Results tagged “news”

Crain's reports that Kraft is in talks to sell its Maxwell House brand coffee to Sara Lee. This is part of Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld's ongoing efforts to raise enough capital to increase its bid to purchase confectioner Cadbury. That bid now stands at over $16 billion. Kraft has until November 9 to raise $9 billion in financing and make a formal offer for Cadbury to the British Takeover Panel. [Crain's]

• food 52's Tournament of Cookbooks features Grub Street Chi's Helen Rosner choosing between Eugenia Bone's "Well-Preserved" and "Babycakes" from Erin McKenna. [food 52]
• Lula Café is turning into a zombified version of Hot Doug's for Halloween. We don't know what jumped the shark here. [TOC]
• A new website, Beer Menus, is working to list the beer menus of Our Town's best watering holes. [Beer Menus Chicago]

President Obama held a news conference this morning to address his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps sensing the criticisms of the far right and skepticism of some of his supporters to being awarded the honor, Obama said he was "surprised and deeply humbled" at winning the Nobel, questioned whether he even deserved the honor and said that he doesn't view the Nobel as 'recognition of (his) own accomplishments."

• That was fast. One day after Sun-Times Media Group and its unions agreed to terms, a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of STMG to an investment group headed by Mesirow Financial's James Tyree. [Crain's]
• A survey of drivers lists texting behind kids, eating and other drivers as bigger distractions. [Tribune]
• Shocking video of a Dolton policeman beating a special needs student because of a dress code infraction [CBS2]

• Casting is underway for the next season of "Top Chef." If you have serious kitchen majicks get to Wells on Wells (1617 N. wells) from 10a.m. - 2 p.m. on October 26 with these forms. Oh, and have a valid passport; if you're chosen, you might have to go abroad. [Inbox]
• "The Jungle" - 21st Century Edition. A harrowing New York times story on e.coli tainted beef. [NYT]
• The food at greatest risk for e.coli? Greens. [Tribune]

• Education Secretary Arne Duncan is earmarking $500,000 to Fenger High School to combat high school violence in the wake of the murder of Derrion Albert. [Crain's]
• A fight broke out at Julian high School this afternoon as classes let out for the day. [Chicago Breaking News]
• Steve Rhodes with a wonderful piece on the roots of youth violence. [Beachwood Reporter]

We've joked that if there was an iPhone app that would allow us to have sex with ours, we'd download it in a heartbeat. But it's only a joke. Others are more serious about their cell phone use. A recent survey shows that 3 out of 10 people in Chicago would rather give up sex than their cell phones. [Chicago Breaking News]

• It's apple season. Here's a recipe for apple pear crisp .[Stresscake]
• Chicago's Downtown Farmstand is giving away free apples from Seedling to mark its one-year anniversary. [Inbox]
• Mindy Segal bows out of the Elysian Hotel project to focus on Hot Chocolate. [The Stew]

• Protestors from the company who helped build out Rick Bayless's XOCO set up shop outside the white-hot torta shop yesterday. [Grub Street Chi]
• Monica Eng reports that Sprout at 1417 W, Fullerton, is set to open October 3 as an all-organic restaurant. Get this: entrees are topping out at $120. Maybe owner Satko Ibrahimovic should check out Crust to get an idea of fair pricing for organic food. [The Stew]
• More non-Yelp reviews of Nana are coming in. This one is a positive review from David Hammond. [Reader]

A few months back, we reviewed More Cupcakes. Our conclusion was that, while their cupcakes were tasty and innovatively-flavored, they weren’t worth the price. Oh, and their service was terrible. Well, they’re getting even more innovative, but in a kind of insane direction. According to Helen Rosner at Grub Street Chicago (formerly Menupages), our old friend More is set to introduce a $75 cupcake.

• Vocalo was at the Chef's Collaborative Summit this week and filed interviews with Judith Schad of Capriole Goat Cheese, the Signature Room's Patrick Sheerin and Cleetus Friedman of City Provisions. [Vocalo 1, 2, 3]
• Soup and Bread: The Cookbook is on its way in December. [Soup and Bread]
• Over at Drive-Thru, Whitney Merritt's ongoing interview series of food bloggers focuses on Marathon Val [Drive-Thru]

Sad news for Soul Food fans this morning: Helen Maybell Anglin, who founded South Side staple Soul Queen, passed away yesterday at the age of 80. Take a pilgrimage to 90th and Stony Island this weekend in Ms. Anglin's honor. [Sun-Times]

The Carson Pirie Scott building downtown (AKA the Sullivan Center) gets its first tenant: Flat Top Grill. The venerable make-you-own-stir-fry chain is set to open to the public on September 21.

Although we have raised a significant amount of pledged monetary and in-kind sponsorship support, we have not been able to meet the financial goals that would make it possible to produce the event on the original time-line.

