The Business of Food with Steve Alexander | WGN Radio 720 - Chicago's Very Own

For nearly a century, one of the biggest names in baking has been Wilton. The Naperville-based company is the go-to brand for professional and home bakers for everything from baking pans and tools to icing pouches and sprinkles. In the audio clip below, Declan O’Leary, the president of Wilton, tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about summer […]

Here’s how it works: “Dig up the soybean and hold it up to your nose. If it smells like earth, you’re good. But if you can squeeze it and a liquid comes out and it smells rotten? Guess what, it’s rotten.” That’s how Brad Mason, a field agronomist for Pioneer Seeds in Western Illinois describes […]

In 1978, the Illinois State Legislature proclaimed St. Charles, Illinois, “Pickle Capital of the World.” It didn’t matter that not one pickle is produced in the city on the Fox River. The designation was solely because Pickle Packers International, a non-profit focused on educating consumers about the benefits of pickles, was located there until it […]

In the audio clip below, Farm Action co-founder Joe Maxwell tells WGN’s Steve Alexander he believes the Department of Justice’s launch of an investigation into egg prices on March 6 was due to Farm Action’s letter to the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission urging the departments to investigate and take action to restore competition […]

With many homeowners deciding to hang on to their 3% mortgages and stay put, remodeling the kitchen is gaining popularity. A lot has changed in kitchen styles (if you still have avocado-green appliances, seek help), and in the audio clip below, Sarah Leonard, owner of Legacy Properties tells WGN’s Steve Alexander things to do to […]

One of the reasons people switched from cow’s milk to fake milk made with things like almonds, oats, and soy, was calories. Milk, even skim milk, had more calories than the fake ones. Now, though, the Dairy Farmers of America, a co-op made up of nearly 5,500 family dairy farms, has produced Milk 50, real […]

One would expect Jones Dairy Farm, a seventh-generation farm in America’s Dairyland, Wisconsin, to be all about milk and other dairy products. It isn’t, and hasn’t had cows on its farm since the 1980s. But it’s big in bacon and other pork products and is one of the vendors passing out samples of bacon at […]

We’re all feeling the pain of egg-flation but it’s one thing to wince when we buy a dozen every week or two. The House of Cakes Bakery in NW Chicago buys 90 dozen a week in order to make the fresh, made-from-scratch pastries, donuts, pizza bread, coffee cakes, their famous cheese sticks, cookies, and more […]

Stefania Marzelia has these words of advice for kitchen creators who want to turn their creations into a business: “Just go for it.” She went for it, working as a barista in Chicago coffee shops, starting at age 16 at Starbucks, and later at Cafe Umbria, where she learned about making coffee syrups. When the […]

GloBowl founder and CEO Erica Bethe Levin flipped the equation: Instead of necessity being the mother of invention, she’s a mother who invented something–a new type of baby food–out of necessity. Levin shares some dos and don’ts for people hoping to turn a product dreamt up in a home kitchen (or spare bedroom, or closet, […]

One of the most famous graduates of Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn is pitching in to help raise money for the Glen House Food Pantry in that town. In the audio clip below, Hayes relates a touching story about how hard his mother worked as a single mother of five and a staff […]

20-year-old Nathan Spangler doesn’t wear a cape and leap tall buildings with a single bound, or shoot spider webs out of his palms. No, he’s just a western Illinois farm boy who grew up on the family farm between Macomb and Canton raising corn, soybeans, and beef cattle. And he has proven you don’t need […]

For Baja Foods CEO Art Velasquez, the thought of seeing his company’s Mexican dinners in the frozen food aisles of Costco stores didn’t cross his mind. “It was never anything on my radar to try to do,” he tells WGN’s Steve Alexander. For nearly 25 years, the Southside Chicago company has been making enchiladas, burritos, […]

If you spend a lot of time in urban traffic jams and you are putting on unwanted pounds, a new study says the two may be connected. In the audio clip below, author Becca Taylor, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University […]

If egg prices have you clucking, you may be thinking about building a coop in your backyard and raising your own hens. Before you buy the lumber and chicken wire, take a listen to what Brooke Bestwina of The Feed Store in Summit, Illinois, tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about what’s involved in being a backyard […]

TikTok is full of videos from people preaching the virtues of juice cleanses. Three-day cleanses seem to be the most popular, but there are people hawking 10-day and even 30-day cleanses. Don’t do it, says Dr. Melinda Ring, director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a […]

With the high cost of eggs, perhaps you’ve cut down some on how many you buy. In the audio clip below, Rebecca Lupesco, Marketing Director for Duke’s Mayonnaise, tells WGN’s Steve Alexander that business is good, Duke’s is selling more mayo than ever after it expanded to all 50 states, and is buying more eggs […]

Symbol of food inflation: Expert on four reasons why egg prices are so high.

At age nine, Heather Van Vorous was playing in the yard when she doubled over with tummy pain and passed out. Her parents rushed her to the pediatrician, who couldn’t find anything wrong with her and told her to quit whining. In the audio clip below, Heather tells WGN’s Steve Alexander how that moment led […]

If you’re in the camp that Thanksgiving is for turkey, but Christmas is for prime rib, a Chicago restaurant pro is here to give us tips on how to make your home-roasted rib just as succulent and flavorful as the ones served at restaurants. Marc Lupino is Chief Executive Chef at Chicago’s Steak 48. Here’s […]