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Tuesday, February 11, 2025Chicago's best pizza award for Spacca Napoli came as owner faced cancer
Chicago Sun Times / by Courtney Kueppers | WBEZ / February 7, 2025 Spacca Napoli in Ravenswood has won plenty of honors. But last month’s Jean Banchet Award for “Chicago’s Best Pizza” came at the exact right moment for restaurateur Jonathan Goldsmith. Last July, doctors discovered cancer in his stomach. It was a cosmic gut punch for a man who has spent two decades sending customers out the door with delightfully stuffed bellies. Three days after the Banchets, he underwent surgery to remove a tumor, which
Tuesday, January 28, 2025The 2025 Winners of the Jean Banchets, Chicago's Local Food Awards
WTTW - Playlist / by Daniel Hautzinger / January 26, 2025 The Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence honor Chicago’s food and beverage industry, but if you take all the ceremony presenters and winners at their word, the awards may as well honor the best in the country. Chicago and its food scene were spoken of only in superlatives. In a ceremony that featured cameos from various icons, from the “tamale guy” Claudio Velez to Kasama’s Genie Kwon and Tim Flores to “breakfast queen” Ina Pinkney, chef
Thursday, October 31, 2024The 2025 Finalists for Chicago's Local Food Awards, the Jean Banchets
WTTW / by Daniel Hautzinger / October 28, 2024 Even as the restaurant business continues to grapple with challenges augmented by changes since the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago remains a city with an outstanding dining scene. The local Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence, named after the Le Francais chef who helped put the Chicago area on the culinary map, recognize the talent on display here from counter-service and pizza joints to fine dining shrines of gastronomy. The finalists for the 2025
Wednesday, July 03, 2024These Chicago pizza restaurants were just named best in the U.S.
TimeOut / by Anna Rahmanan / June 26, 2024 Chicagoans love their local pizza shops and, as it turns out, so should everyone else in the country—seven Chicago spots were just named best in the U.S. by 50 Top Pizza, an online guide focusing on the top Italian pizzerias across the globe. Although New York City was the most represented town in the guide, which also includes a slew of other awards like pizza maker of the year and new entry of the year, Chicago came in second with seven mentions, including
