Slideshow

Slideshow: Check Out the Inaugural Fete Chicago

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“Every third person has hornrim glasses,” said our 14-year-old, who has recently become a sociologist of degrees of hipsterism (and got hornrim glasses a couple of weeks ago). That’s as good a summary as any of Fete Chicago’s inaugural event, put together with the keen instincts for the urban food enthusiast audience that cofounders Heather Sperling, Emily Fiffer and Jessica Herman honed during their time attracting top-flight artisanal food makers to Dose Market. From Allie Levitt’s migas bark (“No one cares about me tonight,” Rob Levitt laughed) to a peppermint candy pie from Bang Bang Pie Co., there was a dazzling array of foodstuffs on offer, along with holiday gifts to choose from. And Sperling says the next Fete, in the spring, will expand into the same building’s second floor, where food photographer Stephen Hamilton (Who’s Hungry? magazine) has his studio with two complete kitchens— so there will be more in the way of pop-up dining next time. But perhaps the coolest thing was a bus out front— the Fresh Moves bus, which basically packs an entire farmer’s market into a standard CTA bus to serve food deserts. Part of the proceeds from last night’s event went to benefit Fresh Moves; see what was on offer last night, and which of your favorite chefs were there, in our slideshow below.

The Fresh Moves bus. Vegetables, please move to the back so tubers can get on.
Cosmo Goss of Publican Quality Meats explains how to cook a package of PQM sausages.
Carriage House hot sauces. The most interesting one was the green one, in which the sweetness comes from honeydew melons.
Chef Marl Steuer of Carriage House.
Author Anupy Singla, author of the bestselling Vegan Indian Cooking and The Indian Slow Cooker, with her line of Indian spices.
Bang Bang Pie Shop’s David Miller puts the finishing touch on a sweet potato pie with vanilla marshmallow on top.
Bang Bang’s chocolate pie with peppermint candies.
Cleetus Friedman of City Provisions greets Bill Kim.
Illinois Sparkling Wine Co. pours the bubbly.
Jared Van Camp of Old Town Social/Nellcote with his meat cone— a sampler of four different in-house cured meats.
Slicing the salume.
Rodrick Markus of Rare Tea Cellar saw what you just did.
City Lit Books.
Peter Klein (Seedling), Fete Chicago’s Heather Sperling, and Hot Chocolate’s Mindy Segal— oh wait, make that Hot Chocolate’s James Beard Award-winning Mindy Segal.
Tunes.
Slideshow: Check Out the Inaugural Fete Chicago