FSR August 2023

CHEFS & INGREDIENTS CHEF PROFILE

company and began baking fulltime at home, until she snapped up a storefront in the neighborhood and turned it into a licensed baking kitchen. She started a dessert catering business in 1980 when that kind of concept didn’t exist, she says. at business quickly evolved into a full-blown breakfast restaurant in 1991 after Pinkney realized the oppor tunity she had to create something dif ferent from the other options in town.

seats lled, thanks to people doing busi ness and meeting before work instead of leaving at lunch. Most importantly, the quality of ingredients was top-notch— like freshly-baked whole grain bread with seeds twisted and baked together for her version of breaking bread (with out the crumbs from a baguette), and freshly-cut soft butter, never wrapped in foil or served cold. “Everything had to be di erent and better than they had

restaurant career journey and the legacy she made in the Chicago food scene— which appeared in 48 film festivals. “Having [my life] documented is pro found, and I’m very proud of how it came out,” she says. “It’s a little overwhelm ing. And I say a little; it’s more than that.” On April 26 this year, Chicago Chefs Cook organized a birthday bash for Pinkney’s 80th trip around the sun, where more than 60 local chefs gath ered “in the spirit of neighborly love to unite and celebrate an icon, the Break fast Queen,” the event news release said. “But more importantly, the community will unite to celebrate Ina’s wish to lift up the next generation and ready them selves for the challenges of a changing world.” Chefs in attendance included Top Chef Master Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill; James Beard Award-winning pas try chef Gale Gand, host of “SWEET DREAMS”—the rst ever dessert-only cooking show on e Food Network; and reality star Chef Fabio Viviani of Siena Tavern and Bar Siena. The star-stud ded event’s proceeds benefited Chica go’s Green City Market and nonpro t Pilot Light. “ is is the part of the story where I look at you and go, I had no idea I would be relevant at age 80 and still be asked to do things,” Pinkney notes. “I went to work every day and did the right thing, and I think some owners don’t get it; they don’t come out of the kitchen, they don’t understand their presence matters. ey don’t understand that they need to greet their employees like they greet their guests, because the employees are the rst people through the door. And you set the tone with them by greeting them.” “Now, being a woman owner was very different than I’ve heard from other chefs,” she explains. “I always said they would never mistake my softness for weakness. Only once did I have to raise my voice, and that’s because I saw some one doing something dangerous.” Pinkney’s advice to “old chefs” is to “really respect the new way of thinking about the younger chefs, about having time and sharing that time,” she adds.

“Now here was the issue—I had never separated an egg. I had never beaten an egg white. And I had never melted chocolate. So I tried to make this cake and it was a disaster.”

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“Because it was the ‘80s, breakfast was thoughtless, co ee was insipid. Some body was breaking eggs on a greasy grid dle and scrambling them there. Every thing was so bad,” she says. “Somewhere in the ninth year of eating the worst food on the planet, I said to [my husband at the time], ‘why can’t anybody make a really good breakfast?’” Right then, Pinkney decided to open her own A.M. eatery “like no one has ever seen.” Her idea was to combine the best hotel dining rooms and old-school diners, and create a ne-dining break fast restaurant with accessible food, but with the atmosphere of an upscale hotel with carpeting and no music. Pinkney opened Ina’s Kitchen in 1991, which quickly became the pre mier breakfast spot in the Windy City. At 8 a.m. on Wednesdays, she had 110

ever had, and our signature,” she says. “I had a starting menu and I thought, ‘Okay, whatever doesn’t sell, I’ll change.’ e menu was exactly the same menu for 22 years. I added things, but I was right on.” After 22 years in business, Pinkney closed Ina’s in 2013, but has contin ued sharing her love for food in various ways. In 2014, she self-published “Ina’s Kitchen: Memories and Recipes from the Breakfast Queen” in hardcover, and has sold thousands of copies with minimal bookstore distribution. She also became a regular columnist for Chicago Tribune until 2020, writing about everything from Chicago restaurant reviews and where to nd the best bagel to tips for getting breakfast delivered. e next year in 2015, a 50-minute documentary was released called “Break fast at Ina’s”—showcasing her inspiring

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FSRMAGAZINE.COM

AUGUST 2023