Chicago Is a City Divided by Barbecue

Chicago has more regional fare to offer than char dogs and Italian beef sandwiches. On Chicago’s South Side, hot links and smoked rib tips define its barbecue. Too bad so few people on the North Side know about it.

Author: Kevin Pang
Source: Saveur
Published: Feb 8, 2018
Length: 12 minutes (3,078 words)

His Saving Grace

Cooking saved chef Curtis Duffy from a turbulent childhood, but it also exacted a price.

Author: Kevin Pang
Source: Chicago Tribune
Published: Feb 14, 2013
Length: 28 minutes (7,200 words)

A Chef’s Painful Road to Rehab

A week earlier, Brandon Baltzley, 26, was the head chef at Tribute, an ambitious, 170-seat restaurant set to open in the Essex Inn in the South Loop. He spent months developing his menu, crafting a document to tell the world: This is who I am. Instead, on this morning in late May, he will check himself into a drug rehabilitation program on the West Side. The night before, he paid $100 he owed his dealer. He gave his apartment keys to a friend with instructions on locating his cocaine paraphernalia. Throw it all away, he told him.

Author: Kevin Pang
Source: Chicago Tribune
Published: Jun 6, 2011
Length: 8 minutes (2,085 words)

Pastry Chef Natalie Zarzour Doesn’t Tolerate People Who Cheapen Her Craft

To understand why customers disappeared, why she entered a self-described period of rage, why the cannoli now costs $9, why the Zarzours will close the shop when their lease runs out in September and how Natalie Zarzour became Chicago’s most provocative pastry chef in a profession with little provocation, just ask her about the “Lobster Tail.”

Author: Kevin Pang
Source: Chicago Tribune
Published: Dec 21, 2010
Length: 6 minutes (1,576 words)