Sampling Lollapalooza Cuisine with Graham Elliot Bowles

What a bizarre approach, to vaguely diss 4/5ths of the food you got [I'm guessing] an exclusive on. It would have been much cooler for me and other fans that have tickets excited about Lolla if you played this up as a positive, exciting development and maybe something that other music festivals and events could learn from, but you're hating right out of the gate! It's so crappy that you didn't go more positive with this piece. Honestly, it reads like some snotty nosed fauxhemian's yelp review. It's not funny or insightful, and is far more about you trying to look cool than sharing anything of value with me. BOO.

What a toolbox you are Cassie...I couldn't agree with Kity more...and who made you a food critic anyways? Do you think professionals are going to have things like shrimp cocktail on a huge platter out in the sun?...or is it possible they may actually have the coolers/ice/refidgeration neccessary to deliver cool fresh product? How about taking a little prode in a city who manages to put on one of the best music festivals in the country yearly? Such a downer...get a life!

Wow, you really sound like a snob and someone trying way to hard to being a "critic". I give your article a 1/5 - Great topic but do we really need your off base opinions ? nah.

Being snarky can be fun at Taste of Chicago, where mundanity runs amok at a pointless carnival. But the author's flippant, dismissive commentary regarding a unique effort that matches edgy, experimental, fun CUISINE with Lollapalooza's edgy, experimental, fun music misses the point altogether. WTF, Chicago Magazine?

WTF are you people talking about? Are we reading the same post? I don't think it's 'flippant' or 'dismissive'. This article is being pretty nice to GEB and the whole idea of fancy food at Lolla, which is ridiculous to start with. Read the story again, people.

As an invited guest last evening, nothing on invite stated that this was a press event. GEB closed his restaurant to host this party. Chicago Mag deciding to review the food is simply GHETTO. I
Thanks again to GEB and the other Chefs who participated and served us some great food. For the record- while I share the same first name with Graham , I am not related to him or affiliated with the restaurant.

Sounds to me like some chefs and PR people don't take well to criticism. How dare you not like my food!

Maybe I missed something here, but this article did not seem snarky at all.

So, I'll admit I clicked through because I am a fan of graham elliot, and I am excited for the food at lolla. So maybe I'm particularly sensitive...that said, 'Lolla will be like Taste of Chicago—but with good food!' is already obonxious/irreverent, and it's bold at the top of the page- so anyone saying it's not snarky...that's where I am coming from. I just don't think it makes sense to open up by ripping on the food at the taste, and then 2 paragraphs later rating 3 of the implicitly 'better' dishes a 2 [basically, nearly inedible?] for "festival friendliness—i.e. Will it fall apart? Is it food you will crave when standing under the blazing sun, surrounded by a sweating, chanting crowd?". So, you just hate eating anything in a crowd?
Like I said in my first comment, I'm only bummed because I got the wind taken out of my sails- I love good food and was excited that I would get a cool musical experience and some awesome grub at the same time, and instead of supporting and heralding this as a cool thing for Chicago and for Lolla fans like me, you decided to rip on it. I'm not above hot dogs or ice cream, but I'm sure it's huge effort, risk of damage to their own brands, and $$loss that these chefs are looking at in order to participate in bringing more creative and labor intensive food in, and I think that food looks delicious!--- I'm just hoping these places don't drop out now :(
/sad/rantover.

There is a fine line between restaurant critic and food reviewer. There are also things in both of those jobs that you just "don't do", and one of them is to bash your host's food and to make folks who have bought tickets to a special food event feel foolish for buying tickets. It's not good PR for the restaurant or good PR for the special event. While the actual written word of the article was ok, to bash your host was not cool at all. Apparently this writer has not looked at other "reviews" that her publication has written before.

Bottom line is this, Graham, let the haters hate, ticket holders, take what was said with a grain of salt. You've got tickets to a hot event, go enjoy yourself, enjoy your food and thank your chefs via email or in person,I'm sure they would appreciate it.

