Artisan Food Gifts for New Year’s in Chicago

by Lee Barrie and Cindy Kurman
Reprint from DineWise column in StreetWise Magazine

Celebrating the New Year with friends and family? Like so many of us, you’re probably making the rounds or hosting your own gathering. If comfort and pleasure are your stock in trade, it’s time to bestow some tasty, locally created food items upon your family and friends. Here are some of our favorite local artisans who have made a name for themselves with unique, deliciously fresh goodies.

Ugly Truffles and Damn Good Cookies
www.chocolategourmet.com

Mary Winslow is one of Chicago’s custom cake artists. Her Take the Cake is one of Chicago’s finest wedding cake studios. For gift givers, she has created a line of cookies and candies that have won a nationwide following. Ugly Truffles are handcrafted candies and Damn Good Cookies are a line of assorted cookies. Don’t take the tongue-in-cheek name too seriously; these are truly delicious. Order them online; they’re shipped fresh.

Terry’s Toffee
1117 W Grand Avenue, Chicago
(312) 733-2700; www.terrystoffee.com

Terry Opalek’s artisan toffee has become a fixture at the Academy Awards banquet for good reason: the rich flavors are creatively conceived and the quality is top-notch. In addition to gift boxes of toffee, you can also indulge your loved ones with biscotti, granola and other treats. Check them out by visiting the store or order online.

Gene’s Sausage Shop
4750 N Lincoln Ave., Chicago
(773) 728-7243; www.genessausageshop.com

Gene’s is one of Chicago’s newest food boutiques. It’s a deluxe Polish deli and bakery in Lincoln Square, the likes of which you’ve probably never seen before. The beautiful space is filled with homemade foods including meats, bakery, salads, blintzes, pierogies and shelf after shelf of unique packaged foods from Europe. They will make up custom food gift baskets, so head on over and treat your senses while you design the perfect food gift.

The Spice House
1512 North Wells St., Chicago
312-274-0378; www.thespicehouse.com

Food lovers in the know are quite aware of the difference that quality, fresh spices make in their home cooking. So, a wonderful gift for your home chef friends and relatives is a collection of freshly packed spices from this iconic spice emporium. The store features spice collections from all over the world; you can buy individual spices or pre-packed collections that will cover a wide range of cuisines. The staff is knowledgeable and passionate about what they do. You’re certain to learn something interesting while you’re there.

Chicago French Market
131 N. Clinton (between Randolph & Washington), Chicago
Hours: 7:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri.; 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat.; closed Sun.
www.chicagofrenchmarket.com

This fabulous year-round indoor market is located at MetraMarket, just north of the Ogilvie Transportation Center. The Market boasts 15,000 sq. ft. of European-inspired shops which carry fresh locally grown, artisan-made produce, meats, fish and seafood, breads, cheese, chocolates, and patisserie and gift items. Enjoy this taste of France in Chicago, bring family and friends and, while you’re there, pick up some beautiful and delicious gifts for the holidays. Great food gifts include pastry delights at Vanille; artisan chocolates from Canady Le Chocolatier; artisan cheese, breads and wine at Pastoral, and hand-crafted flavored pastas at Papperdelle’s.



Bella Bacinos
75 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago; 36 S. La Grange Rd., La Grange, IL
(312) 263-2350 or (708) 352-8882; www.bacinos.com

If you’ve been in Chicago for any amount of time, you’re probably familiar with Bacino’s and Bella Bacinos. These Italian trattorias serve up some of Chicago’s finest pizza and they’re all made with 100 percent real cheese, which makes them America’s first heart healthy pizza. Now you can order stuffed half-baked pizzas and have them shipped overnight to your pizza-loving friends and relatives, ready for finishing in the oven.

A small (10″ serving two to three) stuffed half-baked pizza is $45.99 including shipping and a medium (12″ serving three to four) is $55.99. Choose from Cheese, Spinach Supreme, Broccoli Bacinos, Very Vegetarian, Bacinos Special, Pesto Bacinos and Hawaiian. Overnight shipping is via Periship, a division of FedEx; pizza will arrive between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. the next day. Add a bottle of red or white, pizza-friendly wine with a pizza order as a special package for a grand total of $85.

