Chef who sparked the gastropub boom talks about grandma, pigs and simple food

CHICAGO – April Bloomfield looks like a cop. Her chin juts. Her eyes assess. She’s quiet, short, compact, her manner direct and unfussy. Though there is a compelling argument that Bloomfield has done more in the past decade to change the way we eat than any other chef in this country, in person she is more serene, shy and no-nonsense than evangelical or dourly insistent; though she may have inadvertently inspired more urbane food trends than you could shake a hipster foodie at, she herself seems unassuming, even oblivious.