Editor’s Note: This conversation with Mark Steuer was two years in the making. We met in July of 2019 and finally got the chance to sit down for an interview in October of 2021 after 24 months of sharing meals, drinks and stories.

This conversation happens in two parts. The first on Mark’s back porch over a beautiful bottle of Riesling from Freiburg. The second in Mark’s incredible two-time Bib Gourmand restaurant Funkenhausen.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full conversation here.

Yes, you have to have good food, good wine, good service. But the relationship that I have with my staff and the vibe you get in the restaurant is what I want to replicate in future projects. It's difficult to find those people, but when you do, you latch on, take care, make them family, and don't let them go.

On Mark's Origin Story.

Cornelius McGrath
Who the hell is Mark Steuer? And how does he think about the world?

Mark Steuer
I'm a guy who's a bit of a dreamer. I always have been. I think about the world, especially my world, through the lens of how I can learn from how I was brought up. How I can be better, and how I can build something awesome? Something that is based around people, because I truly think that our people, our staff is really what makes our restaurant so special. Yes, you have to have good food, you have to have good wine, you have to have good service. But the relationship that I have with my staff and the vibe you get in the restaurant is what I want to create and replicate in future projects. It's difficult to find those people, but when you do, you latch on, take care, make them family, and don't let them go. It takes time.

Tell me about how you were raised. You mentioned being taught a specific way of looking after people. So what is it about your own family that you think has driven how you've built this team?

My mother is very nurturing. From a young age, family gatherings were important. I was always taught the importance of having dinner as a family at home. I guess that impacted me and how I look at the world. But it's twofold. I also came up cooking in an era that was not exactly healthy. Many old school chefs did lots of yelling and teaching through fear, which was different from my upbringing. And so I spent my time coming up and learning how to run restaurants, thinking about how we could make a change in that, how we could do that and achieve great things without that, like hostility and fear-based learning. I credit my mom and grandmother a lot for teaching me how to be loving, thoughtful, and kind and still achieve good results.

I didn't know that your dad grew up in Bavaria. Your mom was teaching French. That's how they met. And so you spent your summers going over to Germany?

Every other we'd go there. My mom's family grew up in Toronto, but her father came from Germany. I forget the year. It's a pretty interesting story. He was 13. He and his brothers were avoiding the war. He came over by himself to Toronto when he was 13, worked, brought his brothers over. They started a construction company in Toronto. But they were also very German. So, I'd spend some summers up there with them. But it was still very German-based. We spoke German, ate German food. And then during the other summers, we go to Germany to see my other grandparents.

I always hated it too. I just wanted to spend the summers at home with my friends as a kid. But I think in, in hindsight, looking back now, it was so formative. Not just for the food that I make. But just as a human, to spend that time in different countries and see different cultures.

You didn't speak English, right?

That's true. My parents met in Germany. My mom's parents also had a farm in South Carolina, where they moved after marriage. So until I was four, it was me, my mom and my dad living on this farm until my dad decided to go to med school. Then we moved to Charleston in a little suburb called Summerville. And my mom tells the story always. We moved in, and I saw the kids playing on the street, and I said, "Marky kindishbelan", which means Mark wants to play with the kids, but I literally couldn't speak a lick of English.

When I go to Germany, I'm no longer fluent. But kids learn quickly. So I think within a couple of weeks, I was at least able to communicate. But give me a week, and we can talk and have a conversation. It's a funny story for sure.

Do you remember dreaming in German? 

This is going to sound sad, but I rarely remember dreams even now, unless they're bad ones.

That's a fascinating upbringing. I'm curious, were your parent's amazing chefs? What did you grow up eating?

We grew up eating very traditional German stuff. My mom's a wonderful cook, but my grandmother is even better. She's impressive. They hosted a lot. I remember as a child, in the summers, my grandmother hosted 30 or 40 people at their house for dinner. I always thought it was super impressive because she did it by herself. And I don't know that I've ever seen a housewife or anyone be able to do that at home. I could do it at home, but she's not a professional. I always thought that was super cool. And I think in some ways, probably like those experiences guided me down this path of wanting to be a hospitality professional. Showing people a good time; feed them, give them wine, create an environment where everyone's smiling, having a good time and can connect.

When you were around your grandmother, was she teaching you?

No, I think she probably wished that I would've gone away. I was just always in the way, but I was always interested. I always loved food. I always loved eating. I didn't realize until during college how much I really liked cooking. She would teach me things here or there, but I didn't realize it was happening inside me.

I don't know everything, but I'm not scared to f*ck it up. I definitely don't screw up the same way more than once. And I definitely take the time to learn from those mistakes and figure out how to not let other people make them too. 

On Mark's First Job As a Chef.

Tell me about the day when you realized, "you know what? I think this is me."

