Much of the food media’s gaze tends to focus on what’s new or hot. But I wanted to show some appreciation for the classics. So all month long, I’m going to be visiting some local legends, who’ve been quietly keeping the city’s culinary flame alive; in some cases, paving the way for other entrepreneurs. The post Celebrating Chicago’s Classics All Month Long appeared first on Steve Dolinsky ..read more

As immigrants from India and Pakistan arrived in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s, they typically made their way to West Rogers Park, along Devon Avenue. But over the years, more and more South Asians have re-settled in Schaumburg and Naperville, and that means great restaurants have followed. The post Indian & Pakistani Restaurants Flourishing in Naperville appeared first on Steve Dolinsky ..read more

With Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday behind us, the season of Lent is underway. Catholics traditionally abstain from meat on Fridays until Easter, and that means more demand for seafood. I visited a seafood specialist in Portage Park this week, approaching 80 years in business. The post Hagen’s Fish Market Going On 80 Years appeared first on Steve Dolinsky ..read more

The owners of Georgio’s Chicago Pizzeria & Pub in Crystal Lake and S. Barrington say they owe their success to Alice Mae Redmond. Redmond, who worked at Uno’s, Due’s and Gino’s East, helped Brian Coli’s father create Old World Pizza in Elmwood Park in 1990. She shared her expertise and her recipe with the Coli family. When Brian started Georgio’s in 2002, he continued using that same deep-dish recipe, which calls for quite a bit of vegetable oil, to help the dough “pan out” easily and stretch. If you’re a fan of My Pi, Lou Malnati’s and Pizano’s, you’ll recognize this pizza. No knife and f ..read more

I’ve been working for months testing and playing with the DP1100 from Proluxe, which allows you to not only press your dough into a 14″ or 18″ round, but also par bakes it gently, setting it in place, killing the yeast and stopping it from having a third rise in the oven. This is Chicago thin pizza at its best, and you don’t have to roll out, or use a big dough sheeter; you don’t have to cold cure the dough in the fridge. You don’t even have to ferment the dough that long, just overnight on the counter. I’m so excited to be working with the team at Proluxe! They have the DP1100 which has one h ..read more

Black History Month begins today, and I wanted to dig into a restaurant with Deep Southern roots, located in a South Side neighborhood with its own storied past. The menu traces its recipes to both Mississippi and Louisiana… partly a result of the Great Migration, and a granddaughter’s commitment to carrying on her family’s traditions. The wave of African Americans moving from the South to Chicago in the 1940s and 50s changed the complexity of the South Side, but moving this far North doesn’t erase family recipes, especially for one young woman who now runs a Bronzeville restaurant just a few ..read more

The last two years have seen a bumper crop of new pizzerias in Chicago with styles ranging from deep-dish and tavern style to Detroit and Sicilian. At a new spot on the Northwest Side, the staff started off with one style, then added a second after popular demand. The Chef behind Giant – one of the city’s better restaurants – jumped into pizza during the pandemic, then opened a spot next door doing thin, East Coast-inspired pies. Those required some tweaking, and while he perfected those pizzas, he added a weekly tavern style to the mix. Guess which one is more popular with the neighbors. Pizz ..read more

Shortly after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey that killed some 50,000 people, I took a previously planned trip back to Istanbul I had been organizing for a few months. The area where the quakes were is about a two-hour flight from Istanbul, so I felt completely safe, but obviously there was a kind of PTSD on the faces of many locals. The quakes affected everyone. Still, I visited friends I hadn’t seen in awhile and as always, took a Culinary Backstreets tour through an undiscovered neighborhood that seemed to last most of one day. The food in Turkey is a delicious melting pot of several ..read more

The ovens have barely cooled from our L.A. event, and we’re proud to announce the 2nd annual Pizza City Fest: Chicago, presented by Greco & Sons, will be taking place later this summer at The Salt Shed. We learned so much from our first year, implementing many of the changes at our L.A. event, which was deemed an enormous success based on the feedback we received from vendors and guests. I’m happy to share the full press release here, and for more info about the lineup, please visit pizzacityfest.com. Tickets go on sale June 1 at 10 a.m. CST. Official Press Release The post Pizza City Fest ..read more

I was just in Naples for a few days, checking off a bucketlist trip to the birthplace of the pizzeria. Neapolitan pizza is adored for its quick, high heat bake; its leopard spotted cornicione (perimeter) and somewhat juicy/soupy middle. It’s the original “pizza” but of course, it’s not as widely known in America. In fact, a lot of North Americans tend to prefer the sturdier, crispy/crunchy/chewy combo you’ll find in Detroit, New York City and even on some Chicago pizzas. I did end up trying Sorbillo and Da Michele (the place Julia Roberts swooned over her margherita), but both disappointed. I ..read more