Posts for May 22, 2012 -- Grub Street Chicago -- Restaurant News, Openings, Chefs

Posts for May 22, 2012

5/22/12 at 3:35 PM on Grub Street NY
Growing Up
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Semen-Laced Cupcake Leads to Arson Threats at Minnesota High School

Kids in St. Paul have got to find some hobbies. [Pioneer Press]

5/22/12 at 3:16 PM
Events
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Izard, Grieveson, Segal Cook For Inspiration Cafe Benefit June 5

By Michael Gebert

Stephanie Izard.

Three of Chicago's top chefs— they also happen to be three of its top woman chefs, but the first descriptor works, too— will cook for you on June 5 at Inspiration Kitchens Garfield Park. Stephanie Izard, Koren Grieveson and Mindy Segal will join Chef David Rosenthall and his students in preparing a three-course meal; 3 Floyds will provide beer pairings, and each guest will receive an etching donated by artist Tony Fitzpatrick. Inspiration Kitchens offers a skill-specific foodservice training program for the poor and homeless to help get them into work with dignity; 100% of your ticket price of $200 for the three-course meal will go to supporting these programs. To reserve your space, call 773-878-0981, ext. 221 or email ejohnson@inspirationcorp.org.

5/22/12 at 3:10 PM on Grub Street LA
Snake Oil
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Judge Deems POM Wonderful’s Health-Centric Advertising Misleading

By Hadley Tomicki

Heart logos are still totally legal.

Remember when POM Wonderful's voluptuous bottles of pomegranate juice first hit supermarket shelves? Those were the days: The stuff tasted good, and it was supposedly great for your heart and prevented cancer and fixed broken boners and all that stuff insinuated in the brand's print, web, and television ads. Yesterday, a federal judge pretty much confirmed the health claims are bullshit, upholding complaints from the FTC filed in September 2010 that the L.A.–based company misled customers through false advertising about the juice's health benefits. After hearing expert witnesses debunk some of the company's science, Chief Administrative Law Judge Michael Chappell ordered POM to cease with all misleading ad claims on Monday. So why is Roll Global, the company behind the product, celebrating the decision?

5/22/12 at 2:45 PM on Grub Street NY
Video Feed
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Funny or Die Spoofs Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP

By Jenny Miller

Any reader of Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP newsletter knows the woman loves to name-drop. So of course, over on this Funny or Die spoof, she can't even make a frittata without reminding us all that she dated Brad Pitt, is married to Chris Martin, and is pals with Mario Batali and Cee Lo Green. And Gwynnie would never make any ordinary omelette: This one's done with Fabergé and dodo eggs, plus salt from "adjacent to the Dead Sea Scrolls." See for yourself straight ahead.

Right this way for video.

5/22/12 at 1:40 PM
Beer
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Baderbräu Returns; See Goose Island's Craft Beer Week Miniature Golf Course

By Michael Gebert

The original Baderbräu, c. 1990.

The 1990s are back! What, did they remake Flatliners or something? No (though surely it's only a matter of time), but Chicagoist's dedicated coverage of Chicago Craft Beer Week includes two stories which bring back the earliest days of the craft brewing revival. The first is about Baderbräu, which may not sound like it, but was a Chicago beer, one of the very first craft beers made here. The brainchild of former police officer Ken Pavichevich, Baderbräu set out to imitate classic German ales precisely, following the strict dicta of the reinheitsgebot (purity law). As is often the case for pioneers, however, Pavichevich had to struggle mightily against the beer industry as it existed, and despite relative success in getting his beer into bars, he closed his brewery in 1997 and sold the brand to Goose Island, who made it until 2003. The trademark eventually lapsed, and two fans, Rob Sama and Joe Berwanger, snagged it and found one of the original brewers and got his help in recreating the beer. The new Baderbräu will debut Thursday at Binny's South Loop and at a series of launch parties next week. Will there be enough of a nostalgia contingent to make Baderbräu a hit at long last, or has the craft beer scene moved past something as simple as simply trying to make German beer as accurately as possible? [Chicagoist]

5/22/12 at 12:35 PM on Grub Street NY
Bookshelf
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Grub Street Editor Alyssa Shelasky Wrote a Great New Book, and It᾿s Out Today

By Alan Sytsma

Alyssa often stands on counters while she's blogging, too.Photo: Random House

Close readers will notice one byline has been absent from Grub Street this week: That's because our own Alyssa Shelasky is taking a quick break from the blogging grind to release her brand-new memoir, Apron Anxiety, which, coincidentally, can be purchased right this second.

5/22/12 at 11:25 AM
Beer
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Mikkeller Comes To The Aviary; Grayson Schmitz to 5 Rabbit; Learn to Make Caipirinhas

By Michael Gebert

Mikkel Bjergsø, we think.

Interesting events coming up in the world of drinking. The Aviary continues to be a draw for impressive visitors, and the next will be Mikkel Bjergsø of Copenhagen's Mikkeller "phantom" brewery. What's a phantom brewery? It's a guy or two who turns up at other breweries and collaborates on interesting one-of-a-kind beers, which can be very hard to get hold of. (Mikkeller has their own bar, at least, which is your best bet in Copenhagen.) Bjergsoe will be at The Aviary on June 20th, serving rare beers and talking about his work while you nosh on Aviary bites; tickets are $90, email your interest to Mikkeller@theaviary.com.

