Enticing Food, Inspiring Dialogue
The Evolved Network's dinner at Prairie Grass Cafe, plus another coming up 2/23
Sunday Sunset
A Chef-Driven — and Mission-Driven — Dinner
The sumptuous meal created on February 2 by chefs Sebastian White and Sarah Stegner at her Prairie Grass Cafe in suburban Northbrook was the latest in a series of fundraising dinners for The Evolved Network. As has consistently been the case, the meal was delicious, creative in its use of ingredients, and memorable.
What stood out, though, was that more time than previous was spent elaborating to the guests about the purpose of The Evolved Network. The nonprofit, launched in 2021, seeks to build out a restaurant and urban farm to provide underprivileged Chicago youths with food industry training, business skills, and therapy and counseling to help them overcome the traumas many have experienced in our economically and socially distressed communities.
Sebastian — the founder and executive director of the organization — is both a rising chef and a clinical psychologist who previously worked with kids in gang diversion programs. And he described at length his goal to provide hope, opportunity and access to quality food to young people who are growing up communities where all of that is lacking.
I think a lot of the kids associate quality food, truthfully, with whiteness. And that's ridiculous. Food is for all of us. It's beautiful and natural, it's part of what should bring us all together, and there shouldn't be distinctions.
What I love about food is it transcends on many different levels. Whatever cultural background that you come from, you have your cuisine, but there are ways that you can fuse. There’s just there's so many different opportunities for bringing things together. And food just sets so many beautiful analogies for how that is possible.
A lot of the kids that we work with, they come to school, and at first, how can they be their best selves? How can they gain what they need in order to aspire to be more? So that's what we're trying to do.
And even the bigger picture that I think is more important is creating choice. If we think about it, if you make the decision every day about what you decide to eat, that's a choice that illuminates your freedom to be. I think that's what therapy is, expanding kids’ minds and so on, and what else is possible, what else is out there, outside of the little boxes that they're in, that they see. And then I want to change that perspective.
And I can do it through food. I think it's powerful when it works. I think it's inherently therapeutic.
Sarah, an activist chef who has emerged as leading advocate and kitchen mentor to Sebastian, related her work with The Evolved Network with her longtime relationship with Chicago’s Green City Market as a founding Board member in 1999 and a current member today.
He told me about his his not-for-profit and it blew me away. Because there are these higher values that we all hold, that we want to save our communities and our children. That is what we've worked on at Green City Market. From the beginning, it is not just having a marketplace. It's about saving our land, saving the environment, and saving the food source for future generations, so we can live better, we can feel better, we can concentrate on things that lift our spirits. And not just the mundane life of getting up in the morning and drudgery going to your job because you're empowered and you're passionate, and you feel good.
That's what we all want. That's human, everyone at this table can agree to that. And Sebastian is in the frontlines of making that happen.
Then the feast began.
1st course: Wild striped bass with shallot-lemon-herb compound butter, mushrooms (from Chicago’s Four Star Mushrooms) and parsnips three ways.
2nd course: Sea scallop, fennel, radicchio, pea shoots, pollen, mandarinquats.
3rd course: Duck leg and butternut squash ravioli, maple, brown butter, maitake, sage, microgreens.
4th course: All-natural prime New York strip, beef tongue, salsify purée, purple cauliflower, pearl onion, bordelaise.
OK, apologies to Chef Sarah, but when the Apple Tart dessert arrived, it looked so good, it was late in the evening, and well, I forgot to take a photo. That’s actually a compliment, because it was definitely as good as it looked, but you’ll just have to use your imagination on this one.
The meal included the following beverage pairings:
Attems, Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Italy ‘20
La Luna Mezcal Artesanal
Marietta Cellars, OVR, Zinfandel, Sonoma
Alexander Valley Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon ‘20
Next for the Network: 2/23 Dove’s Luncheonette
It sounds like The Evolved Network has another mouth-watering fundraising dinner right around the corner. It takes place Thursday, February 23, 6:00-8:30 p.m., at Dove’s Luncheonette, 1545 N. Damen Ave. in Wicker Park.
This Mexican-themed casual spot is part of the One Off Hospitality Group co-founded by James Beard Award-winning Chef Paul Kahan, who is collaborating on the dinner with The Evolved Network’s Sebastian White and Dove’s Executive Sous Chef Sam O’Keefe.
The menu (see below) all sounds amazing, but when you get to the last item, read it slowly. Then click the button to buy your ticket. Dove’s is a pretty small space, so making your reservation early is recommended.