In this episode of Car Con Carne, James VanOsdol welcomes James Beard Award-winning food writer Mike Gebert to discuss his ambitious new book, The Chicago Way: An Oral History of Chicago Dining.
The conversation explores the evolution of Chicago’s culinary identity, from the high-stakes “Mad Men” era of the 1960s to the modern, diverse food scene of 2026.
Key Highlights:
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The Evolution of Chicago Dining: Gebert explains how he tracked the city’s change through its restaurants, starting with the formal, male-dominated French dining scene and moving through the neighborhoods that restaurants helped put on the map.
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Legendary Personalities: The episode dives into the “outsized personalities” of Chicago’s most famous chefs, including:
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Charlie Trotter: Discussion of his complicated legacy, intense kitchen culture, and the “PTSD” some former staff still carry.
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Louis Szathmary: The story of Chicago’s first celebrity chef at The Bakery and his surprising connection to Stouffer’s spinach souffle.
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Rick Bayless and Tony Mantuano: How they acted as the “anti-Trotters” by fostering reasonable workplaces and focusing on local produce and peasant cuisines.
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Neighborhood Transformations: Gebert and James discuss how dining pioneered areas like River North (thanks to Gordon Sinclair and developer Al Friedman) and the ongoing gentrification patterns in neighborhoods like Rogers Park and Bronzeville.
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The “Chicago Way” of Dining: Mike defines the city’s unique dining spirit as a blend of high-end artistry and blue-collar work ethic—where even at the finest restaurants, the goal is for the experience to be unpretentious and, above all, fun.
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