Buttercream glories at Magnolia Bakery

Okay. They have absolutely no redeeming nutritional value. But who cares? Made with tons of unsalted, sweet cream butter, these  gorgeously iced cupcakes and more definitely qualify as “close your eyes” food (more about that in my upcoming cookbook 17 Ways to Eat Your Way to Happiness).

Magnolia Bakery started out in New York, has a bunch of locations there, and now makes a Chicago home at 108 N. State St. at Randolph in the Building 37 structure. I attended one of their “icing and wine” classes the other day and fell in love with not only the frosting but also the vanilla cupcake itself. Read a full Magnolia Bakery review–including the recipe for their scrumptious vanilla buttercream icing–on my Chicago Restaurant Examiner site. Get some of these for Easter/Passover.  Your guests will love you for it.

And here, for your enjoyment, I reproduce the recipe for Magnolia Bakery’s wonderful vanilla cupcakes (they said it was okay!):

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups self-rising flour
  • 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredient are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Food and drink news you can use

Donuts for Grownups at a party
Donuts for Grownups at a party

Irish-Whiskey-infused donuts. “Donuts for Grownups” brings you the best of all possible worlds–luxurious sweet treats with a touch of spirit. They’ll cater these things at your event—fresh out of the donut-making thingamajig. OMG, they’ll even let you pick your liquor (vodka, bourbon, Bailey’s and more). Brought to you by Sweet Dreams Mini Donuts and Uisce Beatha (ish-kia-ba-ha) Real Irish Whiskey. Just in time for St. Patty’s Day, people.

Farmers Fridge fresh mason-jar snacks and salads
Farmers Fridge fresh mason-jar snacks and salads

Farmers Fridge. A vending machine with super-healthy, fresh foods? Yep, put in your dollars and out come nutrient dense, locally grown salads, meals and snacks that taste great and fill you up. The salads and snacks are handcrafted in portable Mason jars each morning in a local Chicago kitchen and then stocked in over 14 locations around the Chicagoland area daily. Starving before or after the gym or need a quick lunch? Their Cheater Salad sounds fabulous (romaine lettuce, turkey bacon, white cheddar, hard-boiled egg, sunflower seeds, corn, carrot, organic cucumber, grape tomatoes and honey mustard dressing) at under 400 calories.

Italian olive oil, both oil and an oil bottle ...
Olive oil & bottle from Northern Italy, at the lake Garda (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Olive oil is like gold these daysExtra virgin olive oil in Spain and Italy has doubled in price in the course of a single year, according to experts at Sol&Agrifood. Still, prices in Spain, at 3.40 €/kg (vs.  1.80 €/kg a year ago), are just half that of Italy, where wholesale price is consistently quoted above 6 €/kg (vs. 3 €/kg in 2014). Get the straight dope here from the good folks at some of these Chicago vendors: City Olive, Oh, Olive! at the French Market, Old Town Oil, and Eataly’s Olive Oil specialists.

 Divine Chocolate Bars. Fair-trade, fabulous and non-GMO, this stuff comes in milk and dark and in flavors like raspberry, toffee & sea salt, hazelnut truffle, mango coconut and more. Several of the dark versions have the levels of cacao you need to get all the antioxidant benefits of serious chocolate.
Divine 70% dark chocolate bar
Divine 70% dark chocolate bar

New online TV show “America Cooks with Chefs” highlights tasty, healthy eating

A lot of us busy Americans battle with weight while we also struggle to find time to cook. It’s a tough combination to overcome.

Ora TV, a new television platform that puts out some unique and fun shows (love William Shatner’s Brown Bag Wine Tasting), now brings life to the concept of pairing healthy, chef-made recipes with tips from America’s most popular weight-loss program, Weight Watchers. In the first season, a lucky few folks got picked to cook simple dishes with James Beard award-winning chefs on live TV–and we get to learn along with them. What’s not to love?

Check out this episode where Chicago’s own Chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia, one of America’s finest restaurants, shows Victoria Phillips (Lake Forest, IL) how to dazzle her two kids with a quick and easy-to-make pasta/zucchini/tomato salad with pan-seared salmon.

