Results tagged “paulvirant”

Mike Gebert's latest Sky Full of Bacon video podcast continues his look into fishing and sustainability by turning his camera to Great Lakes whitefish. With some assistance from Carl Galvan of Supreme Lobster, Gebert went on a fishing run with a Wisconsin family that has been trolling Lake Michigan for whitefish for 130 years.

Sky Full of Bacon 11: A Better Fish from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.
• Mike Gebert visits Carl Galvan and Supreme Lobster Company, one of the country's largest fish purveyors, about the volume of seafood they sell while maintaining sustainable pracitces. [Sky Full of Bacon]
• Phil Vettel and the Trib's resident "Mayor McCheese" Kevin Pang debate pizza pie slices versus the familiar square party cut. Sorry, Kevin: we're siding with Phil on this one. [Tribune]
• Jennifer Olvera gets canning tips from Paul Virant. [Sun-Times]

Mike Gebert took a road trip to Iowa recently to film some behind-the-scenes footage at La Quercia in Norwalk, IA. La Quercia owners Herb and Kathy Eckhouse make some of the best dry-cured artisan salumi available, particularly prosciutto and guanciale. Jeffrey Steingarten called La Quercia's prosciutto "the best American or imported prosciutto [he's] ever tasted," while Bon Appetit once named La Quercia "Food Artisans of the Year."

Realizing a long-held goal, the folks at Green City Market are set to have the market open year-round. Starting January 17 and running every first and third Saturday until April 18, vendors and farmers will hawk their wares at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (2430 N. Cannon) from 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

        

Last night we attended the sold out mulefoot pig dinner at Blackbird sponsored by the Chicago Reader. Reader food critic Mike Sula has been chronicling the progress Dee Dee since he persuaded the paper to buy her last year, bringing attention to this rare endangered breed of swine in the process.

After nearly two years, the Reader is ready to serve up some of that mulefoot pig it adopted to some hungry folks. And they're doing it in style, with a six-course dinner starting 6 p.m. October 19 at Blackbird to benefit Slow Food Chicago.

A couple weeks back we attended the Green City Market farmer's dinner at Goose Island's Clybourn brewpub. That was the one that featured dishes from a host of chefs including Dean Zanella of 312 Chicago; Brian Huston of Paul Kahan's the Publican (opening in mid-autumn); Elissa Narow of Custom House and Paul Virant of Vie in Western Springs. Virant's dish was easily the most ambitious of the courses, utilizing lamb in unexpected ways. Virant sourced the lamb from Mint Creek Farm in downstate Stelle.

There are a couple of really interesting beer dinners of note in the coming weeks that could wind up being hard reservations, if you're the type to wait until the last minute to get reservations.

Continue reading "The Friday Buffet"