Munchies: Stephanie Izard

[MUSIC PLAYING]

STEPHANIE IZARD: All right, cheers to me.

Holy shit, I am not drinking that whole thing.
Beautiful.
It's just fun in here.
It is like a party all the time.
For me, it's just all about flavor and it's having people
take a bite and then they're like whoa.
And there's just so much flavor
going on in their mouths.
My name is Stephanie Izard, I'm the chef and owner of Girl
& The Goat.
I went to University of Michigan for undergrad first.
I was a sociology major.
I started working at the Olive Garden, that was my first
industry job.
Their bread sticks are pretty damn tasty, I'm
not going to lie.
After college I ended up going to culinary school.
My dad was like, you know, you haven't found anything you
love in college as much as you love cooking, so you should go
to culinary school.
And I think at the time I really thought that you
graduate culinary school and you're like a chef.
I didn't get that you graduate culinary school and you make
$7 an hour and you make salads, but I was super
excited anyway.
So my dad's like, you're going to make $7 an hour?
I was like yeah, I'm going to make some salads.
It's going to be awesome.
The restaurant I was working at closed for renovations, and
I came out to Chicago to visit some friends for a few days.
While I was out here, it was June when it's actually
beautiful here.
And there were just nice people and cute boys
everywhere and I was like, I'm moving to Chicago.
I make decisions just sort of last minute
without telling anybody.

So these are my two not a lot of hair Jared friends.
I've actually known this not a lot of hair Jared for longer.
When did we meet, like four years ago?
JARED VAN CAMP: Four or five years ago, yeah.
STEPHANIE IZARD: I was dating his friend who's
a chef in the city.
JARED VAN CAMP: Yeah, I remember it.
STEPHANIE IZARD: And this is Jared I met like, what did we
decide, two months ago?
JARED ROUBEN: I think so.
JARED VAN CAMP: So, we got cotto salami, finocchiona,
toscano salami, chorizo, sopressata, a little pastrami,
pate de compagne, some toast, picalilly, and some assorted
pickles and olives.
STEPHANIE IZARD: Yeah, I was actually thinking about this
this afternoon, because I was thinking about meeting up with
you and we're going to go find Koren.
All of our chefs that are-- and I was like are we the
young generation?
I was like, we're kind of like the medium-age generation.
But it's sort of like our generation.
Nothing against the slightly--
JARED VAN CAMP: Older?
STEPHANIE IZARD: Just ahead of our time, but people we all
worked for like Shawn McClain, and Paul Kahan, and Rick
Bayless and Charlie Trotter, and all the people that--
JARED VAN CAMP: Yeah, for sure.
STEPHANIE IZARD: And now we're just sort of the people that
worked for them.
And now we're all just buddy buddies, let's
make Chicago awesome.
JARED VAN CAMP: It's one of the coolest things about being
in Chicago, is the camaraderie in the industry.
STEPHANIE IZARD: We just want the city to get better.
We want to open fun, cool restaurants and support local
and do as many charities as we can.
And all do it together because you can't do it by yourself.
I think chefs all love hanging out with each other because we
also learn from each other.
So I guess the more stuff I can get out there and do while
still keeping this place running, the better.

So then I take both Jareds, both non-hair Jareds, over to
Avec because it's my favorite restaurant in the city.
Yeah, whenever I'm asked what's the favorite restaurant
in the city, Avec, Avec, Avec.
Going to Avec is going and hanging with your friends and
drinking and eating and exactly what we
try to capture here.

Koren's just cool.
We became friends a couple of years ago.
I mean, maybe a little bit of it is like oh, cool, another
cool chick chef that I can hang out with.
But we hang out at events together, we're just sort of
into supporting the same things.
Brandade, brandade, and--
JARED VAN CAMP: No, no, Stephanie, it's OK.
No, really, I'm sorry.

