Festival Recap: Taste Talks 2017

During the first weekend of October one of Brandy's favorite food festivals of the year, Taste Talks, invaded Chicago. With a host of seminars and events, the weekend long event aims to inspire industry professionals and food fans alike to learn about the latest trends and gain a deeper appreciation for the people and processes that go into producing amazing food. This year's conference  was set to impress with new host locations and lots of new talented chefs.

Brandy started off her Taste Talks weekend bright and early on Saturday morning at Revival Food Hall, which served as the new home for all of the food demos, panels, and seminars that form the center of the conference. Mindy Segal's Hot Chocolate stand provided a bounty of brunch bites, such as sweet and savory composed bagel toast and uniquely flavored mini donuts. The items were so popular in fact that many attendees didn't get a chance to taste them before they disappeared, (Brandy, on the other hand, had planned ahead and made sure she arrived early enough to have a crack at the goodies).

She then settled in for a morning of demos and tasting in the main hall. Future Top Chef contestant and Chef at Spiaggia, Joe Flamm  showed off his knife skills by filleting a salmon live in front of the crowd, then composed it into a simple crudo. Fabio Vivani was next, demystifying pasta making by showing the crowd how he could create fresh pasta in less than two minutes and make it into a composed dish in less than ten. Jenner Tomaska from Next made a rare appearance, talking about how the creative geniuses in his kitchen find inspiration for their dishes in unexpected places; from centuries old French cookbooks to childhood favorite poems (indeed, all of Tomaska's talk of "story telling" and "narrative" prompted Brandy to suggest that he might want to consider partnering with some noted fiction writer in order to create an original narrative that could be then be made edible, an idea he seemed to take a shine to. So let it be known that should such a menu appear at Next, Chicago will have Brandy to thank for it!). The last demo Brandy attended had her delighting in watching Phillip Foss of El Ideas explain the genesis and evolution of his signature dish, French Fries and Ice Cream. She was even more pleased when she had a chance to sample that hot and cold, sweet and savory wonder consisting of vanilla whipped cream frozen instantly with liquid nitrogen spooned on top of warm cream of leek soup with small chunks of thrice fried potatoes at the bottom. 

Later that night, Brandy adjourned to Fulton Market Kitchen, where a collaborative dinner themed on a "Family Meal," (no, not Thanksgiving, but rather the meal restaurants serve their staff before service begins) was being hosted. The night was drowned in Altos Tequila cocktails, which helped to loosen up the attendees, many of which were seated at communal tables.  Pat Sheerin kicked things off with a pair of roasted vegetable dishes, followed up by Chris Curren's fish course with tilapia in tomato sauce with Spanish rice and a simple ceviche with lime and garlic. The meat course came courtesy of John Manion and consisted of a Pork posole verde (served in a plastic service cup to mimic how a server would eat it back in the kitchen) and an amazing plate of short rib nachos with avocado crema, chojita cheese, and pickled onions. Finally, dessert came in the form of four beautiful little bites from Becca Zuckerman; Mexican chocolate cookie sandwiches, tres leches cupcakes,and tequila lime tarts.

Brandy had barely recovered by the next day when she headed out to the All Star Cookout in Palmers Square. Having picked the second entry time to accommodate her hangover from the previous night's festivities, she was a little disappointed to learn that two of the restaurants present had already run out of food (the drinks tent also had only a few remaining options). Never the less, the rest of the restaurants in attendance seemed well prepared with enough food to make up the difference. Standouts from the day included Fat Rice's "Dirty BBQ," which consisted of a cinnamon scented beef rib and a delicious chicken wing covered in various crushed up crisped potato snacks. Proxi served a very unique Thai sausage, mini Bulgogi Beef tacos came from Seoul Taco, and Grilled Beef Rolls from Oriole, who had partnered with this year's guest chef curator, Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods.

There were definitely some bumps in the road for this year's Taste Talks, but there was also a great lineup of chefs throughout the weekend who brought their passion and skills to the plate. For more drool worthy pictures (of both the chefs and their food) make sure to stop by Bunny and Brandy's Facebook Page.

The writers of this blog were invited to attend Taste Talks free of charge in order to facilitate the writing of this post.

