Justin White: 'Food To Rival Anyone's'

The Drawing Room's Executive Chef Nick Lacasse (left) with SmallBar's Executive Chef Justin White. (Photo: Julie Szmyd)

That's quite a declaration coming from Nick Lacasse on the chef he believes is the one to watch next.

Lacasse's the executive chef at The Drawing Room, and he recently issued an ingredient challenge to SmallBar Wicker Park's Justin White to do something creative with an ostrich egg.

The challenge is part of an ongoing video series by the Chicago Reader in which a prominent chef gets another chef to create an entree with a rarely used ingredient.

Lacasse, for example, was given whelks by Green Zebra's Shawn McClain in this video. He explains that whelks are shellfish similar to snails, and created an entree that he dedicated to his mom.

His challenge for White is coming up soon, and he had this to say about the rising star chef: "Justin is so ahead of his time. I cannot spew enough about how SmallBar is about to be on the scene with food to rival any of the up and comers out there."

We cannot wait to see what he does with that ostrich egg!

UPDATE: Here's the Reader's Key Ingredient video for the ostrich egg. It was quite the challenge and the process sounded not so appealing!