April 05--Chicago Gourmet is more than five months away, but word is out that the upcoming food festival (the ninth annual, to be held Sept. 24-25 in Millennium Park) will have a few new elements.
First, 2016's festival will add a host chef -- a sort of culinary ambassador who will help guide the chef selection and event programming. If you've gone to Chicago Gourmet, you can probably guess the pick: Rick Bayless, who has been a fixture at the fest and usually throws out the first pitch (I mean, hosts the first cooking demo).
The Bon Appetit Presents Chicago Gourmet (to use it full name) also will operate under a theme for the first time: "Food Is Art!" Bayless will have a hand in that too. The chef has a little experience there; in 2015, he created an art-themed menu at Topolobampo, and in 2012 he helped create the interactive dining-theater show "Cascabel" (which he reprised in 2014).
'I'm super-excited to be able to do (a food-as-art concept) in a bigger format," Bayless said, "and it'll be interesting to see what the audience will think. Can food be an art form besides being delicious, and can we think of it as real art, as opposed to just artistic food?"
A good bit of this effort will take place at the Grand Cru Tasting Pavilion, where chefs will create dishes based on plays by Shakespeare. Bayless chose "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
"There are so many emotions and such a sense of wonder in that play," he said, "and we can think of food as something that can evoke a sense of wonder. I haven't worked out my dish yet, but it's not until the fall, so I have some time."
Speaking of time, set your clocks and calendars for 10 a.m. April 14, when a limited number of Chicago Gourmet tickets will go on sale for the discounted prices of $148 for a one-day pass (regular price $185) and $250 for a two-day pass (regular price $295). Tickets will be sold online.
Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic.
pvettel@tribpub.com
Twitter @philvettel