Festival Recap: Taste Talks 2016

If Taste of Chicago is for the food loving public and Chicago Gourmet is for the more dedicated foodies among us, then Taste Talks is the food festival for the die hard food fans.  Now in its third year in Chicago, Taste Talks brings together chefs and industry experts for a whole weekend of amazing food experiences, informative seminars, and demos that aim to not only entertain, but to educate.  Brandy has been a big fan of this particular festival since its inception, and when she saw this year's lineup, she was more excited than ever to return.

After a raucous opening night party, the festival began in earnest on Saturday morning with Bang Bang Pie serving up their signature biscuits along with some scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, and a variety of toppings that kept everyone's energy high throughout the day.  Nescafe was also on hand to make sure the attendees were well caffeinated, while Kellog's returned with their innovative cereal bar, this time with augmented bowls created by Brian Jupiter (of Frontier), Joanna Stachon (of Ada Street) and Mike Sheerin.

Settling in for an afternoon of talks, Brandy first attended an infinitely interesting panel about the forgotten history behind Chicago's restaurant scene.  With Tony Mantuano leading the way, panelists Matthias Merges, Jimmy Bannos, Tony Quartaro, and Carrie Nahabedian shared stories about the restaurants where they learned their trade, waxing poetic about the days when irate chefs could (jokingly) throw knives at their underlings without fear of repercussions from any HR department.  The thing that became more than obvious during this talk was that all roads in Chicago led both to and from the late, great Charlie Trotter, whose infamous restaurant proved to be a catalyst for the thriving restaurant scene Chicago has today.

Next, Brandy listened with interest to a panel about the fine dining revolution, where restaurant insiders like Kevin Boehm from Boka Group, Belinda Chang from Maples and Ash, and Gregg Horan from Gibons Restaurant Group discussed how the days of the black tie and white table cloth could possibly be coming to an end.  "Not a moment too soon!" Brandy thought to herself, "I shouldn't have to put on my good jewelry every time I want to go out for a steak.  That is, unless I want to, of course."

Down on the second floor, the San Pellegrino stage housed demos by the likes of Abe Conlon from Fat Rice and Jimmy Bannos Jr, among others.  Brandy listened with vested interest as cocktail king Paul McGee explained the history of rum to an enraptured crowd and even mixed up a few cocktails for them.  Sarah Gruenberg then stepped in to show her skills at making pesto, which she has become an expert in since opening Monteverde, where she makes all of the pesto herself.  The highlight of that demo was actually getting to try some of Sarah's pesto on top of some home made pasta with a creamy tomato sauce and plenty of cheese.

In the middle of the day, Brandy once again attended the Kellog's Cereal Bar Throwdown, where Brian Jupiter and Joanna Stachon were presented with a tray of mystery ingredients and tasked to create the ultimate bowl of cereal while being subjected to a barrage of  cereal related trivia questions.  In the end, Brain Jupiter took the crown with his creation (the crown being a vintage Tony the Tiger doll, which his daughter was very excited to receive).

Sunday marked the All Star BBQ, which is always Brandy's favorite part of the Taste Talks Weekend.  She particularly enjoyed the abundance of meaty options this year, which did give the place more of a BBQ feel.  Jason Hammel and Sarah Rinkavage of Lula Cafe teamed up with Dan Bitney from Tortoise to create a really interesting short rib dish with crunchy seeds, red cabbage, and huckleberry, while Charlie McKenna from Lillie Q's took short rib in another direction with Johnny cakes, collard green kimchi, and pickled veggies, and Paul McGee and Pete Coenen brought in short rib skewers with avocado and lime to pair with a cocktail of pineapple, rum, lime, and apricot.  Also featuring beef was Bjorn Rasmussen of Old Town Social with a classic slider topped with a sharp cheddar, red onion, black pepper jam, and charred bone marrow aioli for a truly decadent experience.  Jared Van Camp from Leghorn Chicken won Brandy over instantly with his mini chicken and waffle bites, while Chris Pandel chose a non meaty star for his dish of corn on the cob with uni butter and candied shrimp.  But it was Big Star that really stole the show with their grilled adobe marinated porchetta sandwich with stone fruit salsa.

Make sure to check out all the pictures from the weekend on Bunny and Brandy's Facebook page!

The writers of this blog were invited to attend the events mentioned free of charge in order to facilitate the writing of this post.

