New videos were released this weekend showing Pandel, chef of the soon-to-open Balena, making homemade Tajarin and Chitarra. Watch and drool. more ›

Today in restaurant news: Brandon Baltzley gets a permanent job, some hard-to-get tables join OpenTable and Chicago restaurants (including one not open yet) make Esquire's Best New Restaurants List. more ›

Six Chicago chefs are going to be in the first round of Top Chef Season 9, and Amanda Rockman's funnel cake led to her removal from Top Chef: Just Desserts. more ›

Hometown hero Amanda Rockman, pastry chef of The Bristol, starts her run on Top Chef: Just Desserts on August 24th. We're rooting for her - her Apple Basque Cake is one of the only desserts in town that genuinely makes us swoon. Heck, it taught us the meaning of swoon! Her thoughtful, sweet-and-savory concoctions are one of the best parts of dining at the Bristol, so hopefully the show will inspire you to head in and start eating. more ›

At the Daley Plaza Farmer's market, an event is taking place today that will make any Iron Chef fan happy. Three great Chicago chefs, Chris Pandel (The Bristol), Luca Corazzina (312 Chicago) and Iliana Regan (One Sister) will be competing to become the "Master of the Market." Starting at 11:30, they will have one hour to shop and prepare a dish, made entirely out of ingredients from the market. The event is sponsored by Country Financial and the City of Chicago. more ›

We're really only excited about competition TV when Chicagoans are involved - otherwise, we just end up rooting for the cutest or the meanest. Luckily for lovers of Food TV, you'll have two great local contestants to root for in the coming months. Amanda Rockman (of the Bristol) and Sarah Levy (of Sarah's Candies) are both heading into the spotlight - one on Top Chef: Just Desserts and the other on Food Network Challenge. more ›

Last Minute Plan - Tonight at the Bristol, the Green City Market Junior Board is hosting a "Meet the Market" event. There is no admission price, pastries and sweets are free (courtesy of Amanda Rockman, the Bristol's pastry wizard) and cocktails will be $11. Created by mixologist Debbi Peek, with spirits donated by death door, the cocktails include a Blueberry Ginger Mule and a Raspberry and Rosemary Sour. For those who wish to learn while they drink, Paul Thelan from Hillside Orchards will be there to talk about farming, fruit and markets. The event runs from 6-9, and will be on the second floor. 2152 N. Damen Avenue. more ›

We spoke with the Bristol's John Ross about their new restaurant project with the red hot BOKA Restaurant Group, slated to open in November. more ›

It's great when someone else does the legwork to find us tasty things to drink, but credit needs to be given - Grubstreet Chicago hoofed it all over the city looking for the best in Spring cocktails, and they found some doozies. Many Chicagoist favorites, including Sable, The Bristol and Lula Cafe are on the list, along with some surprises, like a Ramp Gibson from Hearty. more ›

We stopped by Drinks Over Dearborn Sunday to walk the talk and sign up for the "500 Benjamins or Bust" campaign. Owner Kyle McHugh was out of town on business but we were informed that DoD was a little over halfway toward their goal in the four days since the campaign received press. While there, we had to browse the shelves and found that sweet brew pictured. more ›

The Magalitsa pig, also known as the "curly haired hog," is a breed of pig that originated from Hungary and the Balkans known for its thick wooly coat. The meat from a Mangalitsa pig is also rich in fat and is reputed to have a flavor and texture similar to Wagyu beef. In gourmet circles Mangalitsas have eclipsed mulefoots as the new trendy pork. more ›

Thursday night some of Chicago's best chefs will be preparing dishes for Toque, an event to benefit Children's Oncology Services, Inc. The benefit takes place at Harold Washington Library Center (400 S. State Street) and will includes cocktails and a degustation menu as well as both a silent and live auction. Tickets are $250 each. Bill Kurtis, founder of Tallgass Beef Company, will be the Master of Ceremonies and the Chef Coordinator for the event is Michael Kornick of MK, one of our favorites. Featured Chefs include: more ›

Make your reservations now for bluprint's Sunday Supper - Head to Tail - BYOB event on Sunday, September 13. After a beer reception, courtesy of Three Floyd's Brewing Co., sit down to a 4-course, family style dinner followed by dessert. The meal will be prepared by bluprint's Sam Burman, The Bristol's Chris Pandel, Old Town Social's Jared Van Camp and Goose The Market owner Christopher Eley. more ›

Taste TV, the food and fashion Web network that brought their Chocolate Salon to Symphony Center last autumn, has been organizing a series of judged snout-to-tail competitions across the country in recent months. "Cochon 555" pits five chefs against each other, each of them given their own heritage pig to break down and cook, paired with wines from five boutique wineries. Think "The Whole Hog Project," complete with the same mission of raising awareness about endangered breeds of swine, without the focus on one breed. more ›

George Rasmussen of Swan Creek Farms provides quality artisan meats to restaurants throughout the city. More recently, Rasmussen has been a beneficiary of spent brewers grain from Goose Island's Clybourn brewpub. One of the early hits of John Manion's still-evolving menu overhaul there is the sliders made from Swan Creek's "beer-fed" pork. While making local deliveries a week ago Rasmussen lost his truck, trailer, generator and a lot of food intended to customers to a fire. more ›

What would you do to have brunch with Gale Gand? Give up your firstborn? Eat balut? Bail a relative of Todd Stroger's out of jail? more ›

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). more ›

Break out your party hats, on Monday, February 23, Hot Chocolate is celebrating its 4th birthday by hosting a ridiculous five course dinner complete with appropriately paired craft beers. Even better, ticket sales will benefit Share Our Strength, a national non-profit working to end childhood hunger. more ›

Our annual Thanksgiving recipe posts are among our favorites to write. Judging from soem of the responses received in our inboxes, you like them, as well. This year, we wanted to add a new twist to the theme for the holidays. more ›

• Be careful on the two-wheelers, especially if you're a chef. Phil Vettel took time out from covering his Bizarro-world Chicago Gourmet to report that both Laurent Gras of L2O and Café Matou's Charlie Socher were in recent accidents. Gras, a bicycling enthusiast, was hopsitalized for a week and is now back in the kitchen. Socher wiped out his motorcycle (hopefully he wore a leather jacket for a controlled slide); chef Polo Heredia is filling in while he recovers. [The Stew]
• Meanwhile, Tribune wine critic Bill Daley writes about a new wine advocacy group called TAPAS (Tempranillo Advocates, Producers and Amigos Society) that promotes advocacy of American-grown tempranillo [Tribune]
• Is Hopleaf expanding? That's the rumor on the street, according to David Tamarkin at TOC (via). Next door neighbor and longtime Andersonville trattoria La Donna is moving just a bit north, to 6340 N. Clark, by mid-November, and Hopleaf is negotiating for the space. [TOC]

Leading off with some localvore challenge items while taking inventory of the fridge and pantry for what we need to buy: more ›