The Business of Food with Steve Alexander | WGN Radio 720 - Chicago's Very Own
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Episodes
No ketchup on hot dogs!
6/26/2024
Shouts of “Blasphemy!” followed by the loud clanging of a bell are what happens when a customer orders ketchup on their hot dog at Michiganders Windy City Diner. Despite being 150 miles away from Chicago, the family-owned and operated diner brings an authentic taste of Chicago to Windy City transplants in southwest Michigan. In the […]
Duration:00:02:18
June is Dairy Month in the U.S. – How did an Irish butter carve out a chunk of the market here?
6/24/2024
It seemed odd to WGN’s Steve Alexander that the dairy case of U.S. supermarkets contained so much butter and cheese made in Ireland. So, he asked Kate Saul, vice president of marketing at Evanston-based Ornua Foods North America, how it happened. In the audio clip below, Saul says the Kerrygold story began more than 30 […]
Duration:00:02:35
Farmer strikes gold while planting corn
6/6/2024
A farmer — let’s call him Old McDonald, because we do not know his name or much else about him other than he farms in Kentucky — was prepping a field to plant corn. He had plowed and disked and as he was walking the field, expecting he might find an arrowhead or some other […]
Duration:00:04:50
Seeds of Change Garden Club
5/24/2024
In the audio clip below, Amundsen High School teacher Andrew Breen tells WGN’s Steve Alexander dozens of students have turned out for the Seeds of Change Garden Club since it was started last fall. The school has a huge campus of mostly lawn that needed some TLC. Students, with a variety of reasons for joining […]
Duration:00:02:23
Meet Kay, the Farm Dog of the Year
5/23/2024
When Prairie Farmer Magazine posted notice of its “Favorite Farm Dog Contest,” Devin Bollman and Dalton Johnston decided they’d send in photos and a story about Kay, their one-and-a-half year old border collie. After all, she had become so good at rounding up chickens and cattle on the couple’s Cass County farm where they raise […]
Duration:00:03:01
Cheezy Beef on Garlic
5/8/2024
Chicagoans have long loved their Italian Beef and the iconic sandwich gained worldwide popularity from the TV series “The Bear.” Years before the TV show debuted, a suburban chain, Beef Shack, upped the ante with its Cheezy Beef version of the sandwich served on fresh garlic bread buns. In the audio clip below, Beef Shack CEO […]
Duration:00:02:18
Sweet Reserve Bakery expands to Skokie
5/7/2024
Sumaiya Vahora and Humera Roaf were teaching at the same Chicago school when they started sharing their dreams. Sumaiya wanted to own a bakery. Humera wanted to own a business that gives back to the community, especially women who were trying to enter or re-enter the workforce. Sumaiya began baking custom cakes at home while […]
Duration:00:02:30
Who plants Chicago’s tulips?
4/29/2024
The Instagrammable tulips in the medians of Michigan Avenue are there by design. The chief designer is Kris Sorich, the Senior Landscape Architect at CDOT, the Chicago Department of Transportation. In the audio clip below, she tells WGN’s Steve Alexander that each July, she decides what colors of tulips she wants to see bloom the […]
Duration:00:02:15
Where do Costco’s rotisserie chickens come from?
4/24/2024
Farming is hard. Starting a farm from scratch is nearly impossible. Zemua Baptista dreamed of farming — something his father did in his native Angola. He says he “carpet farmed” as a boy, dreaming someday of being a real farmer. A state champion wrestler in Friend, Nebraska, where his father was a Methodist minister, Baptista […]
Duration:00:02:23
Dining Out For Life Chicago
4/24/2024
Vivent Health / TPAN is hosting its annual fundraiser Dining Out For Life Chicago on Thursday, April 25. In the audio clip below, Lorraine Hayes of TPAN tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about some of the 20 restaurants who have committed a percentage of their profits to TPAN, which helps people living with HIV to stay housed, get their […]
Duration:00:02:19
Big O turns 90!
3/29/2024
Chicago’s and WGN’s very own Orion “Big O” Samuelson is marking a milestone birthday on March 31st. It was 90 years ago on that date that “Little O” bounced into the world. He chose a spring blizzard to make his entrance on his family’s dairy farm in southwestern Wisconsin. The doctor wasn’t able to get […]
Duration:00:02:50
Still waiting for Taylor Swift
3/25/2024
When Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid announced on a podcast that Taylor Swift had made homemade Pop Tarts for the offensive line, the marketing team at Kellanova that promotes the brand knew they had been handed a gift. In the audio clip below, Sarah Reinecke, VP of Marketing, Portable Wholesome Snacks / Pop-Tarts […]
Duration:00:02:18
F1 tornado flattens historic barn
3/19/2024
Joe Reckinger said it’s the most wind he’s ever seen in his 66 years on the family farm west of Batavia on Seavey Road. On the night of February 27, 2024, what was later determined to be an F1 tornado flattened a barn built in 1882 when Joe’s great-great grandfather started the farm. Joe and […]
Duration:00:02:26
You’ll have to get arrested to eat this pizza
2/26/2024
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart tells WGN’s Steve Alexander in the audio clip below that he remembers the day Bruno Abate walked into his office and told him he had a vision and his life would not be complete if he did not give back and try to help people who had mistakes in their […]
Duration:00:02:16
Dead of a heart attack at 52, but his love of farming lives on
2/23/2024
Mike Builta grew up on an Illinois farm, was a proud member of FFA, and kept one foot in the furrow as he went off to the University of Illinois, earned a Master’s in Crop Science and went to work in agribusiness. He left home for his office at GROWMARK in Bloomington, Illinois, where he […]
Duration:00:02:32
You ate how many calories at the Super Bowl party?!
2/12/2024
Super Bowl may be the biggest eating holiday of the year, and it isn’t even an official holiday. Whether at a fancy high end party with lobster sliders or a small family get together with pizza, chips and guac, we Americans tend to overeat, and then eat some more. A WalletHub survey found that the […]
Duration:00:02:20
Giving high schoolers a chance to realize their dreams, one burger at a time
2/4/2024
In 2022, everything was going pretty well for Northbrook native David Grossman, the president and CEO of Epic Burger. When the chain struggled under its previous ownership, Grossman bought it in 2020 and gave it a reboot. Things were looking up. But then, the kind of thing every parent has nightmares about happened. His 24-year-old […]
Duration:00:02:34
Facial recognition for cows
2/2/2024
“A horse is a horse of course of course,” goes the old Mr. Ed TV theme song, and while a cow is a cow, it’s important for ranchers and farmers to be able to tell them apart. For more than a half century, ear tags with numbers and RFID transmitters have been the go-to, but […]
Duration:00:02:18
Her sweet dream is realized on MLK Day
1/15/2024
What better day for the grand opening of Daintry McFadden’s Wetzel’s Pretzels franchise in Oak Brook Center than MLK Day? After all, it has been her dream for decades. In the audio clip below, Daintry tells WGN’s Steve Alexander how she tried many times to become the owner of a fast food franchise. A “proud, […]
Duration:00:02:21
Is the Panama Canal drying up?
1/7/2024
Illinois farmers depend on the Panama Canal, but there's a problem this year.
Duration:00:04:37