Each year, Good Eating tips its hat to people in the food and beverage industries who are making a difference in Chicago through their commitment, passion and vision. These experts have enhanced the food scene in Chicago with their accomplishments.
Mary Ellen Diaz
First Slice
“No one calls me for my favorite recipes anymore,” says Mary Ellen Diaz, who left behind the world of restaurant cooking after a short but gilded career as chef at the likes of North Pond and Printers Row to follow another calling. But she’s OK with that.
“I’m still just as driven, just as fulfilled as when I was a restaurant chef,” says Diaz, director of First Slice, a food program for the disadvantaged and the homeless based at Ebenezer Lutheran Church and Holy Covenant United Methodist Church.
First Slice, with a small staff and troop of volunteers, donates more than 1,000 meals a month through agencies such as the Howard Brown Health Center, Chicago Recovery Alliance, Dignity Diner, the Night Ministry, Horizons and Deborah’s Place (a homeless shelter for women).
And on Tuesdays, they set up tables and coolers at Belmont and Halsted to serve food to homeless youth in that neighborhood.
“It’s amazing the need that’s out there in Chicago,” she says. “Right away I realized that food is a way to help people in other ways.”
Through the trust gained by the gift of a hot meal, prepared as much as possible with her exacting standards and local fresh ingredients, Diaz has seen how people open up. The need these people have goes beyond food, she explains, but food is the link that builds the trust that leads to people accepting help.
– Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W. Foster Ave.; Holy Covenant United Methodist Church, 925 W. Diversey
Kristine Greiber and Ken Dunn
Resource Center
Heirloom tomatoes and greens have replaced the trash that used to litter several neglected city lots, thanks to City Farm’s urban garden project. The project, to show urban residents how to earn money farming, is under the direction of the Resource Center, a Chicago non-profit environmental education organization founded by Ken Dunn almost three decades ago.
Four organic urban garden projects have sprouted on city-owned land since 1999.
“Growing organically fresh vegetables locally isn’t costly,” Dunn says. “And it’s healthy for the planet and the population.”
Kristine Greiber, City Farm’s director, delivers specialty produce and heirloom vegetables to restaurants. In return, chefs subscribe to the Resource Center’s compost service, which pays for the removal of kitchen trimmings that will be used for compost to enrich the soil.
But the gardens cater to more than chefs. Greiber says collard and turnip greens have been a big sales success with neighbors.
Plans call for a children’s garden in cooperation with the Slow Food organization. And a greenhouse is under way in the largest plot, located near Cabrini-Green.
– Resource Center, 222 E. 135th Pl., 773-821-1351
Brian Duncan
Wine director, BIN 36
To anyone who has ever stared blankly at a lengthy restaurant wine list, or felt helplessly ignorant in the presence of a sommelier, you have Brian Duncan’s sympathy. The intimidation wine seems to inspire is what led Duncan and partners David Schneider and Dan Sachs to open BIN 36, a wine bar, restaurant and market. Their customers participate in regular tasting events, wine education classes and private party seminars–all of it, mind you, in the kind of upscale-hip atmosphere that has mostly been the domain of restaurants or martini bars alone.
“Our staff is trained to help the guests choose a wine, not lecture them or lead them into an expensive purchase,” Duncan said.
The success of BIN 36 Chicago led to the opening of a second location in Lincolnshire last year.
Nothing could be more pleasing to the Chicago native, who grew up in Morgan Park. And Duncan is relentlessly optimistic about the future of his favorite beverage.
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“When people say they don’t like wine, it’s not true,” he said. “They just haven’t yet found a wine they like.”
– BIN 36 Chicago, 339 North Dearborn St. 312-755-9463; BIN 36 Lincolnshire, 275 Parkway Drive, Lincolnshire. 847-808-9463
Marc Schulman
President, Eli’s Cheesecake
For Marc Schulman and the Eli’s Cheesecake empire, it all started with a recipe from his restaurateur-dad, Eli, owner of Eli’s The Place for Steak.
It could have been different, Schulman said: One of his dad’s earliest recipes was Liver Eli.
“Marketing liver wouldn’t have been as easy as marketing cheesecake,” Schulman said with a laugh.
The cheesecake came shortly after, so fate was kind. But Schulman, president of Eli’s Cheesecake Co., has returned the favor many times over for dozens of organizations. The company donates dessert to more than 400 area groups; was named a partner of the year by the Chicago Food Depository for its efforts at collecting canned goods (2 tons and counting in 2003 alone); and supports educational and outreach programs with Wright College, including developing a program called Ecological Entrepreneurship with the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.
On a lighter note, Eli’s Cheesecake World was listed as the No. 1 Tasty Tour on Food Network’s list of top 5 company tours.
“We work hard to make a difference,” Schulman said. “We feel we’re an important link in the food process, and we have fun promoting what we do.”
