One of the lucky few, Justin Hall knew he wanted to make a career of cooking at a young age. Justin studied the culinary arts at a trade school during his high school years, blowing off real classes to "play with food." Since then, his passion, knowledge and repertoire have expanded to include contemporary American, Chinese and Mexican cuisines, among others. He continued his education at the Culinary & Hospitality Institute of Chicago (CHIC), but he soon found he was learning more practical skills in kitchens than classrooms.

Justin spent nearly five years honing his skill with the Kimpton Group as sous chef at Atwood Café and sous and banquet chef at Hotel Monaco and South Water Kitchen, located in downtown Chicago. For the past year and a half, Justin has been sous chef at Poag Mahone's, an Irish-American carvery and alehouse in Chicago's Financial District. This position has given Justin a more flexible schedule, with weekends off, so that he could help form FIG Catering.

If Justin ever decides he's had it with city life, his parents have followed in his footsteps by opening a small café (Grace Café, [email protected]) in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, but hopefully he'll be too busy with FIG events.

Molly Schemper
[email protected]

Molly should have always known what she wanted to do. She grew up in a restaurant-owning family and is still remembered for sneaking chunks of bleu cheese before it was made into dressing. Instead, as advised by her cautious parents who got out of the food business, she decided to pursue a more practical career. After graduating from DePaul University with a marketing degree, she worked for four years at a full-service branding agency.

Continuing to keep a toe in the food and beverage industry, Molly worked weekends with Carol's Event Staffing, an off-premises catering staffing company, providing service for some of the largest caterers in the city. A self-proclaimed foodie, Molly cooked, independently studied cooking, read about chefs and new restaurants, ate a lot and generally expanded her food knowledge every day. Deciding the advertising business was not for her, she jumped ship to work on a ship - actually two private yachts. She spent a year and a half traveling in the Great Lakes, Florida, the Bahamas, the east coast of the United States and Canada, as a personal chef and crewmember. Since resettling in Chicago, Molly has been serving and bartending in order to save money to launch FIG Catering.