PS. If you can catch them when they're open, a great place for Georgian food is Sh. Rustavelli's, where we had an Evanston Lunch Group not long ago...lots of Ohio expats here, myself and 'spouse included...

I guess I am at the point where I am ready to step out of my online anonymity, especially since I will attend my first LTH event next month. My name is Eric and despite my handle and interests in Spanish and Latin American cuisines, I am hardly a Spanish speaker and have no Spanish or Latin American ancestry. My work as a chef in a kitchen with Spanish speaking employees is how I gained the nickname Jefe. I have been a cook for eight years- chef for four, but only seasonally (summer) at a 96 year-old artist's residency program in Saugatuck, MI. It is a magical environment and particularly inspiring in its natural beauty. The west coast of Michigan yields an amazing agricultural bounty due to its more temperate lake effected seasons and I am incredibly fortunate to have learned to cook professionally with access to sustainable agriculture- heirloom produce, grass fed meats, artisanal cheeses, breads, and gelato, etc. First and foremost I am an artist- trained in painting at the Art Institute and I am actively engaged in the Chicago art scene. In the fall of 2006 I opened a nonprofit art center in Noble Square, which has been an incredible journey in its short history so far- I have had the pleasure of working with over 100 local and national artists at my space. I am also a semi-professional DJ. You've got to piece together a career when your degree is a bachelor in fine arts!
Chicago food-wise, I grew up in the south suburbs where there was a proliferation of dogs, beefs, and pizza. There was also good Mexican nearby, so I got an early start with that. My family turned vegetarian in my early teens and that was surprisingly influential in my taste for new cuisines- other kids ate spaghetti and meatballs and meatloaf, while I ate falafel and ma po tofu (sans ground pork)! I moved to the city in 1997 and have actively explored our culinary landscape (always according to my often low budget). My interest perked in LTH first through the reviews of Mike Sula in the Reader and then after I received the Slow Food Guide to Chicago for an X-mas present and the only two chapters that provided any new and exciting info for me were the BBQ and Chinese chapters (thanks, Gary!); (EDIT: and discovering Erik M's translated menu at Sticky Rice). I've never had too much time behind a computer screen in my professional pursuits and finally picked up my first laptop about a year and a half ago. And ever since I gradually have become enticed by the insight and conviviality of this community!

Visconti wrote: There are probably over 100 spots on my must try list,.

And if you hang out with this crowd, the list will just keep on growing!

Jefe wrote:In the fall of 2006 I opened a nonprofit art center in Noble Square, which has been an incredible journey in its short history so far- I have had the pleasure of working with over 100 local and national artists at my space.

Hmmm. This makes me think of the now defunct Slow Food event, Feast of the Senses, where food was served in a number of art galleries. Maybe you could bring this back for LTHForum -- open your art center, have a few artists exhibit, ask for food and wine donations from group members, and let us come hang out with artists and sample the offerings of other LTH members.

Just a thought. It's just that the art and food connection is such a nice one.

Jefe wrote: It is a magical environment and particularly inspiring in its natural beauty. The west coast of Michigan yields an amazing agricultural bounty due to its more temperate lake effected seasons and I am incredibly fortunate to have learned to cook professionally with access to sustainable agriculture- heirloom produce, grass fed meats, artisanal cheeses, breads, and gelato, etc.

We honeymooned in this area, and spent a good half of our 'wedding money' eating out in the area - you ain't kidding!

Looking forward to seeing you offline, Jefe!

Liz in Norwood Park wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

which I will be presenting again for Mensa in October.

Just curious, are you a member of Mensa? If so, do you find it a worthwhile club?

I'm just asking because I have been eligible for membership since I was 17, but I never joined. I'm just wondering if the dues you are asked to pay is worth it.

Thanks, and also, this is a very interesting thread!

I was invited once. But I wasn't about to pay the fee. I'm just cheap, mostly, and was against the idea that you have to pay to be included. But it did sound really interesting. I just noticed this now or I would've answered sooner.

Hi all,

I've been a lurker here for quite some time and finally decided to get in the game.