Casual comfort food, fast, at Red Robin’s newest Chicago Burger Works

A burger with fries from Red Robin Go...
A burger with fries from Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Red Robin has just opened a new Burger Works location at Madison and Wells, and the place was already jumpin’ only 3 days later, in the middle of a workday afternoon. You can easily satisfy your hungry-man-woman appetite here with a nice selection of hefty, fire-grilled hamburger sandwiches, all in the $6.50 to $7.00 price range. The turkey burger is fat and juicy like a real burger, with the feel and texture of a piece of sausage. Try a Guacamole burger with guacamole, swiss, bacon, tomato, onion, and lettuce.  French fries, ordered a la carte, are crisp, salty and tasty. Sweet potato fries are delicious, though very thinly cut, and served with their signature Thai Chili Ketchup, a gently zingy mix (homemade chili sauce mixed with regular ketchup).

They offer cheeseburgers and chicken tenders for the kids anytime, and burritos and sandwiches and potatoes for breakfast, plus even oatmeal and orange juice.  And if you want a hamburger for breakfast, this is the place to get it.

Red Robin’s got 500 restaurants in the US and has been serving hungry folks for 40 years. At the Burger Works locations they take the most popular items from the full-serivce Red Robin locations and make the menu from those. The point is good food, served fast (under 5 minutes). The day we visited the average time from order to service was 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

To keep the menu fresh, RR rotates the regular menu with new items. The goal is to be great at a few items rather than just okay with a lot. They make some lovely shakes – soft serve whipped up with other flavors and ingredients. The Salted Caramel was very nice; the strawberry tasty. So thick and slow to melt, they’re more like dessert than a drink.
The new location plans to be open weekends for all the downtown denizens who live nearby and perhaps want to satisfy a craving for tasty, filling food at a cozy, comfortable corner shop instead of going out to a fancy restaurant. You will feel welcome here, and and their Red Robin Burger Works menu offers nice options to get yourself well-fed.

Surprising pleasures at Frontier Restaurant

Frontier's weathered front door
Frontier’s weathered front door

I’d been hearing about Frontier restaurant, 1072 N. Milwaukee, for quite a long time. I’d driven by it a few times and noticed it sat seemingly all by itself on an unprepossessing stretch of Milwaukee Ave. Guess that in itself made me tend not to want to rush over. But a friend liked the unusual menu they were featuring for Chicago Restaurant Week (CRW) so we decided to give it a try.

First, I was very surprised at the warm ambiance, the double-tall ceilings, the straight lines of handsome medium-toned wood columns and the generally spacious feel. But it felt cozy at the same time. I think the large, round chandeliers with straight-sided opaque hurricane glass conveyed a comfortable atmosphere and the carefully placed spotlights created pools of warm light rather than hotspots. Plus I think there was at least one fireplace. I liked the variety of seating options, too – long, tall tables where folks can face each other, bar seating, and regular tables.

The chef is New Orleans-born and you can see that influence in the regular menu. We both liked the same choices and wine pairings for the CRW menu, but also wanted to try their broiled oysters first. The oysters were fresh and the topping just crunchy and cheesy enough to satisfy.

The rabbit and frisee salad with fresh cranberries was set off nicely with delicate sprinklings of a balsamic reduction dressing. Just the right touch.

Next we tucked into a big haunch of smoked boar meat. I was delighted at how delicious it was. Seasoned with brown sugar and housemade spices, it had a beef-life texture but a darker flavor and came with a little bit of sauce-y juice underneath. I took some of the generous serving home, too, and I’d order it again anytime. The side of collard greens was nicely cooked and seasoned, and the little lardon-shaped chunks of chestnut gnocchi made a surprising and tasty side note.  When we asked our server about the lardons, she assumed we were asking about another item the chef uses often. So she went to the kitchen and brought us each a little terrine of their deep-fried bacon lardons. Nice.

Service was very friendly, if occasionally a bit lax. We had to ask the kitchen not to bring out the courses so quickly after each other so we could have time to enjoy the wine and savor the food. They graciously complied, and we were able to relax.

