Famed Food Guy reporter at NBC 5 (Chicago), Steve Dolinksy has won 13 James Beard Awards for his TV, radio and podcast work. Steve is also the producer and host of Pizza City, a bi-monthly podcast featuring some of the nation’s greatest pizza makers. In 2022, he launched Pizza City Fest in Chicago. Now in four cities, the events bring together 40 of the region’s best pizzerias baking live on electric and wood-fired ovens. Steve is also the author of two pizza books. Join him to dish on The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide: A History of Squares & Slices in the Windy City, his comprehensive guide to the styles, locales and people that make the Windy City a prime destination for slices and pies.
Steve grew up in a kosher home in St. Cloud, Minnesota and it wasn’t until he was a teenager that he began to fall in love with food. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, and moving to Chicago to work as a reporter for CLTV, Steve caught his big break in 1995 when the station launched Good Eating, a weekly program that mirrored the Tribune’s food section. After eight years, Steve moved to ABC 7, Chicago’s #1 news station, where he produced two original reports every week under the moniker, The Hungry Hound.
Since 2014, Steve has hosted The Feed Podcast with Chicago chef/restaurateur Rick Bayless, a podcast covering the world of food from their professional perspectives. He is also a judge on Iron Chef America and has served as one of the 27 Regional Academy Chairs for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants for the past 13 years. Steve lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
This event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering high-quality events. Illinois Libraries Present is funded in part by a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, a Department of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).