By
Rosemary Regina Sobol, Jeremy Gorner
4:54
pm, November 5, 2013
Charlie
Trotter, whose eponymous Chicago restaurant was considered one of the finest in
the world, has died.
The 54-year-old chef was found unconscious and not breathing in his Lincoln
Park home this morning and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where
he was pronounced dead.
Trotter was found by his son Dylan at the home in the 1800 block of North Dayton
Street and an ambulance was called at 10:45 a.m., according to a family friend
and fire officials.
"My baby's gone," Trotter's wife Rochelle told the friend, Carrie
Nahabedian.
In
a statement released Tuesday night, Rochelle Trotter said: “We are incredibly
shocked and deeply saddened by the unexpected loss of Charlie at our home in
Lincoln Park. He was much loved, and words can not describe how much he
will be missed.
"Charlie
was a trailblazer and introduced people to a new way of dining when he opened
Charlie Trotter’s. His impact upon American cuisine and the culinary
world at large will always be remembered."
"We
thank you so much for your kind words, love and support," she added.
"We appreciate the respect for our privacy as we work through this
difficult time. Details for the memorial service will be forthcoming.”
Steve
Kolinski, a neighbor who lives several houses down, said he came outside late
this morning and saw six police cars and an ambulance pulled up at Trotter’s
home. Kolinski then saw Trotter’s wife, who ran outside and was “yelling
hysterically.’’
Trotter
was wheeled out on a stretcher and taken away, he said. Trotter’s wife and son
then left.
Trotter
was pronounced dead at 11:48 a.m. at Northwestern. An autopsy is scheduled for
Wednesday, but a source said there was no preliminary indications of foul play.
Trotter
burst on the scene in 1987, when the self-taught chef opened Charlie Trotter’s
restaurant on Armitage Avenue. In short order, the chef’s intense creativity
and never-repeat-a-dish dictum made Trotter’s the most talked-about restaurant
in Chicago, and his fame quickly spread throughout the country and beyond.
He was named the country’s Outstanding Chef by James Beard Foundation in 1999;
in 2000, Wine Spectator magazine called Trotter’s the best restaurant in the
nation. More awards and accolades followed, including a 2002 Beard Award for
Outstanding Service; at the time, Trotter called it the award he was most proud
to receive, as it represented “a team award.”
The mercurial chef was a stern taskmaster who demanded the absolute best from
everyone who worked for him. He was also a man of uncommon generosity, creating
the Charlie Trotter Education Foundation to provide scholarships for culinary
students. He received the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year
award in 2012.
Master
Sommelier Larry Stone who served as Trotter's Sommelier in the late 80s and
early 90s returned to work with him last year to close up his restaurant.
"He was a great inspiration in my life and a fantastic partner," said
Stone.
Stone, who is now with the Quintessa Winery in Napa Valley, said Trotter and
his family were aware that Trotter had a brain aneurysm and Trotter told Stone
that he was resigned to it.
"It was a time bomb and he felt that he didn't have a lot of time left. It
was inoperable and it was not something that could be repaired, it was deep
inside the brain," Stone said.
As a result of his medical condition he was told by doctors that he should not
be flying, should not be in high altitudes and should not exert himself because
of the pressure on his brain. A friend of the family said he spoke at the
Jackson Hole Culinary Conference Sunday night.
"I think that's why he had to give up the restaurant ultimately, he
realized he had to change a few things in his life," said Stone. "He
loved the craft so much he didn't want to give it up, it was so very hard for
him to give up."
Stone believes that he may have been misunderstood because Trotter was not the
type of person to ask for sympathy. He said a number of years ago he went to
the Mayo Clinic after he was first having dizzy spells and had collapsed.
"It was obvious he had problems and he had some seizures," Stone
said. "It's a condition that had worsened in the last few years but it was
something he had for quite a while."
Stone said Trotter didn't let his health get into his way.
"He said, 'When your time comes, it comes.' He didn't dwell on it. I don't
think it made him very happy to know that he had a condition that would
incapacitate him in some way," said Stone. "He realized there was not
much you could do...He never wanted anything to interfere with his craft. He
was driven by his love of what he did and a desire to be better and better at
it. That's what drove him from the very beginning."
“Charlie
was an extreme father figure to me when it came to not just cooking, but life,
and seeing things in a different way,” said chef Graham Elliot Bowles, one of
many famous chefs who worked for Trotter. “I just can’t put into words how
saddened I am by all of this. It’s a huge loss, not just personally, but for
the culinary world.”
The
news shocked many in the restaurant world, including L.A. chef David LeFevre,
owner at MB Post and Fishing With Dynamite in Manhattan Beach, who worked for
Trotter for 10 years, dating back to his externship from the Culinary Institute
of America.
"He’s probably the most important guy in my career," LeFevre told the Los
Angeles Times while waiting to board a flight from Chicago to
Los Angeles after a brief vacation. “It’s funny because I’ve been talking a lot
about Charlie this weekend because I was back in Chicago and seeing friends
from that period.
"I think I can attribute the majority of my attention to detail and the
majority of my awareness of what it takes to run a fine dining restaurant to
him. He had a very acute sense of attention to detail and he saw things that
most people didn’t see. All of us who worked for him are better chefs because
we came out of that kitchen.
"He may not have been the best people person sometimes when he was trying
to achieve a very difficult goal, but there’s no arguing that he made us all
better chefs.
"I’ve spoken with 10 or 12 people this morning who worked with him and
every one is very sad about this. Those of us who got to spend a lot of time
with him knew a very caring side of him that not everyone could see."
