by Patrick Sutorius, November 27, 2019

This fall, I completed my ten-week internship at Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio, an Italian restaurant in the West Loop, opened and operated by Chef Sarah Grueneberg. I thought it would be a great place to start my culinary industry career, as there were more than a couple Kendall alums working there, including the Executive Sous Chef, Bailey Sullivan. But I did not expect it to be as fun or rewarding as it turned out to be. The ten weeks absolutely flew by and it was a pleasure to show up every day and work on that Garmo line. There are some pretty awesome people that work there, from the line cooks, to the sous chefs, the front of house staff and the prep team and dishwashers. The entire restaurant truly operated as one team and everyone there for the most part worked very hard and had a lot of pride and joy in what they did.

What was very special for me over the ten weeks was the number of friends and family members that came to the restaurant to both dine at the renowned restaurant but also to visit me and see me in my element. One of the primary reasons I started culinary school and got in to this industry was due to a love to serve and cook for friends and family. It was very rewarding to cook on the line and serve those people. What I did not expect was how generous Chef Sarah and the sous chefs were to all of my friends and family in the form of extra dishes they sent to them.

For example, my brother surprised me by visiting for a couple days and I was actually able to bring him as a guest to the lovely KCT Scholarship Dinner and Reception that occurred in November. After the reception, we decided to grab a drink at Monteverde to show him the restaurant and I had never dined or sat there, so I thought it would be nice sit at the bar and watch my fellow line cooks at work. We ended up sitting at the bar and ordering a cocktail and ordered a pasta just to nibble on while we sat, which was more than enough after the KCT dinner. All of a sudden, plate after plate started arriving in front of us as Sous Chef Bailey had sent out two additional pastas, a meatball, a sausage and a crostini for my brother and I to split.

Totally unexpected and after the KCT dinner, totally daunting as we were already very full but couldn’t let the dishes go to waste. We ended up sitting at the bar slowly getting through each plate over the course of the next two hours and left unbelievably full. It was a very memorable night for many reasons. Looking back now, I am so thankful I did my internship at Monteverde and look forward to working there full time in the future.