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Sepia's chef infuses his fare with passion and flair.

Sunday Oct 21, 2007.     By Michael Nagrant

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Chef Kendal Duque of Sepia restaurant cooks with the soul of a poet. With a degree in Latin American literature from the University of California, Berkeley, he crafts silky sauces and architecturally inspired dishes with passion and detail, and treats plates as if they were fluid lines of verse.

In one of his signature dishes, the purple tendrils of charred baby octopus grip a platform of toasted bread, perched in a moat of sweet tomato coulis. In another, a golden slab of translucent bacon-pistachio brittle apes a plane of stained glass, while serving as an edible platform for rich mouth-coating pork rillette.

Duque is also a bit of an armchair philosopher, who believes that what we put on a plate represents how we relate to others. By creating novel combinations of seasonal ingredients, such as watermelon and fennel salad with goat milk yogurt dressing, he clearly states that he's a man with one foot in the sepia-tinted past and another planted squarely in the culinary future.

What do you wish you could change or pickle and preserve about the Chicagoland restaurant/food scene?
I'd like Chicago diners to continue to be adventuresome.

What would your last meal be?
I'd like someone to cook up an "ode to the pig," featuring all cuts and cooking techniques available in their arsenal.

Where do you eat/drink before/after a shift?
Avec. The food is fresh and flavorful and the spot always has a great energy.

What's the can't-miss dish at Sepia?
The charred baby octopus, with grilled bread and tomato sauce. The dish is tender yet crispy and citrusy, but also mellow from the tomato sauce.

What should we know about Sepia that we probably don't?
The staff gets along so well it feels like we have an extended family.

Recipe: Charred baby octopus, with grilled bread and tomato sauce; serves four

2 pounds fresh baby octopus, cleaned and tenderized
2 lemons, quartered
1 carrot, cut in quarters
1 small red onion, quartered
1 stalk celery, quartered
1 cup white wine
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
4 cloves garlic, smashed
Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper

Place all ingredients in a pot and cover with water. Bring up to a boil and then lower to a simmer; continue to cook until octopus is tender (depending on octopus, from one to two hours).Let octopus cool in this braising liquid until cool enough to handle and remove from liquid.

1 10-ounce can Italian imported plum tomatoes, whole
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 sprigs fresh basil
1/4 carrot, peeled and finely grated
1/4 yellow onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper

Drain tomatoes from their juice and chop finely. Place remaining ingredients in a saucepan over low heat and sweat the vegetables until soft. Raise flame to high and add tomatoes. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring often, for 20 minutes. Keep warm.

1 lemon, segmented 6 sprigs oregano 1/4 cup olive oil

Mix ingredients together to make a vinaigrette.

To serve, place octopus on a hot grill and lightly char all around. Pull off grill and toss in vinaigrette. Slice four thick rounds of a baguette and grill on both sides. On the serving plate, spoon tomato sauce on plate, place bread in middle and top with octopus. Drizzle some vinaigrette over and around octopus and serve immediately.