I was born, raised and currently reside in Chicago. In my younger days I was a bit of a food curmudgeon and rarely went outside my narrow comfort zone. Fortunately thanks to some adventurous, foodie friends and my gastronomically-gifted significant other, I came out of my shell and became eager to explore the culinary wonders my hometown has to offer.

I look forward to swapping suggestions, stories and recipes with the great community here.

Since this thread came up today, I thought I'd introduce myself as well. I only signed up and started posting a few weeks ago, though I've been lurking and reading regularly since late last summer after I found the site through a google search for something-or-other.

My name is Anne. Annabelle is what my Dad and a few other family members call me, so it seemed like a good handle for here. Prior to moving to Chicago in the summer of 2006 I lived in a series of midwestern towns/suburbs/cities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. I'm very new to foodie-ness and am generally still figuring everything out, and I will admit to being more than a bit intimidated by it all. I am well trained in the art and science of baking things, thanks to spending summers with my Grandma, but I never attempted to learn to cook "regular food" until quite recently. I've got the most basic of skills (again, thanks Grandma!), but if it isn't a food regularly served at church pot-lucks in small midwestern towns, I probably didn't cook it until at least 2007. But as I am engaged to someone who never ate potatoes that didn't come from a box (just add water!) until I entered the picture, it is pretty much up to me to make sure we don't starve to death, or live off of take-out. So I'm learning! And having quite a lot of fun.

I spend much of my non-food-related time reading, writing, sewing/quilting, and taking long walks around the city and exploring. And this summer I'm also working on planning my wedding, which is far more time-consuming than I ever expected it to be. We get to do the food tasting and pick dishes and appetizers for the Big Day in a couple of weeks, and I'm super excited about that.

Mr. Maki wrote:Hi all,

I've been a lurker here for quite some time and finally decided to get in the game.

I was born, raised and currently reside in Chicago. In my younger days I was a bit of a food curmudgeon and rarely went outside my narrow comfort zone. Fortunately thanks to some adventurous, foodie friends and my gastronomically-gifted significant other, I came out of my shell and became eager to explore the culinary wonders my hometown has to offer.

I look forward to swapping suggestions, stories and recipes with the great community here.

Just for the sake of full-discolsure, I would be that gastronomically-gifted significant other...and modest, too!

What a wonderful forum!!! I'm not sure exactly what I was looking for the other day when I found it but I wish I'd been looking for it a long time ago.
I'm Debbie and use debkauz on pretty much every forum I'm on. It's just the condensed version of my first and last names. I live in West Edgewater and have been here for almost 20 years now. I've been in Chicago since 1970 and love it for the diversity that we find here.
I'm not sure where my love of food started. It sure wasn't when I was a kid as my mom was a pretty bad cook and I didn't really like most food then. Even when I came to Chicago to go to nursing school food just was something that kept me alive--unless it was good fries. LOL You could tell that by my weight then too. Very tall and VERY skinny...too bad that changes when one discovers that food is really good.
I worked as a nurse in Chicago for 33 years and just recently retired more because my back just wouldn't take it anymore than because I got tired of it. I was a cardiothoracic ICU nurse and loved it. I also work with hot glass, make jewelry and PMC (precious metal clay) and teach a bit in the Chicago area. I have 6 cats, one of whom is asleep beside me snoring his fat head off right now.
My DH and I have traveled a number of times to England, France, Italy and Barcelona (only once there) and one of our favorite things is the food. One of my absolute favorite things in Italy was spending all the time translating the menu and then having the waiter tell me to try other things. I finally just would tell them what I didn't eat and let them bring me what they wanted. I got some very interesting things that weren't on the menu doing that. I'd highly recommend it!
I love to cook (and that's changed the very skinny part considerably!) and I love trying different restaurants. I'm not sure I can ever move from Chicago because of the diversity here. My family lives in a small Iowa town. They do have a bar with the best onion rings ever, but other than that it's pretty awful. You can't even get a good gin and tonic there! I'd hate to not have my Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Italian, etc.
One of my favorite restaurants in the area is Kuni's Japanese Restaurant in Evanston. We go just about every Thursday evening and pretty much know everyone who sits at the counter on Thursdays. It's not fancy but I think it's the best sushi in the area.
I'm looking forward to reading this great forum and getting to know all of you. I can't wait to find more places to try food wise!

