Chicago needs food critics. Now the Tribune has two.
The Chicago Tribune is naming Louisa Chu and Nick Kindelsperger as its food critics, following the departure of Phil Vettel in January after 31 years as the city’s definitive authority on dining.
Chu and Kindelsperger have been food and dining reporters at the Tribune for five years each, expertly crafting coverage on everything from the ultimate guide to Chinatown, to the best Italian beefs in the city, to examinations of working conditions in the dining industry.
“If you want to know what’s going on in Chicago’s dining world, Louisa and Nick have the answers. Where to go. What to order. What are the issues that people in the industry — and, ultimately, diners — care about?” said Colin McMahon, the Tribune’s editor-in-chief. “Nick and Louisa have earned Chicago’s trust, and ours.”
In their new roles, Chu and Kindelsperger promise to cast a new eye on how Chicago eats and drinks. Of major focus is how the industry emerges from the extraordinary challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Chicago dining scene right now is a phoenix rising from the ashes of a pandemic year when so many people lost their jobs, and so many lost their lives,” Chu said. “Whether it’s someone serving amazing tacos out of a garage, or a beautiful pastry from a window, or really worldclass-level execution, the community still supports it and is still so hopeful.”
As the restaurant industry rebuilds, and diners return in larger numbers, the Tribune will be there to help shine a spotlight on places worth a visit. With Chu and Kindelsperger at point, the Tribune’s coverage will reflect Chicago’s incredible diversity of chefs, approaches and styles as we explore new ways to tell food stories from across the region.
“I believe there has been an absence of discussion in race and class in regard to food, especially in Chicago,” Kindelsperger said. “You can’t ignore these things and shy away from discussion about what it means in America to deal with these issues.”
Together, Chu and Kindelsperger bring a wealth of experience, understanding and perspective to the table.
A lifetime in restaurants — starting as a 4-year-old folding menus for her family’s Chinese-American restaurant on the Near West Side in the 1970s — led Chu to this point, she said.
“I don’t want to be a food critic; I want to be a Chicago Tribune food critic,” Chu said. “This is the community I know best, and I’m most invested in telling the stories of the food and the drink and, most importantly, the people behind it.”
As with her own past, Chu sees food as the backbone of Chicago’s history, from the stockyards to the street vendors to the Indigenous people who first gathered the wild ramps for which the city is named.
“Chicago needs food critics because we are one of the most influential cities in this country when it comes to the history and future of dining,” she said. “We have deep roots when it comes to food production, to foraging and to farming, and we have the space to really explore and grow on all sides of that.”
After working as a server through high school and college, Chu graduated from Le Cordon Bleu Paris. She then became a cook at Les Ambassadeurs, a storied Parisian restaurant.
She spent time in the kitchens of Alinea, El Bulli, Alaine Ducasse au Plaza Athenée and an Alaskan fishing lodge. She wrote for CHOW and Gourmet magazines and worked as a field coordinator for Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” series.
Chu came to the Tribune in 2016. In her time in the newsroom, she has shined light on the exploitation of restaurant workers, chronicled how Chicago’s Black-owned restaurants have weathered the pandemic and celebrated iconic Chicago dishes like Atomic Cake and peanut butter-spiked egg rolls. She continues to co-host the “Chewing” podcast with WBEZ food journalist Monica Eng.
Kindelsperger also joined the Tribune in 2016. His previous work ranged from launching The Paupered Chef, a recipe blog focused on affordable home cooking, to serving as the founding editor of Serious Eats Chicago. He’s written about food for Epicurious, The Washington Post, New York Magazine and Gothamist.
“People in Chicago just care about food,” Kindelsperger said. “Not all places are like this. You can find these dining experiences at so many different levels of price, and chefs are cooking astonishing food all over the city, way beyond downtown.”
A native of southern Indiana, Kindelsperger has long nurtured a passion for both the Midwest and cooking, and his work exploring every nook and cranny of Chicago’s dining scene has instilled a deep appreciation for what chefs, mom-andpop restaurateurs and other culinary virtuosos accomplish every day.
“The amount of work that goes into making some Mexican dishes would stun a French chef, and Chicago is so lucky to have this enormous Mexican restaurant scene,” Kindelsperger said. “It’s important, and it deserves attention. You could say the same thing about most every other cuisine in Chicago.”
Kindelsperger is perhaps best known for his epic quests to find the best of the best across Chicago, whether it’s tasting 200 tacos or 50 Italian beefs or precariously placed bowls of soup consumed in his car.
But he brings equal verve to his dogged reporting on the best ramen you’ll never try, intriguing trends in Chicago dining like the rise of quesabirria or a Black restaurateur-fueled egg roll boom, and deep dives into quintessential Chicago dining traditions like giardiniera, peppermint-stick pickles and glitzy hotel bars.
“I really believe in accountability. I’ve done the work, and I will show the work. If you disagree with me, that’s fine, but I will show you why I believe something,” Kindelsperger said. “I’m also very happy to be doing this with Louisa. She’s someone that I just have outrageous respect for. She’s immensely kind and never mean, but she will never stop until she gets the answer.
“I think both of us working together will improve the dynamic and make us more accountable to the public.”