Last Chance to Purchase Tickets for Tomorrow’s Green City Market Annual Chef BBQ Benefit

With perfect July weather in the forecast for tomorrow and a fantastic chef line up, the 14^th Annual Green City Market Chef BBQ Benefit is sure to be a spectacular evening you will not want to miss, so purchase your tickets now. The Green City Market Chef  BBQ Benefit begins 5:30 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) in Lincoln Park; Tickets may be purchased online until 4 p.m at http://www.greencitymarket.org. Tickets are not available for sale at the door. The benefit showcases Chicago’s best culinary talent cooking food with fresh and local ingredients from the Green City Market. To complement the irresistible food served, locally made craft beer, wine, hand-crafted cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages will be available. Tickets are still available for purchase on the Green City Market website.  General admission tickets are $125 and can be purchased until 4 p.m. day of the event.

“The Chef BBQ is one of the most anticipated events of the summer and a great time to celebrate all of the amazing food and talent this city has to offer,” said Sarah Stegner, co-president of the Green  City Market board and chef/partner of Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook. “The Chef BBQ is very important to the operations of the market. It raises much needed money to support our operations. The market is funded by such donations and grants. We are thankful that it has grown to be one of Chicago’s most popular summer events. Our guests get to experience what truly ‘local farm to table’ is while helping to make it all possible.”

Some of the most anticipated additions to this year’s lineup include:

• Ina Pinkney; Barry Sorkin, Smoque; and Rob Levitt, Butcher and Larder are teaming up for the first time.
• New additions to the chef lineup this year include: Tremaine Atkinson Co-founder/Distille and JP Doiron, CH Distillery; Giuseppe Scurato, Ceres’ Table; Michael Sheerin, Cicchetti; Ken Carter, Gather; Nathan Sears, The Radler.

“The Green City Market BBQ is the not to be missed event of the year for almost every single person I know,” said Jason Hammel, chef and co-owner of Lula Café and Nightwood. “Sous chefs, pastry chefs, executive chefs, cooks, managers, artisans, farmers—so many who contribute to our great Chicago restaurant scene will be there. Look around that night and you'll see a community paying homage to the mission and vision of Abby Mandel, who saw so much potential in our city and the bounty of our local farms.”

See Below for a full list of some of Chicago’s top restaurants and breweries that will have a presence at the BBQ:

676 restaurant Atwood Cafe August Hill Winery/Illinois Sparkling Co. Bar Toma Bar&Kitchen	Gather Goose Island Beer Company GT Fish & Oyster Half Acre Beer Company Haymarket Pub & Brewery Henri	Quince at the homestead Red door Sable Kitchen & Bar Seasons Soda Seedling Sepia
Bell's Brewery	Hickory Creek Winery	Shaw's Chicago
Benny's Chop House	Honey Butter Fried Chicken &	SmallBar Division
Big Jones	Sunday Dinner Club	Smoque and Ina's
Big Star	Intelligentsia Coffee & Kilogram	sola
Bistronomic/LM  Restaurant	Tea	Sparrow Coffee Roastery
Group	KOVAL	Spiaggia/Cafe  Spiaggia
Butcher & Larder Cafe des Architectes	Lakeshore Beverage Laughing Bird	Table, Donkey and Stick Tekla, Inc
Capriole, Inc. & Tekla, Inc.	Limelight Catering	Terzo Piano
Ceres’ Table	Lula Cafe	The Bristol
CH Distillery	Metropolitan  Brewing	The Chopping Block
Chilam Balam, Shaman by	Midwest Wine Selections	The Dawson
Cicchetti	mk The Restaurant	The Gage
Convito Cafe & Market	New Holland Brewing Co.	The Goddess & Grocer
Cookies and Carnitas Crop To Cup / Asi Tea	Nico Osteria Nightwood	The Publican The Publican
Roastery	NoMI Kitchen	The Radler
deca restaurant	North Pond Restaurant	The Signature Room at the 95th
Eli's Cheesecake	North Shore Distillery	Three Floyds Brewpub
Farmhouse Tavern	One Off Hospitality Group	Trenchermen
Forbidden Root Brewery	Park Grill at Millennium Park	Two Brothers Brewing Company
Fox Valley Winery, Inc Fresh Coast Distributors,	Pecking Order Perennial Virant	Uncommon Ground Vera
Lehman's cider, Quincy St.	Piece Brewery	Virtue Cider
Distillery	Prairie Grass Cafe	Wood
Frontera Grill	prasino

