Well Fed On the Town

Not your normal cooking class, the Chicago Tribune’s Celebration of Good Eating series is a food and wine event which balances the fun of a social outing with the information one expects to receive in a traditional class. To be held throughout 2009, the first in the series, “Comfort Cooking”, kicked off recently at Kendall College. The auditorium was filled and, if the applause at the end was any indication, everyone in attendance seemed to have a wonderful time.

The organizers did an excellent job with this event. I have taken cooking classes at Kendall College before, and I have loved them every time, but this event seemed to be taken up quite a few notches. There were lots of little things to make it extra special. Coat check was available as soon as you walked in which is a very nice touch since it is still freezing in Chicago and who wants to be carrying their coat around all night? All the staff was incredibly friendly and as soon as you got checked in your first stop was at the wine table. Choose between red or white - plenty of people went back for seconds.

Wine was provided by Hart Davis Hart, a Chicago wine auction company, but I believe the wine selection was chosen by Tribune food and wine critic Bill Daley who did a great job. It was exciting because all of the wines were new (to me anyways) and they didn’t just provide the same inexpensive wines you can find at the grocery store. They were special. In the beginning of the event Bill told us a little bit about each of the wines.

The cooking demonstration lasted about 30 minutes and Kendall College provided one of their best. The instructor was entertaining and gave out many tips while preparing a beef stew. After we all had our samples of the stew we were able to go into other rooms and taste additional items that were prepared. Food for the event was provided by Dominicks, a local grocery chain in the Chicagoland area, and recipe cards for everything were made available. One room had corn bread (with honey and butter - yum!) and salad with a variety of vinaigrette options. Dessert was an apple crisp with brown sugar whipped cream.

All the wine options were available in the wine room which was quite crowded. There were four wine choices: a sparkling wine, a Chardonnay, a Bordeaux and another red. In fact we liked all of the wines and LOVED the Bordeaux. They were available for order, which I like because who knows where else I would find them, but there was no pressure to purchase anything. It was simply an order sheet available on all the tables which you could take home if you were interested. While tasting the wines we spent a bit of time talking to some of the Tribune “Good Eats” staff as well as some of the folks from Kendall College and Hart Davis Hart. It was nice to mingle with people attending the event as well as the people working the event. It was just one big happy gathering of people.

At the end there was a raffle with some great prizes including free cooking classes, wine totes, little picnic organizers and other fun stuff. After the raffle several people wandered back into the wine room to finish off the wine - yup, they were still pouring.

Overall, a great event and I am looking to future events in the series. Exact dates have not been set yet, but the themes have all been planned:
May 2009: Spring Awakening
September 2009: Cooking for Sport: Tailgate-style Cooking
November 2009: Baking with the Best: Holiday Cookie Contest Comes to Life

Tickets are $35 ($30 for Tribune subscribers) and it is a really good bargain for such a fun evening. For more information visit chicagotribune.com/goodeatingevents.