This event sold out so fast even we could barely make it in. If you didn't get a chance to attend (and get a first look at the finished Nellcote) take a look now. more ›

A man was killed an an officer was injured when a car rear ended a squad car, the state added an LGBT section to its tourism site, and other news. more ›

The Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau has enlisted Stephanie Izard to host its inaugural "First Bites" bash at the Great Hall of Union Station. more ›

Chef Izard's new diner concept will open (we hope) in the spring of 2012. more ›

Stephanie Izard's Goat Tour, which promotes the Girl and the Goat chef's first cookbook, the newly released Girl in the Kitchen, made its hometown stop last night - and if the plates served up to celebrate the occasion are any indication, Izard's handsome anthology of recipes is destined for a lot of use in many a home kitchen. more ›

A reminder: Stephanie Izard's cookbook release party tonight. Also, Esperanza Spalding returns to Symphony Center Friday night. more ›

A fabulous launch party, benefiting Share our Strength, starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night. more ›

If you don't win tickets - buy them. This is sure to be one of the best food events of 2011, and we predict that it is going to sell out fast. more ›

Last week, we told you how you might be able to get tickets to watch Stephanie Izard and Giuseppe Tentori face-off in this week's Quick Fire Challenge. There was a lot of calling, re-dialing and fingers being crossed. If you didn't get tickets, but still want to watch this fairly epic confrontation (and eat the results) this is your chance. It's like Top Chef live in front of you! more ›

The Boka restaurant group has been hosting "Quickfire" cooking competitions for a couple of month, pitting different executive chefs from their all-star lineup against each other in Iron Chef/Reality Television type contests. It's great PR, but here's the important part for you - tickets are free. Really. Free. Considering how hard it is to get into Girl & the Goat, it's probably worth reading on. more ›

Have you ever wanted to see what sort of music Stephanie Izard likes to dance to? Now you can experience it first hand. "Stagiaire Records," a chef-driven party at Old Town Social every Tuesday night from 10 PM to 2 AM lets you rock out with some of Chicago's most famous chefs, and the proceeds go to benefit the Green City Market. Quietly running since May, the party is now ramping up for the summer. more ›

Tough time getting a table at Girl & the Goat? Taste the creation of now famed chef Stephanie Izard, and Food + Wine Magazine’s Best New Chef, at seriously reduced prices, with a charitable cause in mind. Popular quick-and-easy Lakeview dining favorite Falafill is hosting a series of famous chef-made wraps with a portion of the proceeds going to the featured chef’s charity of choice. This month’s Izard wrap, with proceeds going to Share Our Strength, has us salivating for more. more ›

Every year, the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen brings some of the country's best chefs, sommeliers, wine producers and hardcore culinarians (read: foodies) together for a weekend of both work and (mostly) play. With cooking seminars, wine tasting workshops, jam-packed tasting pavilions, lavish dinners and notorious after-parties, it's hard not to have a great and gluttonous time. To celebrate our city's raging culinary scene, this slideshow highlights some of Chicago's finest as they eat and drink their way through this year's Classic. more ›

-Time Out announced yesterday that North Shore Distillery, a Chicagoist favorite, will be announcing a new addition to their line-up. Sol Chamomile Citrus Vodka will hit shelves on June 1. "We wanted it to be a fun, not so serious, really delicious spirit that is accessible to a broad range of people," says co-owner Sonja Kassebaum. This isn't one of their super-secret limited edition spirits, so it will be available permanently. more ›

Thanks to Stephanie Izard's Twitter, we just got the word that her new book, "Girl in the Kitchen: How a Top Chef Cooks, Thinks, Shops, Eats & Drinks" is available for pre-order. Are you an Izard groupie? Buy it now for $19.77. The book comes out for reals in October, but if you really want to lock in your copy at this very moment, go for it. 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 ›

Today's events include a fundraiser featuring Stephanie Izard and a rare Colleen Moore film screening. more ›

Stephanie Izard is wrapping up a trip to New York to attend the Beard Awards. Before she left, she posted this interesting blog entry about an limited seating pork tasting she's putting together for Memorial Day weekend. more ›

Jared Rouben's collaborative beer series at Goose Island Clybourn keeps on rolling. Last week Rouben debuted Curbside, an amazingly subtle saison he brewed with Time Out Chicago's Heather Shouse for the release of her book on Food Trucks and the Food Truck Summit. While we were there we also got a sample (actually, a growler courtesy of Rouben) of a beer he worked on with Stephanie Izard that's now on draft at Goose Island Clybourn and Girl & the Goat. It's called Black Wit and it's one of the more curious collaborations Rouben's done. We asked Izard via email about how the collaboration came to pass. more ›

