1 A Hard Day’s Night (Sat 29, 12:30–1:30pm, East Great Lawn)
This year’s token cocktail seminar features Chicago bartenders extraordinaire Bridget Albert, Debbi Peek, Charles Joly and Danny Shapiro.
2 Creole Turtle Soup (Sat 29, 5:30–6pm, Main Stage)
Turtles are soooo cute. Who would make them into soup? Rick Tramonto and John Folse, who opened Restaurant R’evolution in New Orleans earlier this year, demo how it’s done.
3 Top Chef Masters Chicago (Sun 30, 1:30–2pm, Main Stage)
Confession: This seminar could be about accounting, but as long as Art Smith is there, we’ll be in the front row. Fortunately, this is a cooking demo with him and Takashi Yagihashi.
4 Food in the Media (Sun 30, 2:30–3pm, Main Stage)
TOC food editor David Tamarkin is the Joe Biden of public appearances—you never know what might happen! He takes the stage with Bon Appetit’s Adam Rapoport and Andrew Knowlton, plus chef Geoffrey Zakarian.
5 Small Plates, Big Flavors (Sun 30, 3:30–4pm, Main Stage)
Jimmy Bannos Jr. and Ryan Poli, together, on one stage, cooking: Can Chicago Gourmet handle this much eye candy?
Chicago Gourmet kicks off with the sold-out Hamburger Hop on Fri 28 and continues Sat 29 (noon–6pm) and Sun 30 (noon–5pm) in Millennium Park. Single-day tickets ($159 plus tax each day) and weekend passes ($265 plus tax) are available at chicagogourmet.org.