Paul Fehribach

Paul Fehribach is Executive Chef of Big Jones in Chicago, the restaurant he founded in 2008. Raised in the rolling wooded hills of Southern Indiana, he came of age in a landscape that taught him to pay attention: to the rhythm of the seasons, to what could be hunted, fished, and gathered, and to the quiet abundance of wild foods close at hand. Those early lessons, learned young and carried forward with intention, continue to shape the way he cooks and thinks about the table. Big Jones, in turn, became the expression of that sensibility in the city—a place built not simply to serve food, but to evoke a particular feeling, one rooted in memory, place, and the rituals of Southern hospitality. Fehribach has described the opening of Big Jones in 2008 as an effort to create “a Southern space in Chicago with food, ambience, and service all true to the spirit of the South.” The line captures the restaurant’s broader ambition and his own approach with neat clarity: this was never meant to be a pastiche, but an atmosphere, carefully composed and deeply considered. From the beginning, the restaurant has stood as a statement of identity as much as a business, carrying forward a vision shaped by his upbringing and refined in one of the country’s great food cities.