This is your grandma's version of Pineapple Upside Down Cake
NOT like this, your grandma’s version of Pineapple Upside Down Cake (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The sweets course of pineapple upside-down cake–a dessert that’s a throwback to the 50s–was another surprise: a big, thick disk of baked sweet dough, almost like a super-thick, soft and slightly chewy cookie–great mouth feel–and served in its own little skillet. It was sparked with a few pineapple bits inside and surrounded by a luscious pool of creamy sauce. This is definitely not your grandmother’s old standby. I’d order this again, too, any time.

The wine pairings were just right, and for beer lovers, it’s nice they’d laid out beer pairings as an option. I love the fact that the beverage menu also contains Frontier’s “whole animal service” menu. Yes, you can bring your whole family or work group or whoever and dine on things like smoked wild boar, alligator stuffed with chickens, goat leg, and more. You get family-style sides like 5-cheese mac, jalapeno & cheddar cornbread and other. Check it out.

The place was fairly busy for a Wednesday night, though it might have been extra diners taking advantage of the dying light of CRW. Anyway, it was a very comfortable place with very good food. Four stars all around. I’ll be back.

 

2 exciting developments on the cocktail/juice/mixers front

 

Cosmopolitan (cocktail)
Cosmopolitan (cocktail) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These days people, especially women, appreciate lower calories and sometimes even portability in their cocktails. Happily, we’ve had some experts working on those very concepts. Here are two unique ideas that fit the bill perfectly.

Let’s start with Slim Lizzy prepared light alcohol, low-calorie cocktails. I love the story behind the brand. Sean McGirr, CEO and Founder of Slim Lizzy’s, had over 35 years of experience in the juice beverage industry, including 19 years at the helm of North America’s largest bottler of store brand juices and drinks.

One night in early 2013 after he’d retired, Sean took his wife out to dinner. Without a thought, he ordered his usual beer, but his wife was having trouble choosingc. She knew beer would make her feel bloated, wine would make her sleepy, a strong cocktail would leave her feeling too tipsy, and a sugar-infusedy drink would make her feel full. It was that moment when Sean decided that if there was ever an industry in need of disruption, it was the alcoholic beverage industry. They needed to learn to cater to their female customers.

After two years, Slim Lizzy’s 80-calorie pre-made cocktails in cans went to market. The Margarita has 2% fresh lime juice (with just the tiniest bit of metallic aftertaste), but it’s my favorite. The Cosmopolitan has 2% white grape juice and is a delicate pink with cranberry flavor—sweet like a Cosmo should be. Extra sweetness comes from a modest dose of sucralose.

Compare the 80 calories in these drinks to the 150+++ in a typical Margarita or Cosmo. These little guys are also malt and gluten-free. These make good bases, too, for blending with other juices. A 5% alcohol cocktail alternative to high calorie, sugar-infused, bloat inducing beer and vodka drinks. What’s not to love?  Get ’em at select Binny’s or check with your local liquor store or favorite tavern. And see what fun you can have mixing with these Slim Lizzy cocktail recipes.

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And here’s another fresh idea. LO!  Fruit Blend beverages are the perfect fix for a little sweetness and fruity flavor. Drink ’em simply as juice or mix with your favorite spirit. Either way you get great flavor but don’t have to load up on calories and sugar (only 35 to 40 calories per 10-ounce bottle). These non-alcoholic juice blends come in recyclable plastic bottles in four varieties: Mango Mojito, Pomegranate, Acai-Blue , and Pomegranate Mojito. What makes these special is that the calories are low because they’re made with agave nectar and stevia, both nature’s sweeteners that’ve been around for centuries. Plus, each variety has a low-glycemic index (great for diabetics and anyone else who likes to avoid sugar or artificial sweeteners). Get ’em at select Walgreen’s, Meijers and online.
Delicious juices with low-glycemic index and low calories
Delicious juices with low-glycemic index and low calories
The flavors are lively and fresh-tasting on their own, and they all make delicious cocktails. Here are simple recipes for a couple of delightful pre- (or during or post-!) Lenten cocktails:
LO! pomegranate juice makes the Scarlet Starlet tangy
LO! pomegranate juice makes the Scarlet Starlet tangy

Scarlet Starlet

  • 2 oz. white rum
  • 4 oz. LO Pomegranate Juice

Shake with ice and strain over fresh ice. Top with a slash of coconut milk and a few pomegranate arils.

