Nightwood's Vincent Makes Food & Wine Best New Chefs List

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Apr 2, 2013 8:00PM

Jason Vincent, seen here being crown "King of Porc" at last year's Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colo. (Photo credit: Huge Galdones/Galdones Photography, used with permission.)

Nightwood’s Jason Vincent, one of the best chefs working in Chicago today, made Food & Wine magazine’s 2013 list of Best New Chefs. This caps off a whirlwind year for the chef that saw him win Cochon 555’s Chicago stop, the Grand Cochon event at last year’s Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colo. (He also turned it out big time at Chicagoist’s Benton House soup kitchen fundraiser.)

It's the culmination of over a decade of work for Vincent, who responded to the nod with a simple “holy shit” and plenty of thank-yous to go around on the Nightwood blog.

”This is a moment that I’ve wondered (read: obsessed) about for close to 15 years. I can probably count on one hand the number of days over those 15 years that I haven’t thought about BNC. It is a short, distinct list, compiled by a group that has a bird’s-eye view of the American culinary landscape. And it is, as (Trenchermen chef) Mike Sheerin (a former Best New Chef winner himself) puts it, ‘good company to be in.’ “

Vincent’s commitment to a simple but ever-changing, farm-focused seasonal menu has earned Nightwood accolades across the country. This is the restaurant’s highest accolade yet. In his F&W profile, Vincent said of his simple approach:

“There’s that saying that a well-dressed woman should take off one accessory before leaving the house. I believe that. We don’t need to put truffles on everything and hike up the cost.”