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Robert Levitt and his wife Allison opened their restaurant, mado, in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago in April 2008. Mado was the great chef Fernand Point's nickname for his wife, Marie-Louise, who, the story goes, had to approve every dish before it was allowed to leave the kitchen of La Pyramide.
Mado�s seasonal cuisine features influences from around the Mediterranean, leaning heavily on Italy for inspiration. Local ingredients are the focus of mado�s menu. Rob and Allie source their produce and meat from Midwest farmers and are proud to support Chicago�s farmers� markets. As often as possible, Rob purchases whole animals and butchers in-house.
While pursuing a degree in Jazz Performance at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Rob worked as a dishwasher and prep cook at Strawberry Fields. He soon moved on to be a line cook at Timpone�s, the �best restaurant in Urbana.� Rob then worked at Le Titi de Paris in Arlington Heights, Illinois before heading east to attend the Culinary Institute of America. During and after his time at the CIA Rob worked at the Park Avenue Caf� in Manhattan. Eventually he and Allie left New York City to work in Chicago. Since moving back to Chicago Rob has worked at Fiddlehead Cafe, del Toro, North Pond and 312 Chicago.
Chicago food writer Mike Nagrant writes, �Rob Levitt is a high-end chef possessed by the ghost of an Italian grandmother.� Dennis Ray Wheaton of Chicago Magazine wrote, �the best entr�e, rotisserie porchetta, is inspired by the Italian way of stuffing a whole pig with fennel fronds and cooking it over an open fire. Mado's rotisserie isn't big enough for the whole hog, so Rob wraps thick pork belly around pork loin with a layer of fennel, rosemary, and garlic and gives that the rotisserie treatment. The result is wonderful�juicy, full-flavored, tender pork.� In 2008, Rob was nominated for the Jean Banchet �Rising Chef� Award.
Rob�s cooking at mado has been featured in several magazines and newspapers including Gourmet, Food & Wine, Restaurants & Institutions, Restaurant Hospitality, Chicago Magazine, Crain�s Chicago Business, New City, Chicago Social, Chicago Reader and Time Out Chicago.
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