Justin Johnson

Chef Justin Johnson has been cooking in and around Milwaukee for the past 15 years. In 2005, Justin graduated from the Le Cordon Bleu Institute in Chicago whereupon he returned to Milwaukee to become, most notably, the executive chef at Harwood Place Retirement Community, launching a local and sustainable fine dining food service program that earned him local and national acclaim.

Justin has been featured in such notable publications as Food Service Director, Today's Dietician and the ACF's National Culinary Review. Most recently, Justin was the executive chef at Milwaukee's renowned art deco hotel, Hotel Metro. Today, Justin enjoys writing and demonstrating at community events and festivals, also making regular appearances on WISN 12's Saturday morning news. Justin plans to return to restaurants some day but is not sure when or where. In the meantime, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three boys.

Recent Articles

	Dining - January 24, 2013
	Chef makes avante-garde food accessible at c. 1880
	Chef Thomas Hauck's dishes at c.1880 are bright, offbeat, purposefully plated and intelligently crafted. He has soundly developed both sides of his chef brain. It is, after all, important to be both an artist and a technician. c.1880's early success is the result of Chef Hauck honing both of these skills to a fine edge.

	Dining - November 17, 2012
	NuGenesis harnesses the power of food
	On a perfect autumn afternoon, my wife and I rolled over crunching gravel and crackling leaves along a sun-dappled path to an open field at NuGenesis Farms, the surging non-profit that - on this day - featured culinary duos of doctors and chefs for the purpose of forging farm-to-table culinary delights.

	Dining - October 20, 2012
	If chefs weren't chefs, they might be serial killers
	In order to arrive at the eventual charm of a delectable plate of food, a chef often requires a strong stomach, a steady hand, decisive movements and careful clean-up. We often live on vampire's hours, stalking the night after a full day of dragging intimidatingly large cleavers through raw flesh, with our eyes bulging. Socially excommunicated on account of our bloodless complexions and a radiant odor of death, we skulk on the fringe of society.

	Dining - October 16, 2012
	Anaba Tea Room spices up its fall menu
	Chef Gregg Des Rosier does not necessarily want you to conjure up thoughts of hibiscus or camomile, nor perfectly triangular prosciutto and avocado tea sandwiches on tiered wrought-iron display stands when you think about the restaurant that he's called home for the last eight years.

	Dining - May 29, 2012
	To the victor go the soils
	The locally sourced food movement has become less of a novelty and more the exemplar of "new" American cuisine these days. It has begun to seem superfluous because, in many places, it has simply become the customer's expectation. This is a good thing.

	Dining - May 9, 2012
	The Engine Room: An evening at Meritage
	For this, Chef Justin Johnson's third and final stop in the James Beard edition of The Engine Room series, he found himself far outside the posh and pricey metro Milwaukee Downtown at Meritage on Vliet Street, a mere bean bag toss from Wauwatosa.

	Dining - May 2, 2012
	A guide to appreciating wine without annoying the hell out of people
	While the process of making wine is highly scientific and infinitely nuanced, we drinkers of it do not necessarily need to know all that much about it in order to say, "Dang, that's some good wine."

	Dining - April 27, 2012
	What's in your spice rack?
	The spice rack. We all have one. Or in my case, what once was a spice cupboard replete with decade-old powders and amalgamated configurations of salt, bleached, then colored, then packaged and labeled as "fish seasoning" or "steak seasoning." I've since purged most of these inherited dust vials; you won't find any dried herbs, onion powder or garlic salt here. Why?

	Dining - April 11, 2012
	The Engine Room: An evening at Hinterland
	For his continuing series, "The Engine Room," Justin Johnson paid a visit to another 2012 James Beard nominee and marquee Milwaukee gastropub, Hinterland - home to Chef Dan Van Rite. Here, classic dishes get worked over like dusty rummage wear into chic designer threads.

	Dining - April 4, 2012
	Junk food: The story of a bad relationship
	It may surprise you to know that many chefs go out for lunch. It's not that we don't want to eat our own food, but working an open-to-close shift often leaves some time in the middle of the day. Occasionally, after ordering my food, the high school girl at the cash register will glaringly survey my attire - a chef's coat emblazoned with the words "Justin Johnson, Executive Chef" - and with a screwy face, ask, "Why are you eating here?"

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