My name is Kevin Schuder, and I’ve been cooking professionally for about 15 years now, and am the chef/owner of Fancy Plants Catering, Fancy Plants Cafe, and now Fancy Plants Kitchen.
I started out as a very ambitious home chef in Minneapolis, and then turned professional when I moved to San Francisco. My first cooking job was at the vegan fine-dining restaurant Millennium. I learned much there, and then moved on to help Millenniums sommelier open 2 wine bars, as the chef.
I then found myself wanting to learn more, and abandoned the chef role to learn Japanese cooking from Chef Takashi Saito at Izakaya Yuzuki, molecular gastronomy techniques at AQ Restaurant, and a soulful, integral California approach from Amaryll Schwertner at Boulette’s Larder. I also spent a lot of time staging in Bay Area restaurants known for their fermentation, for their pasta, or for their live fire cooking. All of them now have their own cookbooks, and rightly so.
But as I learned more about animal welfare, I decided to leave working for others to cook an all vegan cuisine popup in the evenings, at a place in Oakland that was known for serving meat in the mornings. It was a real gamble. But although it didn’t pay much, I was rich with freedom. I went on to call the popup Veg388.
Around that time, I participated and won the annual Vegan Iron Chef.
From then, I went on to be the chef of the vegan restaurant Citizen Fox, as well as kitfox, our sandwich shop.
From there, I went independent, and started cooking under my own name through Feastly.
We sold out 20+ vegan dinners in San Francisco and LA, and in 2016 I moved to Chicago, and since then we’ve cooked over 300 5 course dinners, 18 weddings, several festivals, and opened up Fancy Plants Cafe.
I’m from Wisconsin, and it’s nice to be back in the area.
That’s our history.
The future, is that we will be cooking great vegan food in Chicago.
We’ll start with the best fruits, grains, spices, and vegetables that we can, and then use inspiration, fermentation, and preservation, as well as ancient and modern techniques to make it memorable.
I’m always interested in collaborations, and so much of what we’ve done has been built as a team.
Thank you for checking us out! Stay tuned, there’s more to come.
Sincerely,
-Kevin