Sari
Zernich Worsham, who worked closely with Trotter for 13 years in his kitchen
and on his books and PBS series, said she and other Trotter alumni are
organizing a candlelight vigil in front of the restaurant buildings at 4:30
p.m. for anyone who would like to come.
“I just feel like we should do something immediately,” said Worsham, now
executive director of chef Art Smith's company.
"Charlie always called me his little sister, and I feel like I just lost
my big brother," she said. "I’m just speechless. He’s welded and
sculpted so many people’s lives and sent them on the path to success. I can’t
thank him enough."
“I don’t think you can write a sadder story," said Yusho chef Matthias
Merges, a 14-year veteran of Trotter's kitchen as chef de cuisine, executive chef
and director of operations. "I don’t think it’s even possible."
Merges emphasized that Trotter should be remembered for his incredible
influence and success. "What he’s accomplished has been the game changer
for the landscape of American cuisine, and we can never discount that no matter
what happens,” Merges said.
Mayor
Rahm Emanuel released a statement saying Trotter "changed Chicago’s
restaurant scene forever and played a leading role in elevating the city to the
culinary capital it is today. . . He will always have a seat at the table among
Chicago’s legendary figures.”
A
neighbor, Bunny Snyder, who lives across the street, remembered Trotter fondly,
saying he was known as “Chef’’ to those in the close-knit neighborhood.
“He was terrific on the street,’’ Snyder said, adding that he would usually
attend their summer block party and she would often see him walking a dog.
“He used to partake in our street fair every year and put out a table,’’ Snyder
said. “He was a good neighbor."
Lauren
Marks, who has lived on the street for some 30 years, said that she used to see
Trotter fairly regularly when he would walk his dogs, but said he had been
"rather reclusive lately."
"It's a sad thing, it's shocking," said Marks, who said she saw the
emergency vehicles gathered outside this morning and knew something was wrong.
"With Charlie you never knew what was going to happen on any given day...
He was an interesting man."
Tom Aries, another neighbor whose child went to school with Trotter's son,
called the news "astonishing."
"He was a phenomenal chef," said Aries, who said that he got to be
chef for a day in Trotter's restaurant, and that he ran a very efficient
operation.
Another woman who walked by Trotter's home said that she used to work for
Trotter at his restaurant — where she had also met her husband.
"Charlie was a very sweet man to me all my years working there and treated
me like a daughter," said the woman, wiping tears from her eyes. She
declined to give her name because of the controversy that has surrounded
Trotter's interactions with previous employees.
Trotter,
who grew up in Chicago’s north suburbs, was a political science major at the
University of Wisconsin at Madison before switching tracks and beginning his
culinary training at Sinclair’s in Lake Forest.
Days before he turned 28, Trotter opened his own restaurant in a two-story
North Side townhouse he spent about a year restoring.
"I worked in various kitchens from two days to five months," Trotter
told the Tribune in 1987, just after the restaurant opened. "I would leave
when I wasn't learning anything. I gradually began to conceive of the sort of
place I would like to have and the style of cooking I felt comfortable
with."
As a young chef learning his trade and bouncing from kitchen to kitchen, he
earned the respect of his mentors.
"He's a marathon man," said Norman Van Aken, who in 1987 was a chef
on Key West. "He's been with me in three different restaurants and in
every one his spirit and persistence has lifted morale. I've never seen such
drive, single-minded vision and generosity."
Trotter’s restaurant, greeted by positive reviews, continued growing in
stature. In 1997, just a decade after opening, a Tribune critic called the
restaurant “one of the city’s treasures” and said Trotter was “as experimental
as they come” in the kitchen.
As his eatery flourished, Trotter became a regular at civic functions and
charity dinners. At one point, his restaurant was purchasing produce from a
garden tended by youth in the troubled Cabrini-Green housing projects.
But as diners rung in the New Year in 2012, Trotter announced that he’d be
shuttering his restaurant months later. The restaurant closed late that summer,
just after its 25th anniversary.
Trotter remained in the news after that final meal, but often not for the best
reasons. The chef abruptly ended an auction of his restaurant’s wares when only
about a third of the items had been sold.
Then this summer, he was sued for allegedly selling two wine collectors a bogus
bottle for thousands of dollars, which he denied.
In August, almost a year to the day after the restaurant closed, Trotter kicked
out high school students who had been invited to showcase their artwork from an
after-school program in the former restaurant. One student said Trotter
"went ballistic" when their instructor declined the chef’s request
that they sweep floors and clean toilets.
Trotter
was the keynote speaker Sunday at the Jackson Hole Culinary Conference, which
was hosted by Central Wyoming College at Jackson.
Susan Thulin, the director of the college, said Trotter arrived Sunday and left
early Monday morning. The subject of his speech was excellence, and he spoke
about “empowering your employees, being passionate about what you’re doing …
and working so hard they have to hire two people to replace you,” she said.
While this was the first Jackson Hole Culinary Conference, Thulin said Trotter
had been to the area several times before to ski with his son and hoped to
return this winter with him. “We’re so sad to hear of his passing away,” Thulin
said. “He really touched those that were there” to hear his speech.
Thulin also said that Trotter talked about how proud he was of his wife, who
was running in the New York City marathon the same day.
Richard
Ofstein, a former chicagoan, who attended the Jackson Hole conference where Trotter
was the key note speaker on Sunday said that after Trotter dodged a previous
question about what his favorite recipe was, he asked him what his last meal
would be.
Ofstein,
a radiologist, noticed that his left hand was shaking as he held the microphone
but didn't think more about it.
"I
said from one Chicagoan to another what would be your last meal and he
answered, 'A 1900 Chateau Margaux' a vintage bottle of wine worth between
$9,000 and $16,000.
Tribune
reporter Carlos Sadovi contributed.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking
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