Good Food Festival hits Chicago

Local farming and fresh, organic ingredients have been buzzworthy for a few years now, and there’s no time like the present to learn about the nitty gritty: cheesemaking, making preserves, finding a good CSA or just watching Rick Bayless cook. [I’m voting for the latter.]

The Good Food Festival & Conference is coming to Chicago this Thursday through Saturday [March 14-16] with over 150 local farms, “food artisans,” restaurants and more. But that’s just the expo hall. Frontera Grill’s Rick Bayless is doing a “Chefs at Play” at 10:30am on Saturday, followed by Naha’s Carrie Nahabedian, and Paul Virant of Vie and Perennial Virant. Then, a kimchi challenge with top local chefs including Virant.

If you’re up for a farm tour, or workshops on cheese and sausage making, as well as an array of urban gardening schedules.

Kicking off the festivities is Friday night’s Localicious with, of course, food and drinks from some amazing restaurants like Allium, Saigon Sisters and Revolution Brewing, plus some bluegrass. The rest of the fest is kid-friendly, though, and kids are free

Though you can buy tickets online for a discount, the Chicago Reader has a deal for two tickets for $10 for Saturday.