Paul Sapyta
chef / business owner
Room at the Table
early beginning
When I was three or four years old, my sisters—who are 12 or 13 years older than me—babysat me while they worked at a Chinese restaurant on the South Side of Chicago. I actually learned to count in the back of that restaurant, putting almond cookies into little bags. Every time I got the count right, they’d give me a piece of sesame candy as a reward.
My older sister Cathy also took me to the Taste of Chicago when we were growing up. She was a broke college student back then, so the first stop was always the Hare Krishna tent because they offered food by free will donation. That’s where I was first exposed to vegan food, and it was beautiful. Because she was on a tight budget, she wouldn’t let us spend our food tickets on something basic like pizza. She’d say, “You can get that any day. There’s turtle and beer soup over there—let’s try that instead.”
multi-cultural influences on my cooking
My mother was born in Germany, and my father grew up speaking Polish, so I had strong German and Polish influences from an early age. We lived in a primarily Mexican and African American neighborhood, which added more cultural layers to my perspective and palate.
I worked for the Chicago Park District and absorbed cultural influences from every neighborhood. Each has a distinct ethnic makeup—some were near Chinatown, others in predominantly Polish, German, or Russian communities.
Then I studied cultural anthropology in college, which deepened my appreciation of global cultures. Later, in the Army, I attended Russian language school and deployed to Afghanistan, where I served as a military liaison to foreign civilian governments. My world view expanded as I explored all these different cultural traditions firsthand.
before a permament kitchen
Though I’ve always loved cooking, I didn’t think about it seriously until people began asking me to help in the kitchen. Then people started asking me to cook for parties and family gatherings, so I used church kitchens and the VFW kitchen in Cloquet. It just kept growing, and we started our catering company, Room at the Table and got our food truck.
In January 2020 I met Jim Vnuk, the owner of Jim and Jo’s Katering, at an event. We started talking, and he offered to let us take over his client base, buy all his equipment, and use the kitchen at the Cloquet Forestry Center. It was a great fit, and Jim stuck around a couple more years to be sure we had enough business to keep going. Now, we’re busier than ever.
it's an honor
The first meal a newly married couple shares is going to be one I cooked. That’s a huge responsibility. It's something they’ll remember the rest of their lives.
It’s a beautiful thing, whether it’s a wedding, a funeral, a retirement party—whatever the occasion—to be part of those moments and memories. It’s an honor to be behind the scenes, making sure everything is just right.
the beauty of it
What keeps me grounded as I grow as a chef, a boss, and a business owner—is my love for preparing, cooking and presenting food for another human being. I love the ephemeral, fleeting nature of it all - within 24 hours, it’s been eaten, digested, and literally turned to crap. And then I start over. That's the beauty of it.
There are different levels of creativity, and right now, I'm still trying to find my place within my company. For the past 8–9 years, I’ve been working on it part-time, and we’ve finally reached a point where I can afford to be full-time. Now, my focus is figuring out how I fit into the company in a full-time role—without disrupting the processes that have already been developed, some by me, some by others, and all of them working well. That’s really my main creative challenge now: learning how to fully integrate into the company which has grown to be so much bigger than just me.
Profiles in Creativity has been funded in part through an Art Project Grant for Individuals FY25 awarded to Glenn Swanson by the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council.
Local Hands photography project/exhibition will highlight the lives and craftsmanship of 20 local artisans of diverse artistic and crafting disciplines, showcasing their skills, traditions, and the cultural significance of their hands at work.
