A classically trained Chef, John began his career at age 15, working in a fine-dining French restaurant. While working at some of the Midwest’s best restaurants, he was also exposed to wine and was fortunate enough to be a part of a team that built and managed a list with 1500 bottles. This exposure at a very young age and detailed management of such a remarkable cellar drove him to learn more about every sort of beverage, particularly wine. John has created and managed the wine lists and beverage programs at every restaurant he worked at from the age of 25.

At the age of 30 in 2009, he opened his first restaurant as Chef and Proprietor, Inovasi, and
from that time his small restaurant-group has grown. Always focusing on innovative ideas and
concepts, his restaurants each represent a different style of cuisine, and each is filled with
personality, eschewing the traditional suburban chain mentality. This forward-looking creativity and inventiveness are what drove John’s interest in creating a tequila brand. 

His wife’s family lives 25 minutes from ZB Distillery in the Jalisco highlands, and four years ago, one of her cousins asked him how he would approach creating a tequila brand. His interest was piqued, and he toured 18 different distilleries where he asked a lot of questions and took even more notes.

John’s Somm’s palate combined with his natural creativity and problem-solving skills allowed
him to bring a completely different viewpoint to the spirit and how it’s aged in unique finishing
barrels. John believes that “Tequila is one of the only spirits in the world to retain a sense of place
through its entire process, it retains its Terroir. Every choice we made with Cambio is to enhance the effect and show the true potential of the spirit.”

After 30 years as a professional chef, John des Rosiers has established himself as an inventive chef who is not only passionate about food and flavors, but also sure of himself when it comes to trying something new. He’s proven that to be true throughout his career, which started on the salad station at Gabriel’s in Highwood, IL. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, in 1997,des Rosiers, a Waukegan, IL, native, staged at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago and returned to spend six years at Gabriel’s, where he served as sous chef, restaurant manager, wine director and, ultimately, chef de cuisine.

In 2003, he joined Bank Lane Bistro, where, at first, he prepared straightforward, European-style bistro fare. Then one day, he served some associates a few offbeat items he’d dreamed up on the spur of the moment. “They said, ‘This is what you should be cooking all the time,’” he recalls. “I woke up at three o’clock in the morning thinking about it. The next day, threw the menu out. We changed everything and never looked back.”

For all of its quirks, however, des Rosiers’ cuisine nevertheless remains approachable, and he eschews techie trickery and unrecognizable ingredients. Although he spends a fair amount of time in the kitchen overseeing not only the menus but also restaurant operations, when he has free time, des Rosiers, an Eagle Scout, is most likely to be found outdoors—whether traveling, camping, or playing golf.

Inovasi is currently celebrating its 13th year in business and remains the flagship concept of the group. During the last 3 years des Rosiers has added 4 new concepts to the group and finally realized his years long idea of a new Tequila brand started from the ground up,Cambio.