12 Spots for the Best Brunch in Chicago — 2019 Edition

Brunch. It’s everything that’s good about the morning meal, only transported to the weekend and with the addition of guilt-free day drinking. What’s not to love? So, every spring I take one for the team ­— actually five, because I’m talking about pounds gained here — to compile my annual list of Chicago’s Best New […]

How 4 Top Chicago Chefs Assemble the Perfect Dish

Cooking is — literally — elemental. Earth, fire, and water determine the character of a dish: the terroir of local produce and proteins; the presence (or absence) of heat, both in terms of temperature and flavor; and water as the integral component to every life form (whether animal or vegetable), recipe, and cooking method. A […]

10 Spots for the Most Delectable Cookies in Chicago

The holidays may come and go, but our obsession with cookies — those crunchy, crispy, chewy, and sweet wonders — will never die, because cookies tell our story. Your childhood, your Girl Scout troop, your grandmother, your culture, all on view. One woman’s lebkuchen is another’s gingerbread; my twice-baked cookie might be biscotti or Mandelbrot. […]