– Eli’s Cheesecake World, 6701 W. Forest Preserve Drive, 773-205-3800
Gloria D. Hafer
Director of culinary program
Taylor Elementary School
When Gloria Hafer was a student at Chicago’s Taylor Elementary School, she quickly learned how to cook. With a head-of-the-household mother who worked full-time, three brothers in the house and a budget of food stamps, “if I didn’t cook, we didn’t eat,” she said.
Now a teacher at Taylor, Hafer started an after-school program that would help the children–many living at poverty level in what she says is a “gang-oriented” neighborhood–learn a useful skill.
Since 1997, Hafer has cobbled together outside funding to introduce the students to a culinary world with cooking instruction by chefs from one sixtyblue restaurant and “O” magazine’s Art Smith. They have experienced fine dining at Charlie Trotter’s and won a menu-cover design competition at the Ritz-Carlton.
Hafer says a particular goal “is to instill pride and confidence.
“If children are given the right direction they can achieve,” Hafer said. “They need someone to tap them on the shoulder and say, ‘You can do it.’ “
– Taylor Elementary School, 9912 S. Avenue H, 773-535-6240
Peg Isaacson
Director of operations
Community Nutrition Network
For more than 10 years, Isaacson has helped feed the elderly through the programs of the Community Nutrition Network. She oversees 24 sites in Chicago suburbs where needy seniors can get a warm lunch provided by the nonprofit network in conjunction with other area agencies. About 1,000 on-site meals are served daily, according to Isaacson.
“Also, we’re now serving 1,300 home-delivered meals a day,” she said with justifiable pride. Available to homebound seniors over the age of 60, the delivery program is offered Monday through Friday.
Under Isaacson’s watch, the network has grown to include 65 paid staff members and about 1,000 volunteers. The network is funded by the Suburban Area Agency on Aging under the Older Americans Act.
“We target low-income and minority people, but the program is for anyone age 60 and over,” Isaacson said. The program gives seniors what may be their only hot meal of the day and it also offers them the chance to socialize.
“I had been in the food-service business for 30 years,” she explained, “but I saw this opportunity to help people stay in their home, to keep them healthier longer. We may be giving them just a meal, but it’s so much more. It makes such a difference in peoples’ lives.”
– Community Nutrition Network, 208 S. LaSalle St., Suite 1900, Chicago, IL 60604; 312-795-8852
Bruce Sherman
North Pond
Bruce Sherman, chef/partner at North Pond restaurant, didn’t set out to earn his living as a top toque. Sherman, a Glencoe native, was an economics major who graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania.
But work and study in India and France convinced him of his true calling. He was recognized this year by Food and Wine magazine as one of the nation’s top 10 new chefs.
Sherman’s menu changes with the season, featuring organic, sustainable ingredients from area farmers, who often are given credit on his menus. The wine program he created at the restaurant offers a way to share his profits with community groups. By adding $1 a bottle to the retail price of wine, he raises money for donations to Green City Market, Slow Food U.S.A., Lakeview Pantry and Growing Home. This year he has already raised about $12,000.
Sherman is a devoted volunteer at Green City Market, The Chef’s Collaborative and several other food-related organizations. Determined to teach children the importance of making wise food choices, Sherman visits his daughter Emma’s classroom at the Dewey School in Evanston to share his knowledge about the value of eating organic, local ingredients.
– North Pond, 2610 N. Cannon Drive, 773-477-5845
Evelyn Thompson
Ethnic market explorer
It took Phileas Fogg 80 days to travel around the world. Evelyn Thompson can do it in four hours and find time to grocery shop en route.
A premier explorer of Chicago’s ethnic culinary culture, she has put her knowledge to use by guiding tours of shops and restaurants in many city neighborhoods. Having compiled a thorough comprehension of ingredients and food preparations of South American, Caribbean, Asian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Scandinavian and Western European nations, she conducts free-form tours that allow participants to choose the ethnic destinations. Typically, her acolytes number no more than three so the entire group can fit into her car, discuss the various shops fully between visits and not overcrowd the aisles of the often minuscule markets, delis and bakeries.
What began as personal weekend tours more than 20 years ago evolved into a business after Thompson delivered a lecture before the Culinary Historians of Chicago and was asked to show and tell others what she had seen and learned. Notes she took were intended initially to become a book, but that never happened.
Instead, she perfected the private-tour routine provided by appointment only. She also lectures and leads bus tours for senior citizens. Out-of-town visitors, who learn of Thompson through word-of-mouth or her Web site, discover Pilsen, Andersonville, Lawrence Avenue, Argyle Street, Rogers Park and other neighborhoods.
– Thompson’s Web site: ethnic-grocery-tours.com
Tracy and LaDonna Redmond
Community activists
Tracy and LaDonna Redmond want better access to high-quality food in urban neighborhoods. To that end, they have worked together for the last four years or so with the Institute for Community Resource Development. They were instrumental in starting the Black Farmers Market in Austin. They have started gardens in vacant lots, where they grow organic tomatoes, peas, beans, collards and okra for the market there and one in Garfield Park.