great thread.

i'm eddie. i've been reading and posting here for a few years now, but sporadically. i've worked my way through all the lessons of GWiv's WSM course and am a proud graduate. i'm also a culinary school grad and a chef.

i was a huge restaurant-goer back before the kids came. also lived/worked in barcelona and bologna for a year each. now we don't go out too much, but i spend a lot more time cooking at home.

i love reading about all the restaurants you all go to, but i gave up maintaining my must-visit list years ago. can't keep up. now i use the forum mostly for entertainment and to find specific spots in my area (park ridge).

i've been meaning to make it to an event for a while, and will eventually.

debkauz wrote:One of my favorite restaurants in the area is Kuni's Japanese Restaurant in Evanston. We go just about every Thursday evening and pretty much know everyone who sits at the counter on Thursdays. It's not fancy but I think it's the best sushi in the area.

Oh, then I must have sat with or near you at some point in the past. We used to live around the corner from Kuni's and went there at least once a week We moved, but still try to get there every now and again.

Hi I'm Janna!

jannamae is a very old old old nickname, that no one calls me anymore, but I've had it as an email address since highschool, so I guess I just can't force myself to get rid of it.

I've worked just about every position in a restaurant, and I LOVE food! (and beer, and scotch, but that's a different story)

there was a time I could screw up boiling water, but once i caught the cooking bug, I never turned back. My dear hubby found this forum, and I've been hooked since.

I do manage a restaurant (which, of course, i will only ever talk about in the professional forum)

Thanks to all for giving cyber-foodies a place to hang!

Hey guys,
,
Name's Martin - I live in Orland Park, before in Burbank, Brighton Park - Chicago, and Poland, the old country. Been grilling for about 7 years, and recently got a propane smoker (Great Outdoors Smokey Mountain). I smoke anything from ribs, pork shoulder, ABTs, chicken, fatties, and brisket. Just wanted to say what's up and glad to be here.

My name is Ingrid but my nickname as a child was Ingie; my sister-in-law added the Ms. My sister, mrsm, had been using the forum for some time and got me involved through a Culinary Historians event.

I was born and raised on the north side of Chicago as a first-born, first generation American to parents from Germany. I grew up eating the standard meat, potatoes and vegetables, but my parents did like to take us out to dinner. My dad always insisted that we "at least try" new foods; I was the one who usually did. I don't remember going to fast food restaurants as a child, but we did get take out. We loved to order Chinese and pizza or get corned beef from Ada's Delicatessen and bagels and rye bread from Kaufman's bagel bakery.

My mom worked in a bakery as a child, and then at Meyer's Delicatessen on Lincoln Avenue. Later she worked in a supermarket, but her last job was at Fless Meat Market on Montrose. Needless to say, we always had great deli meat and imported foods at home.

My love affair has always been with baking. As a child of two, I decided to bake a cake for my dad while he was at work. I'm not sure where my mom was (probably cleaning somewhere else in the apartment), but I took my mother's newly filled canisters of flour and sugar and dumped them on the living room sofa. Luckily the sofa had a blanket covering it so it made for easy cleanup for my mom. To this day she doesn't know how I managed to get the canisters off of the counter and carry them to the living room. I eventually learned to bake for real by helping my mom make Christmas cookies and birthday cakes from her Dr. Oetker cookbook. At 10, I learned to bake bread from "Bernie Brothers" baker.

