Leading Chicago Chefs Stir Up a Better World
Leading Chicago Chefs Stir Up a Better World
Our city stands out for the generosity of its culinary community
Chicago Chefs’ Boundless Generosity
Chef Jason Hammel, one of Chicago’s farm-to-table restaurant pioneers, made an appearance Tuesday (October 17) at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) to discuss The Lula Cafe Cookbook. The beautiful book, his first, contains nearly 100 recipes from his 24 years at Lula Cafe, the landmark restaurant that helped make the Logan Square neighborhood one of Chicago’s culinary hubs.
The event took place in a theater adjacent to Jason’s other restaurant venture, MCA’s Marisol, where he serves as consulting chef.
Jason was interviewed by Amy Cavanaugh, dining editor at Chicago Magazine, and she said, “You talk about how chefs like Paul Kahan helped you get started and how you have such close connections with many of the chefs in the city. What makes Chicago's culinary community so special?”
Jason’s reply:
I can tell you it is special. I don't know why… But it is 100 percent true. And I have humbly asked my friends in other cities, “Is it like this here?” And the answer is no.
Maybe there's a city out there that competes. But for some reason, our community of chefs is super tight. When I came here in the 90s, when we opened the restaurant, we literally knew nothing. And people like Paul and Rick [Bayless] and others gave us all the numbers. You know, like, here's my plumber, here's my pork guy, here's the guy that does grease trap cleaning or whatever. And trust me, I needed all those numbers. I had no idea what we were doing.
And now it's this thing, especially after the pandemic but even before, where people are just really ready to help each other. I have a foundation called Pilot Light [a food education non-profit]. I could call anybody and they would be like, “What are you gonna do? I'll be there tomorrow.”
It's always like that. And then just sharing information, sharing generosity, talking, giving. There's no secrets. There's no sense of competition. It's just like an abundance setting in the Chicago culinary community that is not in other cities as far as I can see.
I’ve known Jason for a long time, and his words struck a nerve with me. I’m not kidding when I say that when Barb and I moved to Chicago in 2011, I knew maybe five people here, and none of them had anything to do with food. My decision to give up political journalism and start a second career as a Good Food writer and advocate was a roll of the dice.
I never could have imagined that, thanks to the openness and generosity of our area’s culinary community, I would get to know so many of our top chefs, most of them farm-to-table leaders such as Jason, and to write up their work, and even promote their humanitarian efforts to make the world a better place.
To underscore this point, the following photos of chefs giving their time and resources to benefit charitable causes were taken at two events four days apart, just before Jason’s book tour event: Cooking Up a Cure, a fundraiser for Scleroderma Foundation of Greater Chicago, chaired by Chef Cleetus Friedman and held on October 12 at Chicago’s Theater on the Lake, and Eat and Evolve 2023 (October 16), the biggest annual fundraiser for The Evolved Network, a non-profit founded and run by Chef Sebastian White that works to help underprivileged youths through farm-to-table experiences.
Local Food Forum on Thursday (October 19) provided details of the latest fundraising event by the Chicago Chefs Cook coalition: a November 9 dinner at Chicago’s Venteux restaurant, prepared by six chefs, that will raise money to help Pilsen Food Pantry provide basic needs to migrants who have recently arrived here in great numbers. (Click here to read more about it.)
The leaders of Chicago Chefs Cook — Chef Sarah Stegner of Northbrook’s Prairie Grass Cafe; Jodi Fyfe, founder/CEO of The Paramount Group catering company and eden restaurant; and Good Food advocates Eda Davidman and Darren Gest — are also closely involved in The Evolved Network. Sarah is flanked in the above photo by Darren and his wife Rebecca at the Eat and Evolve event.
Jodi Fyfe donated the space at her eden restaurant in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood for Eat and Evolve. During the evening’s presentation. She introduced Sebastian White, who…
… just four days earlier, while preparing for his own big event, donated his time and skills at the Cooking Up a Cure event.
Also making back to back appearances were these James Beard Foundation Award winners: Paul Kahan, executive chef and partner of One Off Hospitality’s restaurants that include The Publican and Avec, and Greg Wade, head baker at Publican Quality Bread (Paul co-founded Pilot Light — the non-profit that helps schools integrate food education into their curriculums, in 2010 with fellow chefs Jason Hammel, Matthias Merges and Justin Large), and…
… Paul Virant, another farm-to-table leader at his Gaijin restaurant in Chicago’s West Loop and in his west suburban Vie and Vistro Prime restaurants…
Cleetus Freedman has taken the lead role in Cooking Up a Cure since the fundraising event was founded 15 years ago. It is a very personal cause, as the rare disease took the life of his father.
Tigist Reda (left) of Demera Restaurant in the Uptown neighborhood served up samples of her Ethiopian delicacies at Eat and Evolve. Tigist has close ties to Chicago Chefs Cook, which held a fundraising tasting event in September 2022 to help provide health care to people displaced by warfare in Tigist’s home province of Tigray.
It is an honor and privilege to work with this generous and caring culinary community in Chicago.
Hobbes’ World, and Welcome to It
The view from my computer. Guess Hobbes isn’t as enthralled with the local food community as I am. He’s not even a Local Food Forum subscriber. And you?