5 Chef Shuffles to Know at Chicago Restaurants

BUCKTOWN— Chris Pandel has passed the torch over to Formento’s chef Todd Stein at longtime stalwart The Bristol. Stein will serve the roles for both of those B. Hospitality Group restaurants, and Pandel will now concentrate on Balena in Lincoln Park and Swift & Sons in Fulton Market. The Tribune has details on the bittersweet decision for Pandel, and the changes Stein has already made in Bucktown.

STREETERVILLE— Marisol, the restaurant where Jason Hammel’s (Lula Cafe) will develop a menu inside the Museum of Contemporary Art, has a familiar name to serve as the new restaurant’s chef de cuisine. Sarah Rinkavage, who works in the same role at Lula, will move on up to Streeterville. The Connecticut native’s experience includes working at the now-shuttered Spring in Bucktown.

Marisol [Official Photo]

FULTON MARKET— There’s a new pastry chef at Fulton Market Kitchen. Becca Zuckerman, most recently of Seven Lions in The Loop, has joined FMK’s team. She’s going to use local ingredients when possible and the current pastry menu includes cookies and cream (black cocoa fudge cake, vanilla bean mousse, samba chocolate sauce), strawberry rhubarb (elderflower cream, rhubarb, strawberries, meringue, strawberry-lychee sorbet), butter cake (piña colada, pastry cream, caramelized pineapple, kiwi mango salad, spiced syrup), and peanut butter semifreddo (banana whip, pretzel streusel, chocolate drip, brulees bananas).

WEST LOOP— Bar Takito named Yanni Sanchez as executive chef. A native of Mexico, Sanchez worked at CiNe in suburban Hinsdale and has been a consultant. She aims to shake up Bar Takito’s menu using his expertise with modern Mexican cooking.

Courtesy of Bar Takito

MAG MILE— The Peninsula Chicago has a new executive chef. Toni Robertson has returned to Chicago, reported the Tribune. Her first priority is The Lobby, but she’s looking forward working on Shanghai Garden, too. Her experience includes stints at Mandarin Oriental hotels in New York, San Francisco, and Singapore.