The chef behind this mesmerizing egg-topped patty melt is Cleetus Friedman of City Provisions and he’s hosting Cooking Up a Cure this coming Monday, October 15, at Salvage One, benefitting the Scleroderma Foundation Greater Chicago Chapter. Friedman lost his father to the disease in 1991. You may remember Friedman created the chocolate charity truffle of the month at Katherine Anne Confections. His Bad Ass Bourbon Bacon truffle is available until the end of October, with a portion of the proceeds also going to the Scleroderma Foundation.

Friedman is now best known as a local, sustainable chef, whose mission is to connect our community with food. With his widespread charitable work, you could rightfully expect a crunchy granola guy. But the once self-described “writer, performer, Jew” is more hardcore than hippie, or God forbid, hipster. Instead of Dan Barber or Michael Pollan, think Samuel L. Jackson.

Friedman does however make a ridiculously rich honey granola, too, with honey he harvests himself from hives at Heritage Prairie Farm.

While the deli is hardcore local, sustainable, and artisanal — with their own in-house butcher/sausage-/charcuterie-maker, Andrea Deibler — Friedman understands the impossibility of eating this way all the time. As he told Mark Bazer on The Interview Show, he’s the father of twins, whose wife works too, and it’s not feasible for them to eat only locally and sustainably at home. But his goal was to create a place where everything was locally sourced. He also tells Bazer the importance of a well-educated staff, like at Abt, where he loves to look around, and eat a cookie.

I like those little warm, gooey, chocolate chip cookies, fresh out of the showroom ovens too, if I’m there. But I’ll go out of my way for Friedman’s Sunday-only cinnamon sugar old fashioned cake doughnuts. That’s substance, in more ways than one.