Results tagged “stephanieizard”

Tickets to Stephanie Izard's Wandering Goat dinners are the most coveted in town, with the first two dinners selling out almost as fast as they went on sale. For the next dinner, Izard and Red Eye are giving three lucky people a chance to cook with Izard.

Celebrate the first weekend of autumn this Saturday at the second annual "Rib-A-Que" at Moonshine. The event is co-hosted by Socca and will feature 16 Chicago restaurants and as well as "award-winning amateurs." Who? Winners of the Memphis BBQ contest, for example. You will be the judging the competitors along with The Drunken Goat's Stephanie Izard and the Dean of Culinary Arts at Kendall College, Chris Koetke. And it wouldn't be a BBQ without drink deals on Jack Daniels. Well, er, Jack Daniel’s Lynchburg Lemonade and Downhome Punch to be exact. (What about just straight up JD?) At least there will be specials on beer as well. Tickets are $25 in advance (www.ticketweb.com or calling Moonshine at 773.862.8686) or $35 at the door. Moonshine is located at 1824 W. Division St.

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)

                    

With a huge hand clutching a glass of Austrian sparkling wine, David Cleverdon slowly gestured across the seemingly endless verdancy surrounding us like a compass searching for True North and said, "You're catching us at the beginning of a transition. Tomorrow, trucks will be coming to the farm and tearing up the land as we start laying the ground work for the future of Kinnikinnick Farm."

        

Sunday night marked the first of Stephanie Izard’s Wandering Goat dinners, a series of “traveling dinners” that lead up to the opening of her new restaurant, The Drunken Goat, this coming winter. Tickets sold out in a matter of minutes but the lucky ones that got them were told the dinner would be at “Roger’s House.” Turns out Roger is Stephanie’s friend Roger Herring, chef/owner of Socca in Lakeview. We arrived at a large town home and shown to the spacious backyard, filled with friends, food lovers, and a notable goat piñata that we imagined was filled with truffle infused bacon mousse. (It was never cracked open so we will never know.) Three Floyd’s Alpha King and Gumballhead were on tap and an array of red and white Australian wines were offered as well.

Hot on the heels of Stephanie Izard announcing the first dinner in her Wandering Goat Dinner Series (she actually tweeted about it just after getting off the phone with us here at the Podcast Series), we got in touch with Chicago's Top Chef herself to discuss it.

Stephanie Izard just twittered that tickets for her first of five Wandering Goat dinners will go on sale 11 a.m. tomorrow at her website. Izard also announced that she'll be joined by "Top Chef" season 1 semi-finalist Lee Anne Wong. And you thought tickets for Wilco's UIC Pavilion gig were gonna be in demand.

As if Stephanie Izard doesn't have enough irons in the fire between traveling to trade shows and events, media appearances, working on her video podcasts, making wine, writing a cookbook with Time Out Chicago's Heather Shouse in addition to opening the Drunken Goat in January (and she's already making charcuterie for that, bless her heart), now comes word that she's leading up tot he Drunken Goat's opening with a series of underground dinners.

And now, for a pre-dinner palate cleanser. Have you been keeping up with Stephanie Izard's video podcasts (itunes, RSS)? If you haven't, here's as good a jump-on point as any.

              

Last night Mindy Segal brought together some of the best chefs in the city to celebrate Hot Chocolate's fourth anniversary with a $100 per person dinner to benefit Share Our Strength, a non-profit that works with local food banks, restaurants and community groups to combat hunger at home. Segal is the chair of Share Our Strength's "Taste of the Nation" event, scheduled for August 13 at Ravenswood Billboard Factory (Full disclosure: this Chicagoist staffer is also on the event committee).

Now this is a recipe for a fantasy weekend: a road trip with Stephanie Izard to Three Floyds brewery and brewpub. [The Tasty Life]

Looks like we aren't the only ones diving into podcasting. Our pals at Serious Eats have an interview with Stephanie Izard posted where she offers more details on the Drunken Goat (she wants to offer tripe and lots of charcuterie), breaks bad on facebook ("543 friend requests?"), and talks about her recent trip to Madrid.

Between now and Wednesday, we're counting down the top 8 local stories that captivated us in 2008.

