Dale Levitski's Phoenix-Like Rising (UPDATE)

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Dec 10, 2009 3:00PM

Time Out Chicago's Julia Kramer has an illuminating profile on Dale Levitski and the road he's traveled, from being a Top Chef runner-up to landing at Sprout in Lincoln Park. When an article begins with a chef being served for non-payment of rent, you know it hasn't been all bread and circuses. A sample quote:

“I didn’t want to just land in any restaurant. And the restaurant I wanted to open—Town and Country—took a year and a half too long, and I stuck with that commitment, being like, ‘Okay, I can live on nothing,’ and that really just snowballed into, ‘Wait. I can’t live on nothing.’?”

Kramer paints a detailed piece depicting Levitski's struggles to open his ambitious concept Town and Country at the beginning stages of a recession, the pressure of following Grant Achatz at Trio in Evanston, and his reactions to the criticisms he faced from some media for his run on Top Chef, which included everything from digs at his weight to Gawker's assertion that he was the true villain of the show.

Update: The Tribune's Kevin Pang also wrote a profile on Levitski's profile in determination and courage that is a must-read.