Chef Rick Bayless’ Incredible Home Garden A Hidden Gem In Bucktown

BUCKTOWN — If you’ve ever watched an episode of chef Rick Bayless’ award-winning series, “Mexico: One Plate at a Time,” you’ve seen the lush backyard garden of the Bucktown home he shares with his wife, Deann.

Whether glimpsed through a window or in its entirety, the large production garden and its 13 raised planter beds play a major role in the show, which ran on public television from 2003-2019 (the series is available on YouTube). The garden plays an even more important part in supplying fresh produce to Bayless’ restaurants, Topolobampo, Frontera Grill and XOCO in River North.

But aspiring gardeners, take note: Even one of Chicago’s most celebrated chefs has experienced gardening failures.

Thirty-one years ago, when the couple moved into the two-story home — originally a tavern called Polly’s Polka Lounge — none of the current plant-filled areas existed. The first thing Bayless did was resod the area on the side of the house. It all died.

He tried again and again, but nothing stuck.

“I can’t tell you how many hundreds of dollars I wasted on plants because everything I put there would fail,” he said.

Eventually Bayless gave up and installed flagstone pavers, adding more through the years. The area is now a full outdoor kitchen with a refrigerator, a working sink and cooking equipment, including a large wood-burning grill. Nearby, there’s a pit used to roast large cuts of meat. Tall containers overflowing with leafy plants sub in for the ones Bayless had hoped to plant in the ground.

The outdoor kitchen area, not far from the chicken coop, is where the 12 garden tours Bayless hosts every summer begin. He started the tours during the COVID-19 pandemic as a revenue-making venture to help his restaurants survive. For more information on tours and tickets, sign up for Bayless’ newsletter or follow on social media. They typically sell out within 24 hours after posting.

Gardener-In-Chief

The tour starts with a margarita and ends with the 20 or so guests exploring the production garden while nibbling on plants at the chef’s urging.

“We live with this every day, so we love sharing it with other people,” said Bayless. “It’s such a gift to be in this all the time.”

Also on hand for the tours is gardener Matt DeRose, who has been working with Bayless for five years.

“He’s the mastermind behind all of this stuff that you see here,” said Bayless.

DeRose also manages the greenhouse on the second story of the Bayless home, which grows edible flowers and herbs during the winter and houses some tomato plants year-round, as well as a production garden on top of Xoco that grows the large number of tomatoes Bayless’ restaurants need.

It was while running a farm in northern Illinois that DeRose became familiar with Bayless’ passion for agriculture and his Frontera Farmer Foundation, which the chef founded in 2003.

“Some people I knew in the ag community had gotten grants from him,” DeRose said.

DeRose was living in Georgia when he got the itch to return to Chicago. While perusing an agriculture job website, he saw Bayless was looking for a gardener.  

“I was like, I’ll throw my resume at it and just whatever. Like buying a lottery ticket,” DeRose said.

He had a FaceTime call with the Baylesses, “then boom, I was here.”

Bayless gave DeRose a rundown of the garden, and after that he gave him space to do his thing.

“He knew that someone who’s coming into this is going to have to smell around and dig some stuff up and figure out what’s going on,” said DeRose. “He’s really fun to work for because he notices everything, but he gives you latitude to make decisions.”

Taking Root In The Kitchen

To get the garden going each season, DeRose gets input from the restaurants’ kitchen teams, who often visit the garden.

“Each chef has expectations for things that they’re going to get from the garden every year,” said DeRose. “So, there’s stuff that’s already planned, stuff the chefs are kind of kicking the tires on, and then there’s me being bored in January looking through seed packets.”

During the eight months of the year it’s in production, the garden yields 700 pounds of salad greens, 65,000 edible flowers, 250 pounds of herbs and 100 pounds of butternut squash.

It also represents the culinary philosophy of Bayless, who helped launch Green City Market and other farmers markets around Chicago.

“I don’t think you can be a really good chef unless you’re also part gardener because you have to understand nature,” said Bayless. “A lot of the graduates of culinary programs are taught that they’re supposed to demand the best. But what you really need to understand about any kind of gardening or farming is that you’re not demanding anything from nature. You have to work with it.”

The 1,000 square feet of outdoor space and the gardening possibilities it offered was one of the main attractions for the couple when the Baylesses first saw the house. The large open front room, with its original terrazzo floor and pressed tin ceiling from its 100 years as a tavern, sealed the deal.

“I was three steps in and I thought, this is where I want to live,” said Bayless on his first viewing of the home.

The couple also bought the three-flat next door. Their daughter Lanie and her family now live in it.

Beyond Organic

Bayless is proud of his home’s origins, urging tour attendees to have a look inside, “whether or not you need to use the facilities.”

Post margarita, the group heads to a small part of the outdoor area featuring apple trees and a huge hydrangea hedge that provides privacy and also works as a sound barrier. A nearby cabana used to serve as an escape from the rain; it now mostly functions as toy storage for the couple’s two grandchildren.

A few steps away is a large pergola covered in thick grapevines, with a long dining table underneath. Bayless harvests about 250 pounds of grapes every year — a blessing and curse since they’re a Concord variety with an overbearing flavor profile, said Bayless.

Fortunately, a new sous chef at one of his restaurants is excited to work with them.

“I told him, ‘They’re all for you as nobody else wants to use them,’” said Bayless.

A koi pond houses offspring of the original fish given to the couple as a housewarming gift by the previous owners. The garden’s chickens and bees are part of Bayless’ overall concept of creating an organic garden. Taking it beyond eschewing chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, Bayless opts to follow biodynamic farming, which treats the garden as a self-contained, living organism.

“The biodynamics people say you should always think about all the animals that are around because they contribute to healthy soil, which produces healthy plants, fruits and vegetables,” said Bayless. “That really captures organic gardening in a way I can relate to.”

Tasting Encouraged

The production garden focuses on three things: unusual herbs; edible flowers; and “lettuces and things that we can’t buy very easily,” said Bayless.

A space underneath the detached garage houses microgreens and serves as a starting area for lettuce plugs.

Butternut squash, Japanese eggplant and figs all grow in the garden. In one corner, nopal cactus trails down the side of a raised bed.

“Most people think cactus can’t grow in this climate, but it actually grows in literally every single climate on earth,” Bayless said.

Bayless points to colorful flowers on the other side of the garden.

“If you haven’t had nasturtium flowers, please go over there and taste them,” he said, citing the flavor as “peppery” and “delicious.”

He recommends folks pinch off a tuberous begonia hanging in baskets: “It’s very citrusy, almost lemony.”

Garlic chives, Mexican oregano, hoja santa, Thai basil — the sampling recommendations from Bayless continue. He’s particularly excited about pipicha, an herb with a cilantro-like flavor that grew in Mexico before cilantro’s arrival in the early 20th century.

“I want folks to taste something that will change their lives forever,” said Bayless of all the sampling he encourages. “I’m trying to create memories for people.”