Posts for May 24, 2012

Co-Op Sauce Moving to Rogers Park, To Become Private Company

By MIchael Gebert

A couple of years ago Co-Op Hot Sauce was a homemade product with Kinko's-printed labels which you could only find at places like the Logan Square Farmer's Market. Mike Bancroft, co-founder of Co-Op Image, a nonprofit arts and culinary education program in Wicker Park and Humboldt Park, launched the hot sauce as a fundraiser for the group, using peppers they grew themselves in their co-op garden. As Gapers Block reports, Co-Op Hot Sauce has taken off in a big way since then and outgrown where it's been made (the kitchen of Ukrainian Village's Darkroom Bar) and the output of Co-Op Image's own gardens. Now Bancroft has turned Co-Op Hot Sauce into a separate for-profit company pledging 50 percent of its profits to Co-Op Image, and he says he's hired several former and current students to work there. And it's taken a space in Rogers Park which will be shared with Anne Kostroski's bakery Crumb and The Stew Supper Club, which Bancroft and Kostroski do together. [Gapers Block]

Burgers (and Bellies) Have Tripled in Size Since the Fifties

By Hadley Tomicki

Titled "The New (Ab)Normal"Photo: CDC

The Centers for Disease Control is really getting radical on the issue of America's bloated belt-line. It's just released this new (and scientifically very accurate) graphic that's easier to comprehend than the buttons on a McDonald's cash register. The infographic clearly illustrates two things: the spiking size of fast food burgers and sodas, and the growing size of our citizens, as portrayed by that same family making that perpetual run from the border. Basically, the latest in "we're all really fat" news boils down to this: Our burgers and fries have tripled in size since the fifties (um, what's the problem?) and so have our bellies (oh, right). Scarier still, New York Daily News relays the scoop that soda serving sizes have gone from 7-ounces to 42-ounces in the same period. (Big) gulp! [ NYDN]

Chef Val Benner Tells Us What's Growing On Top of the Palmer House Hilton

By Michael Gebert

Chives growing on the roof of the Palmer House Hilton.Photo: courtesy Palmer House Hilton

"She's an old girl, she's got a weight limit," Val Benner, sous chef at The Palmer House Hilton, says. What she's referring to is the fact that she can't put garden beds down on the 87-year-old structure's roof. But using about 70 containers, she's established an impressive garden of vegetables, herbs and flowers, and now an apiary as well making the hotel's own honey, which she hopes to debut as early as July. Her story isn't just about what's happening on her own hotel's roof, though— after she started work on improving the hotel's breakfast buffet to include farmer's market produce, she was able to get the support of Hilton's corporate chef, Marc Ehrler, to redesign breakfast offerings for 376 hotels throughout North America and start moving all of their kitchens and staff toward a similarly farm-to-table, in-house products focus. From the safety of the ground, we talked with Benner about what's happening at Hilton 25 stories up.

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Cake Boss Cast Member Gets Nine Years for Child Sex Abuse

By Collin Keefe

Gonzalez.Photo: Newscom

There's nothing funny about this: After a judge rejected an effort to withdraw the guilty pleas he made earlier this year, Remigio “Remy” Gonzalez, brother-in-law of Cake Boss star Buddy Valastro, was sentenced to nine years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in New Jersey, the AP reports.

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Not So Bad After All? Khloé Kardashian Reportedly Kordial and Konsiderate at Restaurants

By Kara Baskin

The Texans just love her!

We are bringing you this news despite a few misgivings: Tabloid rumors have swirled that Khloé Kardashian isn't really part of the krew at all. And the real proof could have nothing to do with science. A couple new reports say she's nice to the little people, specifically waiters! Who can forget slimy Scott Disick (now a restaurateur!) stuffing dollar bills into the mouth of a hapless waiter in Vegas? Or Kim Kardashian's Twitter rant about restaurant breast-feeders? Or her $20,000 wedding cake? But Khloé, you see ... is different.

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Top Chef Masters Season Four Announced: Francis Lam, Missy Robbins, Dita Von Teese, and Vegas

By Jenny Miller
Watch Video

Bravo just announced that Top Chef Masters season four will start its run July 25, and this year judges Curtis Stone, Ruth Reichl, and James Oseland will return, joined by Gilt Taste's Francis Lam and friend of Grub Street Krista Simmons. (You'll recall that Grub Street's Alan Sytsma was a judge on several episodes last year.) The chefs this time around include Missy Robbins, Sue Torres, Chris Cosentino, and Art Smith. But enough yammering — see the full release and a preview clip for yourself straight ahead.

