Chef Stephanie Izard has built a culinary career that blends bold flavors, global inspiration and a distinctly playful approach to food. The Chicago-based chef became a household name after winning Top Chef Season 4, making history as the first woman to win the competition. She went on to compete on Iron Chef America and has become a familiar face across Food Network programming, including Tournament of Champions, Guy’s Grocery Games and Wild Card Kitchen.
Away from television, Izard has created an impressive restaurant portfolio. She is the chef and owner behind several Chicago favorites, including Girl & the Goat, Little Goat Diner, Duck Duck Goat and Cabra. Her restaurant empire has also expanded beyond Chicago, including Valley Goat in Napa Valley and a Los Angeles restaurant. Her cooking has earned numerous accolades, including a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes.
Izard is also the author of cookbooks including Girl in the Kitchen and Gather & Graze, sharing recipes and the approachable, globally inspired style that has become her signature.
At Park City Song Summit, Izard joined musician Ivan Neville for a special New Orleans-inspired culinary experience. Between preparing for the event and traveling for her growing restaurant empire, Izard sat down with The Travel Addict to talk about her favorite Chicago neighborhoods, traveling for food, her most memorable meal, staying fit on the road, television competitions and what’s next.
What does a perfect summer day in Chicago look like for you?
A perfect day in Chicago depends on whether it’s winter or summer because I think it becomes two different cities almost. Let’s say summer, which I think is when everybody loves it the most. I’d get up and go for a stroll over by the lake. I think a lot of people who haven’t spent time in Chicago don’t realize how beautiful it is. The waves feel very much like the ocean, so it gives you those same vibes.
Then I’d wander over to the Bucktown or Wicker Park area and get some breakfast and coffee and wander around the neighborhood. You could get pizza, or there are bagel places and little coffee shops. It’s always evolving. Then maybe head up to Logan Square. For me, it’s not necessarily about having a destination. It’s about checking out the neighborhoods and wandering around.
Hopefully, you’d eventually make your way down to the West Loop. All of our restaurants are there, and it’s a great place for dinner and to hang out. There are bars all over the place, so many restaurants and people everywhere in the evening. You could also go up around Wrigleyville and the Southport Corridor. There are tons of shops and cute little restaurants. You can see Wrigley Field, which is obviously a historic landmark in the city.
It’s all about hopping around to different neighborhoods, finding a different snack in each one and enjoying the city. It’s such a walkable city, too.
You’ve been on so many Food Network shows. Which one is the most difficult?
Probably Tournament of Champions at this point. It’s the most serious, I guess. It’s still hard on Guy’s Grocery Games, but we’re having a little more silly fun on that show.
I love Wild Card Kitchen because there’s no pressure whatsoever. We’re spending a little money gambling, but we’re having so much fun that you don’t even notice the time.
Tournament of Champions is different because Guy really built it as this very serious competition. You feel that when you get there.
Are the competitions are really as intense as they look on television?
Oh, they’re all real. I don’t think I would have wanted to do food television, starting back in the days of Top Chef, through Iron Chef and all those competitions, if it wasn’t real.
If it wasn’t real, I wouldn’t want to do it. That’s just not my vibe.
You’ve expanded your restaurants to California. How did you adapt your menus for California versus the Midwest?
I also live in Los Angeles and have a restaurant there, so California has become a big part of my life. When we moved out to California, everybody talks about California produce and things like that. What was tricky for me was getting my mind off the seasons a little bit and realizing that you can get amazing produce that I’m not used to getting until summer much earlier in the year.
It gives you a new approach to menus. Each time you open a restaurant, you take the vibe of the area a little bit.
For Valley Goat, I took some inspiration from Cabra and some inspiration from Girl & the Goat and created new dishes to give it a new feel. It’s flavors from all over the world, and it’s been really well received. It’s super vibrant.
Do you have a personal favorite dish from one of your restaurants?
That’s hard because that’s like 200 dishes at any given time. It just depends on the day. A favorite that I bring to events all the time is our pork shank. It’s slow-roasted, and then we fry it so it gets crispy. It gets this sticky soy glaze on the outside with crunchy garlic and shallots.
