By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
December 19, 2001
Step aside, Anna Kournikova. You’ve got some tasty competition on the pinup calendar front. More than a baker’s dozen of top Chicago area chefs have struck a pose to help fight hunger.
Unlike the beefcake and cheesecake calendars flooding the market, there were no age, sex or physique requirements for these models, who gladly posed for the Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging’s Holiday Meals on Wheels (Out of the Kitchen to Fight Hunger) calendar.
Some are married and showing off their babies. Others are single and hamming it up. There are a few group shots of chefs. Because the calendar benefits Holiday Meals on Wheels, the one running theme is that wheels are depicted in every monthly layout. (While Meals on Wheels is a federally funded programs that brings meals to the elderly, it does not provide for meals on weekends or holidays. Proceeds from the calendar help make it possible for the Northeastern Illinois agency to give seniors a meal 365 days a year.)
Steve Skinner, a toothy 40-year-old chef at Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe in Evanston, says he’ll always remember his photo shoot. It was on Sept. 11: “I had just gotten back from vacation. It was kind of weird with everything that had happened But it was sunny out, and it was fun to act a little silly and try to forget about all the serious things that were going on in the world. “
Also included were Mark Siwinski of the Abbington Distinctive Banquets in Glen Ellyn tugging a cart full of groceries. Hottie chef John Heenie of La Sorella di Francesca in Naperville cradles his daughter, Ingrid, as he takes her out in her baby stroller for a picnic lunch. And J. Andrew Coates of the Pump Room sits on a car hood as he juggles a trio of bright lemons.
“We wanted chefs who had great personalities,” Kobitter says. “Our project wasn’t about finding chefs who looked like models. We weren’t necessarily going after the best-looking ones.”
Ouch!
“I don’t mean that our chefs aren’t good looking because they all are,” she says, laughing. “But it was more about projecting warmth and humor.”
Skinner, who is Mr. January, certainly had no problem fitting that bill. He paints a jaunty figure straddling a Suzuki motorcycle with a backpack brimming with fresh produce. His quote underneath his picture reads, “The monumental moments in my life always involved food and family. I especially remember big, huge holiday dinners at my grandmother’s house where everyone would stuff themselves and then come back for more in a couple hours.”
“My grandmother’s older and she’s lucky enough to live with my parents, so she doesn’t have to worry about where her next meal might come from. But for those who aren’t that fortunate, the Holiday Meals on Wheels program is a really nice thing that helps a lot of people.”
The calendar is $20 (if you pick it up yourself) or $25 if you order it via phone or mail. The Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging is at 245 W. Roosevelt, Building 6, Suite 41, West Chicago, 60185.
For more info, call (630) 293-5990.
