Nicholas Bazik is the chef and owner of Provenance, and the recipient of one of Philadelphia’s first MICHELIN stars. He spent 15 years working in Philadelphia kitchens including Fork, The Good King Tavern, Bistro La Minette, and Lacroix at The Rittenhouse. He has wanted to open his own restaurant since the age of 20, and he had never worked in a MICHELIN-starred restaurant before Provenance earned its star.
Provenance’s tasting menu is a parade of discovery, informed primarily by Philadelphia’s French restaurants. “I have a huge playbook of things that I’ve learned through my career of what we’re doing right now, like using puff pastry as a vessel for escargot, but then let’s put some snail caviar on top. That becomes a bit of discovery for the guests,” Bazik says.
Chefs at his level typically train at MICHELIN-starred restaurants across multiple cities, gaining experience in global kitchens and alongside peers with similar ambitions. Bazik’s cooking is entirely homegrown, shaped by his time at James with Jim Burke and at Russett with Andrew Wood.
“I am from Philadelphia. This is my home,” Bazik says. “My entire paid tenure of being a cook has been in Philadelphia and by design. I didn’t see the benefit of going elsewhere.”
Bazik grew up in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, about 40 minutes from Center City Philadelphia. Asked soon after Provenance opened what a French restaurant meant to him, he replied, “It’s focused on sourcing and sauce making.”
At Provenance, many of Bazik’s dishes are autobiographical, technically French in execution but shaped by Korean pantry ingredients, a reflection of his wife, Eunbin Whang, whom he consistently credits with his success and culinary identity. When handed the microphone at Philadelphia’s MICHELIN ceremony in November and asked to share his inspiration for Provenance, Bazik gestured toward Whang and said, “She’s right over there.”
At Provenance, Bazik brings together Whang’s family recipe for mountain kimchi with butter, one of many quiet, considered combinations on the plate. Across a parade of twenty-something precisely executed courses, he has created a special occasion restaurant that stands apart in the city.
