Dylan Patel

The Path

Kendall College provided the formal base before avec in Chicago, IL became the place where Patel’s craft was tested in sequence. He worked as intern from 2015–2017, then moved into the more demanding rhythm of Sous Chef from 2017–2020, before becoming Head Chef from 2020–2021. The sequence matters: each role deepened the one before it, turning training into kitchen judgment. Since 2021, Patel has served as Executive Chef of Avec River North and Bar Avec, carrying that accumulated experience into a position shaped by precision, pace, and oversight. The work at that level depends on more than execution; it depends on the kind of trust that lets a kitchen hand over final tasting without losing control of the standard.

The Work Today

Executive Chef at Avec River North and Bar Avec in Chicago is the current role attached to Patel’s name, and the cooking associated with it reads as controlled and deliberate. The emphasis sits on contrast and sequence, with dishes built so that one element clarifies the next rather than competing for attention. A clear example is the Apple and endive salad Patel highlighted on Fox32 during restaurant week lunch. It included shaved apple, roasted garlic and parmesan yogurt, orange-stuffed gordal olives, and crushed pistachio. The structure is straightforward: fruit for lift, roasted garlic and parmesan yogurt for depth, olives for brine, pistachio for crunch. The plate works by arranging those parts so they sharpen each other. Patel’s own account keeps the emphasis on process rather than sudden arrival. Culinary training, a sous-chef post, a Chef de Cuisine chapter, and responsibility in Chicago kitchens all point to the same thing: a cook shaped by repetition, timing, and the practical trust that gets a dish from pass to menu.

Signature

Patel’s signature dishes include bacon-wrapped, chorizo-stuffed dates, focaccia, brandade, and apple and endive salad. Read together, they show a cook working across contrast and texture: sweet and salty in the dates, structure in the focaccia, richness in the brandade, and the sharper, cleaner register of apple and endive salad.

In Their Words “Trust began to grow, and after a while, Paul told me that he didn’t need to taste my dishes anymore before they went on the menu.” “Paul and Perry would eat what I made, and they would say I needed to put things on the menu.”