Alumni Hotelie Creates Hyper-Seasonal Cuisine, Served with Theatrical Flair Stories You May Like Alum’s Indian Eatery Serves Up Culture, Comfort, and Crunchwraps Named ‘World’s Best Bar,’ Kumiko Brings Japanese Élan to Chicago Famed Restaurateur Recalls a Career on the Front Lines of Fine Dining Jake Potashnick ’15 offers a finely crafted tasting menu at Feld, his Chicago restaurant that earned a Michelin star in its second year By Melissa Newcomb Chef Jake Potashnick ’15 runs his kitchen like a magazine. Every Tuesday, his five cooks suggest ideas and he edits them, shaping the “stories” that will define the week’s menu. “I take ideas and components from their pitches,” he says, “and combine them into dishes.” The result is Feld, his Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant where the 25-to-30-course tasting menus evolve daily, built around fresh, seasonal ingredients. Ikura with horseradish panna cotta, and a crab and seaweed egg. “Dinner at Feld feels like a night of theater,” says Bon Appétit, which called it one of the best new restaurants of 2025, “with 20-plus courses unfurling over two hours, a dynamic dinner-in-the-round that is as engaging as it is earnest.” For the Hotelie, the experience is as much about highlighting the people and places from which he sources ingredients as it is about the meal itself—a concept he terms “relationship to table.” Dinner at Feld feels like a night of theater with 20-plus courses unfurling over two hours, a dynamic dinner-in-the-round that is as engaging as it is earnest. Bon Appétit In an evening at Feld, guests could dine on (and learn about) the never-refrigerated tomatoes that come from a Wisconsin farmer who’s a former captain in the Merchant Marine; the Maine scallops that a sixth-generation diver harvests by hand; or the pears grown in Illinois by a 78-year-old farmer who was born in Korea. “Tasting menus are so vast in their ability to express something and lay the framework to create a narrative that you otherwise can’t,” Potashnick observes. “It’s the control freak’s dream of cooking, as well—because you’re going to have what I want to give you.” Feld has received critical raves from local and national media. Launched in June 2024 in a 140-year-old building in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood, Feld (whose name means “field” in German) serves just 20 guests a night, with the tasting menu priced at $225 before tax and service fee. Its dining room is anchored by two large countertops from which the dishes are plated, with guests learning about the cuisine and its ingredients from the people who prepared it. “Nobody knows the food better than the cooks,” Potashnick notes, “and they love it, because they get to interact with the guests.” Tables line the walls—so every diner can watch the process unfold—and an open kitchen at the rear is centered around a blazing fire. (Feld’s handmade dinnerware comes via a fellow Cornellian: Jessica Evans ’15—Potashnick’s best friend from the Hill—who runs Terrafirma Ceramics.) In a culinary class. A sampling of past dishes from various menus includes sliced German striped tomatoes topped with flaky salt, chives, and a sauce of pork jus, honey, and vinegar; turnip in dashi infused with Benton ham; cherry wood-seared scallops with black garlic vinaigrette and roasted parsnip butter; and funnel cake with spicebush berry sugar. Tasting menus are so vast in their ability to express something and lay the framework to create a narrative that you otherwise can’t. Stories You May Like Alum’s Indian Eatery Serves Up Culture, Comfort, and Crunchwraps Named ‘World’s Best Bar,’ Kumiko Brings Japanese Élan to Chicago “You’ll fall into the rhythms of this meal, laugh a lot, and lean in to taste the loveliest ingredients supplied by the folks Potashnick has chosen to invite to his world,” says a review in Chicago magazine, which ranked Feld the third-best new restaurant of 2025. “And with new dishes rotating in and out each day, you can keep coming back, deepening your own relationship with this special place.” Plating dishes at Ithaca's Carriage House Café. Feld—which Potashnick describes as “driven by extreme seasonality and constant change”—has earned some top accolades in its first two years. They include the coveted Michelin star; a Michelin green star, given for sustainability; and a James Beard nomination, with Potashnick in the running for the region’s best chef (the winner will be announced in mid-June). Potashnick has also built an audience on social media, with more than 100,000 followers on TikTok (and 27,000 on Instagram)—where he shares behind-the-scenes looks at Feld and the farms that supply it. He owes the large following, in part, to his appearances on Apple TV’s chef-focused docuseries “Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars.” But long before Feld or media fame, Potashnick began developing his craft in a much smaller, well-loved kitchen in Collegetown. Long before Feld or media fame, Potashnick began developing his craft in a much smaller, well-loved kitchen in Collegetown. His first job was as a line cook at the Carriage House Café, then a popular eatery and brunch spot on Stewart Avenue (it closed in 2020). Senior year, he even hosted a four-course dinner there; its menu—featuring brie with pineapple and bee pollen and duck with rhubarb and beet—now hangs in his office. Performing with the Whistling Shrimp. And Potashnick partly traces his current emphasis on guest interaction to his time with the Whistling Shrimp, the University’s venerable long-form improv group—where he honed his ability to adapt and perform in real time. After graduation, he spent seven years working at high-end restaurants in Asia and Europe, including at France’s La Marine (holder of three Michelin stars) and as head chef of Barra in Berlin. “I had a dream when I was seven to open a little fine-dining restaurant,” Potashnick says. “There aren’t many people who can say they followed their dream—and that it’s going well.” (All images provided.) Published May 4, 2026 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. 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