LO Fat Tuesday refreshes with mango and lime
LO Fat Tuesday refreshes with mango and lime

LO Fat Tuesday

  • 1 oz vodka
  • 1/2 oz Mango Mojito Fruit Beverage
  • 1/4 oz fresh lime juice
  • pinch of cayenne pepper
Combine all in a glass with ice and garnish with lime wedge. You’ll be delighted.

 

Last-minute SuperBowl food and drink ideas

SuperBowl Sunday is reputedly one of the biggest television viewing days of the year in the United States. I’m guessing that might depend on which teams are playing and how big the rivalry is (Wikipedia gives interesting biggest-TV-audience stats here).

And for sure, this is also a day people tend to say the hell with the diet. So whether you’re making stuff at home, or heading out to let someone else do the cooking and cleanup, here are a few last-minute ideas for your enjoyment and edification.

Like to keep the dirty dishes to a minimum on SuperBowl Sunday? Try Nuvino wine in portable PreservPak pouches. Comes in Chardonnay, Malbec, Red Blend, and Sauvignon Blanc. If you don’t drink ’em all up at the party, they’ll keep fresh up to 18 months. Just think of all the glasses you won’t have to wash.

If you like to make your own finger foods for the party, here’s a new product, Just Mayo, that lets you make healthier versions of your favorite Super Bowl dishes. It’s non-GMO, gluten-free, soy free, dairy-free, lactose-free, and cholesterol-free product and comes in sriracha, chipotle, and garlic spreads (burger toppers, anyone?). You can get it at Safeway, Whole Foods Market, Walmart, and select Costco locations. Recipes at http://www.hamptoncreek.com/just-mayo/recipes/

A few quick notes on SuperBowl specials around town:

  • Commonwealth Tavern, 2000 W. Roscoe St., has brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with $6 bloody marys and $12 mimosas. $5 stadium cups, $15 Miller and Coors buckets, $4 Tecate cans, $5 Lagunitas drafts, and $10 themed food specials created by Chef Donny Farrell. Hold your spot ahead 773.697.7956.

  • Compass Bar, 433 W. Diversey offers a $10 Super Bowl Chili Frito Pizza along with 200 different beers plus line cards and prize giveaways each quarter.

  • Lottie’s, 1925 W. Cortland, has a Half-Time Competition. Kick a field goal to win a $250 prize. Meanwhile enjoy the game on multiple screens, drink up $4 Jameson, $15 Miller and Coors buckets, and dig in to a $15 party platter (14-inch cheese pizza and bucket of wings and tots).

  • LM Restaurant Group:
    Brasserie by LM, 800 S. Michigan Ave. Bratwurst with Fries and a Miller Lite $10
    Troquet River North, 111 W. Huron. Troquet Burger with Fries and a Miller Lite $10

  • MAK,1924 W. Division has BOGO wangs on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1. Crispy fried with a sweet and spicy sauce, get in all sizes, to go, dine-in & delivery.

  • ROCKS Northcenter, 4138 N. Lincoln, and ROCKS Lakeview, 3463 N. Broadway, $20 Bud Light Towers + 50¢ Wings. Plus discounts, raffles and giveaways.
  • The Pony, 1638 W. Belmont, has a free Jameson’s half-time competition – kick a field goal to win a $250 prize. Deals on Jameson, beer buckets and a $15 Punxsutawney party platter (16-inch Clydesdale grilled cheese plus wings and tots).
  • Tavern on Little Fort, 4128 N. Lincoln, has a Chili Cook-off starting at 3 pm, with judging at half-time. Prizes are as follows: $200 cash (1st place), grill set (2nd place) and Coleman picnic chairs (3rd place). Bring your own crock-pot with your best chili. Ten bucks buys any patron a “judgeship” and the right to enjoy chili samples, wings, sausage, dips, chips, and veggies. $3 domestic specials, $5 microbrew drafts, $4 well drinks and $4 Fireball shots.

