Chef Grace Carnovale
Chef At Home in La Grange Park
Get to know me better
Seasonal, refined Chicago chef offering private dining, meal prep, classes, and chef-crafted culinary experiences.
Chef Grace Carnovale is a Chicago-based chef celebrated for refined, seasonal cooking rooted in Midwestern warmth and world-class technique. Raised as the youngest of five in a close-knit family, Grace discovered early on that food could both connect and inspire. She began her career waiting tables as a teenager before studying journalism and food science at the University of Missouri, later interning at Walt Disney World where she developed a deep passion for hospitality. Grace trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley and went on to build an exceptional foundation working for some of the world’s most respected chefs. Career highlights include working under Chef Thomas Keller at both Ad Hoc and the three-Michelin-starred French Laundry, as well as staging at the three-Michelin-starred Le Bernardin in New York City, where she focused on fine French technique and fish cookery. Her culinary curiosity led her across the globe—from Thailand to Sweden to Italy—studying regional cuisines and teaching at a cooking school in Umbria. In 2020, Grace returned to Chicago to open Scratchboard Kitchen, a farm-to-table restaurant that flourished despite launching during the pandemic, earning acclaim for its thoughtful seasonal cooking and community-driven ethos. Grace’s work has also been recognized on national platforms. She is a winner of Food Network’s Chopped, has appeared on Beat Bobby Flay, and was honored with a Best Chef Award from the International Fresh Produce Association. Today, Grace has taken on the industry as a chef-entrepreneur, offering her talents through restaurant consulting, hands-on cooking classes, weekly meal prep for local families, recipe development for major food brands, and intimate, high-touch private dining experiences—blending creativity with professional precision. Her signature philosophy—composed, but not complicated—translates restaurant-level technique into warm, memorable experiences designed for any occasion.
More about me
For me, cooking is...
For me, cooking is equal parts discipline and imagination—a balance of precision, seasonality, and the joy of sharing good food.
I learned to cook at...
The Culinary Institute of America
A cooking secret...
My secret in the kitchen is cooking with intention—when you care about the details, the food always tastes better.
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