While working in the computer industry in the late 80's and early 90's, I got the nickname "Betty Crocker" since I would bake cakes for birthdays at work. I decided then that if I ever had the time and the money, I would study to be a pastry chef. I eventually was laid off and decided to be a stay-at-home mom for a while. A couple at church owned a TCBY and were adding Mrs. Field's products. They knew I liked to bake and asked if I would come bake for them a couple of days a week. I worked four days a week and ended up running that part of the business. While there, I enrolled in the Pastry Arts program at the College of DuPage. After graduating I did a VERY short stint at Arlington Park Race Track, but thought better of it and was hired to bake in an upscale gourmet shop in Glen Ellyn called "Spice and Easy." My job was to bake all of the cookies and bars and bake the breads for either the bread basket or sandwiches. I sometimes baked the other desserts, quick breads, and helped with a wedding cake or two. Unfortunately, being a baker is not conducive to family life. You have to go in too early and the pay is lousy, so I left when my oldest daughter started school.

To sum up my rather long post, I wouldn't call myself a foodie, but I am one of those people who "live to eat," not "eat to live." I'm the indoor cook and baker and my husband is the man at the grill. He's currently working his way through Gary Wiviot's "Low and Slow."

Hi everyone,

I'm a fledgling foodie in Des Plaines, and I heard about your forum recently on the news.
I LOVE interesting food, and have been trying new things all my life. In fact, I've made it a personal mantra to not turn my nose up at anything until I try it at least once. This mantra runs so deep that, despite consistently hating fish every time I have it, I try it again and again hoping to find a fish I like.
I'm also, like many in this economy, low on funds, so much of the interesting stuff has to be made myself. I've tried everything from spherification (a nod to all of you who knows what that is) to playing with the limits of cupcakes. Through my research, I've learned a lot about different foods, and even perfected a few personal recipes (I make fantastic crepes).
I hope that, by joining this forum, I get to try newer, and even more adventurous foods and culinary experiences with all of you here.

~Celt

Welcome! Glad you keep trying fish I used to hate tomatoes and now I even like some. Mostly in salad with cheese, never those pasty, slimy pink slices you find on bad hoagies.

Hi, I'm Joe.

I live in Oak Park with my wife and 3 daughters.

I grew up in a household with a German Mother and Italian Father. My Mother is a wonderful cook and took quickly to her new mother in law's instruction on the correct way to prepare Italian (well, Sicilian) food as my Father is a picky eater.
My Mother was a good deal more adventurous and took a lot of opportunities to introduce us to new things.

One of my earliest memories is waking into Grandma's house on Sunday afternoon (Sunday dinner at Grandma's was a given, we didn't discuss it, everyone just knew that was the plan) and being hit with the smell of onions frying in good olive oil. As soon as I smelled that I knew all was right in the world and we wold truly be eating well tonight.

One of the groundbreaking moments for me in my interest in food is surprisingly mundane. As a young child I didn't care much for spicy food. In particular I disliked black pepper. At about the age of 10 my mother had prepared roast chicken and I just felt it was lacking something. It was plenty salty but...
So I reached for the pepper grinder (which I NEVER did) and with just a grind or two was blown away by the difference it made. It wasn't just peppery, the whole flavor had changed. To me this was a revelation.

The next most important moment for me was a similar experience but involved the correct pairing of food and wine. Once again – blown away.

I've already learned quite a bit here and plan to be a long time member. Hopefully from time to time I will be able to also contribute in some small way.

-zoid-

Celtwolf wrote::)...despite consistently hating fish every time I have it, I try it again and again hoping to find a fish I like.

Hi Celt, and welcome! (Not that I'm some sort of welcome ambassador or anything.)

Question - what do you dislike about the fishies you have had?

zoid wrote:One of the groundbreaking moments for me in my interest in food is surprisingly mundane. As a young child I didn't care much for spicy food. In particular I disliked black pepper. At about the age of 10 my mother had prepared roast chicken and I just felt it was lacking something. It was plenty salty but...
So I reached for the pepper grinder (which I NEVER did) and with just a grind or two was blown away by the difference it made. It wasn't just peppery, the whole flavor had changed. To me this was a revelation.

Very nice story. It's little things that bring many of us to an appreciation of food. Black pepper is a highly underrated seasoning in the culinary arsenal.

Greetings all. I am Tennischef, aka, Dave. I am a professional chef and an occasional food writer/historian. When I'm not cooking for friends or playing tennis, I develop restaurants and train chefs for independently owned operations.

