THE TROTTER PROJECT

Where to begin? For now let’s start with present tense. This month I became the newest Board Member of The Trotter Project. You can copy and paste from below and put that in your browser.  It will show you how the vision of Chef Charlie Trotter continues to flourish despite his too early departure from the world he loved and gave so much to. There are many reasons to join in. Charlie recognized the importance of things that make living better. He gave unstintingly of himself and his resources. Especially, I would say, to educating the young and often economically hit hardest the many facets of cuisine that lead to true enlightenment in that sphere of beauty and pure deliciousness. Charlie was a world class chef. But he was also extremely devoted to learning more everyday.

Now we can turn back the clock. I first met Charlie in 1982. I had returned to living in Northern Illinois after years of living and cooking in Key West. Our son was born two years prior and my wife, Janet was quite homesick. We grew up on either side of small lake. Work had to be figured out of course. The Gods must have had a hand in this because I began on a new path that would take me to levels of cooking and understanding what hospitality could be that I had little notion of before this time frame. I sent my résumé, such as it was to a gentleman I learned about from a kind of magazine that featured menus from the top restaurants in the general Chicago area. That man’s name was Gordon Sinclair. Gordon had a successful, artfully somewhat bohemian restaurant in a, shall we say, ‘up and coming’, (others might use other adjectives). Never the less his panache and the cuisine of his chef caught the eyes of some of the most aristocratic family names in Chicago, Marshall Field and his wife Jamie. They lived in the post northern town of Lake Forest. A town that caught the artistic eye of one F. Scott Fitzgerald when he wanted to indicate luxury in his classic novel, “The Great Gatsby”. The Field’s wanted Gordon to create a restaurant with easy reach of their beautiful home. That meant Lake Forest. And Gordon did just that. I was part of that opening team. Chef de Cuisine. I think I hit the lottery on this move. Also on that opening team was a young man who’d recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin up the road a bit in Madison. Charlie was still known as Chuck in those years. He began bussing tables, as far fetched as that might seem to the world at large now. I have written about this in my memoir and would love for you to read of our early days and then the evolution over the next decade. Maybe one day I’ll write a book on our friendship.

But for now let’s return to current times….

Please visit the websites below by copying and pasting. You will be able to learn about the many initiatives the Project is doing.

Quite soon I will be returning to Chicago and to my great surprise, have dinner once again within the very restaurant that Charlie and his father built which became a destination for legions of devotees of fine food and service. As well as nearly countless chefs that Charlie had invited to do what I would say were the most celebratory complex of any done in the United States in the past 50 years. I will share my memories.

 

https://www.thetrotterproject.org/

https://www.thetrotterproject.org/news/meet-chef-norman-van-aken

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 
© 2025 Norman Van Aken. All rights Reserved.