Joshua Lanning

Chef & Restaurateur

For Joshua Lanning, cooking has never been about chasing trends or accolades. It has always been about place, about building something meaningful where it matters, and creating food that connects people to memory, season, and community.

That philosophy sits at the heart of BrightSide Kitchen, Lanning’s culinary platform based in Peoria, Illinois. More than a restaurant concept, BrightSide Kitchen is an ecosystem. It is a home for multiple food projects, a testing ground for ideas, and a commitment to building thoughtful, enduring hospitality in a city Lanning believes deserves it.

Lanning’s career has taken him through some of the most demanding kitchens in the world. He trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York, cooked at acclaimed restaurants including Del Posto, Casa Mono, and Quality Meats, and later staged at Noma in Copenhagen. That experience reshaped his understanding of discipline, creativity, and ingredient driven cooking. He went on to spend five years at Michelin three star SingleThread in Healdsburg, California, working closely with chef Kyle Connaughton as the restaurant defined its voice at the intersection of cuisine, agriculture, and hospitality.

Later, Lanning served as culinary director and close collaborator to chef Sean Brock in Nashville, helping oversee new ventures, menu development, and quality control across Brock’s growing portfolio. Throughout these years, one through line remained constant. A belief that the most powerful food is rooted in context, its land, its people, and its story.

That belief ultimately brought Lanning home.

Returning to Peoria, where his culinary instincts were first shaped by family meals and Midwestern generosity, Lanning founded BrightSide Kitchen as a way to apply everything he had learned without importing a coastal model that did not fit. His goal is not to replicate fine dining in miniature, but to build thoughtful, accessible concepts that feel native to the region, grounded in craft, care, and seasonality.

The starting concepts within BrightSide Kitchen include Bright O Bagels, focused on hand rolled, boiled, and baked bagels; Brightbelly Ramen, centered on deeply crafted broths and fresh noodles; and BrightBird Chicken Sandwich, a fried chicken sandwich concept built on technique, restraint, and flavor rather than gimmicks. Each concept stands on its own, yet all are unified by shared standards. Scratch cooking, clear systems, respect for ingredients, and hospitality that feels genuine rather than performative. The platform also allows Lanning to incubate ideas slowly and intentionally, letting the community shape what grows next.

While his background includes deep experience with live fire and barbecue, skills passed down from his late father and honed through years of practice, that tradition now lives as one part of a broader culinary language. At BrightSide Kitchen, fire might be used to finish vegetables, deepen broths, or reimagine familiar flavors, always in service of balance rather than nostalgia alone.

Today, Lanning is focused on building something lasting in Peoria. A culinary presence that supports local producers, creates meaningful jobs, and gives the city a food culture it can claim as its own. BrightSide Kitchen is both a reflection of his journey and a commitment to staying put, to investing time, energy, and care into a place that shaped him.

“Years ago, I told myself I needed to go work for the best,” Lanning says, “so that when it was time to build something of my own, I would be ready.”

BrightSide Kitchen is that work. Rooted, evolving, and intentionally home.

Josh Lanning is a talented and incredibly versatile chef.

I had the pleasure of working with him for several years in opening and running SingleThread, taking us from a construction project to a Three Michelin Starred restaurant in just two years. Josh is a thoughtful leader, a true mentor to those he's leading and has a teamwork and collaborative mentality.

One of Josh's truly unique gifts is his ability to master cuisine from the Three Michelin Star level to very casual cooking. He's as passionate about top level cooking in the world's best restaurants where he's been as he is about BBQ and casual, approachable cuisine.

His exceptional level of integrity, honesty, and commitment to his craft make him a true leader in our industry.

Kyle Connaughton

Chef and Owner
SingleThread farms

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