Koepsels Farm Market
Baileys Harbor, WI
(920) 854-2433; www.koepsels.com

Koepsels is a Door County, Wisconsin, institution and gives you an opportunity to send made on premises Midwestern packaged food gifts anywhere. So go to their website (www.koepsels.com) and design your own food gift collection online. You’ll find a rich selection of jams and jellies, no sugar jams, butters, pie fillings, canned goods, pickled goods, dried goods, cheese and salad dressings, all nicely packaged.

Jam and jellies include both traditional and creative varieties: red chopped cherry, whole cherry, red cherry/red raspberry, cherry amaretto, red hot raspberry, blueberry/cherry, hot pepper jelly, strawberry, peach, rhubarb, red currant, boysenberry, apricot, blackberry, apple, apple cinnamon, cranberry. If you prefer a no-sugar added jam, try blackberry, strawberry, peach, red cherry, blueberry, strawberry rhubarb, just to name some. There are many more food items, so browse the aisles online.

Cindy Kurman Barrie and Lee Barrie are the principals of Kurman Communications, Inc., a Chicago-based marketing and public relations agency. Please visit their blog at www.gotbuzzatkurman.com and check out all DineWise articles at www.dinewisechicago.blogspot.com.

The Michelin Guide to Chicago Restaurants: It’s A Simple Yes or No Question: "Was it good?

reprint from StreetWise Magazine

When word got out on November 16 that Michelin (yes, the tire company) was about to launch the first ever Michelin Guide to Chicago Restaurants, there was a feeding frenzy of speculation in Chicago’s culinary circles as to which restaurants would be included and with how many stars. During the next 24 hours the media, bloggers, as well as the social media mavens were abuzz, nonstop, with commentary about who was included, who was left out and who deserved its designated number of stars.

Michelin is considered by many to be the most influential and credible restaurant rating source in the world. The fact that there is now a Michelin Guide Chicago is proof that the Windy City has taken its place among the preeminent culinary centers of the world.

Three stars is Michelin’s top rating, and any restaurant that earns three stars works very hard to keep them. Three star restaurants represent the best of the best—the finest food in the world. In Chicago, there are now two three-star restaurants: Alinea and L2O.

Throughout all of the buzz, there were two overarching questions: How do the restaurants get rated and were Chicago restaurants rated according to the same standard as European restaurants? We were invited to sit down for a one-on-one interview with Jean-Luc Naret, the director of the Michelin Guides, which we eagerly accepted. Our meeting with Mr. Naret and other Michelin representatives was very cordial and informative. One lasting impression stood out: people simply don’t understand how Michelin goes about rating restaurants and this is one reason there tends to be so much controversy surrounding them. But as the Michelin folks admitted, controversy goes with the territory.

Rather than discussing the why’s and wherefores of who was included in the Michelin Guide Chicago, we’ve decided to do our best to explain how the Michelin ratings work.

The Inspectors
The individuals who have the enviable task of eating their way through Chicago’s culinary spots are called “inspectors.” They are not journalists or food critics. They are, in fact, full-time employees of Michelin who anonymously travel from restaurant to restaurant and hotel to hotel. Their job is to determine the quality of the food and dining experience offered to the ordinary diner. Inspectors pay their own bills and make no mention of who they are or why they are there. According to Naret, they have been in the hotel or restaurant business for at least ten years or have formal training in the hotel or culinary field. “They have to be passionate about food, have an eye for talent, and know what they’re talking about.”

There are ten American inspectors—there were 3,500 applicants for the job. Inspectors go through a rigorous training period before they are allowed to visit restaurants on their own. They spend months in Europe and Japan and must accompany existing inspectors on many restaurant visits before they are set loose to do their own thing.