5/22/12 at 10:50 AM on Grub Street LA
Crime Scenes
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Horror Stories: The Thirteen Most Terrifying Restaurant Standoffs

By Hadley Tomicki

It might seem like a rare occurrence, but leaving the house to grab a quick bite can turn into a drawn-out tragedy of terrifying proportions when a random robber or crazed gunman hits the same restaurant you do. The scary thing: This is happening more and more often these days. This past weekend, masked men assaulted patrons in a restaurant outside Chicago. Last week, Savannah, Georgia's Olde Pink House restaurant was the site of a nerve-shredding standoff between a police SWAT team and an armed suspect in a failed kidnapping plot. That followed a sick scenario just last month when a man horrifically gunned down his entire family at a Cleveland Cracker Barrel. Sadly, these kinds of horror stories are really nothing new. Bomb scares, hostage situations, and straight-up mass murders have plagued our nation's restaurants. Here now, a chilling look back at fourteen of the most horrifying, fear-inducing incidents to date.

5/22/12 at 10:25 AM
Closings
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Lure Izakaya Pub Closes

By Michael Gebert

Many people have the dream that a chichi Asian restaurant and nightspot in Chinatown will attract young Asians and their hip non-Asian friends. We're not sure that any place has ever proven this true, however, and the latest to meet an early end is Lure Izakaya Pub. Opening with both Kee Chan (Heat) and French chef Eric Aubriot (Aubriot and many more) in the kitchen, Lure seemed much easier to like than Chan's previous place in the same spot, Mulan, with a sense of humor about itself the other lacked (see this great LTHForum post on Geisha Night), and an izakaya menu of simple foods that got reasonably good notices from the likes of Time Out Chicago and the Reader. But for whatever reason, it didn't catch on, and at present the restaurant's website promises: "We are closed for re-location, Please check back with us later! Thank you for your support, see you soon in TOWNDOWN 2013!" Apparently this means they hope to open downtown next year; we shall see.

5/22/12 at 9:30 AM
Chefs
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Video: Grant Achatz and Richard Rosendale on the Bocuse d’Or

By Michael Gebert

You could say that America has not been a standout in the Bocuse d'Or competition held every other year in Lyons, France. We've tended to be the nation-state equivalent of the seemingly formidable Top Chef contestant who goes home in week three for undercooking the lamb. But a group of top American chefs — such as Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud — continue to put a lot of energy and resources behind changing that. And with the competition having grown more contemporary in outlook in recent years, they're determined to help U.S. team captain Richard Rosendale (from the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia) take advantage of everything that's happening on America's culinary scene and show off the best of modern American cooking. As part of that, Rosendale is spending time at a number of America's top restaurants, including the French Laundry in Napa, Daniel in New York, and Alinea in Chicago, working with their chefs on ideas for how to approach the contest. As Alinea's Grant Achatz says, "When Thomas Keller calls, you don't turn him down," and so last week he showed Rosendale around his kitchen, his city, and not least of all Crucial Detail, the atelier where many of Alinea's unique serving pieces are created. In our exclusive seven-minute video interview below, chefs Rosendale and Achatz talk about what the competition is like, how you prepare for it, and why it matters for American chefs to be part of the Bocuse d'Or.

5/22/12 at 8:55 AM on Grub Street NY
Interviews
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Ted Allen on His New Book, Crushing Chefs’ Dreams, and Chopped’s Lost Chihuahua

By Alan Sytsma

Poppin' champers across the country.Photo: Gail Oskin/Getty Images

Ted Allen is on a roll: At this month's James Beard Broadcast awards, his show Chopped picked up two medallions, one for Allen's hosting skills, and another for the best studio-based cooking show. So how has Allen been celebrating? By working more, of course. His latest book, In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks, was released last week and he's now in the middle of a tour to promote it. (Check out the remaining tour dates here.) We caught up with Allen, who's in San Francisco at the moment, via phone to talk about how he manages to entertain himself on tour, how Chopped came to be, and his upcoming trip to Nathan Myhrvold's cooking lab in Seattle.

"I do have some really fun shit going on."

5/22/12 at 8:35 AM on Grub Street Boston
Operas
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Listen to a Clip From Harvard’s Asparagus Opera

By Kara Baskin

Tastes best set to music.Photo: iStockphoto

Start your morning off right with the ambient sounds of asparagus! Tonight, Boston chef Jason Bond (Bondir) and composer Ben Houge stage a one-night-only asparagus opera, Food Opera: Four Asparagus Compositions, at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Invited guests will feast upon an asparagus-themed menu while music plays to enhance the flavors and textures. We've got an exclusive clip of what we can only assume is the world's first-ever asparagus opera right here, so you can visualize at your desk. This ditty is called "Hot White Asparagus Soup, Togarashi Marshmallow, Nori Powder, Miso-hazelnuts."

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