The book is available as a PDF download for $30 and as a print edition + PDF download for $55 (includes US shipping & handling). The print edition with laminated cover is spiral-bound and includes glossy pages for easy cleaning by cooks at home. Books are available for purchase at chicagoreader.com/recipebook.
Reader Recipes features 80 recipes edited by longtime Reader food critic and senior writer Mike Sula and Reader coeditor-in-chief Karen Hawkins.
“The hospitality industry was the first to get clobbered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s likely to be among the last to recover,” Sula writes in the introduction. “5.9 million industry employees lost their jobs the past two months, according to Restaurant Business, not including those working under the table, such as undocumented workers. Many chefs and bartenders pivoted to carryout and delivery service, mobilized around initiatives such as the Independent Restaurant Coalition, fed first responders and health-care workers. They kept cooking.”
Fifteen percent of the book’s sales will benefit Comp Tab Relief Fund, an alliance between Support Staff and Pilot Light Chefs to help hospitality workers laid-off or furloughed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The Reader lost 90 percent of its advertising when the cultural life force that is Chicago’s bar, restaurant, music, theatre, and cultural scenes closed,” says Reader publisher Tracy Baim.
“When we started asking Chicago chefs and bartenders for help with this cookbook, they stepped up fast with 80 recipes that, in total, offer a picture of the breadth of culinary imagination in this town,” adds Sula.
The list of contributions reveals an all-star cast of talent from every corner of the city’s food scene, including Paul Kahan’s seared cabbage, Yolanda Castillo’s Belizean stewed chicken, Rick Bayless’s pork tinga, Bertha Garcia’s salsa verde, Tony Hu’s Special Dry Chili Chicken, Ethan Lim’s mom’s Cambodian Braised Pork Belly, Bellemore Chef Jimmy Papadopoulos’s Fire Bird chicken sandwich, the Eiffel Tower Soufflé from Everest’s legendary Jean Joho and Brian Bruns of Flat & Point sourdough recipe.
“There are also simpler, practical, comforting recipes designed to help one stretch something marvelous when the pantry is getting bare and you can’t go shopping, such as Lula pastry chef Emily Spurlin’s Desperate Times Pie, or the pimiento mac and cheese that Christine Cikowski and Josh Kulp serve at Honey Butter Fried Chicken, or Breakfast Queen Ina Pinkney’s Dense Flourless Bittersweet Chocolate Cake,” Sula says in the book’s introduction. “I bet food writer Dennis Lee’s Spam Bourbon Pate would be aces smeared over Young American Chef Nick Jirasek’s Ooohh Mami Cheese Crackers. Need a stiff drink, but you ran out of eggs? Shake up a vegan whiskey sour with leftover chickpea juice, from Koval Distillery’s Zach Overstreet.”
Purchase at chicagoreader.com/recipebook.
For more details on this and other Reader projects, visit www.chicagoreader.com/support. Follow us on Facebook @chicagoreader, Instagram @chicago_reader, and Twitter @chicago_reader.
About the Chicago Reader
The Chicago Reader has been a fearless, innovative, and nationally respected media voice for nearly 50 years. In print every week and daily online, we are tastemakers, incisive critics, and agenda-setters. Our readers look to us for what’s new, what’s now, what’s next, and depend on us to hold local government accountable — not take sides.
Contributors Include
Solomon Abebe Selam Ethiopian Kitchen
Arturo Aucaquizhpi Mirabella Italian Cuisine
Angelina Bastidas Tournant
Rick Bayless Frontera Grill / Xoco / Cruz Blanca / Leña Brava
Alice Blander The Hideout
Rob Boyd Punch House
Brian Bruns Flat & Point
Natalie Brusherd Smartbar Chicago
Lucas Bumba and Matt Bumba Milk Money Brewing
Ryan Carbone Tied House
Yolanda Castillo Garifuna Flava: A Taste of Belize
Tom Cathcart GMan Tavern
Jake Chappell Vincent
Matt Ciarleglio Empty Bottle
Cristine Cikowski and Josh Kulp Honey Butter Fried Chicken
Matthew Clark and Emily Spurlin Lula Cafe
Abe Conlon Fat Rice
Thai Dang HaiSous, Vietnamese Kitchen
Cara Duffy The Bar & Table at CH Distillery
Brian Enyart Dos Urban Cantina
Rafael Esparza Finom
Phillip Foss EL Ideas
Billy Helmkamp The Whistler
Eric Henry Sleeping Village
Tony Hu Lao Sze Chuan
Kelly Ijichi and Randi Howry Mom's at Politan Row Chicago
Stephanie Izard Cabra
Nick Jirasek Young American
Chef J. Joho Everest Restaurant
Paul Kahan One Off Hospitality
Gene Kato Momotaro
Michael Lanzerotte Saint Lou's Assembly
Jeff Lawler Geja’s Cafe
Dennis Lee Paulie Gee's Logan Square
Samantha Lee Hopewell Brewing Co.
Lawrence Letrero Bayan Ko
Rob Levitt Publican Quality Meats
Ethan Lim Hermosa
Colleen Malone Superkhana International
Josh Martinez and Rolf Pedersen Gadabout
Ulises Martinez Virtue Cider / Northcott Liquorette
Kevin McAllister Cafe Robey
Donovan Mitchem Moneygun
Matt Mixter Wixter Market
Bertha Montes Garcia and David Rodriguez Jr. Xocome Antojeria
Michael Moorman m.henry
Emily Nydam Maria's Packaged Goods
Cy Oldham Fat Cat
Zach Overstreet KOVAL Distillery
Margaret Pak Thattu
Kevin Pang
Jimmy Papadopoulos and Leigh Omilinsky Bellemore, Swift & Sons
Dave Park Jeong
Rae Pennington Ever
Jorgina Pereira Sinha Elegant Brazilian Cuisine
Mark Phelan Revival Food Hall
Ethan Pikas Cellar Door Provisions
Ina Pinkney
Leela Punyaratabandhu
Chris Reed Bumbu Roux
Danny Shapiro Scofflaw
Eric Simmons Maple & Ash, etta
Andy Sisomboune Sao Song
Rachael Smith Spilt Milk
Palita Sriratana Pink Salt
Sarah Stegner Prairie Grass Cafe
Mark Steuer Funkenhausen
Giuseppe Tentori GT Prime
Dominique Tougne Chez Moi Bistro
Elena Vázquez Felgueres and Tamar Fasja Unikel Masa Madre
Paul Virant Vie
Erick Williams Virtue Restaurant
Gary Wiviott Low Slow BBQ
Özkan Yılmaz Turkitch
Jonathan Zaragoza Birrieria Zaragoza