Stephanie Izard on being a female force in the restaurant world, newest Chicago restaurant

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Female chefs from across the country recently gathered at a brunch in the West Loop to celebrate Women's History Month, and what better place to do so than at Stephanie Izard's flagship restaurant The Girl and The Goat.

"Chefs that I've been cooking with for years and we see each other at events in the city and we dine at each other's restaurants and we call upon each other when something comes up," she said.

Izard is at the top of her game, running half a dozen restaurants between Los Angeles and Chicago. She's the only female chef partner at Boka Restaurant Group, an industry powerhouse, and while she now lives on the West Coast, she still calls the Windy City home.

"Finding my way back here after culinary school just felt like a natural fit, like this is the city I'm supposed to be in," Izard said. "So it wasn't even a question about opening restaurants here. This is my home."

Her winding career path started 20 years ago, when she bought and sold her first restaurant before becoming the first woman to win Bravo's "Top Chef."

"I'm a very sore loser. Everybody that knows me, knows," Izard said. "So it was good that I won. And after that it just started to open a lot of doors."

She's now juggling motherhood and multiple businesses, and she says it's all worth it.

"I've kind of decided to do a little bit of everything and just let it all grow into this fun Little Goat world and I'm just on this endless roller coaster and just waiting to see what happens," she said.

Izard also credits her business partners and network of other chefs and restaurant industry insiders for helping her along the way.

"I'm very fortunate to be in an industry where you get support from men and women everywhere," she said. "The restaurant industry wants to see the restaurant industry do well. Of course, there's friendly competition because we're all competing for guests to come into our restaurants, but I think that's what keeps us all pushing each other."

Izard is currently working on the grand opening of Little Goat in Lakeview. They expect to open their doors in mid-April.