Keith Korn, 38, chef during the 1990s at Gordon, one of Chicago’s finest boutique restaurants, died Wednesday, June 5, in a car accident in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. “He was a grand presence,” said Michael Kornick, owner of MK restaurant in Chicago and a longtime friend of Mr. Korn. “He was full of life–you never asked yourself `Was Keith there last night?’ He was one of the most passionate people about his craft and our profession of anybody I’ve ever come across.” Mr. Korn was best known in Chicago as executive chef at Gordon, the three-star North Clark Street restaurant where he worked until 1996. A review by Tribune restaurant critic Phil Vettel lauded him that year as “the real thing: A talented chef who incorporates bold flavors, an artist’s eye for detail and a sense of humor into his cooking.” As mid-1990s restaurant trends in America leaned toward brew pubs, wood-fired everything and gargantuan portions of pasta, Mr. Korn distinguished Gordon’s fare with deft but complex combinations of seasonal vegetables and familiar ingredients. In 1996, Mr. Korn told the Tribune his culinary New Year’s resolution was “changing from a cold terrine of foie gras to a hot saute of foie gras.” Restaurant reviewers credited Mr. Korn’s subtle menu changes with keeping Gordon’s menu fresh and near the top of the list among Chicago’s restaurants in the last decade. After leaving Gordon, he worked in a number of kitchens in New York City and New Jersey before last year opening his own restaurant, The Icehouse, in Martha’s Vineyard with his companion, Suzanne Provost. “He just liked being around that atmosphere of doing something special–and he was good at it,” his brother Michael said. Mr. Korn was born in Greensburg, Pa., and grew up in Alabama and Virginia. He never attended cooking school. He had been a physical therapy major at the University of Alabama when he decided in 1983 that he enjoyed his side job cooking more than school, his brother said. Mr. Korn quit to work at Crawdaddy’s in Virginia Beach, then joined the kitchen at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C. He served as chef in Four Seasons restaurants in Boston and New York before being lured to Chicago to work at Gordon. Other survivors include his parents, Earl and Irene; another brother, Randy; and a sister, Carole Bertotti. Services were held.
