Gourmet Chicago 2008

[Poffertjes]

Did anyone attend Gourmet Chicago this year?

http://www.chicagogourmet.org/default.asp?

I wanted to attend, but we had a guest in town, who just too picky and too cheap to appreciate that sort of thing.

Thoughts, impressions, best thing you ate/drank?

[nsxtasy]

The following is what I wrote down on Saturday, after my visit. I should add, however, that despite liking what I had there, I don't disagree with the negative comments posted in the blog in the Reader.

We went to this today, and it's still going on tomorrow.

From the standpoint of wines - you get to taste, oh, I'm guessing 400-500 wines from 100 vineyards, virtually no waiting, virtually unlimited tastes (the tickets say limit three tastes per wine, but there was no enforcement - but with that many wines, who would want more than three tastes anyway?). And they vary from cheap to uber-expensive. If you enjoy wines, this is an over-the-top experience.

From the standpoint of foods - you get to taste foods from 15-20 restaurants. Most were exceptional (and there are now at least four restaurants I'm dying to go to). Some lines were lengthy by mid-afternoon, but even with those, it was only maybe a 5 minute wait. There was no wait anywhere when we arrived at 11:30. Oh, and what they do is, four restaurants at a time have set times assigned for the "chef's tasting area" and those rotate every couple hours; the rest of the restaurants are intermixed with the wineries/distributors/importers around the outside edge of the great lawn, and the big tents and groups of booths in the middle are virtually all wineries/distributors/importers.

The food was almost buried in the wine - not that there was very little food, but rather, that there were so many booths with wine, the food didn't stand out much. But it was really very, very nice, for both food and wine.

Here are the food offerings that I remember (which is pretty much all of them, unless I missed something)...

Courtright's (in Willow Springs) had their own booth, serving samples of vanilla corn chowder. Excellent. Their new executive chef was there; he is just being introduced to the public, and was formerly at Le Bec Fin, the wonderful restaurant in Philadelphia.

La Sardine was represented in the booth for the Alliance Francaise de Chicago, serving very good small onion tarts.

Chaise Lounge (in Wicker Park) was serving delicious (and nice-sized!) crab cakes, as well as a nice salad of greens. This was one of my favorites!

The Peninsula had a booth, and Chef Duffy was there. They were serving a tiny tiny TINY amuse which combined tapioca and a shard of lime and a crunchy shell and I forget what else. Very good and a nice combination of flavors, but it was so small... Think of eating a food item about the size of a dime. Did I say it was tiny?

Pastoral (the cheese shops) had a booth, and one of their providers (a farm in Ohio) was represented there, serving cheese with dried fruit. Very good.

Oil and Vinegar (the shop in Old Orchard, Skokie, that sells you-know-what) had a booth with samples of their stuff.

Aria (in the Fairmont) had their own booth, serving shrimp dumplings that were wonderful, one of the top highlights! We chatted with the chef de cuisine, and decided to go there for my SO's next birthday (already made the res on opentable).

The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago / Cordon Bleu had a booth with a huge variety of things, including passed desserts (macaroons - my favorites! and truffles, etc) as well as savory items (salad with duck confit, foie gras cold terrine, etc).

Fox and Obel had a booth with a few of their products, including a very nice hors d'oeuvre of a crisp of their raisin pecan bread with a dollop of cheese and a slice of pear - I spread a bit of their quince paste on it; and a few other small items, which I forget. Of course, a small booth can't do justice to Fox and Obel, but...

Phil Stefano's 437 Rush served two different pastas, quite good.

A Mano's booth was giving out their homemade ice cream (choice of flavors was vanilla, olive oil, or espresso).

