Results tagged “slowfoodchicago”

After a temperate and relatively dry summer — and that's putting it mildly — tomatoes are finally starting to grow and ripen just as the fruit is reaching its seasonal peak locally. Chicago Tomato Fest was established by Slow Food Chicago to celebrate the five-week period where sun gold, plum, cherry and other heirloom varieties abound. New to the fest this year is a "BLT Challenge," where they're asking local chefs to commit to using locally grown heirlooms, as well as locally and sustainably raised bacon to promote the farms they sourced the tomatoes and pork from.

      

We dined last night at Carnivale for its Slow Food and Goose Island Brewery dinner. The meal featured produce from local farmers prepared by Chef Mendez and paired with a Goose Island brew. Once seated at communal tables, the evening began with a warm welcome from Chef Mendez and a beer graciously poured by his wife, making us feel like they'd welcomed us into their home for a dinner party with friends.

       

The best beer and wine dinners are collaborative efforts where chef and winemaker/brewmaster get to know each other and their creations intimately. Even so, the number of these dinners we've attended where every pairing worked perfectly can be counted on one hand.

Robert Kenner's documentary Food, Inc. is a harsh look at how Americans get their food in the age of factory farms and the tacit approval of their techniques the USDA and FDA. Slow Food Chicago is sponsoring a free screening of the film at 600 N. Michigan this evening at 7 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.

Slow Food Chicago and Uncommon Ground are joining forces for what appears to be, on paper, to be one hell of a dinner.