Introduction to Female Chicago Chefs
As a young person, Food Network star and Minnesota-based cookbook author Molly Yeh seemed destined for a life in music. The daughter of a Chicago Symphony clarinetist, Yeh excelled enough at playing percussion that she earned a coveted spot at the Juilliard School in Manhattan.
Early Life and Career
But she sees, in retrospect, the clues that her heart was elsewhere. While counting rests during orchestra rehearsals, Yeh read cookbooks or fantasized about her next meal. At Juilliard, she’d stall lessons by egging on her teacher’s tangents about food. She started a cooking blog, initially a way to stay in touch with family and friends. Then it grew.
Combining Food and Music
“I started a little supper club in my apartment in Brooklyn, where I would have all of my friends come and play live music, and then I would cook, like, millions of dumplings,” Yeh recalled. “I’ve always looked for ways of combining food and music.”
Breaking Barriers Festival
Each year, Ravinia Festival chief conductor Marin Alsop co-curates the Breaking Barriers festival, focusing on female professionals in male-dominated fields. The 2025 edition spotlights food.
Featured Chefs
This weekend, Yeh supersizes the supper club concept at Ravinia, where she and the festival’s chief conductor, Marin Alsop, are co-curating the fourth Breaking Barriers Festival. Each iteration focuses on female professionals in male-dominated fields, and this year’s theme — the culinary arts — invites eight chefs to create bespoke bites inspired by the weekend’s CSO concerts. The menu of chefs includes everyone from Beverly Kim, whose restaurants Parachute and Anelya put Avondale on the fine-dining map, to Sarah Grueneberg, behind Italian juggernaut Monteverde.
Musical Programming
Alsop, who picked the weekend’s musical programming, traces her interest in this year’s theme to her own time at Juilliard. There, she was classmates with CSO clarinetist-to-be John Bruce Yeh, Molly’s father. Though Alsop insists she’s a “terrible cook” herself, she’d followed Yeh’s career on the Food Network ever since.
Parallels Between Conductors and Chefs
Alsop sees parallels between conductors and chefs — not just in the leadership skills required and their necessary attention to detail, but also in the lack of gender parity at both industries’ highest echelon.
Taki Alsop Fellowship
For Alsop, the fellowship is personal. In 2007, she became the first woman to lead a major symphony orchestra in the U.S., the Baltimore Symphony. Nearly 20 years later, few women lead comparable American orchestras.
Dishes at Breaking Barriers Festival
The dishes at Breaking Barriers festival will be prepared by a who’s who of female chefs to accompany an array of classical compositions. Pictured here is Beverly Kim’s fried Crimean-style olives, served at the Avondale restaurant Anelya. Kim is among the chefs participating in the weekend event.
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