You Must Be Special If People Eat in the Rain for You

Updated: Jun 5

If Sebastian White cooks it, they will come

Photo by Bob Benenson

June 1 seemed like a perfectly logical date for Chef Sebastian White to schedule an outdoor fundraising event for The Evolved Network, his innovative non-profit that helps underprivileged Chicago youths gain food knowledge and cooking skills. By this time of year, we usually have taken the turn toward summer, with excessive heat and maybe a stray thunderstorm the biggest risks.

But there was no such luck Saturday when a chilly, long-duration rain system turned Sebastian's Backyard Bash at Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits into a backyard bath.

Photo by Bob Benenson

But here's the silver lining. You have to mean a lot to people for them to sit outside in miserable weather to celebrate your work and eat the food you've prepared. Sebastian White is obviously one of those people.

Sebastian is a clinical psychologist who was working to persuade kids in Waukegan to stay out of gangs when he launched The Evolved Network in 2020. He teaches students about farm-to-table food in several Chicago schools, funded by a series of fundraising dinners that he prepares with leading chefs.

This is just a prelude to Sebastian's visionary plan to create a restaurant and urban food garden where youths from under-resourced communities will obtain culinary and business skills, plus therapeutic resources for those who need them. The Evolved Network took a big step toward that goal recently when it was accepted (with three other non-profits) into a $1 million pool of grant money provided by The NBA Foundation and Chicago Beyond.

Photo by Bob Benenson

So Sebastian's friends and supporters filled up the backyard patio, with those big umbrellas and a tent providing protection from the elements, and they were rewarded with a delicious meal prepared by Sebastian and Michael Ciapciak, chef-owner of Bang Bang Pie and Biscuits, who is plating the dinner with Sebastian in the top photo.

Photo by Bob Benenson

Appetizers included Bang Bang's Alabama fire crackers with pimento cheese and pickles, and grilled peach and burrata bruschetta on Publican Quality Bread.

Photo by Bob Benenson

Though the dinner was intended to be a buffet, everyone was happy to agree to a plated meal under the circumstances. And such a plate... grilled chicken in Evolved two-day brine, gochujang and pomegranate glazed spare rib, broccolini with anchovy and grilled lemon vinaigrette, and grilled jerk potato salad with celery, fresno chili, scallion and habanero. Mini-biscuits with mustard green butter were served on the side

I'd had a very long and wet day, so I passed on dessert, but for the record, it was season fruit crisp and key lime ice cream pie bars.

Congratulations to Sebastian for another successful Evolved event and Michael for the hospitality, in spite of the weather.

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Farmers Market Travels with Ed Kugler

My friend Ed Kugler is the longtime manager of Ravinia Farmers Market in the north Chicago suburb of Highland Park. The market has its 2024 grand opening this Wednesday (June 5), 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Jens Jensen Park, and if you'd like to take a field trip, it's located a block from the Ravinia Metra station.

And, in his spare time, Ed visits other farmers markets. So I'm kicking off a series called Market Travels with Ed with photos of his Saturday visit to Brookfield Farmers Market in the western suburb of the same name (best known as home to Chicago Zoo Brookfield).

Enjoy these photos and watch this space for more, as Ed visited to other markets on Saturday.