Obama Presidential Center will showcase South Side food legacy

Cliff Rome is obsessed with stories. The 53-year-old Chicago chef, who jokingly refers to himself as “Unc,” does indeed radiate the qualities of a favorite uncle. He appreciates food, family and friends. He also loves old school music from artists like Miles Davis and the Isley Brothers and reminiscing about the past.

On a cold Monday afternoon in January, I joined the Englewood native at his Bronzeville restaurant, Peach’s.The 47th Street soul food spot was closed for the day, but as chefs started prepping food for the week, Rome shared a booth and stories from his past.

He told stories about watching his grandmothers in Michigan and New Orleans turn the bounty from their gardens into delicious food. These memories continue to inspire him creatively.

“My dad's side of the family is from New Orleans, and my mom's side of the family is from Michigan, right?” he said. “So there's a battle a lot of times around, like, who makes the best food, period. So when I think about cuisine, I'm also thinking about my grandmothers.”

Fast forward to today, Rome is an accomplished chef leading one of the most anticipated projects in Chicago culinary history.

Along with the food services management group Bon Appétit Management Co., Rome will head up a fine dining restaurant, cafe, and catering services at the forthcoming Obama Presidential Center when it opens later this year in Jackson Park.

The 19-acre campus will feature a museum, art galleries, library and athletic facilities. And while you may not associate a museum cafeteria with stellar cuisine, some recent projects are raising expectations. Take, for example, the runaway success of Sweet Home Cafe at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is changing perceptions of dining in cultural complexes.

But Rome doesn’t feel the pressure to compete with the Smithsonian’s food program. He says the Obama Center isn't in the business of selling food, but rather creating experiences for diners.

“I think that we have a unique opportunity to tell a story and be the narrators of that story around not just the president and all his accomplishments, but how the community helped put him in the Oval Office, right? And not just Chicago communities but communities across the country,” Rome said.

It is at this intersection of food and community where Rome’s culinary vision and the Obama Center collide.

“I think President Obama clearly has his own story, and we incorporate into that, right? He's been a narrator of what to expect, because this is his legacy. I think we are part of that legacy — the South Side of Chicago, particularly in the Kenwood, Woodlawn, South Shore areas.”

A chef inspired by the South Side

Rome says his grandmother’s love for food and the hours he spent as a child in her lively, rhythmic kitchen, inspired him to pursue a career in cooking. As a kid growing up on the South Side of Chicago, there was no shortage of food inspiration.

“I think food culturally has so many different touch points, because chicken, for example, you can make chicken a gazillion different ways,” Rome said. “At the end of the day, it's still chicken, right? But the stories that are attached to it, man, I had the best fried chicken at [the former South Side soul food destination] Army & Lou’s when I was 8-years-old. Or I had smothering chicken over here, and, like, it's still chicken, but it's how you incorporate it. That’s the uniqueness.”

After graduating from St. Rita’s High School on the Southwest Side, Rome studied culinary arts at Kendall College.

He tells stories about his days as a student. And there are stories about joining the kitchen crew at Spago Chicago as a young culinarian in the 90s and working under Ivorian Chef Francois Kwaku-Dongoo, who would go on to become Rome’s mentor.

“We had a rough start. Yeah, I thought, you know, he's Black, I'm Black. Like, I mean, right? And keep in mind, I came into restaurants in an era when there weren't many Black people in leadership. And seeing what he had accomplished, knowing who he was, I was blown away,” Rome recalls.

Rome’s career has taken him around the world, from the Caribbean to Cannes, and in 2000, he founded the corporate umbrella Rome’s Joy, which includes a clutch of diverse businesses, including Peach’s on 47th. Like the adored Army & Lou’s, which closed in 2011, Peach’s on 47th has become a well-known, well-regarded, much-loved establishment. The restaurant is a popular South Side community hub that serves up Southern favorites like shrimp and grits and biscuits and gravy. The 11-year-old restaurant is one of several restaurants that have opened on the South Side in recent years.

Chef Rome believes young chefs are making a conscious choice to open businesses south of Roosevelt Road.

“I just look at it and say, Wow,” he said. “There are more restaurants now, particularly Black-owned restaurants that I've seen, since probably the late 90s. Like, it's incredible. And I often reach out to those folks, because I want them to know that there is a network of people that are out there that could be supportive.”

As he talks, he slowly slips into “Unc” mode. He smiles broadly and rubs his bushy white beard as he thinks back to his early years as a restaurant owner.

“I think about how incredibly difficult it is to open up a restaurant, period. And what the longevity of that restaurant is, it's usually three years. Man, you make it to three, you're like, yes, but then, were you profitable?”

Rome punctuates his sentences with a “right” here, a hand in fist “boom,’ there, and the odd “You feel me?” His speech is firm and relaxed at the same time. By the time he’s on to his second story, you’re listening intently, hoping to catch every pearl of the knowledge that is being dropped.

And beyond creating great meals, he sees the food program at the Obama Center as an opportunity to find and foster new talent, from working with local bakeries to help sell their goods to partnering with other chefs.

“So if it's anything that we can lend to these rising or emerging businesses, it’s ‘Hey, listen, these are the steps that you need to take,’” he said. “Because it’s tough.”

Reflecting a president’s tastes

Rome says former President Obama’s palette is similar to his attitude, free of “fanfare and fanciness.”

The chef and the former President have been working together to create the menu or the Obama Center’s food program. I ask what foods Obama has requested for the menu. “It's got to be some pie,” Rome says with a booming laugh, “pie and burgers, right? Because he loves them. He's really, like, I'm simple, but I want it good, though it's got to be good."

Like President Obama, Rome loves simple, comforting foods. In the kitchen of Peach’s, Chef Rome cooks up a lunch of creamy shrimp and grits, a dish Peach’s is known for.

“This is the dish that I started off with. This was the very first dish that I created here, right? And I can see why it's a good dish,” he explains.

It is indeed. The warm, creamy grits and plump, luscious shrimp are harmonious with a light garlic cream sauce, tart, shiny cherry tomatoes, and salty bacon.

His version of the Southern staple was inspired by his grandmother's cooking.

“So we didn't get shrimp all the time, right? So you got the grits, and you may have had some leftover, you know, cream in there, right? And she'll say, hey, put this over those grits, right?,” he recalls. “ “So it's really a take on my childhood experience.”

Rome says his varied businesses, including a food service contract at the University of Chicago, have kept him away from the kitchen in recent years. But it is obvious in the way he moves around the line, the music he creates with his spatula and pan, that his soul is never far away from the stove.