It's hard to forget. I bartended and served all through college at different restaurants in Madison, WI. There was a day where I was supposed to be bartending, and one of the cooks didn't show up. I told the owner, Sammy, "I'm by no means a professional cook, but if you guys need the help, I'll get in there, and I'll do my best." And it was a disaster. I had no idea what I was doing.

But the rush I got from it and being taught by the other guys in the line, the camaraderie and them asking me if I'd come back the next day and do it. Whether they just needed help or whether they saw something in me. I felt that rush. And there are people who ask me this all the time, and it's my favourite thing about cooking for a living. It's one of the only careers I can think of where you get instant gratification from making something and then getting to see someone hopefully enjoy it. And like the smile on their face, watching someone eat, something you just put on a plate is one of the things that still drives me to this day.

What possessed you to volunteer?

I don't know. I grew up playing a lot of team sports, so the idea of a team and community is important to me. I'm not a cocky person, but I've always been pretty quick at picking things up. Either someone helps at the restaurant because we're down a cook, or the restaurant has a horrible night. I just gave it a shot.

You've never been afraid of failing?

Mindy Segal was one of my mentors here in Chicago. She always told me that one of my biggest strengths was that I wasn't afraid to make mistakes. And that I learned from them very quickly. That's one of the best compliments I've ever received. It's also been kinda like a guiding ethos of how I cook and how I run my restaurant. I don't know everything, but I'm not scared to f*ck it up. I definitely don't screw up the same way more than once. And I definitely take the time to learn from those mistakes and figure out how to not let other people make them too. 

I love that. So they bring you back the next night. What happens?

The next night was great. I held down the station by myself. They helped me with prep because I didn't know what I was doing. It was a weekend, and it wasn't slow. It was a small little French restaurant called Le Chardonnay. It was by no means a great restaurant, but there are only so many good places in Madison. It was busy, and we held it down, and it was fun. I remember having a beer afterwards. I was like, "Wow like, I can't believe we just fed those people." On Day 2, I could be a part of this kitchen team and hold my own. It was amazing.

Where do you go from that, man?

My career's been a lot of luck. A lot of right place, right time. And a sh*t ton of hard work, too. Don't get me wrong. This was my senior year, so I graduated, and I decided I was gonna keep cooking there. I got into law school at Northwestern and decided that I was gonna take six months off and just keep cooking. So shortly after I started in the kitchen, the sous chef left, probably two months after I started cooking. And so the owner offered me the sous chef job, which is not something that happens to someone after two months of cooking. So I took it, and then the chef quit, and the owner asked if I'd stick around and run his kitchen for a while.

And honestly, I laughed. I was like, "dude. I've been cooking for three months. I have no idea about costing, ordering, like any of this stuff." I'm good at spreadsheets. But I didn't even know where to begin. So I did that for about six months. To put it mildly, it was a very expensive learning experience for him. But I taught myself how to make sure we're making money. How to not buy fish that cost $20/lb. But the biggest thing I got out of it was learning what I wanted to cook and starting to think creatively about it. I couldn't do it there, this was a tiny little French Mediterranean place, but I was definitely having thoughts about it.

So, I'm pretty locked into it. I'm doing mussels bouillabaisse. Classic stuff. But I found myself trying to like sneak in little bits of like Southern or German. I could sneak a little German because there's Strausberg where they speak German in France. He was cool and let me go with it a little bit. But I realized that I needed to go see more and learn more and be exposed to more. And I also really needed to learn how to cook. I had some natural abilities, but I didn't know any technique.

Where would you document these thoughts? 

I have journals everywhere. I still have most of them downstairs. It's funny. Sometimes, I'll go back and look at them, and the ideas are to me now so stupid. But it's cool to look back and see like a progression of the ideas. One of the ideas in my notebook - this had to be maybe 2006- 2007 -  was an idea for a restaurant that was German. But not traditional. Kind of rooted in my upbringing. 15 years later, here we are.

I agree with that. I'm a guy who keeps a lot of journals because you can see the seeds and the crumbs of ideas over time. And that's why I keep veracious notes. A lot of people tell me that my best talent is that I remember everything. I only remember it because I write it down. 

People tell me that all the time too. I have a very strange memory. I can't remember facts, historical things, but when it comes to something that I'm interested in, I remember. I think it's one of my best traits because it allows me to grow. You remember where you came from. You remember where you started and you remember little things along the way.

You said something really interesting. You said, "I knew I needed to go and learn how to cook." So, two questions: 1) what the hell were you doing in that restaurant if you weren't cooking? And 2) where did you go to actually learn?

I don't know. I'm smart, and I work hard enough to replicate something if you show it to me. And so that's what I was doing there. There were like 12 dishes. You show me twice, and I can do it exactly how you want me to do it.

So it was mimicry, really? 

Yeah. And not that it was easy, but it's like anything else. Show me how to set this up twice. And I'll do it. But I knew that this was something that I was...