Michelin-Star Chef Doug Psaltis has worked in many of the world’s most esteemed kitchens alongside the industry’s most celebrated chefs and is the hit-maker behind many of Chicago’s most lauded restaurants. He believes the most remarkable dining experience comes from the purest ingredients delivered in a supremely thoughtful, welcoming and hospitable manner.

Psaltis is the co-founder of Eat Well Hospitality and Chef Proprietor of a trio of award-winning Chicago restaurants including Michelin-Guide recognized Andros Taverna, contemporary Greek restaurant serving sophisticated Mediterranean food cooked from the soul; highly-acclaimed Basque-inspired Asador Bastian, named one of the New York Times 25 Best Restaurants 2024, ranked the #14 Best Steakhouse in the World 2024 and voted the Best New Restaurant in American 2023 by Esquire; and traditional Italian neighborhood trattoria, Mano a Mano.

The skills Psaltis honed at age 10, cooking alongside his grandmother at his grandparent’s Queens, New York diner, first led to a position at Long Island’s top eatery, Panama Hattie’s. This opened the door to a stint with Wayne Nish, the Chef and Owner of March restaurant in Manhattan. In 1999, Psaltis worked with David Bouley to launch Bouley Baker, followed by three years working under Alain Ducasse at Essex House, which earned four stars from The New York Times in 2000. Ducasse rewarded Psaltis’s talents with the opportunity to study at three-star Michelin restaurant Le Louis XV in Monaco and later appointed him chef de cuisine for Ducasse’s New York restaurant, Mix. Psaltis was the first American to be given the position in any Ducasse kitchen.

Psaltis headed West to help run Thomas Keller’s acclaimed French Laundry in Napa Valley – considered one of the best restaurants in the world. There he met his now wife and business partner Pastry Chef Hsing Chen (also cooking at ACE). He returned to New York to open Geoffrey Zakarian’s Country as Executive Chef. Country received a three-star review from The New York Times and earned a Michelin star each year of Chef Psaltis’s three-year tenure. Psaltis memorialized his experience, along with an inside look at the restaurant industry, in the book he wrote with his brother, “The Seasoning of a Chef: My Journey from Diner to Ducasse and Beyond.”

Psaltis was a partner in several of Chicago’s most successful restaurants. He is also the co-founder of the award-winning Windy City Smokeout barbecue and country music festival.

Psaltis, Chen and their partners, opened Andros Taverna in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood in 2021. Inspired by the cosmopolitan taverns of Greece, Andros Taverna is a story of culinary heritage, purity of flavors, and warm hospitality. The restaurant’s menu is rooted in tradition while highlighting quality products with updated classic mezzes, crisp salads, responsible meats and wild seafood cooked over glowing embers of charcoal. Opened in 2023 in a refurbished 1883 River North townhouse, steakhouse Asador Bastian merges asador-style cooking (cooked on a spit over an open fire) with the classic Chicago steakhouse experience. The latest in Psaltis’s Eat Well Hospitality portfolio, Mano a Mano was launched in 2024 and offers regional Italian comfort food inspired by the couple’s travels to Italy.