 

Soulful soup

With a nod to Billy Joel, I tell you I’m in a soup-making state of mind.

Moroccan soup
Moroccan soup (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This looks kinda like my lentil soup.

Sunday, a pot of lentil soup without the Italian sausage I usually like to add. But a single package of More than Gourmet demi-glace gave it a touch of nice beef flavor. Then the addition of my newest hot sauce discovery just about made up for the missing spice of the sausage. Happily, there’s now a serving sitting in the freezer to be savored again soon.

Today the last dib of lentil soup made a nice breakfast treat. But later, as the morning wore on and hunger crept in again, I was devastated to think I didn’t have any homemade soup to turn to.

English: Sopa de albondigas or Mexican meatbal...
Mexican meatball soup. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The Zesty soup I made has corn and black beans.

That is, I do, but I can’t eat any more of the soup I made on Saturday. The full-sodium chicken broth I used for it made the flavor of this chili-scented Mexican soup (from World’s Healthiest Foods) even more fabulous, but the salt content made me blow up next day like one of those giant over-filled tires they use in the monster truck crash derbies. I will definitely make this soup again, but not until I unfreeze my own chicken stock or buy some with less sodium.

So while I pondered which of my neighbors might be able to enjoy the remaining Zesty Mexican Soup without being in danger of exploding from sodium, it occurred to me there was still a leek and half a cabbage sitting in the fridge. These, along with carrots, onions, etc., were just what I needed to make one of my favorite vegetable soups from the book, “French Women Don’t Get Fat.” Author Mireille Giuliano, the CEO of famed champagne maker Veuve-Clicquot, offers sage advice and many slimming soup and other recipes. More about this and more recipes to come in the cookbook I’m working on—working title, 17 Ways to Eat Your Way to Happiness.

I don’t know how long I’m going to be in this soup state of mind, but it’s fun while it lasts.

P.S. Recently I had some of the most flavorful lentil soup I’ve ever tasted at Nookie’s Tree, 3334 N. Halsted. Alas, they wouldn’t divulge the secret.

National Hot Sauce Day – comparing hot sauces

There are thousands of varieties of hot sauce
There are thousands of varieties of hot sauce (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I became a fan of hot sauce late in life and am still a complete lightweight. But I got introduced a few years ago when I read a fascinating book called The Raw and the Cooked, by and about gourmand author Jim Harrison, who carried his own bottles of hot sauce with him everywhere he went.

I loved the book so much—and was so impressed with his passion for food and his ability to express it—I thought I’d try imitating the guy’s habit. Tried using some of his favorite, the original Cholula brand, at a Mexican restaurant and wasn’t thrilled. I figured maybe I’d like a different flavor, so I bought a bottle of Cholula chipotle-flavored hot sauce. It’s still sitting half-used on my shelf after several years. Just didn’t like the flavor or the way it so markedly changed the taste of my dish.
Then I learned from a Bon Appetit recipe for Bloody Marys about another type of hot sauce known as sriracha. Found it at the store, liked what I tasted. Looked for more ideas for using it—found dozens posted online by heavy duty fans of the stuff. And then I tried a recipe that has made this bright red sauce that comes in a Christmas-green-nozzle-top bottle a staple in my kitchen.

Here’s the recipe: Buy some sriracha. Put some sour cream in a dish. Start stirring in sriracha until the cream turns a lovely light orange-ish color—the darker the color, the spicier the dip. Now dip something in it—sliced cucumbers, steamed green beans or cauliflower, celery sticks, Doritos, potato chips, almost anything your heart desires. If you like spicy, there’s no way you won’t agree this is a heavenly way to dip. I’ve since switched to using 2% Greek yogurt for the sour cream and now feel quite virtuous that I’m taking in protein, calcium and “live yogurt cultures” at the same time I’m chowing down joyfully for my tastebuds. Mix with salsa for a nice switch. Use it on sandwiches or dip plain chicken in it. In case you prefer more sophisticated uses, here are some other popular ways to use sriracha.

