The hot seat

Photo: Martha Williams

Ingredient Different sugars: natural evaporated cane sugar, muscavado sugar, jaggery and different kinds of honeys, too. I’m interchanging them in all my recipes that involve refined sugar. They give greater depth of flavor and texture, and the difference in ice cream is night and day.

Kitchen gadget I’m old-fashioned, so I’m going to say my apple peeler. It’s apple season and I’m doing a ton of stuff with apples—peeling lots of apples at once is cathartic!

Restaurant Urban Belly (3053 N California Ave, 773-583-0500) for the phat fried rice and any of their dumplings. Or Great Lake Pizza (1477 W Balmoral Ave, 773-334-9270)—amazing cremini-mushroom-and-raw-milk-Gouda pizza. And the crust!

Inspiration The city of Chicago. I am inspired by the diversity of people, our abundance of ethnic cuisine, the architecture and, of course, the seasons! This city is a constant haven for creativity.

Music to cook to Damian Marley’s Welcome to Jamrock, Neko Case (I overplay her), Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss (my fav!). Of course there’s also Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. And I would never kick Lemmy out of my kitchen!

HotChocolate (1747 N Damen Ave at Willow St, 773-489-1747).

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