Celebrity Guests


Michael Kornick, Executive Chef of ML

Chef Michael Kornick, founder and owner of mk The Restaurant, is a nationally recognized leader in the culinary arts.  Chef Kornick works with the freshest seasonal ingredients and stays true to classical cooking techniques. It is his belief that ingredients should speak for themselves. Although known primarily for his accomplishments as a chef, Michael has Read more…

Peggy MacNamara

John Manion is the chef for the April 1, 2013 Dinner Party at Chicago City winery, featuring guests Frank Orrall of Poi Dog Pondering, Peggy MacNamara, the only artist in residence at the Field Museum, and Brian Babylon, comedian and host on Vocalo.org. The opening act is Ted Seymour, resident choreographer at Ballet Chicago and Read more…

Chef Homaro Cantu, Actor Michael Patrick Thornton and more
seldoms dinner party

We are taking our show on the road and heading downtown to Chicago City Winery! Join us on April 1st with Chef John Manion of La Sirina Clandestina cooks for Frank Orrall of Poi Dog Pondering, the only Artist in Residence at the Field Museum, Peggy MacNamara, comedian and Vocalo radio host Brian Babylon and Read more…

Kelly Hogan and Chef Patrick Sheerin and more
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This is what you missed at the January 28th Dinner Party.  Don’t do that again!  Get your tix for the February 25th Dinner Party with Artistic Director of Chicago Opera Theater, Andreas Mitisek, Artistic Director of The Seldoms, Carrie Hanson, actor from ABC’s “Private Practice” and Gift Theater Artistic Director, Michael Patrick Thornton and chef Read more…

Wig and make-up designer Melissa Veal 2

Wig and Make-up Designer, Melissa Veal, turns Fear No ART host Elysabeth Alfano into a 16th Century Vixen in honor of Chicago Shakes’ new play The School for Lies. The School for Lies opens at Chicago Shakespeare Theater December 4, 2012. MELISSA VEAL (Wig and Make‐up Designer) has designed wigs and make‐up for over fifty‐five Read more…

Wig and Make Up Designer Melissa Veal

Wig and Make-up Designer, Melissa Veal, turns Fear No ART host Elysabeth Alfano into a 16th Century Vixen in honor of Chicago Shakes’ new play The School for Lies. The School for Lies opens at Chicago Shakespeare Theater December 4, 2012. MELISSA VEAL (Wig and Make‐up Designer) has designed wigs and make‐up for over fifty‐five productions at CST including: Beauty and the Beast, Timon of Athens, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Elizabeth Rex (Jeff Award nomination), Follies, The Madness of George III (Jeff Award), As You Like It, Private Lives, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Amadeus, Funk It Up About Nothin’, The Comedy of Errors, Othello, Passion, Troilus and Cressida, The Three Musketeers, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (at CST and The Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford‐upon‐Avon), Much Ado About Nothing, A Little Night Music, Rose Rage: Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3 (at CST and The Duke on 42nd Street), and all six CPS Shakespeare! productions. She worked for ten seasons with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where she received four Tyrone Guthrie Awards, including the Jack Hutt Humanitarian Award. Other Canadian credits include work with: The Shaw Festival, Mirvish Productions and The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. Ms. Veal received the 2007 Hurckes Award for Artisans and Technicians. Share This!

David Manilow, Creator and Executive Producer of Check, Please!

David Manilow is the Creator & Executive Producer of Check, Please!, the multiple award winning television show where regular people recommend and review their favorite restaurants.  Check, Please! is now in six different markets: San Francisco, Miami, Kansas City, Phoenix and Seattle.  He started his television career at SportsVision, a cable TV sports channel in Read more…

Glen Hansard

Academy Award winning singer-songwriter Glen Hansard sits down at The Hideout with Fear No ART host, Elysabeth Alfano, and opens up about his early days as a street musician, his experience with Marketa Irglova on the film, Once, connecting with an audience and the creative process of songwriting. Hansard quit school at age 13 to Read more…

Chef Sean Sanders of Brown Trout

Check out one of the two dishes that Chef Sean Sanders of Brown Trout is making for the October 29th Dinner Party in the video above.  In addition to enjoying Chef Sanders’ appetizers and entrees, audience members of The Dinner Party will also partake in wine samplings of Langarotti and Cusumano and Chocolate tastings by Read more…

Susanna Negovan, Sun Times Daily Splash Editor

Susanna Negovan, the editor who launched Michigan Avenue magazine and put it on the Chicago media map, is returning to the newspaper where she began her career. After four years as editor-in-chief of the glossy upscale publication, Negovan has been hired to develop and oversee new media projects for Wrapports LLC, which owns the Chicago Read more…