Adam Pawlak doesn’t like to keep still. The chef, owner of Egg & Flour Pasta Bar and serial competitive cooking show alum has a still-growing number of irons in the fire: collab chef dinners, private chef gigs, more food TV, a charitable foundation called Cooking for Kids, and a new food and wine festival coming to Henry Maier Festival Park this September.
“I set a lot of goals, and a lot of to-do lists because I like to work,” Pawlak says. When he slows down, it’s to hang with his “homie” – a 15-pound wiener dog named Alfredo. The bearded 35-year-old talks starting out, his brand and what’s on the horizon.
Tell us who you’d pick to be a Betty this year!
What made you decide to be a chef?
The day after I graduated [from Pius XI High School], I moved into my own place. My mom was like, “All right, it’s time to go to college, if you want to.” Just to show her I could do it, I went to MATC. So I’m at my first class, and they’re going through the syllabus. I last about 24 minutes. I just got up and the teacher’s like, “Where are you going? We’re not done.” And I was like, “Yeah, I’m done.” Though I didn’t tell my mom for a few weeks.
You were working in restaurants, too, when you were in school?
I was working at a little pizzeria [Pepi’s in Bay View] when I was 15. My job was to cut the crust [edges] off of the pizzas. It was a special thing – round pizzas. [Later] I was at Bella’s Fat Cat in Bay View, and The Dogg Haus restaurants for a long time. That’s when I was like, I need to work at better places. Black Sheep [in Walker’s Point] is when people started really knowing who I was.
Black Sheep is where you met Wes Shaver, your partner in the new Freshwater Food & Wine Festival. Talk a little about that.
We wanted to do something in Milwaukee that’s just really different for foodies and people who like wine. Bring as much talent into the festival as we can, whether that’s local or national – chefs doing demos, book signings. I don’t think it’s gonna be perfect, because it’s the first time, but it’s exciting to me to at least get it started. I’ve made it one of my traits to not just have ideas. I want to see them come to life.
Your foundation Cooking for Kids is also new, right?
Yeah, it just started in 2025. We do chef-driven or restaurant-driven fundraisers for Children’s Wisconsin. My chef collaboration dinner is kind of our gala. We did four events in 2025, [including] at Georgie Porgie’s and Solly’s, and this year, we’re gonna have a lot more. A lot of corporate sponsors have come forward and want to be a part of it.
Do you think competing on “Hell’s Kitchen” has branded you?
I’ve done four competitive cooking shows now. [Most recently, Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen: Knives Out” in 2025, which he won.] “Hell’s Kitchen” is definitely a really great platform. I’ve always wanted to do competition cooking, and I love it. I think it helps [further] my private chef business – cooking for professional athletes, and just normal people in their homes.
What have you learned about owning a restaurant over the last five years?
If you’re trying to please every single person in the city, it can backfire on you. I’m trying to stick to what I do and what I know and what I’m good at. If I see a lot of hype about a place, it’s like, well, that’s what they’re doing, I’m not going to try to be like them. I just try to stay consistent. I treat [Egg & Flour] like McDonald’s. The food should taste exactly the same as it did five years ago.
