Mark Kurlyandchik

Detroit Free Press

Detroit's buzzy food scene is set to reach a new level of respectability this year thanks to the impending arrival of a highly decorated Chicago chef.

Thomas Lents, executive chef of the two Michelin-starred Sixteen restaurant inside Chicago's Trump Tower, is leaving his post to head up dining at the forthcoming Foundation Hotel in downtown Detroit.

"Detroit's dining scene right now is as alive with potential as any dining scene in the country and maybe even the world," Lents, 43, said in a phone interview. "It's a town that's hungry for new things and for quality. I think it's been starved and it deserves better and I hope that I can be part of bringing the culinary scene to where Detroit deserves."

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To casual observers, the Michigan-born chef's move may read like so many similar stories of restaurateurs who made their bones elsewhere only to return years later to open in a town the national media has dubbed "the comeback city."

Except for one thing: No chef has ever hung up two Michelin stars to come cook in Detroit, where the coveted Michelin Guide doesn't even venture.

"I could move to San Francisco and open a restaurant and it would just be a drop in the bucket among other great restaurants that are there," Lents explained. "In moving to Detroit, you feel like your efforts are really going to make a difference, and that's important to me right now."

Lents' wife, Rebecca LaMalfa, is also a decorated chef who has appeared on Bravo TV's "Top Chef" and currently runs the kitchen at Virgin Hotels Chicago. Lents said the couple plans to commute between the two cities for now — but his move to Detroit could eventually prove to be a culinary twofer.

Lents' pedigree would be impressive in any city, but his move is a testament to the type of culinary talent Detroit is now attracting.

Born and raised in Battle Creek, Lents left Michigan more than two decades ago and began his cooking career in earnest at Chicago's Everest restaurant before moving to Ireland to work in the two Michelin-starred Thornton Restaurant. He came back to the U.S. a decade ago to work as a sous chef at the three-Michelin-starred Joël Robuchon Restaurant in Las Vegas, where he eventually became its first American chef de cuisine.

In January 2012, Lents moved to Chicago to run the kitchen at Sixteen, earning two Michelin stars during his tenure.

After spending much of his career chasing those stars, Lents said a cancer diagnosis 18 months ago made him reevaluate his priorities.

"It was one of those things that made me realize that maybe the Michelin stars weren't what really was going to make me happy for the rest of my life," he said. "And maybe I needed to focus on doing things that made me feel a little bit better about what I was doing as a chef and kind of focus a little bit more on things that actually make me happy."

His cancer now in remission, Lents conceded that the recent presidential election also had an impact on his decision to leave the luxury restaurant on the sixteenth floor of Trump Tower Chicago.

"I've been very lucky to work with some very talented and very caring people inside the hotel," he said. "That being said, the election has been difficult for everyone involved and frustrating to see all the great product that's been put out by this hotel suffer because of situations that are outside of our control."

Lents' last day at Sixteen will be Tuesday. He begins his new role at the Foundation Hotel at the beginning of February.

As its executive chef, he will oversee all the food operations of the hotel, which include a large ground-floor restaurant that will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as in-room dining and "a couple other surprises" that will be introduced at a later date.

"I don't think we're going to try to do the same level of dining that we did at Sixteen," he said. "Obviously we'll still be refined because I think that's my style to an extent. But I think we're going to try to make it — especially the major restaurant downstairs — into something that's a little bit more approachable and kind of tells the story of Detroit, a little more down to earth."

Located in the former Detroit Fire Department headquarters on the corner of Larned and Washington, the Foundation Hotel is owned, codeveloped and managed by Chicago-based Aparium, which has individually branded hotels in nine other cities across the country.

Aparium's website offers more details on what may be in store for those "other surprises" Lents hinted at: "The Foundation will be home to a 'Chef’s Table' that will deliver a destination prix fixe experience and will also serve as an incubator for Detroit’s newest chefs and a home-coming platform for the city’s chefs who have set-up shop elsewhere."

The hotel is touting a spring 2017 opening, but Lents declined to offer any more specific dates.

Contact Mark Kurlyandchik: 313-222-5026 or mkurlyandchik@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mkurlyandchik and Instagram: mkurlyandchik.