Restaurants Chefs Best New Chefs Iliana Regan of Chicago’s Elizabeth is a 2016 F&W Best New Chef Secret-weapon ingredient: Sassafras twigs. Read more about this amazing Chicago talent, one of the new Food & Wine Best New Chefs. By Food & Wine Editors Food & Wine Editors This is collaborative content from Food & Wine's team of experts, including staff, recipe developers, chefs, and contributors. Many of our galleries curate recipes or guides from a variety of sources which we credit throughout the content and at each link. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines and Elizabeth Location: Chicago At least half the menu at Elizabeth, Iliana Regan's tiny ticketed restaurant, is always inspired by the foods she gathers on foraging excursions. "And in the summer, it's 100 percent based on what I've found," she says. The self-taught chef grew up on a 10-acre Indiana farm: "We had the occasional pigs and chickens, and my mother preserved everything." Now Regan spends most Sundays in the woods, collecting ingredients that often sound a little oddball—like sassafras twigs, which she'll turn into ice cream or cake for a supremely naturalist dessert. Iliana's Obsessions Veggie-O'sRegan serves crisped chicken skin with root vegetables shaped like circles. Foraged FruitRegan sometimes hunts for the berries in the jam she serves with housemade brioche and butter. Wild StyleDeer skulls that Regan found in the woods decorate her restaurant. Dessert from the ForestPorcini ice cream comes with sassafras cake, edible moss and shaved herb ice." tabindex="0" data-inline-tooltip="true"> Iliana Regan Iliana Regan Restaurant: Elizabeth Location: Chicago At least half the menu at Elizabeth, Iliana Regan's tiny ticketed restaurant, is always inspired by the foods she gathers on foraging excursions. "And in the summer, it's 100 percent based on what I've found," she says. The self-taught chef grew up on a 10-acre Indiana farm: "We had the occasional pigs and chickens, and my mother preserved everything." Now Regan spends most Sundays in the woods, collecting ingredients that often sound a little oddball—like sassafras twigs, which she'll turn into ice cream or cake for a supremely naturalist dessert. Iliana's Obsessions Veggie-O'sRegan serves crisped chicken skin with root vegetables shaped like circles. Foraged FruitRegan sometimes hunts for the berries in the jam she serves with housemade brioche and butter. Wild StyleDeer skulls that Regan found in the woods decorate her restaurant. Dessert from the ForestPorcini ice cream comes with sassafras cake, edible moss and shaved herb ice. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on May 24, 2017 Photo: © Jeff Marini Where: Elizabeth, Chicago4835 N. Western Ave.; 773-681-0651; elizabeth-restaurant.com Why Regan is amazing: Her exquisite Nordic-style cooking highlights Midwestern ingredients (acorn puree, pickled crab apples, wild greens, cured bear meat). It’s fascinating, beautiful, rustic and modern all at once. Born: Merrillville, IN, 1979 Résumé: Stages at Trio, Schwa, L20 and Table Fifty-Two, Chicago. Regan started Elizabeth as an underground supper club, which she opened in her Chicago home, hosting elaborate tasting menu dinners on weekends. Education: Studied chemical engineering at Indiana University; degree in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago © Elizabeth Restaurant Quintessential dish: Hen-of-the-woods mushrooms with edible weeds, juniper vinaigrette and roasted garlic aioli. "We collect the mushrooms in the fall; we rub them with white oak acorns and panko, so they have a very distinct taste and flavor. We dress them with a juniper vinaigrette made from juniper berries we harvest, plus roasted garlic aioli. So there’s this element of comfort but with all this other wild stuff." Other food-related experience: While she was in college, Regan waitressed at elite Chicago restaurants like Trio and Alinea to pay for school. In 2008, she started her own business making preserves and homespun foods to sell at local farmers’ markets and stores. (Chicago magazine named her pierogies the best in 2010.) Side project: She also owns and operates Bunny, the Micro Bakery. As the name suggests, this is a tiny space with a menu that includes doughnuts, breads, jams and ice cream, and toasts like the Foie Gras Toast: brioche with jam and an owl-shaped foie gras terrine. Where the name of her restaurant comes from: Elizabeth is named after her sister who passed away in 2003. © Elizabeth Restaurant Guilty-pleasure food: "I love hot dogs from The Home Depot. I get a Chicago Dog with everything on it." Hidden talents: "I’m pretty good at skee ball. I can bowl and shoot a bow and arrow, too." Secret-weapon ingredient: "We use sassafras twigs a lot from a hunting and game reserve here. They have this really amazing minty, menthol, root beer smell. We toast them and use them in our brine and make ice cream out of them." Follow @elizabethrestaurant on Instagram. By F&W Editors By Iliana Regan Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit