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Jeff Mauro is as colorful as the rainbow colored jars of giardiniera he sells through his food distributor Mauro Provisions. The Food Network star has a built a life spinning plates in many disciplines including theatre, comedy, television, restaurants, and even rock and roll as the frontman of the local Chicago band The Jewel Bags.
I like Jeff because he’s built a life that blends both work and pleasure. If he’s got an idea or a desire, he works to make that happen. Whether it’s slinging content in his sandwich kingdom rating the best stuff served between two pieces of bread or writing a screenplay about Chicago food and family, he just never stops never stoppin’.
Jeff could have stayed in LA or moved to New York, but in between Food Network shoots, he prefers to return to River Forest, always staying within a few miles of his beloved Johnnie’s Beef, which he says (and I agree) has the best combo beef in Chicagoland.
I caught up with Mauro to talk about his search for his lost Chicago sports jerseys that once hung on the wall at his now defunct restaurant Pork and Mindy’s, what it’s like to do stand-up, the viability of making wagyu italian beef, and what it’s like to party like a food star with Guy Fieri and Robert Irvine. Enjoy the interview!
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Billy Zureikat started out as a producer for ESPN 1000 radio during its heyday. A lifelong Chicago sports fan and athlete, he unwound by hitting the courts whenever he could until a diagnosis of lamb-girdle muscular dystrophy impacted the strength in his legs and changed his life.
Like anyone faced with an huge unknown, he went through a period of denial and frustration. During this dark period he turned to the kitchen and fell in love with cooking.
He used his new culinary skills to raise awareness and money to fight muscular dystrophy through a series of pop ups that began with a shishito-spiked pizza at Paulie Gee’s Logan Square.
Over the last three years he’s popped up making sandwiches at J.T.’s Genuine and Tempesta Market and tavern-style pizza at Hexe coffee, and so many other spots.
You might sometimes see him hand-selling his Tripping Billy Giardiniera Salsa a collaboration with Caruso Provisions at Agora market.
Billy’s pizza skills earned him a spot as a Gozney pizza oven ambassador (in my opinion they make one of the best ovens for consumers who want to replicate Neapolitan pizza at home).
He currently has a Chicago Squares series at Pizza Matta where every Sunday he makes a tavern-style pizza with flavors inspired by the Chicago Bears’ opponent.
Since I first wrote about him, Billy and I have become friends. He’s just a good dude and an inspiring presence. It’s probably why we had a two hour conversation. We probably could have done ten.
We spoke about Billy’s time at ESPN, his food and health journey, and his “hot takes” including why he ignores the algorithm when producing social media content, why hot honey is a crutch, and how people who make sweet love to their food on camera are questionable. He also shared the surprising advice he got from Chicago celebrity chef Art Smith. If you’re short on time and you can’t listen to the whole pod, the hot takes which start at 1 hour and 15 minute mark are a super fun and dense snippet.
Also, for the first time I noodle around on this podcast with a new segment called “picture roulette” whereby my guest chooses a random photo on their phone and then tells the story of the picture.
Billy happened to land on a moment where he met Joel Burt, the winemaker for Las Jaras wine. You can hear the story behind the photo on the podcast.
If you want to support Billy and he’s in between pop-ups, you can donate directly to his MDA fundraiser here.
I hope you enjoy the podcast. Also, apologies for the sneezes and tone of my voice. I was managing the late season fall allergies brought on by the unseasonably warm weather.
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Won Kim, Artist, DJ, and Chef. You might call him a Renaissance man, but that sounds like he’s some kind of medieval jester, which in a way he is. But also, he’s just pure modern cool, running his life like a constant art project, tagging freight cars, curing bulgogi, and dropping house beats at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Kim’s Korean-Polish fusion (think bulgogi cheesesteak) food at Kimski is wildly original. Kim has also collaborated with Zubair Mohajir at Lilac Tiger in Bucktown. Most recently, as in the reel below, Kim joined Norm Fenton at Cariño for a tacos with friends omakase where he fused Korean and Mexican food.
I caught up with Kim recently to talk about his career so far, the way he mentors so many Chicago chefs, and the dark side of internet beefs. Enjoy.
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A few times a year I enjoy a dish so much that it sort of eclipses everything else at the meal. I was recently at Valhalla when chef Tatum Sinclair rolled up with a bowl of liquid nitrogen and started throwing bombs.
What landed was sweet lemon on lemon on lemon violence in the form of a meringue stuffed with lemon Dippin’ Dots, lemon Slurpee, and lemon marmalade. What followed was the essence of breakfast including a hot fresh-from-the-oven center of a righteous Cinnabon. This was capped of by mignardises made with Sinclair’s own proprietary blend of chocolate made by Cacao Barry.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I experienced such a complete and exciting pastry portion of a meal.
My first thought was, if Sinclair wanted to open her own restaurant, what would that look like? Sinclair already knew and she is in the process of building out a dessert-focused restaurant called Haven with her chef partner Stephen Gillanders.
Sinclair and I talk a little about Haven, her goals to open a dairy farm, why the Valhalla group is such a dream team, and so much more. Enjoy the podcast.
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You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take. Five years ago during the pandemic. chef Zubair Mohajir sent me a DM on Instagram asking if I wanted to check out his THC (Tandoori Honey Fried Chicken) sandwich. I exchanged a few messages with him and then filed it away for a few weeks.
Eventually I ordered the sandwich, fell in love with it and have been a fan of Mohajir’s work ever since, enjoying his food at Wazwan and also his newest spot Mirra, a Indian and South Asian collaboration with former Rick Bayless restaurant chef Rishi Manoj Kumar.
If Mohajir never reached out I probably would have seen his work eventually, especially in 2024 where he happens to be everywhere. Stay tuned. But, that he took that chance to reach out accelerated my appreciation and enjoyment of his work.
I caught up with him recently to talk about his background growing up in Chennai, India, Doha, Qatar, and Frankfort, IL where his mom ran a catering company out of her garage. We also talk about his time working at Bouchon for Thomas Keller and the Michelin-starred chef Gaggan Anand (another dude he just cold emailed) in Bangkok, Thailand. We also talk about the 1990s Bulls, the pressures of the restaurant industry, the history of Muslim and Indian food, and so much more.
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Once again, I’m doing something a little different on the podcast this week. Instead of a chef, I sit down with my very good friend Dave Andrews of Good Life PR. As many of you know, I try to preserve as much objectivity as I can around what I write about, so I generally don’t have a lot of relationships with people in food and drink PR.
Dave, however is an exception because he’s very good at what he does and respectful in the way he does it, and also because we’ve known each other since we were both working journalists in the mid-2000s.
Dave started in sports journalism, reporting on the Kobe/Shaq Lakers and eventually as a beat reporter for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2001.
I met him when he was a food and drinks writer for Thrillist Chicago one of the first successful push email platforms pioneering what Substack is perfecting today.
What really attracted me to Dave is how he had a very funny standout voice in a sea of sameness. Since then he’s gone on to manage and run bar programs and eventually became the 360 PR agency for restaurants like Fifty/50 (Roots, Berkshire Room etc..), and chefs like Won Kim of Kimski.
Most recently Dave has become a go to guy for branding new pizza spots like Bob’s pizza, home of the pickle pizza, and a new tavern option called WG Pizzas.
In this episode we talk about Dave’s career, the greatness of Won Kim, the heydey of Chicago food and drinks reporting from 2005-2015, the influencer industry, the struggle of independent restaurants, and the importance of a place like Daisies being the cultural hub for Chicago’s current food scene.
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Have you ever wondered where Chicago’s greatest French fries or chicken sandwiches are, or what’s the most gourmand of all the Michelin Bib Gourmands? Well, you no longer have to thanks to the work of Mitch Gropman.
Inspired by the comprehensive burrito, burger, and taco lists of former Chicago Tribune food reviewer Nick Kindelsperger, it’s not uncommon for Gropman to eat and drop a ranking of 200 Chicago-area French fries in rank order.
Gropman will be the first to tell you that because he hasn’t tried every single local version of the food he’s obsessing over, this isn’t a “best” ranking as much as his “favorite” list.
That Gropman has made this distinction tells you how thoughtful he is about the work. Gropman isn’t a journalist or a professional per se, but he thinks a lot about the ethics of what he’s doing, and avoids things like pay for play or just giving someone good coverage in his online posts because they were nice to him.
As a so called “pro”, I believe Gropman, who dines out four or five times a week, on average is one of the more knowledgeable and passionate folks I’ve met in the Chicago food scene.
What I also like about Gropman, who is also the moderator for Reddit Chicagofood (which gets over 4 million views a month) is that he pursues his passions hard, whether it’s collecting hockey cards, restaurant menus, or playing guitar.
In this episode we talk about his rankings, the private Chicago dining club he runs, and some of our favorite meals of late. Enjoy the episode!
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Turns out you don’t have to grow up with a golden palate, a gourmet family, or even the desire to be a great cook as a teenager if you want become a future Michelin-starred chef.
Or at least that’s how it worked for Donald Young, owner of Duck Sel, one of Chicago’s best restaurants which just happens to be run out of a private apartment in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.
I like Young’s story because we now see 10-year-olds being forced to specialize by training year round in a single sport in the hopes of going pro. Society often has expectations that every kid graduating high school has a ten year plan for their self-realization as adults.
The reality is as a forty-something, I am still figuring my life’s path out
It is rare that any of us know what we’re really destined for at any particular time in our life. Even if you do know, for most people that understanding and the work to support that dream doesn’t always come when you’re born.
As a teenager young preferred plain hamburgers ordering them instead of the Bloomin’ Onion (he didn’t like onions) at Outback Steakhouse. He got a job working at Culver’s and also a top Chicago kitchen, Les Nomades, but he got burnt out and walked away from the kitchen for a minute. As a young adult while Young navigated his early culinary career, he made some poor decisions that led to some run ins with the law and sleeping on a friend’s couch.
Eventually he doubled down on his passion, found his direction, and received his first star at Temporis in 2019. His current project Duck Sel is not a traditional brick and mortar restaurant. With a 2 to 1 guest to staff ratio, excellent food and servers with great wine knowledge, there are no compromises. The food and quality is absolutely top-notch.
One of my favorite dishes from Young, King Ora salmon with a variety of refined garnishes including carrot pudding, avocado & chimichurri emulsion, charred eggplant puree, and kishmish (Afghanistani raisins) could easily slip in to a tasting menu at Oriole or Ever.
By that I mean Young is as technically and creatively brilliant as Chicago’s top chefs, and he’s doing this in a home kitchen. He does have his own definitive style which feels like a mix of French traditional, molecular gastronomy, and beautiful naturalism
I hope you enjoy this interview. If you stumbled on this podcast via iTunes or Spotify, check out thehunger.substack.com for more.
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The HVAC system at 816 W. Armitage fired up like a jet injecting a loud whoosh into the air. You might recognize that address as the townhouse that held the original Charlie Trotter’s restaurant.
I was recording this podcast with Trotter’s son Dylan Trotter on the second floor. I was willing to accept the background noise because I didn’t want to disturb what was a mesmerizing conversation for any Chicago restaurant history lover.
Dylan, noticed immediately, stood up, walked over to the thermostat, shut off the AC and then returned to his seat and kept talking.
That may not seem like that big of a deal, but I’ve recorded thousands of interviews as journalist, and no one is ever paying attention to distracting background noises and they certainly aren’t fixing the issue.
But, that Dylan did, well, it’s hard not to read it as a reflection of the DNA he shares with his notoriously detail-oriented and fastidious father Charlie.
Dylan, has been quietly working in restaurant kitchens like the defunct GT Fish and the defunct A10 in Hyde Park, as well as mixing salads “15 feet in the air” table side at BOA steakhouse in West Hollywood over the last decade.
Post-pandemic, he came back to Chicago, where he’s been quietly celebrating his father’s legacy and preserving his memory. He hasn’t done a lot of press, but while talking to him for research about a piece on the Next restaurant Charlie Trotter tribute menu, I asked him if he’d want to do a podcast.
He graciously said yes. I’m so glad he did. He told so many great stories including how he’d play chess with his dad mid-service or how Charlie would run over to Chicago's Oz Park in his suit in the afternoon for a little one-on-one basketball with Dylan.
Dylan certainly talked about his dad as the famous chef, but it was these beautiful moments about Charlie the man he shared that I will really cherish. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
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Over the years, chef Grant Achatz of The Alinea Group and the Next Restaurant team have created a series of tasting menus inspired by Escoffier at the Ritz, Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, and the legacy of Julia Child.
Starting next week, September 7th, 2024, the Next team unveils their newest culinary homage: the work of Charlie Trotter.
Trotter was both an inspiring and polarizing figure. Trotter’s example changed America from a meat and potatoes-loving concern to a fixed-menu-hungry dining public. Without Charlie Trotter’s, Alinea, Smyth, Oriole, and Ever, the rich tasting menu landscape Chicago has today, probably doesn’t exist.
Trotter and his team which also included Chicago legends like Reggie Watkins, Guillermo Tellez, Matthias Merges, Bill Kim, Giuseppe Tentori, Mindy Segal, Graham Elliot, Beverly Kim, Curtis Duffy, and John Shields is responsible for the invention or proliferation of so many now familiar dining trends including tasting menus in America, the spread of micro-greens, kitchen table seating, rich wine pairings, raw food, conservation, and non-alcoholic offerings.
What people may not know is that chef Achatz worked at Charlie Trotters for a short time, but ended up quitting after a few months. In the documentary Love Charlie, Achatz talks a lot about how at times he didn’t know whether he and Charlie were friends or enemies.
In this podcast, we talk about the complex, innovative Trotter, and how Achatz’s early experiences transformed in to a full appreciation for the man and how he will be celebrating that legacy at Next. We also talk about Achatz’s evolution as a chef, his friendship with the magician David Blaine, and his funny scene on The Bear.
If you stumbled across this podcast and you love this topic, make sure to subscribe to The Hunger because I will be unveiling a long-form written piece next week on the development of the Next/Trotter menu.
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In this episode I explore what it means to be unsung with a review of the Puerto Rican restaurant Estacion from chef Mark Mendez and a recent concert at Chicago's Empty Bottle by the musician Ondara.
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A look at what it means when taco gentrification comes to a city with a wealth of authentic tacos. This audio review of Tacombi and Carniceria Mirabel is free, however, like my written essays, many of these podcasts will only be fully available to paying subscribers of thehunger.substack.com. Paid subscribers will get a private RSS link that allows them to access the full feed.
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