Chicago Botanic Garden Cooking Up Free Classes

By Laura Oppenheimer in Food on Jun 11, 2007 2:00PM

Chicagoist was sick of seeing concrete this weekend, so we decided to take a trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden to enjoy the greenery and the sun. When we arrived we discovered that 1) the cicadas are indeed here, and 2) their Garden Chef Series was occurring, so we meandered over to the fruit and vegetable garden to see what was cooking.

The program, which runs Saturdays and Sundays, May 26 – October 7, at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m., has snagged some of Chicago's most esteemed chefs to lead mini-classes on cooking with local, seasonal ingredients. Unfortunately for us, we were visiting the garden on Wellness Day, which meant instead of one of Chicago's star chefs explaining the intricacies of their dish, we had Steve Nakon from Whole Journey/Northwest Yoga discussing the "healing qualities of whole foods."

Nakon taught the mostly older group of adults how to make an asparagus and quinoa salad with a lime cilantro vinaigrette. As advertised, he talked — a lot — about the healing qualities of different foods, in addition to speaking his mind of Teflon cookware (bad), eating meat (not for him), and local, organic food (good). Our favorite part of the presentation came when one of the audience members asked if the quinoa salad should served warm or cold. Nakon answered that you could serve it either way, but that he "liked it warm in the evening." And then he repeated that phrase multiple times over the course of the demo. Say it to yourself five times in a row, and you will start to understand why we were cracking up.

After the class, we walked around other parts of the garden, which is incredibly lush and beautiful this time of year. Admission to the park is free, and it costs $15 to park a car. To plan a visit, click here.