Haute Secrets Chicago: Dan Tucker

Haute Secrets Chicago
Name: Dan Tucker, Chef of SushiSAMBA rio
The stats: Born in Campaign, IL, in the city for 6 years

Why he loves Chicago: You have all the perks of a big city, but still the neighborhood feeling.

With a colorful culinary repertoire under his toque – and a knack for technical perfection – Executive Chef Dan Tucker is part of the extraordinary team at SUSHISAMBA rio. A member of the restaurant industry since his teenage years, he was drawn to the creative freedom of the culinary world and the satisfaction of executing the complex and difficult tasks required of a chef. Dan’s culinary career began earnestly at a small restaurant in Campaign, Illinois. Rising quickly through the ranks to become the Sous Chef, he left the company and enrolled at Kendall College in Evanston. In 2006 he earned his A.A.S. in Culinary Arts as well as the prestigious Ian C. Maclean Scholarship Grant for culinary excellence. By the time he graduated, he’d already started work as a Chef de Partie at Chicago’s famed Alinea restaurant. Throughout the course of his term there, he was honored to work with some of the top chefs in the world, including Chef Grant Achatz.

In January 2007, Dan left Alinea’s kitchen to accept a position as Chef de Cuisine of Chicago’s Room 21. In 2008, he was promoted to Executive Chef in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the restaurant’s growth and was quickly recognized by Chicago Magazine as one of “2008’s Best New Restaurants” and by CS as one of “Chicago’s 50 Best Restaurants and Chefs.” As if that wasn’t enough,he then became the Consulting Chef for Chicago’s Park 52 restaurant, putting it on the map as one of the “Best New Restaurants of 2009.”

Check out Dan’s favorite haute spots in Chicago at Haute Secrets.