Sept. 27--The Chicago Gourmet equivalent to "Gentlemen, start your engines" is Sam Toia's triumphant, "Is this beautiful weather, or what?"
Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association, has turned that into his signature phrase the past few years because it's always bright and sunny when Chicago Gourmet -- which took place Saturday and Sunday in Millennium Park -- kicks off.
Surrounded by various star chefs, sommeliers and other dignitaries, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel (who stuck around to cook with Rick Bayless at the fest's first cooking demonstration), Toia kicked off the eighth annual Chicago Gourmet (the Bon Appetit Presents Chicago Gourmet, to use the official title), which featured about 200 chefs cooking and serving gourmet nibbles, along with dozens of stations pouring wine, beer and cocktails.
New to Chicago Gourmet this year was a Big Green Egg Tasting Pavilion (named for the popular grilling/smoking device), which drew long lines of patrons, and a Global BBQ, Beer and Bourbon Pavilion, which featured a wide range of barbecue, ethnic dishes representing the cuisine of Chicago sister cities and plenty of craft beer.
One Sunday highlight was a surprise Kamayan (Filipino) feast at the Rockit Ranch tent. Chef Kevin Hickey spread picnic tables with banana leaves, then piled on roast pig, prawns, chicken adobo, sausages, mango and more, and invited people to eat with their hands. There was no shortage of takers.
Guests indulged Saturday in treats such as Rodolfo Cuadros' (Carnivale) short-rib taco in a malanga (root vegetable), Ryan Pitts' (RL) fried-oyster po'boy and Michael Sheerin's (Embeya) Vietnamese-inspired jerk beef with melon and cucumber. Elsewhere, Chris Gawronski (Acanto/The Gage) served shigoku oysters with n'duja mignonette, Joe Farina (Joe Fish) cranked out mini lobster rolls and Carlos Gaytan (Mexique) offered braised pork belly in a chipotle-tamarind glaze over sweet potato puree.
For the deep-pocketed, there was the Grand Cru, a premium wine tasting tent that required a $199 ticket in addition to regular admission. The Grand Cru included exclusive chef tastings as well; on Saturday, Jimmy Bannos Jr. (Purple Pig) presented house-made Spanish chorizo with piquillo-pepper relish on a ciabatta bun, Chris Pandel (Balena, others) served panna cotta topped with spicy blackberry sauce and Erling Wu-Bower (Nico Osteria) offered Peruvian ravioli with ricotta, arctic char and spinach. Out-of-town guests Terrence Gallivan and Seth Siegel-Gardner (The Pass Provisions, Houston) served tiny cones of olive ice cream dipped in liquid white chocolate.
Among side events Friday night, Hamburger Hop featured 15 chefs in a friendly build-the-best-burger competition, which usually results in some creative compositions. In terms of off-wall inspiration, however, nothing beat the burger at Kuma's Too, which looked and tasted like the result of a head-on collision involving a cheeseburger and chicken-and-waffle plate; indeed, the bottom half of the burger was a syrup-dressed waffle. This won the people's choice award. The judges, however, selected the porchetta burger, by Dino Tsaknis of David Burke's Primehouse, as the Hamburger Hop winner.
Saturday night's cheerfully disorganized Pigs N' Tiki event featured chefs such as Nathan Sears of The Radler and Cory Morris of Rural Society offering roasted pig in various guises (the chop-chop-chop of blade hitting pork and wood served as the unofficial rhythm of the evening), while 10 notable bartenders created tiki-inspired punches for public consumption. Given that drinks at the bars represented here -- The Duck Inn, The Violet Hour, Three Dots and a Dash, Punch House -- are typically in the $12-$15 range, the $75 ticket price proved to be a bargain. Let the record show that Lee Zaremba of Billy Sunday won the competition; most of the crowd had departed before the big announcement.
Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic. Bill Daley, Judy Hevrdejs and Lindsey Compton contributed to this report.
pvettel@tribpub.com
