Results tagged “vie”

Hellur, food lovers. We decided to watch and recap the action as Chicago's Paul Virant competes on Iron Chef America. After the standard opening montage in which we meet the Chairman, we are introduced to Bobby Flay (*coughdouchecouch*), Masaharu Morimoto, Mario Batali (Croc lovah!), Cat Cora, and Michael Symon (gigglehead). Then we get to meet the challenger, Chef Virant. Alton Brown tells us that Chef Virant grew up in Missouri where his grandmothers took him to the local smokehouse and farmer's market and taught him how to preserve fruit and pickle vegetables. He went to the CIA and worked in NYC and now owns Vie here in our very own Chicago. Chef virant reiterates his midwest style and says he concentrates on fresh ingredients.

Mike Gebert's latest Sky Full of Bacon video podcast continues his look into fishing and sustainability by turning his camera to Great Lakes whitefish. With some assistance from Carl Galvan of Supreme Lobster, Gebert went on a fishing run with a Wisconsin family that has been trolling Lake Michigan for whitefish for 130 years.

        

Last night we attended the sold out mulefoot pig dinner at Blackbird sponsored by the Chicago Reader. Reader food critic Mike Sula has been chronicling the progress Dee Dee since he persuaded the paper to buy her last year, bringing attention to this rare endangered breed of swine in the process.

After nearly two years, the Reader is ready to serve up some of that mulefoot pig it adopted to some hungry folks. And they're doing it in style, with a six-course dinner starting 6 p.m. October 19 at Blackbird to benefit Slow Food Chicago.

A couple weeks back we attended the Green City Market farmer's dinner at Goose Island's Clybourn brewpub. That was the one that featured dishes from a host of chefs including Dean Zanella of 312 Chicago; Brian Huston of Paul Kahan's the Publican (opening in mid-autumn); Elissa Narow of Custom House and Paul Virant of Vie in Western Springs. Virant's dish was easily the most ambitious of the courses, utilizing lamb in unexpected ways. Virant sourced the lamb from Mint Creek Farm in downstate Stelle.

There are a couple of really interesting beer dinners of note in the coming weeks that could wind up being hard reservations, if you're the type to wait until the last minute to get reservations.