Festival Recap: Taste Talks 2015

Food and Wine was relaxed and intimate.  Chicago Gourmet was buzzing and extravagant.  But Taste Talks is the one food festival that puts the emphasis on learning more about one's food.  For the second year, Taste Talks came to Chicago with a weekend of events and panels that aimed to educate foodies on various food issues so that they can cook at home and eat out more mindfully.  Brandy was pleased to attend again this year, especially since there was lots of new events and chefs involved.

Brandy started off her Taste Talks weekend on Saturday morning at the Morgan Building on Fulton Market.  Since the talks began bright and early, Brandy was happy to see some snacking options provided by Kellog's and Publican Quality Bread.  At the Kellog's Cereal Bar, three chefs had been enlisted to come up with creative toppings for classic cereals.  Brandy tried two of the three varieties: the Rise and Dine from Chef Jessica Koslow with Rice Krispies and Frosted Flakes, then green tea powder, candied ginger, raspberry jam, toasted coconut, and coconut milk, and the I Dream of Tahini from Chef Kristina Mack with Rice Krispies, tahini, honey, sesame seeds, fig, and cinnamon.  "I'm not usually one to have cereal for brunch, but this kind of creativity is rather inspiring," Brandy commented.  In another section of the building, Publican Quality Bread (the baking off shoot of Publican Quality Meats) hosted a toast bar, topping their high quality bread with interesting flavor combinations.  Brandy sampled the Cypress Grove Toast with goat cheese, apples, urfa pepper, and pine nuts, which again sent a spark of creativity through her brain.  Throughout the day, more snacks popped up, like coffee and tea from Intelligentsia, beer from Goose Island, and donuts from Longman and Eagle, keeping Brandy fully fueled and energized for the panels.

First up, Brandy attended a talk about the current state of food media with panelists Amy Cavanaugh from Time Out Chicago, Ari Bendersky, and Steve Dolinsky from ABC7.  For a talk about how food media is evolving, Brandy would have liked to have seen a food blogger or two on the panel, as the talk mainly focused around how even professional food writers have to do a certain amount of social media in order to stay in touch with their industry and audience.  Despite this, Brandy found the talk extremely interesting and agreed with a good majority of what was said, especially about a tendency for professional food writers to be a little too harsh, while bloggers tended towards too much enthusiasm in their reviews.  Next up was a panel on using the entire animal in butchery with a very distinguished panel that included Chris Cosentino and Fergus Henderson, plus local butchers Cosmo Goss from The Publican and Rob Levitt from Butcher + Larder.  When Chris Cosentino, who has made a name for himself using offal in his dishes, revealed that his mother to this day refuses to eat his food, Brandy had to laugh, but when he explained this was due to a generational prejudice against odd cuts of meat that stems back to WWII rationing, Brandy exclaimed aloud, "Ah!  That makes so much sense!" 

After these first two talks, Brandy snuck down to the gallery to witness the Kellog's Cereal Bar Throwdown, where the three chefs who had designed the reinvented cereal bowls (the third chef was Matthew Rice) would be presented with a choice of 20 mystery ingredients and tasked to design another bowl on the fly in just 5 minutes.  Chef Mack shocked the audience by adding corn kernels to her cereal as well as blueberries and and maple syrup.  Chef Rice went for everything fruity, mixing Fruit Loops with mangos, peaches, and blueberries.  Chef Koslow won the throwdown with her savory take on cereal, using mint, burrata, and peaches with milk steeped with sweet corn.  Fellow blogger Amanda Topper was lucky enough to be selected from the crowd as one of the judges and her expert analysis of the entries proved to be a great amusement to the gentleman hosting the contest.  "Just goes to show that food bloggers do actually know what they're talking about," Brandy smirked to herself.

The second round of panels began with an intimate chat with Chicago restaraunt kingpin Chef Paul Kahan and musician John Stirratt from Wilco.  The talk was pretty enlightening in that the two compared the sort of collaborations needed between band mates and kitchen mates as well as told stories about their friendship, which began when Paul Kahan spotted John walking with his family outside Big Star and yelled to him across the street that the restaurant was currently playing one of his songs.  After that, an all female panel of pastry chefs and bakers had a very frank discussion about industry operations and stigmas.  Queen of Chicago Sweets, Mindy Segal expressed concern for fellow baker Sandra Holl and her acclaimed bakery Floriole (which started as a farmer's market stall), explaining that many bakeries have to resort to wholesale in order to support their operations, which ultimately hurts the baker and can over time decrease the quality of the products.  Restaurant pastry chefs Meg Galus and Leigh Omilinsky acknowledged how privileged they were to work with restaurant groups and chefs that were fully supportive of their creative process, and also made a point of the kind of open camaraderie that exists between most pastry chefs and bakers, including all the women on the panel, to the extent of being willing to share everything from recipes to sourdough starters with each other.

