Iliana Regan

Restaurant: Elizabeth Location: Chicago At least half the menu at Elizabeth, Iliana Regan's tiny ticketed restaurant, is always inspired by the foods she gathers on foraging excursions. "And in the summer, it's 100 percent based on what I've found," she says. The self-taught chef grew up on a 10-acre Indiana farm: "We had the occasional pigs and chickens, and my mother preserved everything." Now Regan spends most Sundays in the woods, collecting ingredients that often sound a little oddball—like sassafras twigs, which she'll turn into ice cream or cake for a supremely naturalist dessert. Iliana's Obsessions Veggie-O'sRegan serves crisped chicken skin with root vegetables shaped like circles. Foraged FruitRegan sometimes hunts for the berries in the jam she serves with housemade brioche and butter. Wild StyleDeer skulls that Regan found in the woods decorate her restaurant. Dessert from the ForestPorcini ice cream comes with sassafras cake, edible moss and shaved herb ice.