When Giuseppe Tentori was a young boy helping out on his grandmother's farm in a small town outside of Milan, little did he know the impact it would have on his future. It was there that he developed a strong connection with nature and that, along with the straight from the garden to table approach he experienced, helped shape Tentori into the passionate chef he is today.

"My style of cooking is simple and clean," says Tentori. "Simple in that I like to keep the ingredients pure, using a spice here and there to take the product to the next level. Clean in that I don't use too much butter or cream so my guests feel comfortable when they get up from the table."

Tentori, 34, spent the last nine years perfecting this culinary philosophy in the kitchen of Chicago's Charlie Trotter's restaurant, the last two as Chef de Cuisine, an experience that allowed him a lot of creative freedom, he says, along with an atmosphere that encouraged the sharing of ideas and techniques. Tentori considers himself lucky to have fallen in love with cooking at a young age. At 14, he knew he wanted to be a chef. After finishing his culinary studies at Antica Osteria la Rampina in Milan, Tentori was invited by chef Gabriel Viti to work at his restaurant in Highland Park, Ill. Without speaking any English, the then-19-year-old Tentori "jumped on a plane" and started working at Gabriel's. "Thank God I was young," he laughs.

From there, Tentori went on to become sous chef at the Metropolitan in Salt Lake City, Utah. Two years later, he returned to Chicago and began working at Charlie Trotter's, which has become a launching pad for some of the country's most innovative chefs, including Graham Elliot Bowles and Homaru Cantu, both of whom worked with Tentori.

In his new position as executive chef at Boka, Tentori adds his unique style to the progressive American cuisine the three-year-old restaurant has become well known for. Along with an emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients - Tentori plans on being a regular at the city's farmers markets - look for innovative pairings to become his trademark. While the menu will change regularly, with Tentori tweaking it here and there to reflect the best of what the seasons offer, one dish on the new menu has already garnered attention and is exemplary of the type of cuisine he excels at. His first course offering of squid stuffed with shrimp and scallops with baby spinach, spicy pineapple and tapioca seasoned with squid ink is one he plans to keep on the menu for awhile. Says Tentori, "It's different and fun, yet simple and fresh. It makes people talk and think."