Results tagged “menupageschicago”

Update your bookmarks: Menupages Chicago (and all the MP blogs) was re-branded this morning as Grub Street Chicago in a very beautiful redesign. The (re)launch allows parent company New York magazine to extend the Grub Street brand into other cities through corporate synergy while losing none of the knack for hard news, aggregation and criticism that made the MP blogs must-reads. MP Chicago editor Helen Rosner is still at the conn, still obsessing over Grant Achatz, and still keeping tabs for a Pat Bruno slip-up.

A couple weeks back a post ran about Cochon 555, the snout-to-tail pork competition Sunday at the Drake Hotel featuring Graham Elliot Bowles, Stephen Dunne, Chris Pandel, Patrick Sheerin and Sam Burman. Each of them is tasked with breaking down and preparing a heritage breed pig for eating. Since then your humble food and drink editor was invited to be one of the judges for the event. I have no earthly clue what I bring to the table that chefs Koren Grieveson, Rick Gresch, Seth Siegel-Gardner and Doug Sohn don't, but it should be a fascinating time.

For many food writers, the mere mention of the name John Mariani is enough to raise hackles and raise voices in protest. The "food and travel correspondent" for Esquire makes for an easy target with his byline at Esquire, Wine Spectator and Bloomberg News, ostentatious prose and numerous accusations of questionable ethics, including one instance relayed by moto's Homaru Cantu that's now become legend.

MenuPages Chicago has compiled a handy guide to surviving a tasting menu, and just in time for those of us with reservations to L2O and Alinea over the holidays. We wholeheartedly endorse Step #5; leave that step to the professionals. [MP Chicago]

This has been making the rounds at other blogs, but we still wanted to share it with you. Mike Gebert at Sky Full of Bacon followed around localvore hero Rob Gardner as Gardner acquired a pig's head from the Oak Park Farmer's Market, then took it to Mado, where chef/co-owner Rob Levitt promptly made testa (aka "head cheese") out of it. This video is not for vegans or the queasy, nor should it be.

Helen Rosner at MenuPages Chicago was all over the "can you top this, MF" between Mikes Nagrant and Gebert Friday regarding their respective city eats guides: Nagrant's at Serious Eats; Gebert's response at Sky Full of Bacon.

• Former Sun-Times Columnist Esther J. Cepeda (miss reading her) asks if Rick Bayless is Chicago's official Mexican chef at ChuffPo. [HuffPo Chicago]
• Chi-Town Daily News looks in depth at the often overlooked City Farm CSA project near Cabrini Green. [Chi-Town Daily News]
• Smoque owner Barry Sorkin is featured in a NYT article on the perils of opening new restaurants. [NYT]

• From the "DUH!" Files: Apparently fast food meals aren't good for kids. The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report this week that concluded that kids meals at fast food chains exceed the 430 calories-per-meal limit. Among the worst offenders, Chili's makes the list twice with kids meals at or over 1000 calories each. [via MenuPages Chicago]
• "Rock Star Chef City" alert: BOURDAIN is in town through next week finally filming for the No Reservations Chicago episode. He's got the venerable Louisa Chu in tow, who'll be escorting him to Calumet Fisheries, Burt's Place in Morton Grove and L2O, among other places. We're so stalking this weekend. [Food Chain]
• Lori Barrett writes about cold soups. [Drive Thru]
• An argument for frozen fish [Washington Post, via]

• Leading off today is this hiring video put together for Lettuce Entertain You property Hub 51 Restaurant and Lounge, an exaggerated parody of Tom Vu infomercials. (via)
• Fresh off his appearance on last night's episode of Top Chef Chicago, Rick Tramonto has a blog over at Restaurant & Institutions magazine website. There are only two posts right now, but Tramonto's an in-demand chef and businessman, so only expect him to update when he has the time and/or something to write about. (Again, via).
• The Tribune ran a wonderful piece yesterday on how some of Our Town's best chefs would reinvent that all-American staple, the hot dog. Check out Shawn McClain's tofu version with kimchi and sport peppers, Rick Bayless' Chi-Mex hot dog, or Charlie Trotter's Asian tuna dog.