FANCY EATER

It isn’t difficult to eat well in Bloomington. There are restaurants catering to sophisticated tastes all over town, but the most obvious response when asked for a fine dining establishment is the Scholars Inn Gourmet Cafe & Wine Bar, located at 717 N. College Ave.

The Scholars Inn’s classically trained executive chef, Jake Brenchley, is a major reason for its renown. He has been fascinated by gourmet cooking from a young age – his first job was as a dishwasher at a high-end restaurant when he was 16.

“I moved my way up to working on the line,” he said. “I worked with a very fine French-trained chef that encouraged me to go to culinary school and to always strive to train under the best chefs I could.”

Brenchley emphasizes that fine dining doesn’t have to be frightening, and he tries to put a gourmet spin on popular and familiar dishes for customers at the Scholars Inn.

“The exciting part for me is when they experience a favorite dish in a totally new way,” he said.

The chef isn’t exclusively a connoisseur, and he admits to succumbing to the temptations of the crock pot and the fast food drive-thru. Still, the best meal he’s ever eaten is decidedly gourmet.

“The best meal I ever had was in the home of a Portuguese friend while I was living in France: a perfectly cooked rabbit, braised turnips, fresh carrots, pork belly stuffing and a sauce so amazing that to this day I have been unable to recreate it.”