Born in Wisconsin, Alex Seidel began his culinary career at 14, and worked his way up to sous chef at Racine’s by age 20. Today, Alex is the chef-owner of Fruition Restaurant, Mercantile Dining & Provision, Füdmill and Chook. Seidel has been the recipient of many accolades, including Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef in 2010, as well as Chef of the Year from local media including Denver  Magazine and 5280. Seidel was awarded the 2018 James Beard Foundation Best Chef: South West. Alex is a champion of such causes as food advocacy, and mindfulness when it comes to eating habits and waste.

Today we discussed how hard it was for him to transition from cooking every day to instead leading his entire team and many projects so that he was not constantly spread so thin. We talked about how being food insecure as a child led him to open Chook as a Certified B Corp, so that he could also directly give back to the community, and allow his team the chance at partnership in the restaurant. We discussed how he has learned to take care of his body after many years of neglect, and about how owning restaurants, in the end, is just about constant problem solving.

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