Following up on the upcoming Stephanie Izard restaurant she mentioned in her "Re-Grills" is a name for the venue and partners. Time Out Chicago has the scoop (fitting, since they're also trying to hook her up, as well) that the Drunken Monkey Goat is pairing Izard with Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz of BOKA, Perennial and Landmark fame. It's still casual and affordable, in Wicker Park, and conservatively slated to open in summer 2K9. [TOC]

Chicagoist Re-Grills: Dale Levitski

We hope you've gotten a chance to read our follow-up interview with Stephanie Izard from Friday (Karl has a "Chicagoist Re-Grills" with Dale Levitski we're posting in a bit). Among the many items we asked of Izard was for a recipe for National Vegan Month.

The last time we checked in with Stephanie Izard, her life was on the cusp of some serious life change thanks to her winning Top Chef: Chicago. The combination of Izard's cooking skills, willingness to face any challenge and ebullient personality made her a viewer favorite and the first woman to win the competition.

They say that the key to a man's heart is through his stomach. In our case, it's the stomach and a possible diseased liver. If you're looking for love in all the wrong places, Time Out Chicago wants to set you up with a chef, bartender or restaurateur. This is the second time TOC has tried to play matchmaker and the results from that first experience must have been so good that they're nocking an arrow in Cupid's quiver again. So if you've caught yourself stealing a quick glance at the Breakfast Queen, Wondering if that bartender at Frontera makes a good margarita at home, wanted to compare your wine knowledge with a sommelier or want to know who is the brains behind Billy Dec, now's your chance.

Since the Sun-Times won't say it, we will: We call bullshit, Dan Schmitt. Schmitt is the producer who's responsible for putting Top Chef Stephanie Izard's face on a logo for a public access show from Tony Peraica's campaign called, "What's COOKing With The Republicans?" Not only is it the weakest and most drawn out use of a pun for political purposes in recent memory, but it's just not possible that you would create a "cooking" show and use Izard's visage - and then claim you had no idea who she was. Especially when you took her likeness from a Top Chef promo photo.

      

It's been said numerous times that chefs are the new rock stars. Chicago, then, could be considered one of the epicenters for the rock star chef. And they come in all forms: the arena gods (Bayless, Trotter, Achatz, McClain, Kahan); adult contemporary and classical (Smith, Gand, Arun, Tramonto, Nahabedian, Christophe David at NoMI); indie and experimental darlings (Segal, Carlson, Cantu, Bowles, Tschilds and Hammel of Lula) and world beat (Bahena, Nieto, Takashi, Gras, Garces, Shen). Using the rock star parallel, one can assume that the winners of cheffing competitions such as "Top Chef" and "Hell's Kitchen" fall into the "American Idol" realm of pop confection.

Food

        

Expecting more of the same of what we saw Saturday, it was decided that any coverage of Chicago Gourmet for Sunday would be optional. With an overcast sky and the first tinges of autumn finally in the air, it turned out to be a prudent decision.

Bleeding Heart Bakery has created a cupcake in honor of "Top Chef" winner Stephanie Izard. Dubbed "The Stephanie" and viewable at Bleeding Heart's flickr stream. It's an organic ricotta poundcake cupcake with organic caramelized pineapple jam and bananas and organic lime frosting. This cupcake's as cute as Izard.

For those of you who were following along with our live blog of the "Top Chef Chicago" finale the other night, we're also guessing you had one eye on the tube, as well.

Tonight we'll find out if Stephanie Izard wins the title of "Top Chef" in part 2 of the season finale.

Just received notice from the folks behind that June 15 plate-to-plate competition between Stephanie Izard and Nick LaCasse at the Drawing Room at Le Passage.

Like Hawk Harrelson with the White Sox, we've been unabashed homers for Stephanie Izard to win "Top Chef Chicago" here at Chicagoist pretty much since we heard that she was taking part in the show. Her performance thus far — winner of one quickfire challenge and four elimination challenges — combined with an ebullient personality has her poised as both the front runner and fan favorite to win the competition.

By now anyone who cares should have had the opportunity to check out last week's "Top Chef Chicago" premiere episode, which saw former Scylla owner/chef Stephanie Izard win the elimination challenge with her Asian-influenced duck a l'orange that almost had BOURDAIN! making indecent proposals to her. That she came back to lord over all after an auspicious ill-conceived start in the deep dish pizza quickfire challenge and a major bout of nerves saucing the duck (watching her hand shake as she sauces the duck is seared in our brain) should be a major confidence booster.