Some of the American inspectors come from Chicago. Three of the ten American inspectors live in Chicago, where they are responsible for staying informed about new restaurants and, in general, monitoring the local culinary scene. They were involved in rating restaurants for the first American Michelin Guide (New York) and also spent time in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, rating restaurants in those cities.

Naret commented on the inspectors: “We invest a lot in these people. They are passionate about revealing the talent of the chef. We call them ‘revealers of talents.’ We’re not looking at the reputation of the chef. We’re looking at the personality of the chef on the plate. They [the inspectors] go to restaurants for lunch and dinner every day and they have to fill out a report.”

Independent Choice
Michelin makes this point clearly: Restaurants do not pay to be included in the Guide. If they are in the Michelin Guide Chicago, they were chosen independently by the inspectors. The restaurants are visited by both the American-based inspectors and inspectors from Europe, to insure consistency in ratings on a global level. For the most important selections, specific inspectors from around the globe are brought in to dine at the restaurant and provide their opinion. The starred restaurants may have, in fact, been visited ten times. The choices represent, in the opinion of the Michelin staff, the best restaurants in their respective categories.

To answer one key question: Chicago restaurants are rated according to the same criteria and by the same standards as restaurants anywhere in the world. Three stars in the U.S. is equivalent to three stars in Europe, Japan or elsewhere.

Comfort Classifications Are Separate from Food Ratings
Michelin distinguishes comfort (service, décor, ambiance, style) from the quality of the food. Restaurants that are notable for their charming décor or ambiance are noted with a red-colored comfort rating rather than a black-colored rating.

A restaurant can have a high comfort rating without having a high food rating and vice versa. This is arguably why Michelin ratings are so often misunderstood by both culinary professionals and the public. Theoretically, a restaurant can have a high star-rating for food and yet be only moderate in comfort and service. Restaurants with a high food rating but a more moderate comfort rating are often casual restaurants which offer excellent food, yet they tone down the service or comfort a bit to stay within a certain restaurant genre, style or price point.

Rating the Food
When someone talks about “how many stars” a restaurant has received from Michelin, he or she is talking strictly about how the inspectors have rated the food, period. “We believe when you go to a restaurant, it’s really to eat food,” says Naret. Inspectors must answer two simple questions: “is it good or not good?” and “will I recommend this restaurant to a friend of mine?” He points out that the inspectors are, most importantly, rating restaurants for their readers, not for the benefit of the chef or the industry.

What do the inspectors pay attention to when it comes to the food? According to Naret, inspectors note “how the restaurants choose produce [ingredients] and how are the flavors kept? Is there personality on the plate? Is there consistency across the menu and across visits?”  He noted that generally the difference between a two-star and three-star rating is consistency.

Most of the restaurants in the Michelin Guide Chicago do not have a star rating. This doesn’t mean they have mediocre food. It simply means that the food doesn’t meet the global standard needed to earn a star. Each of the 342 restaurants listed in the Guide has proven it has good food. As Naret explained, “We recommend a restaurant because we know the food is good. If you have a beautiful restaurant and the food is not good, it isn’t in the Guide.”

Ratings for Less Expensive Restaurants: Bib Gourmand
In today’s economic times, in which diners are more frugal, it has been fairly common for upscale restaurants to have re-thought their menu, opting for less expensive ingredients (but not necessarily lowering the quality) in order to lower the price of the food. For example, we know of one restaurant that developed a simply delicious appetizer using pork belly instead of foie gras. There are also many restaurants which have always been lower priced but offer great food in a casual environment. To ensure that these restaurants are given proper recognition, Michelin has given the special “Bib Gourmand” designation to restaurants the inspectors feel are a particularly good value—and less than $40. “Bib Gourmand restaurants are the inspectors’ favorites,” says Naret. “They are the ‘little secret black list.’”

Naret explained that people recognize Bib Gourmand as equivalent to a Michelin star. He also noted that during the past two years, American chefs were much more receptive than their European counterparts to the fact that the recession was coming and they were more creative in putting menus together at a price point that would attract more customers.