Time Out Chicago announced their annual Eat Out Awards last night and readers, like much of us, fell for Stephanie Izard. Izard won the readers' choice for Chef of the Year (and it really was her year); Girl & the Goat won for best New Restaurant: Izard's business partners, BOKA's Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, won Restaurateurs of the Year. The wins come on the heels of Izard's Food & Wine Best New Chef win (which we're still kind of flummoxed by, since Izard has had a national reputation dating back to her days at Scylla) and should dovetail nicely into next month's James Beard Awards, where Girl & the Goat is up for Best New Restaurant. more ›

We watched the finale of Top Chef All-Stars at Stephanie Izard's Girl and the Goat along with many Bravo television notables. The only thing tastier than the eye candy was the incredible food. Enjoy some pictures from our evening! more ›

The James Beard Foundation just announced their awards finalists at the top of the hour and Chicago's chefs and food cognoscenti have a couple of surprises among what is a fairly predictable list. more ›

If you're a food lover and you weren't at Family Farmed Expo on Saturday, you'd better have a darn good excuse. The Expo, which showcased chefs, farmers, producers and retailers over three days, opened to the public on Saturday for a blow-out event. The delicious extravaganza also included chef demos and workshops, appearances by local celebs, and a lot of great samples. Most of all, the Expo had a great sense of community and purpose - a gathering of people who care about great food, local farmers and protecting the environment. more ›

Well here's a spot of good news: the mourning period over Earwax Cafe's closing has been cut short. Today, a statement posted to Earwax's Facebook page announced that the popular Wicker Park cafe would not be closing after all, reading:

"Due to popular demand Earwax will re-open after a menu overhaul and cleaning tomorrow. Kurt Guzowski, formerly Executive Chef of Landmark Grill has spruced up the vegetarian and vegan-focused menu, keeping a few of the old favorites and adding some new dishes and ever-changing daily specials. You guys have convinced us to re-open, despite some difficulties, and to stick with the tried and true concept of the cafe."

Eater Chicago is reporting that Stephanie Izard (pictured here at Chicago Gourmet 2009 with Hot Chocolate's Mindy Segal and Urban Belly/Belly Shack's Bill Kim) is in the works to open an East Coast-style diner steps down from the Girl & the Goat. Izard tells Ari Bendersky: more ›

Last night, the most exciting culinary destination in Chicago was Hot Chocolate. After six years of great success with her restaurant, Mindy Segal threw a party. Not just any party - a "Bad Ass Chicks" dinner party. Since we love to celebrate great women chefs at Chicagoist, we were particularly excited to hear that this year's event would be cooked exclusively by women. As is traditional with Hot Chocolate anniversary dinners, charity, not decadent vanity, was the order of the evening - all proceeds went to Share Our Strength. As the menu said: 6 Years of Hot Chocolate + 6 Craft Beers + 6 Awesome Women Chefs = Share Our Strength." And share we did! more ›

Tickets for the 2011 Family Farmed Expo (March 17-19) are on sale now, and the event promises to be a doozy. Featuring workshops on gardening and eating, chef demos by your favorite local celebrity chefs and over 140 vendors, Family Farmed Expo will be a paradise for anyone who loves good food. It's one of the best deals in town - just $10 gets you in the door. more ›

This has been a good week for Stephanie Izard, and it's only Wednesday! We fully expect President Obama to appoint her Supreme Food Leader by Friday afternoon. In all seriousness, Izard has gotten two major accolades in the last couple of days, and you can participate in one of them! Saveur Magazine, which avoided restaurant reviews in the past, inaugurated a new review program with Girl and the Goat. Review might not be the right word; frantic worship at Izard's feet might be a better description. The reviewer, Dana Bowen, also enjoyed The Publican, but Girl and the Goat was "something else entirely." Izard was also nominated for Food and Wine's "The People's Best New Chef" award, and you can vote right now. more ›

Over the past couple of years, the dinners Mindy Segal hosts to mark Hot Chocolate's anniversary have been circled in ink as must-attend events. Segal always corrals chefs and brewers who bring their "A" games to these dinners. And there's about eating fresh Lake Superior smelts from Paul Kahan while Black Sabbath blasts through the restaurant's sound system in the dead of winter that's just the kick in the ass we need for spring to get here already. more ›

Do you have any burning questions for Stephanie Izard, of Girl and the Goat and Top Chef fame? If you want to grill her about reality TV, her best recipes or her favorite restaurants, get on Facebook today at noon. Izard will be posting on the wall of Food and Wine magazine, as herself. If you want to talk to her, just post something on the wall and she may respond. She will be "chatting" with fans and guests for one hour. Food and Wine has also posted three great recipes, created by Izard, for you to try at home. What would you ask Stephanie, if you had a chance? more ›