It is great that these chefs want to broaden the lolla experience-- Food as a performance art = great, love it! Sounds to me that the food choices miss the mark a little is all. I’m not sure I will be rushing to eat shrimp cocktail at an outdoor fest…and also I don’t want my sandwich bun to fall apart on a hot day in the sun either-- I think that these are all valid assessments, not sure it's a bashing and I don't feel that makes anyone a "hater"-- settle down foodies!

Wow. I am so surprised by the comments here! This article doesn't seem snarky at all to me ... And I haven't tasted the food, but it seems to me like the writer is just giving an honest assessment---and isn't that what's she's supposed to do? This more gourmet fare sounds like a nice idea, but I agree that some of this food doesn't seem very fest-friendly ...

Am I missing something? I read the tweets, read the article, see mostly good reviews of the food with less good comments about fest-friendliness. After reading this, I thought "cool, I'm gonna get some good grub at Lolla, though some might be a bit messy." So ... how is this hating? And what's this about PR? If you invite a media person to an event, aren't you hoping that they'll write something? Chicago Magazine does serious dining reviews. If someone expected all w00t w00t w00t, c'mon.

Thanks for the spirited commenting, everyone. We just want to clarify a couple points for the record. Cassie Walker was invited to this event through a PR firm; and it was a media event, not an "exclusive" private preview (there were other reporters there). Cassie identified herself to Graham Elliot Bowles as a journalist and let him know before she interviewed him that she was reporting on the event for a blog post.

this article is a turd

You don't want a chilled shrimp cocktail outdoors in the sun? Wow... I've been to beaches in Mexico and the Caribbean and nothing is more refreshing than a shrimp cocktail on a ripping hot beach. You can't eat a burger outdoors, standing up in the sun? Seems like you've never been to a picnic... or been tailging in soldier field. I think the writer is having an identity crisis. I could understand ripping the food if you had to eat it with your hands sitting down in a restaurant. Outdoors? If you expect to be at Lolla and not be sweaty and sticky than i think you have a surprise coming. Lame review on little free passed canopes.

When toiling in the restaurant trenches, nothing is more abhorrent, more boring, more flaccid, than programmed cynicism. Wait! No – you know what? There’s something deeper, more repugnant; a quality so malignant that people literally waste years of their precious lives in its delusive grasp: Self-Importance. If we were to fuse these shining traits in an unholy marriage not unlike Frankenstein or Will Smith’s Wild Wild West – we’d only begin to scratch the surface of the article in question.

Who cares if we’ve tweaked the food offerings at Lollapalooza (whose home lies in Chicago), with an amazing lineup of Chefs that represents…wait for it...Chicago? And seriously, why worry about the tens-of-thousands of dollars these independent restaurateurs are putting on the line by trying to make a music festival even better by serving inspired food? Pretty blasé when compared to the collective inhale of the entire city, holding its breath for a "writer" to critique/rate sampling portions of the food that will be offered.

Aside from meddling with the parasitic formula that affords her a job in the first place – Cassie Walker has donned the garb of a fourth-rate Joan Rivers covering the Daytime Emmy’s. What was supposed to be a fun gathering of Chefs, foodies, bloggers, writers and musicians celebrating the fact that our town now sports the best food offerings of any music fest in the country, sadly turned into a opportunity for a catty, reckless blog post fueled by a sick self-importance for insidious and prosaic journalism.

A rare occurrence from Chicago Mag that we've seen a point of view that isn't shamelessly fawning over the celebrity chefs. Just because these guys are masters of their own restaurant kitchens doesn't imply automatic success in the corn-dog-eat-corn-dog world of outdoor catering.

Woah - who knew grown men could be so sensitive! And to a relatively positive blog post. Hmmmm... wonder if any of this brouhaha is a ploy for media attention for the show GEB is going to be on coming up. Dry your crocodile tears GEB and find something better to do with your time than writing several paragraph insults that, frankly, don't make any sense. And to the person who called her a "toolbox": "toolbox"-- really??

Wowzers GEB has his minions out in full force! I read the article and would also be quite familiar with Cassie's writing. What is all the fuss about? Someone is posing to front a punk attitude and I for one see right through it.

Chill-