Experience spices up his approach to food

Matt McMillin's culinary career has taken him from west to east.

During and after attending Kendall College's culinary school, then in Evanston, he cooked at such fine French restaurants such as Carlos, Le Francais and Cafe Provencal. Next, he joined Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises and began cooking American comfort food at Mity Nice Grill.

That led to his current position as executive chef and partner at the Lettuce Chinese/Thai concept, Big Bowl, which he helped to launch in 1997. Today, he oversees culinary operations at Big Bowl restaurants in Schaumburg, Lincolnshire, Chicago, Virginia and Minnesota.

When Lettuce sold the restaurants to Dallas-based Brinker International in 2001, McMillin went along.

Two years ago, Lettuce bought back the chain. Since then, McMillin and Big Bowl founding culinary partner Bruce Cost, an authority on Asian cooking with whom McMillin co-authored "Big Bowl Noodles and Rice" (2005, HarperCollins, $25), have since worked to revitalize and upgrade the menus with ingredients like house-roasted peanuts, fresh water chestnuts, Niman Ranch pork and natural, antibiotic free chicken.

McMillin, who grew up on Chicago's Southwest Side, lives in Glenview with his wife, Susan, and children, Madeline and Michael.

What made you become a chef? This is the thing I always wanted to do. I've always had a passion for food and a love for the business.

We lived with my grandmother when I was growing up and every summer we did the cooking for a big Polish festival on the Southwest Side. We'd have food all over, nonstop cooking. We cooled down the sauerkraut in our bathtub.

Who has influenced you? When I was at Kendall, chef Roland Liccioni was at Carlos and I called him up and said, "I want to do my internship with you." And then one day, I showed up and he was gone. I was devastated.

That night, he had decided to go to Le Francais (in Wheeling). But he called me up and asked me to work with him there. He was my first mentor.

What made you move from French haute cuisine to American food in a shopping mall? Was it hard to adjust? The move just felt right. But it was a tough transition. I went from feeding 100 people a night and doing all this fancy stuff to 600 lunches and 500 dinners. I was going crazy, so I reached out to other people.

How did you get from that to Asian food? Working with Roland Liccioni (who is French-Vietnamese), we put in a lot of Asian ingredients.

Then (a group of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises personnel) were at Vong in New York and Kevin Brown (Lettuce president and CEO) had an idea. We all kind of believed in it.

We got back to Chicago and started eating at every crappy Chinese restaurant in Chicago and we said, "We know we could do better than this." I went to train at Mandarin in San Francisco and the Mandarette in Beverly Hills. And then they brought in Bruce Cost.

How do the two of you work together? At first, I was kind of put out. It did take me a while to get over that.

I just have a tremendous amount of respect for Bruce. We complement each other so very well. Bruce and I get together and philosophize. We talk about the food. At this point, he's a great resource. We're like a food think tank together.

What is your culinary philosophy? What makes a great chef is the ability to put a piece of him- or herself into everything he or she is doing.

Do you have a favorite ingredient? Just now, it's mushroom soy. It's one of those things that transcends everything, especially meat. Pork's been wonderful to work with.

You've introduced heirloom pork and antibiotic-free chicken. Why? I just want to feed people more healthfully. I don't look at is a fad. First I needed to learn about it, and now I want to share it with people.

What do you do when you're not working? I'm taking a class right now. It's a very intensive psychology class. I've been studying holistic energy. That's one of my other passions.

I spend time with my kids. I coach my son's soccer team.

Tell us about this dish. Clay Pot of Whole Chicken with Chinese Sausage and Napa Cabbage. This is the kind of delicious home-style Chinese dish rarely prepared in restaurants. A whole chicken, cut into pieces, is browned and then steamed in a wonderful wine sauce with Chinese sweet sausage (lop chong) and napa cabbage. Served simply with rice, it's a great meal. We'll serve it as a winter special. The flavor of the chicken is succulent, my mouth is watering. This is probably where coq au vin came from.

You can use any kind of pot to cook it in and you can put it in the oven. The Chinese clay pot is glazed inside. It costs about $12 at Chinese stores. You soak the pot in water.

Try this at home or at Big Bowl: Streets of Woodfield, 1950 E. Higgins Road, Schaumburg, (847) 517-8881; CityPark, 315 Parkway Drive, Lincolnshire, (847) 808-8880; 6 E. Cedar St., Chicago, (312) 640-8888; or 60 E. Ohio St., Chicago, (312) 951-1888.

Clay Pot of Whole Chicken with Chinese Sausage and Napa Cabbage

1 whole, skin-on chicken (3½-4 pounds), cut into 10-12 pieces

1 teaspoon kosher salt

¼ cup peanut oil

2 pounds napa cabbage, cut in half and then in 1-inch wide slices

2 Chinese sweet sausages, sliced thinly on a bias

Sauce

2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Hot cooked, white rice

If using a Chinese clay pot, soak in water at least 1 hour.

Sprinkle the chicken pieces with the salt and let sit for 30 minutes.

Heat a large, heavy skillet or wok over high heat. When hot, add the oil. Brown the chicken pieces a few at a time. (You may have to turn the heat down if they brown too quickly). Remove and set aside, leaving the oil.

Add the cabbage to the same pot and cook, stirring, until the bulk shrinks down by half; this should take a few minutes. Put the cabbage at the bottom of a large, heat-proof casserole or the presoaked Chinese clay pot.

Mix together the sauce ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the chicken pieces to coat. Then arrange these pieces in the casserole on top of the cabbage, pouring in every drop of the sauce. Arrange the sausage slices on top of the chicken.

Bring water to a boil in the bottom of a large steamer (this may be a wok or stockpot with a rack). Cover the casserole and place in the top of the steamer; cover and steam for 20 minutes. Alternatively, bake, covered, in a 350-degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Uncover and serve with plain rice.

Serves two to three as a dish; three to four as part of a larger meal.

Chef Matt McMillin, Big Bowl, Schaumburg, Lincolnshire, Chicago