Drilling Down to the Details
Although some people reading the Michelin Guide Chicago may focus their attention on the star ratings almost exclusively, Michelin understands that, when it comes to choosing a restaurant, the deciding factor may be a specific characteristic that makes it preferable. For example, a wine aficionado would most likely prefer a restaurant with an excellent wine program over one that has a limited wine program, even if the food quality and the comfort classification were approximately the same. Similarly, a diner may need valet parking or wheelchair accessibility and won’t visit a restaurant without these features.

Michelin makes note of important details using a variety of special designations (i.e. symbols): price category, notable wine list, notable cocktail list, notable sake list, valet parking, wheelchair accessibility, outdoor dining, cash only, late night dining offered, small plates offered, brunch offered.

Where Does Chicago Stand as a Culinary Center?
According to Naret, what makes Chicago unique as a food center is that “it has some very avant garde and creative chefs…and on the other side of the scale you have very good restaurants where you eat incredible [food]. You will never find a pizza place in a French Guide or any other Guide. You will find them in the Michelin Guide Chicago because there is great pizza. You will find great hot dogs and great breakfasts. This is the only place in the world where you actually have a list of breakfast places. People go for big breakfasts here [Chicago]. We don’t do that in any other place.”

Where Does the Michelin Guide Chicago Go From Here?
Nothing in the Michelin Guide Chicago is cast in stone. “Every restaurant in the Guide will be revisited by the inspectors, perhaps even tomorrow,” says Naret. “Any restaurant that was close but didn’t make it into the Guide, will be revisited. Any new restaurant that has the potential to be in the Guide will be visited next year.”

This is the first edition of the Michelin Guide Chicago and, as Naret predicts, “It’s definitely going to grow. As we expand to the other suburbs and the more we go deeper into the selection, I’m sure the numbers will grow. No doubt, in three to five years we’ll have more than 500 restaurants in the Guide.”

As Chicagoans, we wondered about the steakhouses. It’s a Chicago staple and the list keeps growing. There are many steakhouses in the Chicago Guide, but none with stars. Naret was quick to point out that there is only one starred steakhouse in the U.S.: Peter Luger in New York. “It’s something to shoot for in Chicago,” we all agreed.

Our advice: Do yourself a favor and purchase the Michelin Guide Chicago. We’re impressed with the level of detail and objectivity that goes into it and we also know that, to keep any publication alive, one must support it. It’s worth the investment. You’ll love the way it is organized by neighborhoods and you’ll like the special section on breakfast specialists. We love breakfast, and Chicago is our kind of town. Bon appetit—or we should say, “Thanks for the grub, Bub!”

Fogo de Chao Delivers on Its Promise: Great Feast for the Carnivores

Fogo de Chao
661 N. La Salle St., Chicago
(312) 932-9330; www.fogodechao.com

Hours:
Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Dinner: 5-10 p.m., Mon-Thurs.; 5-10:30 p.m., Fri.; 4:30-10 p.m., Sat.; 4-9 p.m., Sun.
Prices: lunch, $26.50 or $19.50 for salad bar only; dinner, $46.50 or $24.50 for salad bar only

By Lee Barrie and Cindy Kurman
Reprinted from DineWise column in StreetWise Magazine

We were talking about where we might want to travel for a warm winter getaway and we thought of Rio and other South American destinations. The conversation became more interesting and focused when we went to Fogo de Chao for a dinner hosted by the Chicago Brazilian Consulate. There were many Brazilian guests at this event us as well as many local Brazilian Americans. Although we can’t claim any Brazilian heritage, we were told we have Brazilian soul, which we take as a wonderful compliment.

Our dinner companions seemed very pleased to be at Fogo de Chao, a fact that speaks to the authenticity of this restaurant, which features the gaucho way of preparing meat in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Rather than preparing a special menu for this event, the restaurant introduced the group to its signature Fogo de Chao dining experience and then set us loose to satiate ourselves on their special kind of feast.