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Around the World in 80 Plates Recap: David Rees on the Famous Squabbler Squid of Madrid

By David Rees

"You missed a spot."Photo: Virginia Sherwood/Bravo

This week finds the chefs in Barcelona, Spain. Turns out Barcelona is a wellspring of memories for a couple of our friends: Nookie lived as a professional poker player (?!) in the city for a year, while Nicole once visited the city with her ex-wife, before her chef-related stresses tore her marriage apart; she’s still heartbroken. And BAM — just like that, Nookie and Nicole are my favorite contestants.

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Butcher & the Burger & the Patio & the Custard

By Michael Gebert

Have we got a lunch for this beautiful day for you! Artisanal burger spot Butcher & the Burger, popular with Lincoln Park ladies who lunch (hey, it may be named for manly butchers but that's who we mainly see there) has, first, opened its 25-seat patio along the side of the building. And second, they've started serving housemade custard from a custard cart, in flavors ranging from kid classics like Cookies 'n' Cream to grownup things like Goat Cheese and Pear Mascarpone Brulee. It's like Kopp's just moved right next door to you or something.

See a Magician Pour Beer From an iPad

By Jenny Miller
Watch Video

There've been some exciting developments lately in the world of beer, but none quite match the wonder of seeing a dude pour beer from a spout attached to his iPad, in this video posted by Cheese Culture. We have no idea how he created this e-keg, and neither do any of the tourists who stop by the Hofbräuhaus and get a free beer. It's all set to a background of silly oompah music, naturally. See for yourself below, and let us know if you figure out how he does it.

Right this way for video. »

Ex-Japonais Chef Gene Kato To Open Three Floors of Japanese Dining and Drinking

By Michael Gebert

At the end of this week's Dish they make a reference to the "never-quite-off-the-ground izakaya trend," but at the start there's what seems to be the most determined effort yet to get us to like this kind of Japanese-style drinking and eating. It's from Gene Kato, former chef-partner at Japonais, and it's a robata grill place called Sumi Robata Bar, with Kato at the grill turning out meats, seafood and vegetables hot off the coals and chatting with the customers. Or rather, that's the first part of it: Sumi is just the first floor of a three-floor complex of Japanese concepts, the rest to be announced later. In fact much of it's up in the air— including the address and the beer program, of which he says only, it's the first of its kind in Chicago— but Kato hopes to have it open this fall. [Dish]

Stage in the Kitchen at Moderno With Beauty and Her Feast

By Michael Gebert

We were just talking about a friend of ours doing stages and blogging about it and here comes another one. Kiki Luthringshausen does Beauty and Her Feast, which is part blog, part events with chefs, part video... there's a lot going on. Anyway, she had been tempted for some time to take culinary school classes, but instead she was persuaded to save thousands and to try to stage at some restaurants. John des Rosiers took the bait and invited her to come work at Moderno. There's plenty of description of working the line, of course, but we were most intrigued by this account of what happens when a customer sends a dish back for the wrong reasons:

That’s not to say each complaint isn’t valid but some definitely cross a line nor is the customer always right. A pizza came back, half eaten, with a “too salty” objection. We grabbed the untouched slices and tasted knowing that NO SALT was even added to the pizza. Cheese is naturally salty... My response to the chef was just that, the customer doesn’t understand the cheese. But that isn’t the message you send back out to the dining room. A chef simply sends, “We’re sorry you didn’t care for the pizza, can we bring you something else?”

Read the whole post here.

Adrian Grenier Wants You to Work for Your Beer

By Hugh Merwin
Watch Video

Yesterday we heard about Adrian Grenier's ambitious new plans to teach city kids how to grow and cook their own food, which is an idea we can get behind. And now we find out he's also an investor in a beer company that puts its pilsner inside old-school, flat-top cans that need to be opened with a churchkey, which is an idea that's so incongruous with the first plan that we find ourselves again disappointed in the Entourage actor.

"Bringing you this forgotten beer experience once again." »

Jim Gaffigan Has Lots of Thoughts on Subway

By Caroline Shin
Watch Video

A comedian's life on the road is tough: Just listen to Jim Gaffigan, who made a name for himself hating on Hot Pockets, tell it. On last night's Late Night, the comic told Jimmy Fallon that he ends up hitting Subways, a lot. And it's "not just because it's fun watching a clinically depressed person throw together your sandwich." Hear his Sandwich Artist argument in the video, straight ahead.

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