Sunday ushered in the All Star BBQ, where chefs that had participated in various parts of the weekend gathered together in Palmer Square to grill up some extraordinary bites for the attendees.  Some of Brandy's favorites included a butternut squash sausage sandwich from Chef Matthias Merges (she actually induced a blush in Chef Merges when she informed him of just how much she adored Yusho), a mock Chicago dog made by Chef Jessica Koslow (a Californian) that featured a roasted carrot in place of meat, a beef heart slider from the guys at Publican, and a buttermilk and beef fat parsnip on a stick from Chef Matt Danko.  Paul McGee provided a whopper of a cocktail, paired with Chef Pete Coenen's smoked brisket and green tomato salsa, while Chef Tony Quartaro shocked and amazed with his sweet and savory tiramisu carrots paired with a smooth and creamy coffee drink.  The showstopper was Abe Conlan from Fat Rice who created some sticky rice dumplings wrapped in banana leaves and paired up with visual artist Jordan Martins to create colorful wood blocks that they hung from a tree and then hung the dumplings from to be "picked" like fruit by the attendees.  Dessert was a little lacking this year with the bulk of the sweet stuff being provided by festival sponsors Cypress Grove, which put up some of their delicious blue goat cheese with a drizzel of honey, and Lifeway Foods, who handed out frozen kefir bars.

"I do so love Taste Talks," Brandy mused as she sat back for a moment at the BBQ, "It makes for such a varied and enlightening end to the big festival season.  I am so glad they've decided to make a home for themselves in Chicago because for the second year in a row, I've not only gotten to sample some rather amazing food, I feel I'm coming away with some inspiration, some understanding, and an even better appreciation for what is put on my plate and all the people it took to get it there."

The writers of this blog were invited to attend the mentioned events free of charge in order to facilitate the writing of this post.

Festival Report: Taste Talks

As if Chicago Gourmet wasn't enough, this year the Windy City had a second indulgent weekend of food to look forward to.  Taste Talks, a three day food festival that premiered in Brooklyn last year, came to Chicago at the beginning of October, bringing with it a slew of events to dazzle even the most casual food fan.  The goal of the festival is not only to introduce people to new and exciting dinning experiences, but also provide a forum for ideas about the future of food to take root and flourish.  Though still recovering from the hedonistic pleasure dome that was Chicago Gourmet, Brandy just knew that she would have to check out the Taste Talks premier Chicago events for herself.  "I am the past, present, and future of food," she told herself as she selected events from the website (tickets for everything could be purchased individually for between $10-$90 per event or via an all in one pass for $100-$385), "So of course I have to go and make sure this thing lives up to Chicago's high standards for food festivals.  Besides, I've never been one to scoff at a room full of celebrity chefs!"

The weekend kicked off at Kinmont with the Mother of Pearl dinner.  About 90 diners gathered together at the seafood-centric restaurant for a seven course meal inspired by oysters and champagne, even beginning with live shucking from Island Creek Oysters.  A multitude of chefs collaborated on the meal itself, featuring things like Alfred Norgeira from Analogue delivering a roasted oyster on the half shell with a salted beignet, Jason Vincent (formerly of Nightwood) bringing a smokey shellfish chowder, and Abraham Conlon from Fat Rice with a red wine braised octopus, blood sausage puree, and purple potatoes.  Kinmont, the host restaurant, provided a twist on a shrimp cocktail with a butter poached shrimp, shaved celery, and whole mustard seeds, but also what was probably the highlight of the dinner, a full on seafood boil, complete with whole lobsters, head on shrimps, crawfish, red potatoes, corn on the cob, and mussels.  From the moment the servers began bringing in the giant wood trays laden with the fruits of the sea ("Goodness, those people are going to need a chiropractor in the morning!" Brandy exclaimed as she watched the brave servers enter the room with the heavy trays over their heads), the communal tables of what had been strangers making awkward conversation an hour ago suddenly became grinning, cheering children on Christmas morning as they grabbed for hunks of lobster claws and traded secrets about how to crack into them.  The meal ended on an extremely satisfying note with Sarah Mispagel from Nightwood delivering a sweet corn panna cotta topped with blueberries, sweet kettle corn, and peach tea flavored ice cream.