Phase one of the journey began with a stroll to the long salad bar. Starting at one end, we chose from the many ingredients that together form a hearty mixed green salad. Fresh spinach, spring mix, hearts of palm, asparagus, fresh and sun-dried tomatoes and many other items. As we turned the corner, the other side of the salad bar offered a wide range of fresh cheeses, condiments and prepared salads. Coupled with a range of dressings and vinegars, there was more than enough to create an excellent first course that would ensure our meal was well balanced and healthy.

Returning to our table for phase two, we began a much better than expected feast of grilled meats and side dishes. In total, Fogo de Chao offers more than a dozen different meat and poultry offerings, all mounted on robust swords. The servers (sword carriers, if you will) brought the meat to us; we could choose between a rarer portion or one that’s more well done—a nice personal touch. The server carved the portion off the sword and we captured it with special tongs. The parade of servers, each with a different cut of meat, seemed to go on forever. There is no question that we could have completely stuffed ourselves if we chose; fortunately, we knew when to say no and so we could still walk when we left the restaurant. In reality, it’s a good idea to take a break during the meal so that you can regain a little room for that special cut of meat that you crave when it finally comes around.

Here’s a rundown on some of the cuts of meat offered, and those we really liked. First, we must mention that our Brazilian friends were very pleased that Picanha (pronounced pea-CAN-ya) was one of the first to be served. This is a prime cut of top sirloin that is very popular in southern Brazil. It wasn’t one of our favorites, but it is good and very authentic. Another authentic dish is Alcatra, another top sirloin cut from southern Brazil.

The Filet Mignon was extremely tender and juicy. It was one of our favorites. Fogo de Chao serves it with or without a bacon wrap.  Another very flavorful and tasty cut was the Fraldinha (pronounced fral-DIN-ya) a well-marbled bottom sirloin.

If you’re not the beef lovers we are, you’ll still have much to enjoy. We were very pleased with the Cordeiro (pronounced cor-DAY-roo) the grilled, mint-marinated lamb. Both lamb chops and leg of lamb were offered and both were delicious and tender. Personally, we liked the chops better but both were worth choosing. Poultry lovers have two varieties of chicken to choose from. Our favorites were the chicken breasts wrapped in bacon. The grilled chicken legs were moist and tender, even if somewhat bland, but that may a good thing if you’re not a fan of spicy food.

Among the pork selections were the Linguica (pronounced lin-GWEE-sa), grilled cured pork sausage with a barbecue tang, and the Lombo (pronounced LOM-bo), grilled pork loin. The sausage was zesty and fun; the loin was a little less seasoned than we’re used to and we probably could have taken a pass.

Rib lovers can choose from two styles. If you’re a bone-in steak fan, you’ll love the Costela (pronounced co-STELL-a), which are beef ribs grilled for several hours. They were juicy and flavored in a very straightforward manner, with only slight seasoning, but needed nothing more. The Costela de Porco (pronounced co-STELL-a gee PO-co), are Fogo de Chao’s baby back pork ribs. These were very tender and flavorful and the dry rub seasoning came through nicely.

The meats are accompanied by a host of family-style side dishes. The most addictive were the pão de queijo (warm cheese bread), small popover-like rolls. We could have eaten these until we burst. Other favorites were the crispy polenta and the caramelized bananas.

There really isn’t enough room for dessert, but we must admit Fogo de Chao has a great selection. The Brazilians in our group were thrilled to get the signature Papaya Cream, while we indulged in the Molten Chocolate Cake and the New York style cheese cake. All were very good; surprisingly so.

All in all, Fogo de Chao delivered on its promise. The service was well orchestrated and professional; the servers seemed quite happy with their roles and the food was very good. Fogo de Chao may be a haven for tourists and convention-goers in Chicago, but by no means should Chicagoans write it off. We really enjoyed the experience.

Cindy Kurman Barrie and Lee Barrie are the principals of Kurman Communications, Inc., a Chicago-based marketing and public relations agency. Please visit their blog at www.gotbuzzatkurman.com and check out all DineWise articles at www.dinewisechicago.blogspot.com.