Eric williams chef biography

Erick Williams is an American chef. In 2022 he was named Best Chef in the Great Lakes Region by the James Beard Foundation.

Early life and education

Williams was born in Chicago and raised in Chicago's Lawndale and Austin neighborhoods.^[2][1][3] He first started cooking by helping his grandmother prepare dinner.^[3]

Career

Williams worked for nearly 20 years at mk in Chicago's River North neighborhood, where he started as a salad chef and in 2008 became executive chef and eventually part owner.^[2][4][3]

In 2018 Williams opened Virtue in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, hiring Damarr Brown, who had been his sous chef at mk, as chef de cuisine.^[5] The restaurant serves Black southern cuisine.^[6]Esquire and Eater named it to their lists of the best new restaurants in the country in 2019.^[7][8][9] In 2022 Garden & Gun asked rheto