CHICAGO | CHEF PROFILES

How Chef Trevor Teich Is Rewriting the Rules of Private Club Dining

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By Eric Barton | Sept. 9, 2025

AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.

When Trevor Teich was a kid on Chicago’s North Shore, he got the same Friday night pizza slices as the rest of us. But his parents also buckled him into a jacket and dragged him off to the Cape Cod Room at the Drake or Easter brunch at the Four Seasons. For a boy still figuring out the rules of silverware, those meals were an education: béchamel under chandeliers, global flavors landing in a city better known for hot dogs. They lodged in his memory as proof that food could carry weight far beyond the plate.

That memory now runs like a thread through his career—from a Michelin star at Claudia, the restaurant he named after his mother, to his new post as executive chef at the Astor Club in Chicago’s Gold Coast.

He’s not alone. Around the country, private clubs are realizing that a chef with Michelin credentials can be as much a draw as the wine list or the real estate.

The Chef’s Table oyster course

In Miami Beach, the Harbour Club’s a’Riva hired Michele Esposito, who cooked at the Michelin-starred Villa Crespi in Italy, to anchor its dining room. Similar hires are happening from coast to coast, turning what used to be sleepy club kitchens into places where the cooking can rival the city’s best restaurants.

Teich came late to the kitchen. “I wasn’t the kid who knew from age 10 that I wanted to be a chef,” he says. Cooking for himself and friends was the gateway drug. “You could put an idea on a plate and watch someone react in real time. That was addictive.” The adrenaline of service, the rush of seeing a diner’s face change—it was enough to pull him in for good

Teich says his dishes are built around refinement

Claudia, which he opened as a tribute to his mother, proved that cooking with meaning can also win accolades. “My mom was the heart of our kitchen at home,” he says. “She taught me that food is about more than sustenance—it’s how you care for people, how you show love.” When Claudia earned a Michelin star in 2022, it was validation not just of technique but of that philosophy.

Teich with his mother Claudia

The Chef’s Table spans eight to 10 courses

The path there wound through some of the toughest rooms in the business. At Acadia and L2O he learned that precision is non-negotiable. NoMi taught him that refinement and accessibility can live on the same plate. Pierre Gagnaire’s Twist in Las Vegas stretched his sense of creativity. And NoMad showed him that food is inseparable from hospitality. “The food isn’t just for you,” he says. “It’s part of a larger story.”

Teich’s menu goes beyond standard club fare

At Astor Club, he’s trying to make that story felt in a space where members might just want a steak frites or the club sandwich. He’s kept the classics—Maxim’s originals and longtime member favorites—but lightened them, refined them, and set them alongside contemporary French-inflected tasting menus. “It’s a big promise,” he says of Astor’s Michelin-starred pedigree, “but the key is never treating it as a slogan.”

The boy who once marveled at hollandaise on Easter morning now stands at the head of one of Chicago’s most exclusive dining rooms. Only this time, he’s the one writing the menu.