Avec names new chef de cuisine, Erling Wu Bower

Erling Wu Bower

Publican Quality Meats | Barbacoa Roast

Photo: Erica Gannett

Not leaving much time for the public to fret about the future of bacon-wrapped dates, One Off Hospitality (the owners of Blackbird, Avec, the Publican, Publican Quality Meats and Big Star) has announced that Erling Wu Bower will replace (okay, not replace, but you know...) Koren Grieveson as Avec's chef de cuisine. Who is Wu Bower? 

We know him best as the shirtless, sweaty Publican Quality Meats chef whom TOC photographer Erica Gannett captured in this amazing slide show burying beef in some yard in Long Grove to make barbacoa for the Green City Market barbecue earlier this summer. Before he was at PQM, he spent the last few years as the sous chef at the Publican, before which he worked under Grieveson at Avec. According to the press release, he'll be updating and adding to the menu, but perhaps what's more important is what he'll be leaving untouched: the chorizo-stuffed Medjool dates, the focaccia with Taleggio cheese and the wood-oven roasted pork shoulder.