Entries associated with the tag "Top Chef":

thursday6

Chef Daniel Tucker shows how to make fresh mozzarella at home as part of Room 21’s cooking demo series, which runs the first Thursday of each month (next month features eggnog). Mozzarella samples will be served with prosciutto and a wine pairing. Reservations recommended. 6-7 PM, 2110 S. Wabash, 312-328-1198, $10 (which you’ll get back as a discount on your tab if you order dinner at the restaurant).

Taste products from Vermont Butter & Cheese with company founder Allison Hooper at Pastoral's Loop store. 5-7 PM, 53 E. Lake, 312-658-1250, free. 

friday7

Lush Wine and Spirits on Halsted hosts a tasting of winter brews from Bell's. 6-9 PM, 1257 S. Halsted, 312-738-1900, free. 

saturday8

The sixth annual Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer, presented by the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, features area breweries including Mickey Finn’s, Goose Island, Three Floyds, Flossmoor Station, and Rock Bottom as well as farther-flung brewers. The competition covers eight style categories, ranging from classic porter/stout to barleywine to experimental; attendees can sample the entries at one of two sessions. 1-5 PM or 6-10 PM, Chicago Journeyman Plumbers’ Local Union 130, Stephen M. Bailey Auditorium, 1340 W. Washington, illinoisbeer.com, $35 in advance, $45 at the door.

Executive chef Jeff Mauro of Powerhouse shares tips for cooking Thanksgiving dinner, including how to roast the perfect turkey, prepare spoonbread, braised red cabbage, dried fruit couscous, and desserts. There'll be samples of the recipes and wine. 11 AM, 215 N. Clinton, 312-928-0800, $40.

tuesday11

Sheffield's offers a class on the flavors and styles of beer with Brett VanderKamp, John Haggerty, and Fred Bueltmann of New Holland Brewing Company; attendees will taste five New Holland beers paired with appetizers. 7-8 PM, 3258 N. Sheffield, 773-281-4989, $25.

wednesday12

The Freedom Museum’s Table of Nations, a series that “expands minds and palates through stimulating conversations on freedom issues in select countries,” meets at Ethiopian Diamond for dinner and a discussion of famine, genocide, and the current crises in Sudan, Somalia, and other parts of the Horn of Africa. 6-8 PM, 6120 N. Broadway, 312-222-7871, $35, $25 museum members.

Between Boutique Cafe and Lounge offers a fixed-price tasting menu by executive chef Radhika Desai, a contestant on Top Chef: New York, at a viewing party for the premiere of the show's fifth season. Among the offerings: curried lobster bisque, braised duck samosas, and ginger-chocolate mousse in chocolate tarts. 9 PM, 1324 N. Milwaukee, 773-292-0585, $50.

I self-imposed a moratorium on Top Chef blather some time ago but this bears passing on: last night while we were working our way through an occasionally puzzling series of fish plates at the new Marcus Samuelsson vehicle C-House, my tablemate noticed something eerily familiar about the quiet young Asian woman shadowing our waiter. She was training, but he kept deferring to her on culinary questions (he couldn't ID amaranth on the plate--but she nailed it). We finally figured out this was Dale Levitksi's pal Sara Nguyen from season three, the one sent home (robbed) after tussling with sweaty Howie in a catering cart.

This is a woman whose first kitchen job after culinary school was at Thomas Keller's Per Se. What was she doing working the front of the house? Biding her sweet time, it turns out. Nguyen explained that while waiting for Levitski to finally open his West Loop spot Town and Country--where he's tapped her for sous chef--waiting tables was the best way for her to pay the rent, since no one seemed to want to hire a chef who was only going to bolt in a few months. Samuelsson, who could have been checking his other traps in Stockholm, Tokyo, or NYC, was nowhere to be seen. But he might do better here to pull Nguyen into the kitchen while she's waiting (review to come).

Levitski previously said he was bringing on CJ as well. Where's he killing time?

Hey Top Chef fans: Season Four is poised to start filming here in Chicago, per technical coordinator (and former almost-Top-Chef) Lee Anne Wong and the Stew. Though judging from the report of this eagle-eyed LTHer, who spotted former contestants Marcel, Sandi, Josie, and Tiffani waiting for a table at Frontera Grill last week in full TV makeup, the cameras appear to be rolling. In this instance, however, it sounds like the chefs were just trying to get lunch, not judge some huitlacoche challenge.

No word on the Bravo site yet as to when Top Chef 4 will air. It'll  be great if they can truly mine the culinary range of the city (south-side v. west-side BBQ challenge!) but I fear a stuffed pizza Elimination and a make-your-own Chicago dog Quickfire. Maybe, if we're lucky, they'll set the cheftestants loose in the kitchen of Moto with the laser?

What Chicago-inspired challenges do you think would do us proud?