Dining Chicago: Get Your Middlewest on at Reno

The last time I watched someone cook their way through a cookbook, it starred a frazzled Amy Adams and I enjoyed it very much. So I'm very excited about Reno's ambitious efforts to cook their way through Middlwest, the outre food recipe publication from David Tamarkin and Erica Gannett. The magazine features unbound pages printed on cardstock, enabling each page to stand alone as its own recipe card. Nifty, huh? Well, Reno is tackling those recipes, currently offering several items on their menu from Middlewest's first issue and rounding it out with a Middlewest dinner on July 15.

Current Middlewest items on Reno's menu include the Green Machine pizza with Middlewest pea pâté, salumi picante, watercress, and mozzarella; fettucine with Middlewest asparagus-pistachio pesto, Parmesan, and lemon; Middlewest great northern beans with herbs de Provence and giardiniera; and Middlewest Kathy cake, stocked in the morning pastry case.

(Green Machine pizza. Photo: Erica Gannett)

Come July 15, Reno's cooking the whole issue in Chicago! Hosts Tamarkin and Gannett will be on hand to talk up Middlewest, as chefs Elliot Green and Katie Wyer prepare items such as roast chicken pizza with Middlewest spring chicken, Middlewest carrot-cumin soup and lamb hand pies, ravioli filled with that Middlewest asparagus-pistachio pesto, some Kathy cake, and strawberry-basil icebox cake.

The July 15 dinner starts at 6:00 p.m. and costs $30 per person, or $45 with wine pairings. Copies of Middlewest will also be available. Make your reservations here.