Steve Dolinsky
Doesn’t everybody love Pizza?
Well, even if you don’t, you might want to tune into our program when award-wining food reporter Steve Dolinsky delivers a luscious serving of pizza history. Here’s what’s on Steve’s menu:
- The three waves of pizza in Chicago – Post WWII, 1970s and then the pandemic.
- How oven technology helped shape the types of pizza that were made in Chicago.
- How one cook changed the shape (and height) of deep-dish, based on a Mississippi biscuit recipe.
- The 10 distinctive styles of pizza in Chicago, and also how the most popular style (at least among locals) tends to be thin, tavern style rather than deep-dish.
Biography:
Steve Dolinsky has won 13 James Beard Awards for his TV, radio and podcast work.
He is currently the Food Reporter at NBC 5 (Chicago), where his “Food Guy” reports air every Thursday night at 10 p.m. As the Food Reporter for ABC 7 (Chicago) for 17 years, his “Hungry Hound” reports covered a range of food and drink-related topics. Not only did he produce and report two stories each week, he also shot and edited them (and continues to do so at NBC 5).
Steve is also the Producer and Host of “Pizza City” – a bi-monthly podcast featuring some of the greatest pizza makers in the nation, and was previously Co-Creator and Co-Host of The Feed Podcast with Chef Rick Bayless (which garnered a Beard award in 2015 for best podcast), a weekly show that ran from 2014 to 2019. He has also written food and travel stories for the Travel sections of the Chicago Tribune and Canada’s Globe and Mail, and was a frequent contributor to Public Radio International’s “The World.”
Steve is the author of “Pizza City, U.S.A.: 101 Reasons Why Chicago is America’s Greatest Pizza Town” (Northwestern University Press). In order to write the book, he visited 185 places in Chicagoland over the course of six solid months of eating. His “Pizza City U.S.A. Tours” began in May of 2018. Steve curates four tours throughout the city, each one giving guests a chance to sample four styles of pizza in three hours. There is one bus tour (usually led by Steve) and three walking tours every weekend. More info at pizzacityusa.com. His second book, “The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide: A History of Squares & Slices in the Windy City” is due out in the fall of 2021.
On the consulting side, Steve started Culinary Communications, a food industry- focused media training company that works with chefs and other food and beverage professionals outside of Chicago, teaching them how to prepare for and handle all kinds of media exposure. He also works with real estate companies to curate spaces involving food and drink clients, organizes and leads virtual pizza and/or cocktail experiences for companies and works with individual clients to curate unique culinary experiences.
Since 2009, Steve has been one of 26 Academy Chairs for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, recruiting and overseeing 40 voters in the Mid-USA/Canada region. He has spoken and/or moderated at several industry events, including the James Beard Awards, the Food & Wine Magazine Classic in Aspen and the New York City Wine and Food Festival.
Steve volunteers his time for charitable organizations in the Chicago area that focus on hunger relief, including Share Our Strength and Meals on Wheels.
Before joining ABC 7, Steve was Executive Producer and Host of “Good Eating.” The weekly, half-hour show aired on CLTV, the 24-hour cable news channel owned by The Tribune Company. He produced and hosted 52 shows per year for 8 years, garnering six Beard Awards for his work there.
You can follow his eating adventures on Twitter and Instagram @stevedolinsky, as well as his website: stevedolinsky.com
Wednesday December 8, 2021
7:00 pm Central Time
Via ZOOM
If you are not already on our email list, then to receive zoom link, please e-mail: Culinary.Historians@gmail.com