It’s served with little pickle salads. Depending on the time of year, right now we have a stone fruit salad, a little chili crunch and cucumber salad. You get lettuce cups and little sauces.
I like eating that way. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure kind of meal. Each bite can be different.
You’re cooking at Song Summit with Ivan Neville and creating a New Orleans-inspired menu. What are some of your favorite New Orleans memories?
I love New Orleans. I actually took my team down there five or six years ago, before COVID. I took a few of my chefs, my director and another manager, and we just went down and ate for 24 hours straight.
We went to all these different restaurants, which was incredible. I also went on another trip where John Besh took me around for 24 hours with another group of people.
For me, you go down there and you’re just going to eat and drink and have fun all day long. But I also love getting outside some of the more visited areas. It’s just a beautiful city.
The dinner we’re doing is New Orleans-inspired, but it’s still my cooking. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make any sense. We’re doing a dish I made at the Kentucky Derby this year. It’s a jambalaya-inspired dish that’s a little more on the fried-rice side. I like adding texture, so there’s crispy quinoa in the rice. You don’t necessarily know what that crisp is when you’re eating it.
I told Ivan, “Don’t worry. I promise it’s not some hippy-dippy take on jambalaya that’s made with quinoa. I promise it’s delicious.” He was like, “All right, we trust you.”
Did you have any standout meals while visiting New Orleans?
It’s such a whirlwind. I love visiting Nina Compton restaurants. My sous chef actually works with her now, too. But it’s hard to pick one. New Orleans is just a whirlwind of eating and drinking and having fun.
Is there a destination that changed the way you think about food?
I travel a lot for work and for food. When we opened Duck Duck Goat, we went to China and Taiwan for about a month. When we opened Cabra, we went to Peru for a while. So I travel a lot for inspiration on purpose.
But one of the experiences that really stuck with me happened after I filmed the main part of Top Chef and before we filmed the finale. We had this strange two-month break.
I had already sold my restaurant, I went to Southeast Asia by myself for about six weeks. I was on the street in Vietnam, and I was scared to cross the street, so I just kept going in circles. If you’ve been there before, you know how scary it can be to cross the street.
There was a street stall making razor clams. I watched them cooking with caramel and aromatics and all these things, building layers of flavor. That’s what makes Vietnamese food so amazing. That’s also the way I like to cook—getting all these layers of flavor, the aromatics, the heat, the fish sauce and the acid all coming together.
I remember sitting there eating this big bowl of razor clams and sipping on a beer. It all cost me about $2, and I was sitting in the sunshine thinking, “This is perfect.”
What are your must-pack travel items?
I’m a chronic over-packer because you just never know what’s going to happen. For me, it’s a cross between going-out clothes, workout clothes and work clothes. It’s just having a bag full of everything because you never know.
What’s the first thing you crave when you come home from an international trip?
I guess my son probably just wants pizza. We do a lot of travel together. We’ve gone to Paris and London together, and we just went to Italy, where of course we had pizza. But on the trips when it’s not Italy, as soon as we get back, I think that’s what Ernie says: “Let’s order pizza.”
He’s gotten much better about trying food. When he was really little, he went through the dinosaur-nugget phase. Now he’s ten and it’s so much fun because he likes making his own sauces and trying new things. He’s excited to eat steak and chicken and all these different things.
Food and music festivals are becoming increasingly popular. If you could do a dream cooking collaboration with a musician, who would it be?
That’s tricky. I’m really into country music right now, so maybe Luke Combs. That would be awesome. I love his music.
When I turn on my Spotify, it tells me I’m in the top one percent of listeners for different artists, and I’m like, “Thanks.”
What’s the best meal you’ve ever had?
It’s tricky because I could go in two different ways. One of my first tasting-menu meals that I really remember was at Tetsuya’s in Australia. I was eating by myself, and a friend had told me to go. It was really expensive, but I went.
I remember sitting there thinking, “I’m loving this.” This was a chef I’d loved from afar, and his book had come to life. It was the first time that had happened to me.
But then some of my most memorable meals are completely different.
My mom and my dad are both gone, and my mom was the biggest influence on my cooking. So it’s the meals of cooking with my mom. We used to make mushy pork together, and we still use her mandarin pancake recipe at Duck Duck Goat.
