What You See Is What You Eat

Chicago Food Film Festival

In a culinary mecca like Chicago, it’s really no surprise that an eating event is going to be rather successful – and so it is with the one-of-a-kind Food Film Festival, which began in sister dining destination NYC six years ago, and now takes its turn on the Chicago stage for the second year in a row from November 15 to 17.

A self-described ‘cinematic scratch n’ sniff’, the festival ethos is deliciously straightforward: guests watch short films, and then sample the food they’ve just seen onscreen. The 17-film lineup which features shorts like Scott Pitts’ ‘The Benevolent Butcher: Bacon’ and Matan Rochlitz’s ‘Mozzarella Inc.’, are followed by bacon and buffalo mozzarella tastings respectively. The 8-minute ‘Artisan Baker’ promises freshly baked bread, while ‘Mama Sugar’s Sweet Potato Cobbler’ is a perfect Thanksgiving primer. For whisky-lovers, Olav Verhoeven’s ‘WHISKY: The Islay Edition’ is a 60-minute feature documentary that’s best paired with a glass of that iconic, smoky, peaty perfection, and for sweet tooths, James Reford’s ‘One Macaron At A Time’ is accompanied with a sweet treat from Lenotre-trained patissier Patrick Leze. But no matter the film, one thing’s for sure – you won’t be leaving with hunger pangs. Dim those lights!