After months of hype, weeks of anticipation and three days of wine and tweeting, Chicago Gourmet 2011 is finally behind us. Despite the rain and the shoe-ruining mud (we're sending your our cleaning bill, Illinois Restaurant Association!) the event was actually pretty good. In fact, Chicago Gourmet was, dare we say, worth the money this year. more ›

Better Homes and Gardens and Weber Grills are throwing one heck of a party this weekend in Lincoln Park - a "Chill and Grill."This Saturday and Sunday, watch grilling demos, take classes on better outdoor fire-cooking and sample tastes from some of Chicago's best restaurants. Admission to the festival (and all the demos) is free, and you can see some of Chicago's best, including Stephanie Izard, the Hearty Boys, Gale Gand, Ina Pinkney, Steve Dolinsky and others, share their best grilling tips. More on the schedule after the jump. more ›

Starting tomorrow and running through the 21st, buildings downtown will be bathed in blue light to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. more ›

Playing Santa to a foodie this year? Us, too. Cooking classes make great gifts, but in a city where many different restaurants and cooking schools offer classes aimed at educating the home cook, how do you choose wisely? Take pasta. You can learn to make it from scratch at two of Chicago's popular "recreational" cooking schools, the Chopping Block and Cooking Fools. To help you make an informed purchase for your fellow-foodie, we did some fieldwork at both spots. more ›

It's that time of year again where Grant Park is blocked off, transforming it into the world's largest unwieldy potluck. For the next ten days, hundreds of thousands of people will flock to Taste of Chicago for everything from Abbey Pub's fish and chips to Vermillion's mango-cumin fries. more ›

A couple weeks back a friend purchased Chicago Gourmet tickets via the half-price special Groupon offered. She asked for advice to prepare for the festival. We told her to pack a lunch. more ›

It seems as though everything Stephanie Izard does these days is becoming one long advertisement to the impending opening of the Drunken Goat. And they're all cool endeavors. But this Le Cordon Bleu online cooking demonstration with Izard sounds really cool, even if it's also being tied in to promote the release of Julie & Julia. Izard, a Le Cordon Bleu program graduate from the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, will be making Beef Bourguignon and Chocolate Chiffon Pie, inspired by the film. The demo can be streamed via uStream and discussion of the demo will be live via Twitter at twitter.com/LCBSchools (hashtag your tweets #LCBJulia to join in on the discussion). the demonstration starts at 1 p.m. tomorrow. (h/t Colonel Tribune) more ›

Grant Achatz started his rise to chef superstardom at the long lamented Trio in Evanston, which also served as a proving ground for Rick Tramonto, Gale Gand, Shawn McClain and Dale Levitski. more ›

With a lineup filled with food seminars, cooking demonstrations, wine classes and a beautifully equipped Viking Culinary Stage at the Pritzker Pavilion, you would think that Chicago Gourmet would’ve been a Mecca for home cooks looking to jazz up their dishes. Think again. While some of the seminars were informative (most notably Greg Hall on beer and cheese and Paul Bartolotta on seafood), others were thinly veiled promos for books, products or restaurants. more ›