Saturday was all about the panels: a series of 45 minute sessions that covered topics all over the board, from the popularity of cider to underground dinners and fireside chats with the likes of Rick Bayless and Jeni Britton Bauer from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream.  Brandy attended three of the sessions at Open Secret Studios (the day's worth of panels were split between Open Secret, Kaiser Tiger, and Soho House, all of which were within a 15 minute walk of each other so that attendees could freely move between the locations in between sessions), which started off with a panel entitled The Greener Path, a discussion about running restaurants that focused on plant based foods.  Following that, Brandy attended a demonstration on food photography and styling, which she greatly enjoyed ("Now I know how to do this Insta-whatsit all the young people are so fond of!" she proudly told anyone who would listen).  Lastly, Brandy attended another panel discussion called The Evolution of the Farm to Table Dinner, which featured the festival's honorary curator, Paul Kahan, along with a group of other James Beard award winning chefs and local farmers.  After the panels ended, the day was capped off with an underground dinner experience created by Pat Sheerin from Trenchermen, but sadly, Brandy was unable to attend the dinner as she was too busy at home trying to create the perfect tablescape to Instagram (even more sadly, Brandy still didn't quite understand what Instagram was and ended up taking several badly lit Polaroid shots, which she placed next to a plate of hashbrowns).

The big event Sunday was the All Star Chef's Barbecue, which featured ten stalls manned by some of the biggest chefs in the region.  The event was seemingly even more organized than Chicago Gourmet; while obviously smaller in scale and not nearly as crowded, none the less Brandy was impressed that attendees were handed a menu that listed what each station was serving and could be checked off so that if one got confused as to which booths they hadn't visited yet, they could easily be pointed in the right direction.  In general, the dishes were pretty adventurous, like the bison heart kielkbasa brought in by John Jackson, Connie Desousa, and Ryan Brosseau, or the grilled goat with an apple slaw from Matty Matheson and Nick Colella.  Paul Kahan was here too, serving up smoked short rib with a drizzle of balsamic syrup, which competed head to head with Edward Kim's distinctly Korean short rib with radish and shiso.  The longest line was unsurprisingly in front of Stephanie Izard's booth, who was presenting a grilled clam bruschetta with pesto, though Brandy suspected that few of the people in line realized that the chef herself (her tradmark wild curls hidden under a ballcap) was the one plating and serving them the dish.  "No one's asking her to pose for an Insta-thingy," Brandy mumbled, "Maybe they're just that excited to try the food!"  One lone cocktail was provided by Three Dots and a Dash, who cleverly served it in a handheld plastic bag, reminiscent of a childhood lunchbox favorite drink.  Three booths boasted desserts with Mindy Segal of Hot Chocolate serving up homemade s'mores, Jeni Britton Bauer using her signature ice creams to create a sundae and an affogato with Intelligentsia coffee, and Bang Bang Pie Shop hosting a bake sale of sorts, where they sold slices of pie from restaurants all around the city for $5 a piece, with the proceeds going to benefit No Kid Hungry.  Brandy treated herself to a slice of sugar cream pie from Perennial Virant with raspberries, nectarines, and a drizzle of honey.

Brandy just adored her entire Taste Talks experience.  Not only did it seemingly offer something for every kind of food enthusiast (from industry experts to weekend warriors), the events that made up the weekend were equally entertaining and intriguing.  "I got to try lots of delicious treats, I talked with culinary superstars, I had a dinner unlike anything I'd ever experienced, and I learned to appreciate my food in a whole new way," Brandy gushed, "Though I do have to register my disappointment that nothing about brunch was mentioned all weekend.  Perhaps I could host a panel on my favorite meal if they come back next year!"  Don't forget to check out Facebook page for lots more pictures of all the events!

The writers of this blog were provided with passes to the Taste Talks events at no charge in order to facilitate the writing of this post.