I started off washing dishes and sweeping floors in the family tavern and by high school I was spending summers cooking at beach and country clubs in the Hamptons. I really learned a lot during this time, in particular, how the rich are different from you and I. At 18 I attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris but struggled with the language and as a result, spent most of my short time there drinking in a bar with other American students. I returned home and joined an apprentice chef program with a food division of the old Sodexo Marriott company. After serving on the line at a couple of Italian restaurants, I bought into a restaurant and eventually became the managing partner and executive chef. During this stint I attended college and after many long days and nights, earned a bachelors degree.

After 8 years of ownership, I sold my portion in order to move to Chicago where I became the executive chef and director of operations for an international event production and catering firm. This really cool job took me all over the world and I was fortunate to work with a number of chefs who became famous, including Wolfgang Puck (before Spago) and a very young and talented Mario Batali.

I started my own firm after that and the company eventually evolved into restaurant development and consulting. When Le Cordon Bleu expanded into North America, I returned to the academy (ooh, fancy) for my associates degree in culinary arts. I was so motivated by this that I then went on to a masters degree in food history.

I really enjoy the business end of the industry, especially helping others realize their dreams of owning and operating a restaurant. More important though is the volunteer work I do as a chef instructor for various community outreach programs; these programs really make a difference in people's lives and I'm honored to be a part of it.

LTH Forum is a great venue for all of us and I appreciate the input and feedback from so many interesting and passionate people. And thank you to our moderators for keeping this site alive.

tennischef,

You commented you are a historian, what is your area of interest?

Regards,

Thank you Cathy2 for responding. In regards to food history, I am currently doing research on the Celtic salt traders (of yore) and their trek across northern Spain and southern France and finally into Switzerland. This is part of a larger study on the impact of the Reformation on the foodways of Switzerland (it's the daVinci code of food).

Hi,

Whenever you feel comfortable sharing your research, I can find an audience you can talk to. I regularly schedule programs for Chicago Foodways Roundtable, which is part of Culinary Historians of Chicago.

Regards,

Hello all:

I am new to the list and this is my first post. I didn't see an intro section so I am putting it here.

I am originally from San Diego but moved to Chicago in 1998 and lived in Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast. I had a small detour when I moved to New York City and then San Francisco over the last 5 years. Now I am back in Chicago for the long haul with my wife and 2 year old son. We live in Park Ridge.

My cooking highlight so far is despite no culinary training or ever working in a restaurant, I have managed to cook at Charlie Trotters and the French Laundry alongside Keller and Trotter.

I am looking forward to meeting some of you out at all these great restaurants we have in Chicagoland!

Todd

Awesome...and welcome! I hope you come to the LTH picnic on 9/12, it is a great event!

razbry wrote:Awesome...and welcome! I hope you come to the LTH picnic on 9/12, it is a great event!

What are the details of the picnic?

Garibaldi wrote:

razbry wrote:Awesome...and welcome! I hope you come to the LTH picnic on 9/12, it is a great event!

What are the details of the picnic?

On the Event's board, it is listed on top. I hope this evening/tomorrow morning to finally put up the invite and begin reservations.

Regards,

My name is Nick, I live in Edgewater, work at Northwestern in Evanston, and I wouldn't mind having a foodie lunch buddy to accompany me to Edzo's or Joy Yee's. I've been a photographer for the last 7 years or so, and I love the artistry of food.

I would love to attend a restaurant like Next, L2O, Alinea, etc. but I'm a mid-20's gentleman with a fiance saving up for a wedding, and would not have a disposable $1,000.00 if my ticket number came up.

Also, I'm obsessed with cheese and Trader Joe's Roasted Seaweed Snack.

edit: thanks for the assist, mod

Hi and welcome!

There is indeed such a thread and you can find it here. We're glad to have you with us and look forward to reading more of your contributions.

We can all understand financial constraints, but please don't think you need that kind of cash for Next (or even Alinea) or most places we discuss. At the time my wife and I were selecting our time slot for Next, we saw options as low at $70 per person...fwiw. Now that may still be steep for a lot of folks, but it's a lot closer to handle-able than $1000.

Good luck!