An exploration of whether Chicago’s food media is lazy, underfunded, corrupt, decimated, racist, or all of the above, through the prism of a seriously overlooked restaurant
To me it seems the ethnicity of the chef has a lot less to do with being noticed, especially in Chicago. Maybe in bumfuck nowhere Ohio minorities are being passed over because of their race, but not here.
How does that explain Norman at brass heart? The only time the media wrote about him at brassheart was when it closed. At the same time norm was putting out some of the best and most unique food in Chicago, Soúle was paraded on every hit/hot list. From an outsider that would make it seem frozen catfish and canned green beans are more interesting than the cuisine at Brassheart post Kearney.
But that’s not the case, the issues as I see it are alliumistic in nature-lots of layers. The biggest problem that’s making Chicago journalism a joke is the amount of PR companies that will tell any lie to get their clients and the restaurants on a list. I’d imagine it’s like drinking from a fire hydrant opening your emails as a food journalist in Chicago. PR companies bombard journalists with bullshit inflated stories that sell well. And some journalists eat that shit up. These PR companies are vultures, that trade favors fit press. They run $3k-$5k per month, that’s more than 2x my rent on the low end. I know personally I would rather burn half and give the other half to farmers than pay a clown with the gift for gab.
Eater loves publishing anything despite facts as long as it fits into their model of a good story. If it’s a couple, or someone who learned the food from a distant relative, or a model minority then You can believe it’s getting written about and paraded like some lazy bullshit slack-tavist trying to right what has been historically wrong with this industry (which of there’s a lot).
But if there’s a minority chef/owner cooking outside of their ethnicity they get ignored, without a PR team brown nosing the media. I don’t think that if chef Hunter cooked food more like soule or virtue he would’ve been recognized, it’s entirely because they didn’t spend the money to have a liar spew bullshit for them.
Like how Norman was ignored so was the original owner of flour power. No one knew that the owner was a Latina under the age of 30. Checks all the boxes if you ask me. Despite that she was largely ignored by media , assuming because
1. I-cliche white male chef- also ran the place, but wasn’t owner.
2. She wasn’t running a restaurant that served Latin American or Colombian food-not a model minority
3. There’s was no pr team parading her around as a social justice token.
This whole comment is a cautionary tale of when Reddit Brain leaks out into the wider internet. I can't look at the entire history of Chicago and draw the "okay, NOW things are absolutely equitable and fair for every community line." But I guess props for not actually using the term "virtue signaling" once. But have been itchy not to.
I can't agree with calling PR spend more of a factor when the entire premise of this post (and let's face it, reality in the city) is that food media has been absolutely decimated as a model. PR is an easy catch-all boogeyman.
But jeez, props on the most caustic, cynical, and entirely unhelpful take on the matter. It must be nice to be so satisfied that you're right.
Oh hey it’s you again. Not sure why you keep misinterpreting what I’m saying and trying to put words in my mouth but it’s tiresome.
Your reply rings exact with Michael’s last paragraph, I voiced my opinion but you feel it necessary to skew it into something it’s not.
This article was about how Chicago food media sucks, one of the reasons possibly being is due to racism. I think that’s mostly incorrect and it’s entirely PR overloading writers and incentivizing content created for their clients. This is why people like Chef Hunter, and Norman been overlooked (Which won’t happen next time around cause he hired the best restaurant PR in the city). When there’s no marketing and your inbox is flooded from a dozen PR press packets it’s easy to just copy and paste into a list and get on to the next story. I brought up several examples as to why I thought that was true. I never said Chicago food media hasn’t been racist in the past, and that everything is fine now. If anything the majority have made an extra effort to maybe level the playing field of the restaurant industry. While it may not be equal, for now it seems equitable.
I don’t know you, but I’m sorry if I wronged you in the past. You come at me for no reason or with a good counter point to change my perspective-which in this matter I think I’m pretty qualified to speak on. If I yelled at you or kicked you out during a stage, I’m sorry. And feel free to reach out to help heal anything I did in the past, your nasty rebuttals to my opinions make me think I hurt you. If you’re just coming at me because my opinion doesn’t align with yours and you don’t want to help to change my perspective then kindly piss off with that clown shit. Your offering no insight and are just antagonizing like a petulant child.
I don’t think the screeching kettle gets to call the pot “petulant.” I think you should, at some point, take your own advice and work as a copywriter for free until you can make a point worth a shit.
Yep, you’re just too smart and brought up too many good points. I really appreciate your advice about interning as a copywriter too better myself. If only cooks/chefs could do that.