About Green City Market

Green City Market is a 501 (c) (3) not for profit organization celebrating its 16th anniversary. The mission of Green City Market is to provide a marketplace for purchasing sustainably grown food and to educate, promote and connect farmers and local producers directly to chefs, restaurateurs and the greater Chicago community. Green City Market values education about quality food and its source. Green City Market is funded by individual donations, corporation sponsorships, grants and fundraising events

ABC's "The Taste" Kicks-Off Nationwide Casting Call for Professional Chefs and Home Cooks - Coming to Chicago July 12

Here's your chance to be a Reality TV star. ABC's popular show, "The Taste," will be casting

for season three and they are on the hunt for talent! 

If you think you can stand the heat, sign-up to get in the kitchen! Open casting calls for chefs interested in competing in this culinary competition series will be held in cities across the country starting Saturday, June 21 in Los Angeles. They will be in Chicago 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, July 12 at Centered Chef Food Studios, 177 N. Ada St. #101, Chicago, IL 60607.

For additional updated casting information and to apply visit: http://www.thetastecasting.com/

"The Taste" is an American cooking-themed reality competition series on ABC. It premiered on January 22, 2013. On May 14, 2013, ABC renewed "The Taste" for a second season. "The Taste" began its second season on January 2, 2014."The Taste" was listed as a returning series during ABC's upfront presentations on May 13, 2014, thus confirming a Season 3. For a sneak peek of last season’s finale, http://abc.go.com/shows/the-taste/video/VDKA0_vxzwkzu8

"The Taste" is produced by Kinetic Content who create and produce cross-platform for the multi-genre content for the global television marketplace. Chris Coelen, Sam Dean, Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson and Brian Smith serve as Executive Producers for the show.

ABC is an American commercial broadcast television network viewed in the United States and Canada. Throughout its history, ABC has supported its financial operations by diversifying into the press, the publishing industry, the operation of theaters, and filmmaking.

As one of the "Big Three television networks", ABC has broadcast many programs that have contributed significantly to American popular culture. These include classic series such as Zorro, The Untouchables, The Brady Bunch, Happy Days, Roseanne, and The Fugitive; more recent titles such as Castle, Lost, Revenge, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and Modern Family; live broadcasts such as Monday Night Football; the reality shows America's Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and Dancing with the Stars; and the morning news program Good Morning America. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ABCNetwork.

In addition to Chicago, open casting will be in these following cities:

Los Angeles - Saturday, June 21st
Le Cordon Bleu
6370 W. Sunset Blvd,
Hollywood, CA 90028
10am-3pm

Austin - Saturday, June 28th
The Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex
1156 Hargrave St.
Austin, Texas 78702
10am-3pm

Seattle - Saturday, June 28th
Swedish Cultural Center
1920 Dexter Ave N
Seattle, WA 98109
10am-3pm

Boston - Saturday, July 12th
Workbar
45 Prospect Street,
Central Square
Cambridge, MA, 02139
10am-3pm

Another win for Chicago as Stephanie Izard takes the Top Chef crown!

I'm obsessed with Bravo's Top Chef! (Ok I'll admit it, I'm obsessed with every show on Bravo). But I first became a Top Chef fan during Season 3 when Kurman did an event last fall with "chef"testant, Sara Mair who ended up finishing fourth. Naturally I was pretty excited when Season 4 was being filmed in Chicago, and that two stellar chefs were representing the Windy City. Right from the first episode, Stephanie Izard became my favorite. (I was probably a bit partial to the name). Last night Steph pulled through for Chicagoans to beat out the mohawked Richard Blais and eternally frowning Lisa Fernandes to become the first female to be named Top Chef! Word is, she's already been scouting locations for a new restaurant in the city!

This comes less than a week after Grant Achatz of Alinea, and Carrie Nahabedian of Naha earned huge props at the James Beard Foundation Awards in NYC. If anyone every doubted Chicago's ability to be on top of the culinary scene, they better be thinking twice!

Congratulations Chefs!

Want to learn more about our stellar gal? Check out this interview with Izard in the Chicago Tribune.

(Photo Credit: Bravo)