Local chef extraordinaire Bailey Sullivan grew up in and around Forest Park’s Goldyburgers, 7316 Circle Ave. It was owned by her dad and now run by her brother. Earlier this year she made it to the final round of season 22 of Bravo’s hit series Top Chef. We asked her to give us a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like when the cameras turned on.
The following interview was lightly edited for clarity.
“The biggest, the hardest part is just saying, yeah, I’m going to do it,” Sullivan said. “I’m going to put myself out there.
“The overall experience definitely was a roller coaster ride. When I got there, I was semi-terrified. I asked myself, ‘Why did you do this? Why are you here?’ And by the end of it I absolutely didn’t want to stop.
“The secrecy was the worst part. I told everyone at the restaurant [Chicago’s Monteverde] that I was going to Italy to train for two months.
“To be a chef, the majority of the time you’re really focused on the growth of the team around you – your prep cooks, your line cooks, your dishwashers, your sous chef team – how do you bring everyone up so that we’re always continuously learning growing? By doing Top Chef, it was really an opportunity for me to press pause on what everyone else is doing.”
Once the filming got underway, the pressure of being on camera brought new challenges.
“I realized very quickly. I have no control over my facial expressions whatsoever,” Sullivan said.
“I’m really ready to cook behind closed doors any day, but now I’m realizing that every time I say a curse word under my breath, somehow three men with cameras just end up all around me.
“Being on Top Chef often puts you in crazy situations where you find yourself collaborating on, like, a five-course pickle menu, which would never happen in real life. It allows you to create independently of really any framework.”
At the end of the second episode, Bailey was eliminated. But on Top Chef there are second chances.
“When I went to last chance kitchen my first thought was what are my line cooks at home going to think? Something that we preach all the time is always having that thought process of never giving up and continuing to push and embracing a sense of true grit.
“I thought I had really embraced and understood all of those things, but Top Chef puts you under a different type of stress and pressure. Cooking is never going to be an easy path, and I think that’s why so many people embrace it, because if you wanted an easy answer to anything in life, you probably wouldn’t be cooking. Embracing a sense of grit, of positivity and kindness to yourself will always serve you well.
“I think one of the biggest takeaways is that [the competitors] all kind of go out and cook our own food and our own style. When you do that for years and years, sometimes that doesn’t feel so special to you anymore.
“One of my favorite parts was coming back [to Monteverde] and realizing, oh my gosh, I have grown so much since I was here last. There’s so many things I can’t wait to share with the team. And then finding that they felt the same way about me coming back. The first week I got back to Montverde, it’s bringing me so much joy just to see [the staff] finding their voice a little bit more. So, it ended up kind of being this amazing growing experience for myself, but also the team back at home too.”
Dine like you can taste through the TV at Chicago’s Monteverde restaurant, 1020 W. Madison St., where Sullivan is executive chef.
