahan, Terry Alexander, and Eduard Seitan.
A graduate of the Illinois Institute of Art’s Culinary Program, Wade started his career specializing in breads and pastries. Joining Publican Quality Bread as head baker in 2014, Wade has transformed the concept’s baking program from a seedling operation within Publican Quality Meats to a highly successful wholesale division that works hand-in-hand with One Off Hospitality’s other concepts as well as the top chefs, farmers and retail owners in the Windy City.
In 2022, Wade and partners opened a standalone bakery for Publican Quality Bread in West Town, bringing his award-winning loaves and an expanded menu of artisan sandwiches, tartines and decadent pastries to a public-facing location for the first time ever, followed by a second location in Oak Park in spring of 2024. Specializing in whole grains and fermentation, Wade was honored with a James Beard Award for “Outstanding Baker” in 2019 and is an active member of the Artisan Grain Collaborative, an organization of farmers, millers, and chefs committed to biodiversity and preserving ancient grains.
He is the author of “Bread Head: Baking for the Road Less Traveled” (Food & Wine, Eater, Epicurious: “Best Cookbooks of 2022”) and has been featured in the documentary, “Sustainable: A Documentary on the Local Food Movement in America,” which is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