We’d be in the kitchen cooking together, and then we’d sit at the table laughing and having fun. Those family dinners are so much more impactful on life.
What’s in store for you in 2026 and 2027?
I have four more restaurants opening before the end of next year, which is crazy.
I can’t tell you too much yet. Two are happening in Florida, and they’re two very different styles of restaurants in different cities. There’s one in Arizona, and then another one in Illinois. That one’s more of a small little thing up at a stadium. And my next cookbook comes out next fall.
What’s the focus of the new cookbook?
It’s focused more on protein-forward and fiber-forward cooking, with lots of vegetables.
I also work out every day and do HYROX competitions. Fitness is a huge part of my life, so that’s part of where the inspiration comes from.
Do you have any tips for staying in shape while traveling?
I pick hotels based on their gyms often. You have to make sure they don’t do that thing where the camera makes the gym look huge, and then you get there and it’s basically a hotel room that’s been turned into a gym.
When I’m comparing hotels, that’s one of the things I look for. Or I’ll look to see if the hotel is close to an F45. It’s a great gym for traveling because they’re in so many cities.
I think it’s about finding something you’re comfortable with and trying to keep your routine as much as possible. I booked F45 for the next two mornings here because it’s just down the street.
Dolly Parton recently passed away. What has she meant to you?
I’ve always been a huge Dolly fan. It’s funny because my cooks used to make fun of me about 20 years ago because I’d be playing Dolly in the kitchen. We all got to pick the music we wanted to listen to, and “9 to 5” was always my go-to karaoke song.
I’ve watched the movie 9 to 5 a thousand times in my life.
But what an amazing woman. I think as I’ve gotten older, the way she approached life and everything about her has become so inspiring.
She was so thoughtful toward her fans. I don’t think everybody approaches life that way or approaches their fandom that way. She’s just an amazing woman and such an inspiration.
And the fact that she’s thoughtful enough to have a song coming out 20 years from now for her 100th birthday—it’s incredible.
She’s always thinking about her fans.
Rapid Fire Questions:
One place for tacos?
In Los Angeles, it’s almost like they don’t even have names. You just go to whichever taco truck is on the side of the street that has the longest line.
One place for breakfast?
Little Goat Diner. I have to shout up my own place, but it’s my favorite. Ernie and I go there all the time.
Dinner with one person, dead or alive?
My son, Ernie.
Window or aisle seat?
I just switched to aisle so I can get up and go to the bathroom without bothering the other person.
Favorite Food Network show?
Wild Card Kitchen.
Beach or mountains?
I like when I can find a little combination, but I guess I’ll go beach.
One country to visit?
We just went to Japan, and Japan is awesome.
Favorite airport dining experience?
Rick Bayless has a pretty good spot in Chicago (Tortas Frontera). You can get a pretty darn good margarita and a tasty sandwich.
Street food or fine dining?
Street food, 100 percent.
What is the perfect bite?
Now I’m having a bunch of different things go through my head.
I don’t have one perfect bite. It depends on whether it’s something crunchy and acidic and satisfying in that moment.
Sometimes it’s honestly just the satisfying moment when you bite into the perfect plum. Plums are amazing right now, and when I get the perfect one, I’m like, “Oh my God, it’s so good.”
Would you ever consider competing on Top Chef again?
No. They try to bring all the winners together all the time, and I’ve said no.
How stressful was Top Chef compared with Iron Chef?
It’s different. A lot of times on Top Chef, you get two days for a challenge or something. Whereas on Iron Chef, I have five dishes in an hour, and it’s legit.
At the end of each battle, I would just duck down under the table and think, “I think we did it. Oh my God.”
But it was so fun because it pushes you into a different kind of creativity. I made rib-eye ice cream and tuna ice cream and all these things because that’s what Iron Chef is about. It’s just a different style, which I loved.
Chef Stephanie Izard’s career continues to evolve at the intersection of food, travel, television and fitness. With new restaurants on the horizon and another cookbook coming next fall, the chef shows no signs of slowing down—and if her approach to travel is any indication, there will always be another neighborhood, destination or $2 street-food meal waiting to inspire what’s next.