KOREN GRIEVESON: Grammer pizza.
STEPHANIE IZARD: Queso, fresco, green figs, Serrano,
and de coto.
JARED VAN CAMP: I like that.
STEPHANIE IZARD: So just delisio?

STEPHANIE IZARD: Delisio ricotta--
KOREN GRIEVESON: A little truffle oil.
STEPHANIE IZARD: A little truffle oil in between
flatbread that's sliced really thin, and
it's freaking delicious.
You're probably my only close, female friend chef.
STEPHANIE IZARD: Anything.
JARED ROUBEN: Boom.
KOREN GRIEVESON: Let's put it out there.
STEPHANIE IZARD: In this city though, I don't have any other
chick chef friends.
I think that most women just decide to either
go one way or another.
They're going to go have a family and have children, or
stick with a career.
Maybe that's why there's not so many.
It always comes up in conversation.
Why are there so few females?
And I don't know, maybe more chicks should be doing this I
guess would be my answer.

STEPHANIE IZARD: It is.
I mean, for anyone.
It's suddenly taking a toll on me.
Yesterday, I honestly, to leave work early, and I just
slept for 12 hours straight.
For some reason there are just more men in the industry.
And I think part of it's also when I started
working on the industry--
I'm not easily offended and nothing that guys can say in
the kitchen is going to bother me whatsoever.
If they want to talk about picking up chicks, or I'm not
going to get into the things that get
talked about in kitchens.
But if you're easily offended it's not going to work well
for you, I'll just say that for women.
I love the brandade.
Salty, creamy goodness with little teeny specks of [BLEEP]
crunchy.
JARED ROUBEN: It is so delicious.
STEPHANIE IZARD: I know.
JARED VAN CAMP: Hold on.
Salty, creamy goodness with little [BLEEP]
specks of
STEPHANIE IZARD: A teeny spice of crunchy.
JARED VAN CAMP: You should put it on the menu as that.
STEPHANIE IZARD: After Avec, we walked down the street with
our new little posse of chefs, walking back
to Girl & The Goat.
We were doing this "Elle" magazine shoot a few weeks
ago, and they wanted us to look like we were after work
eating lamb shanks together and stuff.
And I was like, why don't we do that after work?
That's pretty sweet.

So it's basically grilled octopus with a fish sauce
vinaigrette.
Fava beans, yellow wax beans, a little bit of the house wine
[INAUDIBLE], and some lemon pistachio vinaigrette.
It's one of my favorite things I make.

ALL: Cheers!

STEPHANIE IZARD: One of my bartenders one day, I got to
work, he's like what's the deal?
He's like, you work 18 hours a day--
18, 19, 20, 21, 22--
drink four and sleep two, if that adds up to 24.
I'm not even sure right now.
MALE SPEAKER: I'm getting paid and I'm eating food?
This is awesome.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Cheers to you, [INAUDIBLE].
MALE SPEAKER: I'm going to get out of here before we've got
to clean up, for sure.
I'm hopping on the bike and I'm gone.
JARED ROUBEN: Here's to being
better-looking than that table.
ALL: Woo!

FEMALE SPEAKER: Yeah!
STEPHANIE IZARD: I mean, I don't think you need to go out
and party until 4:00 AM with your chefs all the time--
sometimes I do that.
Even if I hang out with them, and party with them, and take
them to events and have a good time, they still will listen
when I'm like, you're not plating that right.
I guess there's different ways of getting respect from people
that work for you.
And maybe there's some people that work here that think I am
just a crazy party girl and they're like great boss lady.
But I think for the most part we've just created this really
fun atmosphere to work in.
I've worked places where I go into other kitchens and it's
absolute dead silence.
And I've worked in a kitchen where I got
in trouble for laughing.
And, I don't know, I laugh a lot, I sing and
dance with my cooks.

It's all about having fun.
Eating's about having fun, so cooking should be
about having fun.
JARED VAN CAMP: There we go!
ALL: Woo hoo!