Obituaries

Candlelight Vigil Held for Charlie Trotter at Restaurant

Friends and colleagues gathered outside Trotter's shuttered Lincoln Park restaurant to pay tribute to the visionary chef, mentor and philanthropist.

Charlie Trotter's Lincoln Park restaurant hosted an impromptu candlelight vigil Tuesday night for the famed chef who died earlier that day. He was 54.

Fellow chefs organized the vigil in front of his shuttered Armitage Avenue restaurant and spoke about Trotter as a chef who changed the Chicago culinary scene, as a mentor and as a philanthropist. Trotter closed the 25-year-old restaurant last year.

Chicago Magazine calls the self-taught Trotter, "Chicago’s most famous, revered, groundbreaking, and feared chef." 

He was found unresponsive in his Lincoln Park home by his son Tuesday morning, the Chicago Tribune reports. An official cause of death has not been announced, but WBEZ is reporting that Trotter had an aneurysm in his brain and weak arteries that he'd know about for several years

Watch the video above for the full report on last night's vigil. 

Did you ever eat at Charlie Trotter's or interact with Trotter himself? Share your memories of the restaurant and the chef in the comments section below.


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