Chef
Nick Wirth
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- Hildisrieden, Switzerland
i. Biography
Executive Chef Tournant at The Bartolotta Restaurants à Milwaukee en 2026, Nick Wirth works inside a restaurant-group model where continuity matters: product selection, tasting-menu pacing, wine dialogue, and repeatable service standards. Bacchus remains the clearest reference point for that work. The cooking is modern and seasonal, built around the best ingredients available in Milwaukee, with the plate organized so flavor carries the sequence rather than decoration. The public record reads as a progression through related responsibilities rather than a change of lane. At its A Bartolotta Restaurant address, and more broadly The Bartolotta Restaurants, Wirth’s cooking is described through control, restraint, and the ability to shape a menu as a gradual experience. The craft emphasis is on timing, proportion, and the movement from one course to the next.
Coming Up
The Chef de cuisine role in Milwaukee (from 2015) put Nick Wirth in a kitchen where mise en place, discipline, and timing carry equal weight with creative decision-making. The work required judgment over product, restraint in seasoning and construction, and the ability to hold a dining room’s pace through service without losing precision. The Executive Chef post at Bacchus - A Bartolotta Restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, extended that same vocabulary rather than replacing it: refined plates, seasonal movement, and structured exchange with wine service. By 2026, the Executive Chef Tournant role at The Bartolotta Restaurants à Milwaukee placed Wirth across a broader restaurant group while keeping that dining room central to the craft record.
The Work Today
The signature format there includes the Chef’s Tasting Menu presented in 2019 in the omakase tradition, with Nick Wirth selecting the strongest expressions of what the kitchen can offer on a given day. The structure asks the diner to give the kitchen control; the kitchen answers through season, market, technique, and timing. Le menu dégustation laisse aussi choisir cinq ou sept services, avec des accords vins optionnels sélectionnés par un sommelier, toujours selon ce principe guidé par la fraîcheur du moment. A tasting menu works only if each course has its own clarity and still prepares the palate for the next plate. In Wirth’s public work, the format is less a list of dishes than a controlled sequence. The wine component adds a second structure, setting plate against glass through texture, acidity, richness, and lift. The 20th-anniversary Champagne dinner at the restaurant in 2025, curated by Nick Wirth with Brent Davis, used five courses to frame product and pairing. The menu matched Blakesville Lindeline cheese, grilled harimasa, Orvia duck duo, 35-day dry-aged striploin et barley tea pot de creme with Champagnes. The dinner’s craft logic sat in sequence and balance: ingredient, time, and pairing handled without excess.
Accolades
Nick Wirth has received Proposed James Beard Award nomination, Best Chef Midwest (2019). Nick's honors include Proposed nomination for James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest (2019).
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Nick
What is Nick Wirth's present role?
Nick Wirth is chef at Bacchus Bistro & Genussmanufaktur — French.
Where did Nick Wirth work before?
Earlier in their career, Nick Wirth worked at Bacchus and Bacchus - A Bartolotta Restaurant.
What recognition has Nick Wirth received?
Proposed nomination for James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest (2019).