To me it seems the ethnicity of the chef has a lot less to do with being noticed, especially in Chicago. Maybe in bumfuck nowhere Ohio minorities are being passed over because of their race, but not here.
How does that explain Norman at brass heart? The only time the media wrote about him at brassheart was when it closed. At the same time norm was putting out some of the best and most unique food in Chicago, Soúle was paraded on every hit/hot list. From an outsider that would make it seem frozen catfish and canned green beans are more interesting than the cuisine at Brassheart post Kearney.
But that’s not the case, the issues as I see it are alliumistic in nature-lots of layers. The biggest problem that’s making Chicago journalism a joke is the amount of PR companies that will tell any lie to get their clients and the restaurants on a list. I’d imagine it’s like drinking from a fire hydrant opening your emails as a food journalist in Chicago. PR companies bombard journalists with bullshit inflated stories that sell well. And some journalists eat that shit up. These PR companies are vultures, that trade favors fit press. They run $3k-$5k per month, that’s more than 2x my rent on the low end. I know personally I would rather burn half and give the other half to farmers than pay a clown with the gift for gab.
Eater loves publishing anything despite facts as long as it fits into their model of a good story. If it’s a couple, or someone who learned the food from a distant relative, or a model minority then You can believe it’s getting written about and paraded like some lazy bullshit slack-tavist trying to right what has been historically wrong with this industry (which of there’s a lot).
But if there’s a minority chef/owner cooking outside of their ethnicity they get ignored, without a PR team brown nosing the media. I don’t think that if chef Hunter cooked food more like soule or virtue he would’ve been recognized, it’s entirely because they didn’t spend the money to have a liar spew bullshit for them.
Like how Norman was ignored so was the original owner of flour power. No one knew that the owner was a Latina under the age of 30. Checks all the boxes if you ask me. Despite that she was largely ignored by media , assuming because
1. I-cliche white male chef- also ran the place, but wasn’t owner.
2. She wasn’t running a restaurant that served Latin American or Colombian food-not a model minority
3. There’s was no pr team parading her around as a social justice token.
This whole comment is a cautionary tale of when Reddit Brain leaks out into the wider internet. I can't look at the entire history of Chicago and draw the "okay, NOW things are absolutely equitable and fair for every community line." But I guess props for not actually using the term "virtue signaling" once. But have been itchy not to.
I can't agree with calling PR spend more of a factor when the entire premise of this post (and let's face it, reality in the city) is that food media has been absolutely decimated as a model. PR is an easy catch-all boogeyman.
But jeez, props on the most caustic, cynical, and entirely unhelpful take on the matter. It must be nice to be so satisfied that you're right.
Oh hey it’s you again. Not sure why you keep misinterpreting what I’m saying and trying to put words in my mouth but it’s tiresome.
Your reply rings exact with Michael’s last paragraph, I voiced my opinion but you feel it necessary to skew it into something it’s not.
This article was about how Chicago food media sucks, one of the reasons possibly being is due to racism. I think that’s mostly incorrect and it’s entirely PR overloading writers and incentivizing content created for their clients. This is why people like Chef Hunter, and Norman been overlooked (Which won’t happen next time around cause he hired the best restaurant PR in the city). When there’s no marketing and your inbox is flooded from a dozen PR press packets it’s easy to just copy and paste into a list and get on to the next story. I brought up several examples as to why I thought that was true. I never said Chicago food media hasn’t been racist in the past, and that everything is fine now. If anything the majority have made an extra effort to maybe level the playing field of the restaurant industry. While it may not be equal, for now it seems equitable.
I don’t know you, but I’m sorry if I wronged you in the past. You come at me for no reason or with a good counter point to change my perspective-which in this matter I think I’m pretty qualified to speak on. If I yelled at you or kicked you out during a stage, I’m sorry. And feel free to reach out to help heal anything I did in the past, your nasty rebuttals to my opinions make me think I hurt you. If you’re just coming at me because my opinion doesn’t align with yours and you don’t want to help to change my perspective then kindly piss off with that clown shit. Your offering no insight and are just antagonizing like a petulant child.
I don’t think the screeching kettle gets to call the pot “petulant.” I think you should, at some point, take your own advice and work as a copywriter for free until you can make a point worth a shit.
Ok, sorry I triggered you.
Haha knew it
Yep, you’re just too smart and brought up too many good points. I really appreciate your advice about interning as a copywriter too better myself. If only cooks/chefs could do that.
Great piece, sir.
Thank you dude.