Geneva mom to represent suburbs at World Food Championships in Las Vegas
Don't call her a contester just yet. That's what her mom is, claims Ann Jones, a mom herself residing in Geneva.
Jones heads to Las Vegas this weekend to compete with a couple of hundred other enthusiastic home cooks and professional chefs in the massive World Food Champsionsips. The multiday food sport event runs Nov. 12-18 and will showcase more than 400 competitors. The contest, in its third year, names a winner in each of 10 categories as well as a Best of Show.
In September, she recalls, she entered a pasta recipe — Pumpkin-Ricotta Filled Ziti with Sage Brown Butter — on a whim through the Kenmore's cookmore online cooking community.
“I come from a family of home cooks. This is my hobby; I do it with my mom,” Jones says. “If it wasn't fun, I wouldn't do it.”
Her mother has entered dozens of cooking contests over the years and also is competing in the pasta category at the World Food Championships.
Other cooks and chefs representing Illinois at the competition are: Lance Avery (Chicago), Bacon World Championship; Julie Beckwith (Crete), World Recipe Championship; Wade Fortin (Chicago), World Burger Championship; Josh Gutzwiller (Chicago), Bacon World Championship, Vita Jarrin (Oswego), World Pasta Championship; Sean Keane (Chicago), Bacon World Championship, Matthew Obuchowski (Chicago), Bacon World Championship; Hipolito Sanchez (Chicago), Bacon World Championship; Ronald Thompson (Joliet), World Burger Championship and Lee Ann Whippen (Chicago), World Barbecue Championship.
Best of luck to all of them.
A helping hand: Sometimes it's hard to admit you need help. I've been there. I get it.
I want to be the one to cook dinner for my family. I like being the one to put a hot meal on the table. But then life gets in the way … parents go in for surgery, kids need to get to and from sports and work obligations pile up. Now it's Wednesday and the pork chops and chutney ingredients I bought for Monday's dinner are still sitting in the fridge because there's been no time to prep and pull it together.
Meez Meals in Chicago is among the growing number of meal kit delivery companies popping up to help you out. Generally ordered on a weekly basis for as many or as few meals as you need, meal kit companies deliver washed, prepped, pre-measured ingredients to your door. Some companies, like Meez Meals, tout local chefs and their restaurant-worthy menus, while others focus on families with young kids, locally grown ingredients or those with dietary restrictions. Local companies generally deal with fresh meat and produce while national services might ship some frozen products. Costs vary widely; services I researched started at around $7 a serving.
Technomic, a Chicago-based food industry consulting firm, predicts meal kit services could become a $3 to $5 billion segment of the food industry during the next 10 years.
With the hassle of shopping and prep out of the way, all you have to do is heat up a skillet, maybe boil some water, open some bags, follow the recipe and dinner's on the table — often in 30 minutes or less.
Earlier this year when my mother went in for surgery and I knew I'd be tending to her for a few days, it was nice to know that a few Meez Meals kits were in the fridge. One less thing to stress about.
With the holidays approaching, I can see these services being especially useful. Have guests dropping by Saturday but a swim meet will tie you up most of the day? Meal kit to the rescue.
Consider an early holiday present to yourself, and your family.
Market movement: The leaves have fallen and the temperatures are dropping, but that doesn't mean your access to locally grown, farm fresh produce is done for the season. It just means farmers markets have found warmer homes.
In St. Charles, for example, the town's Friday farmers market heads to Baker Hall inside Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave. The market will be open 9 a.m. to noon Friday from November through May. In Palatine, farmers and food artisans set up inside the train station at Wood and Smith streets. The market is open 8 a.m. to noon the third Saturday in November, December, January, February and March.
In addition, Faith in Place sponsors indoor markets on winter weekends at churches and temples around the suburbs and Chicago. Calvary Episcopal Church, 105 W. Maple St., Lombard, hosts the first winter market 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9. The hours and day vary by location, so check the schedule online at faithinplace.org.
Chicago's Green City Market moves into the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, 2430 N. Cannon Drive, Chicago. Market hours are 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. one or two Saturdays a month between November and mid-April. Head to greencitymarket.org for the schedule.
• Contact Food Editor Deborah Pankey at dpankey@dailyherald.com or (847) 427-4524. Be her friend at Facebook.com/DebPankey.DailyHerald or follow her on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter @PankeysPlate.