100 Chicago restaurants open Christmas Day 2011

You don’t have to cook Christmas dinner.

Gear up for the holidays with sweet events

Why mess up your kitchen making holiday sweets when you can use somebody else’s? Local culinarians invite you to come into their kitchens for sweet cooking parties. Chocolatier Katherine Duncan hosts a truffle-making party from 6:30 to 9 p.m.Thursday, Dec. 8, at Katherine Anne Confections in Logan Square. Appetizers, wine and chocolate sampling are included [...]

Seven free wine tastings in Chicago

Drink up, Chicago. It’s free! Wine lovers can sample a variety of vintages at these tastings.

Locavore film gets Chicago premiere

Is food grown grown within a few hundred miles better than produce shipped from across the country or the world? “Ingredients,” a new documentary film, showcases the locavore movement — farmers and chefs bent on creating a sustainable food system of great tasting, locally grown food. The film looks at farms in Hudson River and [...]

Friday food porn: Flat out feasting

Thin-crust Italian sausage pizza, a specialty at Papa Ray’s Pizza & Wings, features spicy Italian sausage, mushrooms, onions and green peppers ($12.50–$19.99). Papa Ray’s has locations in Logan Square, Uptown and Avondale.

Chicago chefs tackle rare Arctic char

Cambridge Bay wild Arctic char is a rare fish with a short season. The fish, related to salmon and trout, spend most of the year under the ice caps of the Arctic Circle. In mid-August, they instinctively return to the waters of Cambridge Bay in Nunavut, Canada, for about two weeks, just before the bay [...]

Bring on the Chicago barbecue bonanza!

I can see that, when even Mr. Zee’s, a Greek snack shop in Morton Grove has rebranded itself as Mr. Gee’s B.B.Q. on Demand, the barbecue trend might be getting a little ridiculous. But I think it’s fantastic — bring it on! All styles, all flavors, the more the merrier. Let’s have Kansas City-style, St. Louis-style, Texas-style, South Carolina-style, you-name-it-style … heck, we can even encompass Western Kentucky barbecued mutton.

Friday food porn: Longman & Eagle’s funky funnel cake

More than fried dough: Longman & Eagle in Logan Square recently added this riff on summer carnival fare to its menu. The black pepper beef-fat funnel cake is topped with grilled foie gras, Spence Farm strawberries and wild chamomile, $15.

Pigging out at the peak with Chicago-made treat

When Rockford, Ill., climber Bob Peterson reached the base camp of Mount Everest, a 60-mile trek, 9,000 feet of it uphill, he celebrated with an unusual local trail mix made in Chicago.

Eat for James Beard, Charles the Great Dane

Check out these Chicago benefit dinners.