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Sometimes Covering Better for You Food is a Touch of Fantasy Camp
- Bob Benenson
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
Back-to-Back Events Presented by Niman Ranch and One Off Hospitality
Most of my work at Local Food Forum involves the serious issues of the movement to build a better food system, covering farmers, farmers markets, co-ops, advocates, educators, and others involved in this grass-roots effort.
But over the years, my network has expanded to the culinary community and includes chefs, companies and organizations that also are devoted to promoting sustainability. The paragraph above is something of a disclaimer, since there are posts — such as this one — that look a little like Bob's Fantasy Camp.
Chef-driven tasting events are usually widely dispersed over the calendar. But they came back-to-back on Sunday, June 15, which not coincidentally was the day before the annual James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards at Chicago's Lyric Opera House.
So the following photo essay is my thank you to Niman Ranch and to One Off Hospitality for including me and my little passion project on your guest lists.
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The first event was the 3rd annual Bacon, Bubbles and Brunch presented by Niman Ranch at the Chicago Athletic Association Building in the Loop neighborhood.
The Niman Ranch brand was started in the early 1970s by Bill Niman, a pioneer in commercial marketing of humanely raised meat. Niman left the company in 2007 (he continues to raise livestock at his BN Ranch north of San Francisco), and it was purchased in 2015 by Perdue Farms. Yes, a Big Food company, but the Niman Ranch division has maintained its dedication to humane treatment of livestock.
My comfort level with Niman Ranch is connected to the woman in the photo below. Kerri McClimen, a committed advocate for more sustainable meat production, is Niman Ranch's vice president of communications.
I met Kerri more than a decade ago when I was working for the FamilyFarmed non-profit and she was a communications consultant for The Pew Charitable Trusts and its efforts to reduce the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in factory livestock farming, a practice that contributes to antibiotic resistance that causes many deaths and serious illnesses.
Kerri's transition to Niman Ranch in 2017 gave me confidence in the company's continued commitment to humane treatment even after its purchase by Perdue. I do occasionally buy meat at supermarkets, and Niman Ranch is a brand that I look for.
Representing Prairie Grass Cafe were Sarah Stegner and Sebastian White, two of my closest associates in the culinary space and two of the most philanthropic. Sarah is a co-founder of Chicago Chefs Cook, the non-profit that has held a series of fundraising events for humanitarian and social causes since 2022, and was a co-founder of Green City farmers market in 1999.
She has been a leading mentor to Sebastian in his journey from self-taught cook to rising star chef, and is a strong advocate for The Evolved Network, Sebastian's non-profit that borrows from his previous career as a clinical psychologist working with at-risk youths. He works in schools to provide underprivileged youths with food education, culinary skills and life skills through farm to table experience.
This is D'Andre Carter of Soul and Smoke, also seen in the top photo with Heather Bublick, his wife and business partner. They met when they were both chefs at a fine-dining restaurant, then shifted to the less fancy but hugely popular BBQ trade, quickly establishing Soul and Smoke as one of the mostly highly rated purveyors of grilled and smoked meats. They are building out their first full-service restaurant in their home base of Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago.
After years of building a reputation as a top chef working in restaurant kitchens, Lamar Moore took a step up last year when he opened Etc., his own restaurant located in downtown Chicago near the landmark Willis Tower. Its website says it is "a deeply personal restaurant... that invites guests to experience food as storytelling. Rooted in his Southern upbringing and inspired by training in some of Chicago’s greatest kitchens, Chef Lamar blends history and tradition with innovation in a way that feels both familiar and entirely new."
I can't move on without a shoutout to Fortune Fish & Gourmet, the distributor responsible for the amazing seafood bar that is a centerpiece for each of these annual Niman Ranch events.
And here is the legendary Ina Pinkney, clearly enjoying the event. She gained recognition as "the breakfast queen of Chicago" as owner of Ina's restaurant, which was open from 1991 to her retirement in 2013.
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I happily have a longstanding connection with One Off Hospitality, a leading restaurant group with strong values of sustainability and community engagement. Paul Kahan, the group's co-founder and executive chef, was one of the first culinary industry leaders I got to know more than a decade ago after I moved to Chicago and began my second career as a Good Food advocate.
One Off's restaurants — which include The Publican and its spinoffs (Publican Quality Meats and Publican Quality Bread), the two Avec restaurants, the three Big Star Mexican-themed places, and Dove's Luncheonette — have delivered numerous James Beard awards for the group. A recent upswing in the group's catering business spawned its joint commissary, which opened last fall in Chicago's West Town neighborhood adjacent to the Publican Quality Bread bakery.
The June 15 tasting event, which took place at the catering facility, featured both One Off talent and invited guests from the culinary scene.
Greg Wade, One Off Hospitality Partner and head baker at Publican Quality Bread, with one of the pizzas served at the event.
Dylan Patel, executive chef at One Off's Avec, with his spicy Piri Piri Chicago Wings.
A raw oyster bar is practically a standard at One Off Hospitality tasting events.
Dominique Leach (foreground) of Lexington Betty Smokehouse is another Chicago BBQ icon. John Manion (center) is chef-owner of El Che Steakhouse and Brasero, meat-forward restaurants with South American flair.
Greg Hall has a special place in the pantheon of local craft beverage makers. From 1991 to 2011, he served as brewmaster at Goose Island Beer, the pioneering Chicago craft brewery founded by his father John Hall; one of Greg's achievements in that role was popularizing bourbon barrel-aged stout. In 2011, he launched Virtue Cider, based in Fennville, Michigan, to produce traditional, dry fruit ciders.
Greg continued to lead Virtue after Anheuser-Busch InBev — which bought Goose Island in 2012 — also bought Virtue in 2015. While it still owns Goose Island, AB sold Virtue back to Greg last year.
Here's Greg doing some pouring showmanship using a Spanish wine decanter known as a pourrón. The Rosalita cider he poured is a collaboration with famed chef José Andrés created for a fundraiser that supported the latter's World Central Kitchen, the amazing humanitarian non-profit that rushes to war zones and scenes of natural disaster to feed displaced victims.