Their concern with food began when they discovered their son Wade had food allergies.
“We started reading labels then,” LaDonna said. “And we learned a lot about how food is produced, about artificial ingredients and the pesticides used.”
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So they turned their attention to organic and locally raised foods–and spreading the word about them.
“We’re trying to raise the awareness in the community about quality food,” LaDonna explained. “We need to connect better with farmers.”
LaDonna recently was named to Governor Rod Blagojevich’s Advisory Council on Agriculture, a group that will address issues of family farming.
The next step? The couple is working on plans for a neighborhood cooperative supermarket featuring organic produce, with help from Loyola University and Mayor Richard Daley.
“Everyone should eat well. ” LaDonna said.
– Institute for Community Resource Development, 4436 N. Maypole St., 773-921-1055.
Jerry Kleiner
Chief executive officer, KDK/Boutique Hospitality Corp.
Although restaurants have been sprouting in our city over the past decade like mushrooms after a rainstorm, it still takes a bold person to risk opening in an uncertain location, introducing novel design and decor concepts and offering a deep bite of cutting-edge dining trends. Jerry Kleiner does this, and he does it with panache. In creating dining destinations with partner Howard Davis such as Vivo, Marche, Red Light and, more recently, Gioco and Opera, in unlikely locales such as West Randolph Street and the South Loop, he launched revitalization efforts that enliven life in the city.
In addition, Kleiner is a “hands-on” restaurateur like few others. A self-taught designer and metalsmith, he is famous for crafting furniture and fixtures and creating new design elements, even if it means delaying an opening or restructuring a bar or dining area. Between restaurant openings he is wont to open his stunning West Side home–a converted 1920s warehouse–for charity events and concerts.
Kleiner believes in the areas where his restaurants dwell and draws upon a knowledge of Chicago history to explain his fixation with them. “To me, the historic significance of the building and neighborhood that houses my restaurant is as important as the food,” he said.
The string of restaurants has made him an oracle within the restaurant community. In November he expects to launch a Japanese-style sushi steakhouse in the South Loop.
– KDK/Boutique Hospitality Corp., 119 N. Peoria St., 312-226-8964
Pamela Fitzpatrick
Executive baker
Fox & Obel Food Market
Stand in front of the display case in the bakery at Fox & Obel, and Pamela Fitzpatrick’s commitment to her products is evident. The quality of the breads and pastries–from a delicate, humble baguette to a glamorous and indulgent dulce de leche cheesecake–has drawn food lovers here since the store opened two years ago.
Bread is her passion, she said, which is difficult to believe for anyone (and there are many) who can’t live without the bakery’s chocolate chip cookies or Key lime tarts.
“When I developed the pastry line here, I wanted them to all fit with the style and idea of the breads, which is very rustic,” Fitzpatrick said. “All the beauty in bread comes from the process of baking it–I wanted to continue that with the pastries.”
Surprisingly, though, baking isn’t what Fitzpatrick listed as the most rewarding part of her job: It’s teaching her staff of 20.
“A lot of very large bakeries would claim to be artisan bakeries,” she said. “This truly is. I work directly with every single baker. They’ve really developed into craftspeople.”
For anyone who values an indescribably delicious loaf of olive ciabetta, that is excellent news.
– Fox & Obel Food Market, 401 E. Illinois St., 312-410-7301
The Glunz Family
It all started in 1888 when Louis Glunz, a German immigrant, started a beer, wine and spirits store on Wells Street in Chicago.
It’s still there and still in the family, but the Glunz empire has expanded to include wine and beer distributorships, a winery and a German restaurant. The efforts of brothers Louis III, Joseph Sr. and Jack Glunz–grandsons of Louis–and their families reflect a 115-year commitment to improving the area’s beverage scene.
Louis III was the guiding light in holding the business together until the brothers split it up in 1992. Joseph Sr. and Jack built two distributorships, Glunz Wines Inc. and Louis Glunz Beer Inc., respectively. The businesses now represent hundreds of fine wines and beers from around the world.
Joseph and his wife Helen’s children cut their teeth in the wine distributorship, and in 1992 started a winery of their own, the Glunz Family Winery & Cellars in Grayslake. Suzzie Glunz Holtgreive is director of operations and tasting room manager, and her brother Joe Jr. is the winemaker.
Four of Jack and his wife Patricia’s seven children work in the beer distributorship, and another, Jim Glunz, has started his own venture, the Glunz Bavarian Haus, the only German-Austrian restaurant to open in town in years.
Oh, and Christopher Donovan, another great-grandson of Louis, runs the House of Glunz (owned by Barbara Glunz), the wine shop on Wells that grew out of the founding Glunz’s first business.
Who will be next year’s winners?
If you know someone who deserves a Good Eating Award for outstanding work in the food and beverage world, drop us a line with his or her name, accomplishments and phone number. Send to: Good Eating Awards, baiduhai, Room 500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Or fax to 312-755-0212, or send an e-mail to: [email protected].