Charlie Trotter, one of Chicago’s most prominent chefs and restaurateurs, died Tuesday. He was 54.
The famed chef, who has been away from the culinary scene since he closed his 25-year-old namesake restaurant last year, was found unconscious and not breathing in his North Side home at 10:45 a.m., ABC News reports. Trotter was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed the death. The cause was not immediately clear.
Trotter, who had owned several restaurants across the country, had said he closed his upscale restaurant to go back to school and study philosophy and political theory. Charlie Trotter’s was an award-winning restaurant and a destination for foodies throughout the world.