THE WANDERLUST KITCHEN

Chef Cristian Orozco is walking toward our table, cradling an edible relic from his childhood with both hands. He’s placed his special dessert in a small wooden box and is trying to make sure it remains perfectly level. His eyes are ricocheting up and down—dish to floor, floor to dish—as he navigates the narrow walkway that cuts through center of his restaurant: Five 0 Four Kitchen in Glen Ellyn.

He’s lined the box with polished white rocks and topped the jagged canvas of shiny stones with a pinwheel-shaped buñuelo, Latin America’s answer to the beignet.

I’ve seen Fabergé eggs less ornately decorated than this dessert. Orozco has traced every curve of the pastry with a thin band of white coconut puree. Small green orbs of mint and strawberry gel fill small dimples in the fried dough, which is also wreathed with a miniature bouquet of edible flowers.

Microgreens sprout up from crevices in the rocks. Crimson hibiscus petals have been tweezered onto the dough for an extra pop of color. And the buñuelo has been showered with edible confetti, which we later learn are dried marigolds that Orozco has plucked, dehydrated and grinded down into sunshine-colored dust.

By this point in our meal, Orozco has already achieved a semimiraculous feat. I am wary, by nature, of fusion menus. My fusion phobia is due in large part to eating one too many servings of neongreen wasabi mashed potatoes during the late 1990s. But over the course of a single Sunday evening at Five 0 Four, Orozco has lovingly laid siege to every possible defense I could muster.

I happily raised the white flag two dishes into our meal, admiring the sheer moxie of a menu that A) Stuffed Italian ravioli with huitlacoche (the mushroom-like black corn that’s a delicacy in Mexico). B) Placed Spanish-style croquettes atop a spiral of red sauce that looks like a marina but tastes like pureed chipotle and guajillo peppers. And C) served mini taquitos stuffed with a Wagyu beef tartare.

But let’s go back to that beautiful buñuelo, shall we? When Orozco presents it, he says the dish is a sweet memory. Raised in Pajapita, in Northwest Guatemala along the Pacific Coast, Orozco learned to respect the region’s rich seafood offerings at an early age. (Make sure to try his Guatemalan-style octopus tostada for proof that he brought that love with him to Glen Ellyn.)

But Orozco, like any adventurous young boy, would often beg his mother to make the short trek over the border into Mexico, so he could feast on his definition of the ultimate Happy Meal: a plate of fresh-made tacos and a cold glass of horchata.

“I am very proud to be Guatemalan,” Orozco tell us, “But I think I’ve always kept a little part of Mexico in my heart, too.”

Thus, his bejeweled buñuelo pays homage to both cultures. It tastes like a churro, but the pinata-like blast of color is pure Guatemala. We eat. Orozco listens as we described beloved desserts from our own childhoods. And he smiles broadly, as he walks back to his kitchen. Mission accomplished.

Orozco has come a long way from this first kitchen job, cleaning soup bowls at Pho 777 in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. But he still looks back, somewhat nostalgically, at his suds and dishwasher days—as Vietnam’s steamy soups lit a fire in him to explore different cuisines.

He’ll never forget the moment, for instance, when a friend informed him that there was a magical book called The Michelin Guide, which listed, one after the other, the very best restaurants in the world.

Orozco rushed out, bought a copy, and flipped through every page. He was shocked to discover that Acadia, Chef Ryan McCaskey’s ode to Maine and coastal New England cooking, that he was working mere blocks away from the Michelin-starred restaurant.

When Orozco showed up at Acadia’s doorstep, he told McCaskey he was willing to toil away, night and day, for a chance to apprentice in his kitchen. McCaskey gave him a trial run, took note of the kid’s passion, and hired him the next day.

While at Acadia, Orozco absorbed many of his mentor’s philosophies, especially his obsession over sourcing pristine ingredients. From that point on, every stop along Orozco’s journey to Five 0 Four seemed to stoke a new passion in him.

He fell in love with Italian cooking after a stint an Italian restaurant. He learned how to view Mexican cuisine through a more modern lens while working with Carlos Gaytán at Tzuco in Chicago. A stint at North Pond in Lincoln Park followed, as well as an important stop at The Frida Room, where his pop-up tasting menus encouraged him to ask a dangerous question: Would it be possible for me to own and operate my own restaurant one day?

Orozco likes to say that Five 0 Four kitchen found him, not the other way around. Asked to help inject some new life into the restaurant’s menu as a consultant, Orozco commuted two hours every day from Chicago to Glen Ellyn. Once again, his passion bled clean through his chef’s coat, so much so that the owners of the restaurant offered him an opportunity to buy them out.

In early 2024, Orozco shook on it. The restaurant was his. His family moved out with him, having never spent so much as a full day in Glen Ellyn before. Their sacrifice, Orozco says, is the gift he savors most. At long last, with his wife, Sara Iscobar, running the tables and his daughter nearby, he’ll be able to spend more time with his family as he pursues his culinary passions.

Orozco’s menus change often, switching with the turn of each season and often within seasons. Thus, every visit is a different autobiography, a different interpretation of his story.

On our visit, he paired a silky piece of salmon with a medley of pickled vegetables—green apples, carrots, and chayote—which Orozco says is a staple of Guatemalan cooking. The oily fish and his mild “giardiniera” complement each other spectacularly, as did his accompanying saffron sauce: a homemade fumet thickened with butter and cream.

For further evidence of Orozco’s skill as a saucier, try his take on a Peruvian tiradito, slices of bluefin tuna sprinkled with pistachio dust and then moisturized with a leche de tigre that’s more sweet than spicy thanks to its infusion of passion fruit.

“I want to pay reverence,” Cristian says, “to as many different cuisines as I can.” There’s plenty of evidence of that fact on his current menu. Take Italy, for example: His Brussel sprout crostini isn’t your typical collection of small Melba-toast rounds. His crostini are torpedo-like in shape. Picture a thin savory éclair. The base layer is fresh baked focaccia that’s dressed up like a bowl of pasta primavera. It’s topped with hazelnut-studded burrata. A drizzle of pesto. The aforementioned sprouts. And a blend of honey and balsamic that could double as a stellar base for your next agrodolce.

“I never thought I’d be here,” says Orozco. “But the moment I came here I just felt something. It felt special.” Suffice to say, on a recent Sunday night, we felt the very same thing—something unique and special indeed.

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Cocktails

Chef Cristian Orozco has begun to plan and schedule wine dinners to show how his globe-trotting creations can marry beautifully with vinos from across the world. In the meantime, don’t leave without sampling his wonderful cocktail list.

Five 0 Four Kitchen is located at 504 Crescent Blvd in Glen Ellyn. 630.793.9834. 504kitchen.com