Vie Chef de Cuisine Nathan Sears dropped by La Grange Park's Plymouth Place on Thursday afternoon for a free cooking demonstration, tasting session and Q&A with several dozen of the senior-living center's residents.

Sears whipped up a simple beet salad recepie while talking about Vie's high standards for a constantly rotating cast of top-quality ingredients and recepies, a formula that has now earned it the rarest of suburban-Chicago restaurant honors: a Michelin star. Once the salad was done, residents got a free sampling of some of the suburbs' finest cuisine, especially the finest prepared in a mid-sized luncheon hall.

Chef Sears is a veteran of Vie, having worked both the front and the back of the house before landing his current position. The distinguished chef's expertise extends well beyond beets and other salads; he also serves as head of the restaurant's charcuterie program and teachers butchering classes.