| EVENT REPORT 09.29.09 3:57 PM |
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Chicago Gourmet Returns With New Tasting Stations, Twice as Many Chefs
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On Saturday and Sunday, local chefs and 8,000 foodies who love them overtook Millennium Park for the second annual Chicago Gourmet. Presented by the Illinois Restaurant Association, the food and wine festival offers book signings, cooking demonstrations, tented liquor lounges, and wine and restaurant tastings.
New to the event this year were five gourmet tasting pavilions that saw side-by-side chefs whipping up dishes that shared a common theme. In one of the pavilions, for example, Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard and Blackbird's Paul Kahan prepared regional American fare; in another, Rodelio Aglibot of Sunda and Le Colonial's Chan Le doled out Asian dishes.
The gourmet pavilions were the restaurant association's response to a common criticism from last year's guests, many of whom felt the event didn't offer enough food. "Our customers yelled loudly on this point and we responded," said Sheila O'Grady, president of the restaurant association. This year, the association put together a culinary committee of chefs, who met regularly for 10 months to create the programming for the gourmet pavilions. With about double the number of chefs at this year's event, "as [restaurant critic for The Chicago Tribune] Phil Vettel wrote, if you didn't think there was enough food this year, Shamu, go see your cardiologist," O'Grady said.
When planning for the first festival, before they had the benefit of customer feedback, O'Grady and her team visited highly regarded food and wine festivals in Aspen, South Beach, and New York "to do some reconnaissance," she said. "We cherry-picked what we thought were the best features of the events and took note of things that we didn't think worked too well."
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Illinois Restaurant Association, Marcus Samuelsson |
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| NEWS 07.09.09 4:06 PM |
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Chicago Gourmet to Return to Millennium Park With Double the Tastings and 100 More Wineries
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 | The Chicago Gourmet press conference
Photo: BizBash |
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On Thursday morning, Mayor Richard Daley and the Illinois Restaurant Association hosted a press conference at the Chicago Cultural Center to reveal the details of the second Chicago Gourmet event. Slated to return to Millennium Park September 26, the two-day happening will offer food and wine tastings, educational seminars, and celebrity-chef appearances from the likes of Top Chef's Stephanie Izard.
According to Sheila O'Grady, president of the restaurant association, this year's event will differ from its 2008 iteration in a few major ways: there will be twice as many food-tasting stations, wine tastings from 300 wineries—only 200 were represented last year—and two cooking-demo stages instead of one. This year's ticket prices, which run $120 to $150, will include admission to food seminars. Another new component, the Dine Around program, offers free admission to anyone who orders a special prix-fixe menu at five local restaurants between August 24 and September 27. (A complete list of participating eateries will be available here soon.)
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Mayor Richard Daley, Illinois Restaurant Association |
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| EVENT REPORT 10.02.08 11:07 AM |
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First Chicago Gourmet Fest Offers International Roster of Chefs, Lots of Wine
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 | The Chicago Gourmet festival
Photo: Deja Views USA |
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Chefs, sponsors, and food fans joined Mayor Richard Daley at the Harris Theater rooftop terrace on Friday evening to celebrate the inaugural Chicago Gourmet, the city's first fine food and wine festival that took place Saturday and Sunday in Millennium Park. The Illinois Restaurant Association, in partnership with the Anton Family Foundation, produced the festival, which, after years of planning, the association hopes to make an annual event.
Mayor Daley served as the chair of the host committee, which included a roster of nationally recognized culinary experts, fine-dining chefs, and sommeliers. "Great restaurants, great chefs, and great nightclubs are all a part of being a global city," Daley said at the kickoff reception. "We are trying to highlight Chicago and our culinary industry, which is one of the best in the world and getting better every day."
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Chicago Gourmet, Mayor Richard Daley, Illinois Restaurant Association, Dunkin' Donuts, Green City Market, Whole Foods, Culinary Institute of America |
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