El Ideas Vet Matt DuBois Joins Inovasi; Patricia Yeo Exits Big Bowl

LAKE BLUFF—Matt DuBois, who spent time at EL Ideas and was recently heading up the menu at LM Restaurant Group's Café Crème in Wicker Park, is now the chef de cuisine at John des Rosiers' Inovasi in Lake Bluff. For des Rosiers, who splits his time between Inovasi, neighboring taqueria The Other Door and Wisma, his burgeoning grocery stores, having DuBois at the restaurant "to focus 100% of (his) time on the kitchen" is a necessity. Des Rosiers will "still work the line at night" but will rely on DuBois to "help in consistency, menu planning, food costs, etc." Des Rosiers says that the pair "really work well together" due to having "similar ideas and philosophies" and that DuBois is "better at presentation" than he is. Some of Dubois' dishes have already hit the menu and more are coming soon. [EaterWire]

CHICAGOLAND—After a year-and-a-half reworking the menus at Big Bowl to incorporate sustainable food from local farms, Patricia Yeo has revealed that she was let go Lettuce Entertain You at summer’s end, the Tribune reports. Yeo, who has since joined a restaurant group in Miami, says that there is discussion of the group doing a restaurant in Chicago, but no firm plans are in place yet. Marc Bernard, who worked with Yeo developing the now-jettisoned menus, left as well. [Chicago Tribune]