Here's what we've been wasting our time reading this week. You should, too:

• Growing Home, Inc., which in our humble opinion does the Lord's Work with its organically certified urban farms in Englewood, is facing a $100,000 funding gap. If you've ever had their greens or other produce, please give what you can. [Inbox]
• The Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op launched a "Guaranteed Green" initiative that will help diners find and support the restaurants that "that take significant steps toward protecting the environment." on hand for the launch were Rick Bayless, Ina Pinkney, and Helen Cameron of Uncommon Ground, which also received the Co-op's first honors. [Inbox, again]
• "Are the Peaches Any Good?" Next time, ask a stupid question. [Fruit Slinger]

Here are some links to check out in between Madden '10 sessions:

• Sam's South Loop and Aigre Doux weren't the only notable closings this week. Joining them in the restaurant/retail graveyard are Mama Desta's Red Sea (the city's oldest Ethiopian restaurant) and Doggy's S.S. Soul Eatery. [Food Chain]
• Chicago Diner is guilty of making tired Sarah Palin jokes. Local blogger is guilty of overreacting to Chicago Diner's tired Sarah Palin jokes. [Grub Street Chi]
• I passed along some of the guanciale I made to Seth Zurer of Baconfest Chicago and Sky Full of Bacon's Mike Gebert. Here's Gebert's verdict. [Sky Full of Bacon]

• Behold the outfit Graham Elliot Bowles wore while guest bartending at Pops for champagne Monday. He talks about it briefly in an interview. [W magazine]
• A nonbinding "green food resolution" proposed by Alderman Margaret Laurino includes boilerplate from Food Sanctuary, one of the proponents of the now-overturned foie gras ban. [Martha Bayne, Food Chain]
• Minnie's in Lincoln Park is gone. [TOC]

Sky Full of Bacon 11: A Better Fish from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.
• Mike Gebert visits Carl Galvan and Supreme Lobster Company, one of the country's largest fish purveyors, about the volume of seafood they sell while maintaining sustainable pracitces. [Sky Full of Bacon]
• Phil Vettel and the Trib's resident "Mayor McCheese" Kevin Pang debate pizza pie slices versus the familiar square party cut. Sorry, Kevin: we're siding with Phil on this one. [Tribune]
• Jennifer Olvera gets canning tips from Paul Virant. [Sun-Times]

• North Shore Distillery's Sonja Kassebaum writes a loving profile of graham elliot beverage manager/head mixologist Lynn House (pictured). [Thinking of Drinking]
• Baconfest news: the Publican is hosting the VIP Pro cookoff the day before the fest. [Baconfestchicago.com]
• Mike Sula cheers the return of kaiseki master Seijero Matsumoto. [Food Chain]

FOX 32 must have finally realized that after one hour of a pretty mediocre newscast, the people weren't exactly clamoring for another 35 minutes on top of that. In September they're dropping The Ten, their 10 p.m. extension of their 9 p.m. news program. Hopefully they'll move The Simpsons back to their rightful place so we have something to watch when The Daily Show is a rerun. [CBR]

(Today we wrap up our week-long series following chef Paul Kahan as he brewed beer at New Holland Brewing and planned a menu for an August 23 beer dinner at the Publican. If you haven't already, you can go back and read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4)

• Did you know you could eat slugs? Yes. They're excellent in tomato sauce.
• This is just for Spook: Check out those spicy Korean soups.
• If you're on Hell's Kitchen and you don't know how to make Beef Wellington, you're a donkey.

      

(This is Part 3 in our week-long series following the evolution of a beer dinner at the Publican, from conception to the actual dinner. IF you haven't already, read Part 1 and Part 2.)

Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and Copyright is a new book examining the history of analog videotape, specifically VHS. Essentially introduced to consumers as a "blank format," its aesthetic properties and technological flexibility immediately placed it at the center of a legal maelstrom. At first movie studios and other copyright holders resisted VHS, but after U.S. courts reinterpreted copyright law to protect fair use by consumers they changed their tune and found ways to exploit the technology. This of course led to the VHS explosion of the 80's and 90's (by 1998 about 96.3% of all American households owned at least one VCR). Although VHS is now an "outdated" format (perhaps soon to be joined by DVD), it radically changed not only how audiences watched things but what they watched. For the first time viewers were able to easily manipulate content, via time shifting, and even create their own. In other words, at the risk of stating the obvious, VHS paved the way for TiVo and YouTube.

              

(This is the second in a series following the evolution of a beer dinner at the Publican, from conception to reality. Read Part 1 here.)

      

“Cooking with beer is a little new for me.” To hear a chef say such a thing would be surprise enough. That the chef admitting this was Paul Kahan made me take even more notice.

• Oh, look. 6 Degrees in Bucktown is sellin' horseshoes. Don't know what that is? It's a piece of Texas toast topped with a hamburger patty, topped with french fries, topped with cheese sauce. And it will kill you. But you will die happy. But any fool knows you don't go to 6 Degrees for a horseshoe. You get your ass on down to Springfield and get one at D'arcy's Pint. Ask for Hallie.
• Do men and women cook differently?
• How soon before you cook meat should you salt it? Depends.