Prairie Grass Cafe is hosting a special dinner featuring guest chefs and recipes from the new The Green City Market Cookbook, 6 p.m., Sunday, July 20, coinciding with the official cookbook launch. The cost for the Prairie Grass Cafe dinner is $65 plus tax and gratuity. Cookbooks will be available to purchase separately for $24.95 and all cookbook proceeds will go to Green City Market.
The delicious evening will feature many of the volunteers who have helped to make The Green City Market Cookbook possible.
Chef Sarah Stegner and George Bumbaris, co-owners of Prairie Grass Cafe, will orchestrate the dinner. Stegner is Green City Market’s co-chair and a founding board member.
Joining Sarah and George are Sarah’s longtime friends chef/farmers Tracey Vowell and Kathe Roybal of Three Sisters Garden, whose cookbook recipe takes center stage at the dinner; Karen Levin, cookbook author; Amelia Levin, author/journalist, and Kathy Paddor, marketing consultant who oversaw the cookbook’s photography. The Chicago Tribune’s former food editor and longtime market enthusiast Carol Mighton Haddix’s cherry tart dessert recipe will provide the sweet finale of the evening.
Celebrating its 16th season, Green City Market (GCM) has become an institution and foodie haven since its inception in 1998.
Karen Levin, cookbook author and award winning recipe developer and food consultant, volunteered to develop the cookbook with daughter Amelia, also an author and journalist. They were responsible for gleaning88 recipes sent into the GCM website or given to her from the market’s farmers, chefs, customers and volunteers.
They reviewed the recipes, shopped at the Market weekly and tested 80 of the88 recipes. A team of volunteers tested the remaining8 recipes, as well as, proofed and edited the manuscript and final galleys.
The mission of the cookbook was to inspire readers to cook delicious seasonal food from local farmers markets and to share home cooked meals with family and friends. The culinary talent of the Green City community is what makes this book so unique. It’s like a giant recipe swap where professional chefs, customers, and farmers exchange their favorite things to cook with the best ingredients from each season.
The Green City Market Cookbook features 88 seasonal recipes based on ingredients from the Market; appetizers, entrees, soups and desserts for each season, and more than 100 delicious photos of the completed dishes and their key ingredient. Each recipe features a short story submitted by the recipe’s author about why the recipe is special to them.
Sixty percent of the recipes are focused on fruits and vegetables; 40% use meat, fish and eggs.
The Green City Market Cookbook is truly local. The publisher is Evanston-based Agate Publishing, publishers of books from local and regional authors. Chicago top food photographer Chris Cassidy Photography donated his time to bring The Green City Market Cookbook to life.
The cookbook, which sells for $24.95, is scheduled for release this July, can be pre-ordered at https://www.greencitymarket.
The July 20 meal will feature recipes from The Green City Market Cookbook summer section.
posted by: Eric Fujimori
6/24/14
