Cooking with the Best Chefs
Long before everyone was a foodie, back in 1991, Bill Lavery started his company, Cooking with the Best Chefs. He wanted to bring home cooks together with professional chefs who could teach cooking techniques in their restaurants. Since then, Lavery’s business plan has expanded to offer classes in more restaurants. He recently included Pal Joey’s in West Chicago as a west suburban Chicago location option. Lavery also organizes day trips, including drives north of Chicago to hunt for mushrooms. He is now perhaps best known for his northwest Chicago city tour “The Butcher, The Baker and The Candlestick Maker.” The tour stops at spots in and near Lincoln Square like Paulina Market. The sixty-two-year-old butcher shop offers traditional German butcher-type fare (head cheese; pickled herring; potato sausage) and also stays current with modern food trends. What would Sigmund Lekan, the German butcher who opened Paulina Market in 1949, think of today’s ubiquitous “turduckens” on the menu here lately? The bakery stop on the tour, a bakery which opened in 1948, is Lutz Café and Pastry Shop. The candle maker is Waxman Candles store manager Sara Hernandez. She gives candle dipping and pouring lessons. Other Lavery-organized events include restaurant tours, wine dinners and weekend cooking trips around the region.
Cooking with the Best Chefs
(224)353-3300
BestChefs.com
Best of Chicago 2011