Blog Chicago Gourmet weekend: The best, the rest, and the world’s tallest chef

The much-ballyhooed Chicago Gourmet has come and gone, though archaeologists will probably find ground remnants of wine tasting glasses when they excavate Millennium Park in 400 years. Sponsored by Bon Appetit magazine and smoothed along with Daley grease, the fest shines a bright light on the city’s fantastic culinary scene, from haute-cuisine to hot dogs.

Of course, the fest was not without problems, from Groupon-related attendance booms to the fest’s consummate issue of too much wine, not enough food. Still, for all the line-related grousing going on among some members of the media (and we’re not exempt from that), Chicago Gourmet—and Friday’s kickoff, the Hamburger Hop competition—put out a hell of a lot of good food. The A.V. Club went to Friday and Saturday’s events, ate our brains out, and are now prepared to pass judgement.

Best of the fest

• The A.V. Club is just as interested in fancy fare as we are chicken nuggets, so there was a ton of very, very happy eating going on at Chicago Gourmet on our parts. That being said, Friday night’s Hamburger Hop won the weekend. With 15 local restaurants competing for burger bragging rights, smallish attendance, and copious liquor and dessert availability, the event was almost an embarrassment of riches. The Near North Side’s NoMi took home the judge’s choice award for its Wagyu beef burger with smoked-tomato aioli on a ciabatta bun, while The Four Seasons “Surf and Turf” burger took home the peoples’ choice—probably because of its (woefully small) accompanying malted-brandy chocolate milkshakes. North Center’s Sola put out an incredible Wagyu burger topped with cambazola cheese, homemade bacon, arugula, and caramelized onions, served on a pretzel roll. Terzo Piano’s goat cheese-stuffed lamb burger was topped with a not-too-sweet fennel apple slaw, and D.S. Tequila Co.’s side of elote hash was like eating sweet, sweet corn candy. With hardly any lines all night, chefs Cat Cora and a shockingly thin Art Smith emceeing, and top-quality beef supplied by Allen Brothers Steaks, it was an A+ event.

• Speaking of culinary celebrities, Chicago Gourmet had them in spades. In-And-Out fan and French Laundry Chef Thomas Keller was a judge at Friday’s Hop. “Mr. Chocolate” Jacques Torres made a chocolate showpiece during his Saturday live-cooking demonstration with Cora. Rick Bayless led a session on creating a “Luxury Guacamole Bar Cocktail Party,” and his Frontera booth boasted absolutely insurmountable lines all weekend. Queer Eye and Iron Chef America’s Ted Allen hosted several forums, and teamed up with an actual Iron Chef, Jose Garces, to demonstrate “Appetizing Appetizers.” Check Please’s Alpana Singh led a seminar on Chilean wines, and Bon Appetit restaurant editor and frequent bad-ass Iron Chef America judge Andrew Knowlton was chilling around town all weekend, tweeting about Honeycrisp apples at the Green City Market and pork belly tacos at Big Star. It was nice to see our city through these well-trained culinary eyes, even if it was for just a weekend.

• We’ll talk about lines later, but the Latin/Asian tent’s offset location provided the biggest payoff at the end of the long line. The folks from Mercadito hustled out spicy chorizo tacos to those stuck in line, and things opened up inside the tent, allowing for the sample-and-chat leisure of last year’s fest. The star of Saturday afternoon’s Latin lineup was clearly Province, though, with a seared flank steak from Dietzler Farms and squash and crispy potato salad with a tangy mango dressing. It boasted the most delicate flavor balance and best texture of any in the tent; a few of the others hit hard with the spice, nearly knocking down the protein in the process. The other standout from Saturday—though over in the seafood tent—was a curried kabocha squash soup with curry, cilantro, shrimp, and bacon, from Joshua Linton of Aja.

• It’s a little thing, but there really was a lot of seating at the actual Chicago Gourmet event, both in tents like Bon Appetit’s comfortable lounges or at patio tables throughout the grounds. Of course, those ample spots could have just been because everyone was in line the whole time.

The rest

• The lines were really, really, really long, and just poorly organized. Pavilion IV, as we said, had one line leading to all five booths at once. Other pavilions, though, had a single line per booth, all of which ran into each other, making it practically impossible for anyone to wander through the crowd and leaving everyone frantically joining lines without knowing where they would lead. With a ton of Groupon holders joining the party on Sunday, it made the event border on a total waste of time.

  Saturday’s music was, for the most part, provided by a jazz trio who were mic-ed and then broadcast all over Millennium Park. It was sounded classy for about 10 seconds, then when “The Girl from Ipanema” kicked on for the second time, it just got grating. Everyone there already felt like yuppie assholes—the jazz just rubbed it in. Interestingly, when the group took breaks, songs by Frightened Rabbit and Spoon would take over, like rays of sunshine through an endlessly cloudy day.

  While the lines for most of the wine booths—and there were a lot of them—were mostly short, the scene in the Terlato booth was absolute chaos. People were swirling, spitting, chatting up Sommeliers, and fighting over sticky benches. Lately, Terlato is best known for being a Top Chef sponsor, so maybe Bravo’s to blame for that booth’s nightmare status.

• Stephanie Izard’s (Girl & The Goat) goat, pork, and veal sugo was pasta heaven—for those who were able to sample it. Sorry guys, but The A.V. Club secured and shared the very last plate around 1:50 p.m., more than an hour ahead of schedule. Izard also ran out of food at last year’s event—did she learn nothing on Top Chef? 

Seen and heard

• Yes, even Ludacris was represented. Of course, Chris Bridges wasn’t there in person, but rather appeared on several video screens behind the women serving Conjure, his signature Cognac. His star power upped the line length on that particular spirit from maybe a 2-person average at other booths to almost 10 at the Conjure booth. Good looking out, Chris.

• Spotted walking around the grounds Saturday: Jeff Goldfarb, “The World’s Tallest Chef.” At 7-feet tall and with a size-20 shoe, the Chicago native makes quite an impression in his chef whites.