Evanston chef Michael Salzinski, culinary instructor, dishes on his role in “The Bear”

Chef Michael Salzinski is currently a chef instructor at National Louis University s Kendall College. He did not grow up with a burning desire to be a chef. A serendipitous choice He grew up in Evanston, attended Dewey Elementary and Nichols Middle School and graduated from ETHS in 1990. After ETHS, he enrolled at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, graduating as an English major with a minor in history. He was thinking about becoming an elementary school teacher and looking for a job. Good timing and serendipity found him working in the retail section of a private catering business. Eventually then I was able to kind of finagle my way back into the kitchen to start working as a prep cook. It was at that point in time that I was also then interested in enrolling in culinary school. I had a roommate at the time that was a student at a place called the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago. He seemed like he was enjoying it and having fun. So I signed up and