Talk about starting at the very bottom: Michael J. Pivoney’s first job in a restaurant was sweeping the floor at a local hot dog shop.
Of course, he was only a sixth-grader at the time and not the least bit interested in attaining a better job in foodservice. He likely had no idea of how he would move up in the business—95 floors up, to be exact—to his current position as corporate executive chef of The Signature Room at the 95th, located at the top of the John Hancock Center in downtown Chicago.
In fact, he studied television production and photography in college for a year before a change of heart led him to pursue business management.
BIOGRAPHY Title: corporate executive chef, The Signature Room at the 95th, ChicagoBirth date: Feb. 25, 1965Hometown: Elmhurst, Ill.Education: graduate of Washburne Culinary Institute, ChicagoCareer highlights: opening the dining venues at Atlantis Resort and Casino/Ocean Club Paradise Island in the Bahamas
Eventually, however, he decided to attend Washburne Culinary Institute in Chicago, a move that launched his career.
He began as an area restaurant chef at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. From there he went to Las Vegas to become chef at Signature Restaurant in Caesars Palace, where he was in charge of expediting more than 1,000 covers each shift.
He returned to Chicago for a brief stint as a chef at the Sheraton Hotel and Tower and then headed to San Antonio for the executive sous chef job at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Club Resort.
Two years later it was on to the Atlantis Resort and Casino/Ocean Club Paradise Island in the Bahamas, where he opened and oversaw 26 dining venues. He then moved to Puerto Rico and went to work for the Williams Hospitality Group’s Condado Plaza Hotel and Casino in San Juan. There he managed a $16-million food and beverage operation that earned a James Beard Award and the Chaine des Rotisseurs’ Best Food and Service Banquet Facility Award.
While in Puerto Rico he also opened Las Casitas Village and served as sous chef at El Conquistador Resort and Country Club.
Choosing to leave island life behind him, he returned to Chicago and became executive chef for the Carlucci Hospitality Group in suburban Lincolnshire, and in 2003 he joined The Signature Room at the 95th.
Pivoney grew up in a seven-member Italian family on Chicago’s Northwest Side, which grew to 30 people when aunts, uncles and cousins gathered for a traditional Italian meal each week. His restaurant family is a large one as well. He leads a team of nearly 100 employees, when he’s not at home tending to his garden.
CHEF’S TIPS Slow-roast meat at 220 or 210 degrees Fahrenheit to retain the juices. When roasting a whole chicken or duck, stuff the bird with herbs and vegetables to infuse the meat with more flavors.
How would you describe your culinary philosophy?
I put integrity into the plate. I want to give good value. I generally take familiar flavors and introduce, slowly, new ingredients. I don’t want a whole menu full of new ingredients where people are not familiar with the flavor.
My personal style is Italian cooking. You highlight the seasons. I’m now featuring winter squashes and introducing some game to the menu. It’s hunting season. In the summer I’m an avid gardener in my free time with my wife, and I bring what I grow into work. In the summer I also purchase what local farmers are producing. It’s good business, and the stuff is in abundance. It’s when God meant us to eat it.
How long have you been gardening?
My whole career. It was something I learned when I was a little kid. The biggest project I ever did was at Atlantis. They had an old apple orchard that hadn’t been taken care of, and we turned it into an herb garden.
In what other ways do you like to experiment with flavors?
I acquired a smoker. I spent three years in Texas, and I’m familiar with curing and rubbings, and when I got the smoker I experimented with brines and rubs. We’re brining our double-cut pork chop. It’s a method for retaining juices.
When did you finally decide to become a chef?
While I was going to college I was working with Bally’s Tom Fooleries [restaurants] to keep myself alive. I was a waiter, and I was actually training waiters. I ended up as a corporate trainer.
Bally’s began converting to health clubs and sold the individual [restaurant] properties, and then I went to culinary school. I had become comfortable in the front-of-the-house and wanted some formal training in the kitchen.
Do the traditional Italian meals your family cooked influence how you cook?
Definitely, because you take some of those [culinary] roots and memories and flavors and maybe build them up a little for the restaurant, of course.
What challenges do you face managing such a large staff at The Signature Room?
The biggest challenge is finding the right chemistry. I have students, and I have people who have been in the kitchen for 20 years. There’s a level of respect for each other. The hardest part is finding that right person who fits in, finding the right candidate that has common respect for someone in the workplace. You’re not in a cubicle; you’re shoulder to shoulder with your peers.
It took me three or four years to build a management team to support the employees. Now it’s fine-tuning. It’s keeping that team together.
How did you first start working for resort restaurants?
I started out when I finished Washburne. Walt Disney came down and interviewed the graduates.
You then worked at a number of resorts. What was that experience like?
You didn’t have those peaks and valleys that maybe a typical Metropolitan area restaurant has. You knew what was coming.
The planning process was a lot different. Instead of planning a typical banquet as you would in the city, it was “How much do you want to spend?” So I’m planning an event that’s $300 a head and flying in meat from all over the world. My creativity all of a sudden was wide open.
Tell me about a memorable moment in the kitchen?
When I was a kid we went to my grandmother’s every week for Sunday dinner. And it was seeing my mom and her on Christmas Eve. They’d have a bed sheet draped over the table so they could make enough lasagna noodles for the Christmas Eve dinner. I could almost feel the texture of the noodles. And they were doing big volume, like I’m doing now.