The chef's tasting booths rotate every couple hours according to a published schedule. There are four booths. While we were there (12:30-2:00), here's what they were serving: (1) Christophe David of NoMI was serving an absolutely divine dish of warm foie gras terrine over pine nut bostock. Bostock (don't worry, I had never heard the term either) is brioche soaked in tea, normally spread with almond cream; they substituted pine nuts for almonds and cut back a bit on the sweetness. And the size was ample, each one was a two-inch square, served on a tiny wooden tray. This was best in show in my book. And did I mention that you could go back as many times as you want? Not that I would do that more than once, of course. (2) Rick Moonen of RM Seafood (in Vegas) was serving some kind of fish ceviche (just okay). (3) Stephanie Izard of Top Chef and Scylla was serving a composed salad that included duck confit (okay). (4) Malika Ameen and Mohammed Islam of Aigre Doux were serving two kinds of cookies, a spiced chocolate chip cookie and a nut cookie (think round nut shortbread), both of which were good but Aigre Doux is capable of so much more, I feel that they missed an opportunity to show off their best stuff (e.g. no sticky toffee pudding!).

So those were the foods that they had. Not exactly a huge number - not like Taste of Chicago, for example - but the quality was definitely there. Also, those chef tasting areas were certainly a highlight, so if there are particular chef(s) whose food you would like to try (or just that you would like to meet), you could plan your visit so you're there at their times. However, the number of food offerings really should be increased, if the organizers want to improve the event next year. For one thing, they should do away with the chef tasting areas, and invite those chefs to have their own booths for the duration of the event, not in two-hour shifts. They could double the number of food offerings by doing so, and this event really needed more.

I really can't do justice to all the wine offerings - sorry! I'm really not much of a wine drinker. If you want to know the truth, I primarily drink dessert wines. However, I loved the ones I had there (an Illinois moscato, a Niagara ice wine, a British Columbia ice wine, and a wonderful vin santo). I didn't even bother much with champagnes or gewurztraminers, although they were there in abundance. Even for a non-wino like me, this was wonderful! But I should add, I've been to some of the best, grandest private wine tastings over the years, so I know what they're like, and this would not disappoint even the most avid wine connoisseur.

I did not pay the extra cost to do the grand cru tastings or the seminars; all of the above is what I got for the basic $130 advance / $150 late per-day registration fee. Not inexpensive, but I was very satisfied. And anyone who really enjoys wines would be even more satisfied!

Oh, and how it all works - when you enter, you receive a nice cloth tote bag (for your brochures), which contained a souvenir pin from the event, and you also received a very nice crystal wine glass, which you keep, and use for all your wine tastings during the event (booths had small dump pails and water bottles for them). Also a tag to wear proving your admission.

Also, I think the exposure from this event makes it a must to any high-end chef in the area. You can serve small portions of one of your best dishes to people who are interested enough in food that they paid $150 to attend, which ought to be your target market. Look, I'm now dying to go to several of these restaurants and will do so soon, I'm sure. And those who don't spend all day long on LTH (which probably excludes anyone who has read this far in my post ) are exactly the ones chefs need the exposure to. No, I'm not affiliated with this event in any way - it's just a tip to those in the biz, knowing how it works (and knowing how important word of mouth is).

One thing we hated was that the Monroe garage had jacked up their price for the weekend to $25. Grrr!!! Next time we'll take the el.

It was rather warm and most of the time was spent out in the sun. I understand that tomorrow should be slightly cooler. I assume you can get tickets at the door - if this sounds like something you would enjoy, go!!!

Oh, one more note (for next year)... I realized that buying the tickets in advance is a real risk, in terms of the weather. If it were pouring rain, this would not be so pleasant. Granted, most of the booths were inside tents, either individual tents or group tents, but still... So the weather is a risk you can avoid if you get tickets at the door, one you can't if you buy your tickets months in advance to take advantage of the price discount.

Edited September 30, 2008 by nsxtasy (log)

[KCWilkinson]

The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago / Cordon Bleu had a booth with a huge variety of things, including passed desserts (macaroons - my favorites! and truffles, etc) as well as savory items (salad with duck confit, foie gras cold terrine, etc).

Sorry for the necropost, but I just saw this thread.

I worked the Gourmet event for CHIC, where I go to school. It was a very cool, very fun event to work and also just to be at. During breaks we walked around and got to sample some of the drink and food offerings. A lot of wine booths! They made it quite easy to enjoy our short breaks.

Anyway, I'd recommend this to anyone who was thinking about going this year but didn't pull the trigger. It was great fun.