 Now, the news is I’ve found another one I like a lot. It’s called Tabanero hot sauce (the name is a combination of habanero, as in peppers, and Tabasco, the little spot in Mexico that grows peppers so well). But this is definitely NOT your grandmother’s Tabasco sauce. Its recipe sounds more like a real sauce—with carrots and onions, key lime juice, agave nectar, as well as habanero peppers, garlic salt, grapefruit seed extract and salt—labeled as all natural ingredients. I tried the medium-to-hot variety and it wasn’t too spicy for me. I was actually dipping my finger in it and tasting it all by itself. It has a clean, fresh taste and tastes like food.
And guess what? There’s no vinegar in it. I’ve just conducted a completely unscientific taste test with Tabanero, Cholula and sriracha. I now realize that part of why I don’t like the Cholula is the heavy vinegary taste—even though I like the taste of vinegar on its own. And lo and behold, the ingredients in Tabasco, too, are precisely: vinegar, red peppers and salt. Sriracha does have some vinegar, but it’s listed as the fifth ingredient and doesn’t overwhelm the chili flavor.
Okay, there is room in my heart and in my kitchen for two favorite hot sauces. I will probably never buy another bottle of Cholula (though it comes in many flavors and is very popular with Mexican food) or Tabasco (sorry, guys). Tabanero will be my new go-to sauce for Bloody Marys, but it might also get a turn in the yogurt dip once in a while. I’ll probably alternate Tabanero and sriracha for spicing up regular dishes that need a kick.
You can find sriracha hot chili sauce in most grocery stores and even in Targets with grocery areas. Get your bottle of Tabanero hot sauce ASAP—at this moment there are no retail outlets in Chicago (did you know there are such things as specialty hot sauce stores??), but you can order online. Then spice it up for National Hot Sauce Day–and keep your mouth and heart warmed up the rest of the year.

Remembering James Beard – and welcoming JBFoundation awards to Chicago this year!

English: A cranberry jello salad made in a rin...
English: A cranberry jello salad made in a ring mold. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I first heard about James Beard back in the 70s when I was just beginning to feel like a serious cook. I spent a lot of time reading cookbooks and a significant amount of time making recipes that sounded delectable—and doable without too many single-purpose pieces of equipment or exotic ingredients. He was one of my original inspirations—as he was to the entire nation of U.S. cooks back then who’d been raised on Jello salads and heavily mayonnaised vegetable and/or fruit combinations. The man even inspired my ultimate hero, Julia Child.

Then I had a chance to see the guy in person. He was a huge man—I think something near 300 pounds. But then, Beard was born a huge baby—some say 13 or 14 pounds, so he came by it honestly as well as by indulging his passions for food. The day I saw him he was making – I will never forget it – a Swiss Cheese Salad. As if cheese isn’t salty and fatty enough, I thought, he’s going to put dressing on it! I think there were some chopped green onions and a few other things in there and some Dijon mustard in the dressing, but I don’t recall any greens in the ingredients. Yes, it was a salad made almost exclusively of shredded cheese—top quality, of course. Gruyere, no doubt. Take out the greens and this is somewhat like the recipe as I remember it.

I was impressed by his flavor-is-everything-and-devil-take-the-consequences attitude towards fat in recipes—this at a time when fat was just beginning to be vilified as the culprit in America’s obesity epidemic. Nowadays, fat versus sugar is the debate that continues to spark hot contests.

Chef Beard was also the guy who gave me my forever-remembered proportions for homemade vinaigrette—one and a half tablespoons of wine vinegar to six tablespoons of olive oil. The memory of seeing him that day is still precious. I can’t imagine how thrilled I’d have been to see Julia Child in person. But at least I got—and still get—to admire her from afar via her many television appearances.

And now I’m thrilled for another reason. I’m proud that the James Beard Foundation, founded to honor that amazing guy, is holding its prestigious JBF 2015 awards ceremony for the first time in Chicago!! Monday, May 4 at Lyric Opera, both the Chicago and the national winners will be celebrated at a grand party.

Read more and find insights on food at the James Beard Foundation’s blog Delights & Prejudices.

Lovin' how Chicago does it!