On an inauspicious stretch of North Clark, tucked between G’s Dawg ‘n Burger and Celtic Crossings, chefs Arun Sampanthavivat (Arun’s) and Roland Liccioni (Les Nomades) are embarking on Chicago’s most anticipated culinary collaboration. The project, called Le Lan, is at once a marriage of equals–two four-star chefs who both happen to be from Southeast Asia–and a balancing act.
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Liccioni was born in Ho Chi Min City to a French father and a Vietnamese mother in 1954; his family moved to southwestern France when he was two. Working in their Vietnamese restaurant exposed him to the business early. He went on to work in kitchens in Paris and London, where he heard about the Chicago area’s burgeoning French restaurant scene (Le Perroquet, Maxim’s, Alouette), and moved here in 1980, opening Carlos’ in Highland Park. In 1989 he assumed control of Le Francais, the temple of haute French cuisine in Wheeling created by Jean Banchet. For the next ten years Liccioni and his wife, Mary Beth, garnered accolades from around the world, never losing their four-star status. During that run they bought Streeterville’s Les Nomades; after their lease in Wheeling expired, they moved to Les Nomades full-time in 1999.
Davis and Sampanthavivat started talking about doing a restaurant together last year, after they spent some time in Thailand and China researching food for Opera. Sampanthavivat had been consulting on Red Light as well, and the two men began tossing around the idea of opening a Vietnamese restaurant with French influences. On the long flight back to the U.S., Liccioni’s name inevitably came up. “Roland is my best friend,” says Sampanthavivat. “I trust and respect his work. Because of his techniques and my vision, we thought we could put something together.”
