Stories by Daniel Hautzinger

Even today there is a huge disparity in the number of women head chefs, but achieving success in the food industry earlier on was even less common. Meet some of the women who influenced Chicago and America's attitudes towards food. 

The finalists for the James Beard Awards, one of the food industry's biggest recognitions in America, have been announced. Chicago has five nominees, plus an honorable mention who recently moved to the city. 

Marie Antoinette is beginning to be enmeshed in the rivalries of Versailles, including that between the wily Madame du Barry, who has the king's ear, and most of the rest of Versailles. 

Alexander fetches his brother to Sanditon in the hopes that he can be of use, while Georgiana faces the prospect of having her inheritance taken from her. Arthur prepars the town for a royal visit, and Tom deals with a straight-talking investor and his plans for Sanditon. 

Lucille continues to struggle with depression even as she helps a fiercely independent older man in Poplar. Freed some administrative duties by Sister Veronica's arrival, Sister Julienne relishes doing more work with patients, like a woman with breast cancer. 

J'Nai Bridges, the subject of a new American Masters documentary, was a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Ryan Opera Center for three years, and is currently singing Carmen at the Lyric. She has also worked with the Chicago area composer Shawn E. Okpebholo.

“Fewer and fewer people just don’t know farmers, and so they don’t understand what goes into it,” says Abra Berens, who has received national attention for both her produce-focused cookbooks and her literal farm-to-table cooking at a farm in southwest Michigan.

"Being a native Michigander, I'm legally required to love cherries," Abra Berens writes jokingly in her new, fruit-focused cookbook Pulp. Try a recipe from it that pairs the raw sweetness of cherries with decadent chocolate pudding. 

The fourteen-year-old Marie Antoinette is sent away from home to marry an equally young heir to the French throne in order to cement an alliance between the Habsburg Empire and France. It is her duty to produce an heir.

Charlotte returns to Sanditon for Georgiana's birthday party, this time with her fiancé Ralph. Alexander Colbourne still holds a flame for Charlotte, and his niece Augusta is scheming to force the couple together. 

Nancy aids a woman as she dies of a painful cancer at home and learns a secret of her life, while Lucille struggles with homesickness and depression that is worsened by an outbreak of racism in London.

Sisters Amy and Clodagh Lawless own and operate The Dearborn in the Loop, but previously chafed at the lack of recognition they received as women in the restaurant industry—and scions of an Irish restaurant family. “We’re always Billy Lawless’s daughter or Billy Lawless’s sister,” Clodagh says. “I’m like, ‘Excuse me.’”

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with the simple but utterly worthwhile soda bread, in a version from Christopher Kimball's Milk Street that is brightened by orange and dried cranberries and slightly sweetened by white chocolate chunks. 

Colleen Taylor Sen has lived in West Ridge near the South Asian mecca of Devon Avenue for fifty years, before there even were South Asian restaurants and shops. She has written numerous books about Indian food, although she came to writing them later in life.

In his newest special, Geoffrey Baer explores The Most Beautiful Places in Chicago, from gilded lobbies to verdant parks and eye-bending skyscrapers to glorious sacred spaces. He discusses the project, and what he loves about Chicago.