Chefs' celebration at Green City Market - July 27 - 6-8pm

WHAT: A Chicago Chefs' celebration to benefit the Green City Market. 45 chefs (the list is quite the who's who of Chicago dining) preparing dishes featuring products typically available at the Market.

WHEN: Thursday, July 27, 6-8pm.

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $45 for adults, $10 for children.

MORE DETAILS: Summer Celebration at Green City Market.

This sounds too good to pass up.

That's really a great list of chefs. Beth and I are planning on going. Any other LTHers going to be in attendance?

I will be there.

Sorry for asking such rookie questions, but do any of you know more about what to expect at this event? Should tickets be purchased sooner rather than later, i.e., are there a limited number of tickets available? Do you wander from chef to chef and eat as you please? Or do you get a small bite from each chef? Or are you limited to a specific quantity? Thanks.

I'm really looking forward to it. I bought my tickets on line already.

Since this event is only two weeks away, I thought I'd bump this thread to the top to remind those wanting to go to buy tickets.

I'm pretty sure we are gonna go w/the kidz.

Big regret today at the Green City: The Traders Creamery people had some fresh mozza. We heard that as soon as word hit the market, it sold out VERY fast. Blame it on my pre-teen who's sleeping like a teen these days for our late start.

I will be there with DH (Dear Hubby) and Future-Step-Brother-In-Law (he's engaged to DH's Step-Sister). I'm a blonde woman with glasses, 5'4", I will be wearing beigy-tan pants and a red/lavender/beige print v-neck t-shirt. DH is also blond with glasses. Not sure what FSBIL looks like yet. Say Hi!

Purple Asparagus is organizing the kids activity area. If anyone wants to try some multi-colored popcorn, have their face painted or play fruit v. veggie baggo, stopy by.

Although I missed it last year, I've gone each of the other years. Typically the tables have plates out with portions that you can reasonably help yourself to. The selection's replenished as needed. However, you really do need to get there early -- the year I got there at 7, I ended up getting takeout on the way home. (Maybe chefs plan better now.) That aside, it's been a pleasant time, and although the chefs mostly hang out with each other, they're happy to say hi for a moment.

That might sound a bit critical -- I've certainly enjoyed it in the past and I mean my comments tongue in cheek. There is a bit of a society aspect to the event but, especially on a pleasant summer night, it's easy to enjoy a lot of great food by some fine chefs.

Kennyz wrote:I need 2 tix that I can pick up somewhere on the N side of the city. I'll check here the rest of the afternoon

Dish reports that the Spice House on Wells (312-274-0378) was selling tickets, if you want to try that option.

As of 2pm all tickets were sold out (so says an email from the spice house), so all you can hope for is someone selling tickets they can't use.

This was lots of fun, once the downpour stopped (only the wine folks and some desserts seemed to be served while it was pouring). The best savory thing (I thought) was Blackbird's grilled pork belly. The best sweet was a tie between the two ice cream sodas. One had strawberry ginger soda and rhubarb ice cream (Four Seasons?) the other had ginger soda, white chocolate ice cream and peach sorbet (Copper blue?). I saw MAG, TPA and Thor and met Chris (what do you post with?) in line for the pork belly. Everyone was in good humor, if a bit sopping.

Agreed on the pork belly being the star of the show.

I think the best sweet thing was the peach-thyme-butterscotch freeze pop from trotter's.

I was very disappointed, but pretty amused, that Bayless's tamales had gone within a couple minutes of the event beginning, despite the downpour.

leek wrote:This was lots of fun, once the downpour stopped (only the wine folks and some desserts seemed to be served while it was pouring). The best savory thing (I thought) was Blackbird's grilled pork belly. The best sweet was a tie between the two ice cream sodas. One had strawberry ginger soda and rhubarb ice cream (Four Seasons?) the other had ginger soda, white chocolate ice cream and peach sorbet (Copper blue?). I saw MAG, TPA and Thor and met Chris (what do you post with?) in line for the pork belly. Everyone was in good humor, if a bit sopping.

When I got home and reviewed the yellow "menu" that had been handed out, I was kicking myself for having missed Paul Kahan's pork belly and corn fritters -- where were they? Maybe it was just out when I got to his table? Was it next to Avec's table? (I really enjoyed Avec's blood sausage with garlic aioli). The peach/white chocolate dessert you mention was from Spring, IIRC.

Anyway, I was one of the unlucky ones who got drenched -- I realized too late that there was some room under one of the tiny white tents. Oh well, just water. But I was treated to some humor under the tent when a gentleman approached and complained to one of the ticket-takers that during the hardest part of the rainfall, chefs were not serving food despite the proclamation that the event was "rain or shine." I guess I understood his gripe to some degree, but even with an umbrella, I don't know how anyone expected to do much other than drink. Since I was standing there soaking wet, I had very little sympathy for the chap and just laughed to myself. I spent the rest of the evening walking around water-logged and eating wayyyyy to much food.

Anyway, my favorites, not necessarily in order:

Savories

-- Whole roasted pig w/ apple slaw and Il Cielo tequila from Fox & Obel, roasted over charcoal next to the Fox & Obel store. This was fantastic, and they didn't even use any wood to grill the pig.

-- Beet salad with arugula and goat cheese from Timo - so simple yet so delicious.

-- Blood sausage w/ garlic aioli from Avec.

-- Grilled (and amazingly tender) skirt steak w/ stone fruit salad and truffle-poblano vinaigrette from Scylla. Now I know that they don't just do an amazing job with seafood.

-- Tilapia ceviche from Nacional 27 (although the cracker it was served upon was way too salty).

-- Lamb prosciutto w/ melon and arugula from Vie.

Sweets

-- Strawberry-ginger soda w/ rhubarb ice cream from the Four Seasons. This was the star of the show.

