Chicago Gourmet Pivots as Pandemic and Black Lives Matter Protests Continue | Eater Chicago

"For its 13th year I observed that Chicago Gourmet shifted to a mostly virtual format and substantially reworked its usual $200-a-day weekend: ticketing now ranges from $50 to $175 for the dinner series, $20 to watch a virtual demo, and meal kits cost $210. Organizers replaced the traditional Hamburger Hop with a “Can’t Stop the Hop” featuring 100 local restaurants offering the chosen burger on their own turf, and scheduled multi-course dinners at 10 restaurants from September 14 to 30. I noted organizers framed the change as a way to support the industry rather than canceling — Illinois Restaurant Association CEO Sam Toia said the team “never used the word ‘cancel’” — and emphasized fundraising for the new IRAEF Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, which will provide one-time $500 grants to eligible restaurant workers. The festival also made outreach efforts to include more BIPOC chefs (including open calls and research using lists like Black People Eats), though I observed that under 10 percent of Hop restaurants are BIPOC-owned and only 4 percent are Black-owned." - Naomi Waxman