Bistronomic, the contemporary bistro rooted in French culture in Chicago’s Gold Coast, announced Amanda Downing as the restaurant’s chef de cuisine. Formerly executive chef and partner at Chicago’s Rockit Bar & Grill and Rockit Burger Bar, Downing has joined Bistronomic Owner and Executive Chef Marital Noguier to oversee culinary operations.

Prior to honing an executive chef and partner position at Rockit Bar & Grill, Amanda worked alongside Martial at one sixtyblue as executive sous chef.

“I’m so happy to be working with Amanda again after all these years,” says Chef Noguier. “She is an extremely talented chef and I’m excited to collaborate with her to elevate the menu here at Bistronomic.”

Chef Downing was born and raised in Elgin, a Northwest suburb of Chicago and developed a passion for “family-style comfort food” at a young age. The oldest of six children, she spent her leisure time in the kitchen with her siblings and eventually transformed her love of cuisine into an exciting career.  Chef Downing earned her Culinary Management degree from Elgin Community College and worked her way up to executive sous chef at Michael Jordan’s acclaimed one sixtyblue restaurant.

Chef Downing opened River North’s Rockit Bar & Grill in 2004 and the restaurant earned numerous accolades including “Best Burger” call outs from Good Morning America and Citysearch. When Rockit expanded in 2009 to a second location in Wrigleyville, Chef Downing was named the executive chef and partner of both locations.

“I am thrilled to join the Bistronomic team and to work closely with Chef Martial,” says Chef Downing. “I look forward to having more hands-on time in the kitchen to do what I love.”