-- Black cherries w/ vanilla yogurt tapioca, pistachio cake and sour cherry foam from NoMi. Also amazing, in both flavor in presentation - just second to Four Seasons.

-- Black forest clafoutis w/ white chocolate-cherry sauce and kirsch from Copperblue. I'm beginning to think I need to get to Copperblue real soon.

-- Goat cheese and anise hyssop sorbets w/ beets from North Pond - words cannot do this combination any justice. Needless to say, Bruce Sherman knows what he is doing.

-- lemon-thyme shortbread from Charlie Trotter's, the various macaroons from Les Nomades and the bay laurel panna cotta from NAHA also deserve mention.

There were a number of other memorable tastes, but the ones above really stood out in my opinion. All in all, and even with the downpour, this was a lot of fun.

I was pretty impressed with the skirt steak from scylla.

Yes, the Blackbird pork belly was right next to the avec blood sausage. When I picked mine up near the end of the evening there was a long line for blackbird and no line for avec.

It was good to see goose island pouring Matilda, but I was disappointed the Demolition was only for the chefs.

HB served up some rare chicken to one of my companions, and tossed it back on the grill after he mentioned it. It was a pretty poor choice for a dish to serve at this type of event, anyway, and I suspect most people only ate a few bites before realizing it was horribly unwieldy.

What amazed me more than anything was how... ignorant (for lack of a better word, I don't mean that in a pejorative sense) so many of the other people at the event were about the food and such. It really seemed like people were there for the scene than anything else.

I thought it was a very nice event, but not nearly as nice as Feast of the Senses two years ago (on Randolph).

Still glad I went, and we had a great time.

Also, did anyone sample the pig skin sitting in a bucket next to the F&O sandwiches? It had great flavor but was really, really, really thick/brittle/etc.

Oh, and to be honest, blackbird's pork belly tasted a lot like honey 1's spare ribs. Not incredibly surprising, and a testament to the product turned out by both places.

I really enjoyed this event despite the downpour. Glad to hear Frontera had something, because by the time I got to that tent it was definately closed up.

I really liked some spanish sausage served by Ambria. Sweet, spicy encased goodness. I also had a lamb sausage and potato salad combo from Bin 36 that was okay, but not as good as the sausage from Ambria.

My vote for best sweet was milk chocolate and chocolate chip and mint ice cream with brownie bits from Hot Chocolate. For me, I need chocolate in order to waste the calories on dessert!

Everyone seemed to be having a good time at this event and I found it remarkably easy to socialize even walking around by myself.

gleam wrote:What amazed me more than anything was how... ignorant (for lack of a better word, I don't mean that in a pejorative sense) so many of the other people at the event were about the food and such. It really seemed like people were there for the scene than anything else.

I didn't get that sense at all judging by the food-based conversation I was hearing between some of the patrons at the West Town booth (I was in the very back refilling cups with potato chips). Sure, some people were there for the scene, but given the age group of the patrons overall, I think they were more the exception to the rule.

Perhaps because I am myself more non-pejoratively ignorant than I realize, I share aschie's view that the crowd was there almost entirely for for the food. Anyway, what kind of scenester wants to walk around in a wet, humid park after a torrential storm, getting unavoidable food and wine stains on his/her clothes and jamming to unknown (though talented) local folk bands?

The kind who say, affronted, "Well, aren't we the chefs!" when you casually mention that the freeze pop from CT's involved peach, thyme, and butterscotch rather than whatever unbelievably wrong combination they were saying it was.

Maybe we just kept running into people who seemed to not particularly care about the food one way or the other, except as something to not spill on their formal shorts.

gleam wrote:The kind who say, affronted, "Well, aren't we the chefs!" when you casually mention that the freeze pop from CT's involved peach, thyme, and butterscotch rather than whatever unbelievably wrong combination they were saying it was.

Maybe we just kept running into people who seemed to not particularly care about the food one way or the other, except as something to not spill on their formal shorts.

Not to say "I told you so" or anything like that, but earlier in this thread,

I wrote:There is a bit of a society aspect to the event

...

hmm, I now sense a bit of pejorativeness in that non-pejorative reference to the eventgoers' ignorance. Go figure.

Scenester was meant to be pejorative, ignorant wasn't.

Bob S. wrote:Not to say "I told you so" or anything like that, but earlier in this thread,

I wrote:There is a bit of a society aspect to the event

...

Or is "society" defined in the classic, blue-blood, Edith Wharton sense? If so, can't say I saw too many parasols and tails at this event. Or Paris Hiltons, for that matter.

gleam wrote:I was very disappointed, but pretty amused, that Bayless's tamales had gone within a couple minutes of the event beginning, despite the downpour.

I saw him wandering around aimlessly, looking sour, for much of the last half. They must have brought next to nothing, unless they were the only ones serving during the rain. I was near the Clark entrance, got there right around 6:10, and it didn't look like anyone was serving anything during the downpour (some ice cream sodas got made, and some wine got served). Blackbird didn't run out until around 7:30 (we had a friend who came late and I ran him over there to make sure he got some). They had no more corn fritters, but still had the other garnishes for the pork.

Actually, Bayless's tamales were not gone before the rain stopped. We arrived 5 or 10 minutes after the rain stopped and his booth was the third or fourth we hit. The tamales were filled with ricotta and some other stuff and topped with a salsa. They were incredible; one of the top three or four savory dishes.

One other dish not mentioned is the Penninsula Hotel's (I assume that really means Avenues) beef three ways. The put out three different plates, and each had a slice of beef carpaccio with some kind of topping. You had to stand there and make sure you got all three different plates. Fortunately, there was no line when we were there.


Jonah

Damn, I'm sad I missed them. We were right by where Bayless was when the rain stopped, too, and I didn't notice them being served.