John E. Pawula realized while he was attending Northern Illinois University that his true passion was not going to be found in a classroom, but in a kitchen. He left college and eventually worked as a nutritionist for nursing homes, until a noted chef, Louis Szathmary, invited him to learn in the kitchen of his Chicago restaurant, The Bakery. “It was there that John developed his skills,” said Mr. Pawula’s wife, Sue. After four years he left the restaurant in 1978 as an assistant head chef to own a series of restaurants in the Peoria area. Mr. Pawula, 54, originally from Chicago’s Humboldt Park, died in his Peoria home Thursday, Aug. 19, when his lung collapsed in part from the muscular dystrophy he was diagnosed with 13 years ago. He and his wife, whom he met at Northern Illinois and married in 1972, moved to Princeton, Ill., near where she was raised in Tiskilwa. There he opened a 15-table bistro, The Strawberry Patch. In 1984 Peoria business officials asked him to open a fine dining and wine restaurant in their town. Stephanie’s, with its 30 white-dressed tables, opened shortly thereafter. He closed that restaurant in 1998 when his disease became more debilitating. “We opened a small place north of town that he could easily get in and out of,” his wife said. Unable to cook any longer, Mr. Pawula oversaw the kitchen staff at his Chef John’s Wine Bar & Grill in Dunlap as it prepared American casual and fine ethnic foods from the recipes he supplied. “The two of us loved to travel and try different foods,” his wife said. “We would eat anything and everything.” They once indulged their passion during a bare bones trip through Europe. “We tasted so many foods and saw so many different places.” He and his wife also felt it was important for their children to explore the same kind of culinary adventures. “When we would go on vacation with our kids, we didn’t take them to McDonald’s,” she said. “We would go to local grocery stores, or indigenous stands that served things different from what they had in the Midwest.” Mr. Pawula enjoyed fishing and was a devoted Cubs fan. Other survivors include his daughter, Amber; his son, Justin; his brother, Wayne; and sister, Corinne Hofer. Services have been held.
