Mark Payne
How does one make a splash in a restaurant town like Chicago? According to Mark Payne, Executive Chef of The Ritz-Carlton Chicago (A Four Seasons Hotel), big and brash isn’t necessarily the recipe. “We wanted a dining experience that is approachable,” he says of deca RESTAURANT + BAR, which opened in May 2010. “No intimidating dishes, only a few over $25 and an atmosphere that doesn’t require dressing up or breaking the bank for a great meal.”
Inspired by an older cousin in culinary school and a mother who cooked from scratch, Payne got his start in the kitchen by helping with the Sunday roast. Trained in the French tradition, “before being a chef was fashionable,” he landed in pastry at a Michelin-starred Relais Chateau in England’s Lake District. It was an unusual start, he admits, but strategic: “I always wanted to do pastry so that if I ever became a chef, no one could pull the wool over my eyes.” The experience stuck, and the classic lemon tart he mastered at his first job is now featured on deca’s dessert menu.
