09/15/2026
Meet Cyrus Dobbs, Chef de Partie at Esmé, former architecture student, drummer, artist, and the reason you might hear “beep beep” echoing through our kitchen.
When Cyrus first joined Esmé, his habit of saying “beep beep” whenever he needed to get past someone was not exactly embraced.
So naturally, he kept doing it.
Now, everyone says it.
“I think when we’re in such an intense environment where the stakes are really high, a little joy goes a long way.”
After a year and a half at Esmé, Cyrus has watched the kitchen evolve, but what makes him proudest is the team it has become and the cohesion they’ve built together.
Get to know Cyrus, and the personality he brings to our kitchen every night.
What does architecture have to do with cooking?
According to Cyrus, quite a lot.
Before becoming a chef, Cyrus studied architecture, where he learned to think about composition, texture, color, cohesion, precedent, and the experience of the person interacting with what you create.
Today, he applies many of those same principles to food.
“Chefs will ask when I’m going to pursue architecture and I say I’m doing it right now, chef!”
That creative thinking extends beyond architecture and cooking. Cyrus draws, paints, takes drum lessons, and plays in a band, finding unexpected connections between all of them.
To him, creativity is about returning to something again and again, each time finding a way to make it a little better than the last.
Swipe through to see the world of Esmé through Cyrus’ perspective.
It wasn’t exactly the career path he imagined while studying architecture.
After realizing life at an architecture firm wasn’t the right fit, Cyrus spent a few years figuring out what was. He continued drawing and painting, delivered for Amazon, and eventually found himself working at a bagel shop in Oak Park.
There, something clicked.
He loved making the dough. He loved learning the rules and rigor of a kitchen. And he wanted to know more.
So he bought Sohla El-Waylly’s Start Here and began teaching himself how to cook.
Today, he’s a Chef de Partie at Esmé, bringing everything he learned before the kitchen into it.
And after a year and a half here, his goal
