On May 9th, hundreds of students flocked to Arts Circle to enjoy crepes, froyo, BBQ, beignets, and other culinary delights, all thanks to the 8th Annual Spoonfest, the food festival held in celebration of the publication of Northwestern’s food magazine Spoon’s spring issue.
LARA WEISSMANN : It basically is just a day full of bringing together Evanston and Chicago local food vendors.
That’s Medill junior Lara Weissmann, one of the co-heads of this year’s Spoonfest.
WEISSMANN: So that they can have exposure to Northwestern students and be able to sell their food and Northwestern students to be able to hear about and educate themselves on what vendors are in and around the area. It’s just a good way to celebrate food and do what we at Spoon do every week and bring it to the wider Northwestern.
It’s this appreciation and celebration of food that is shared among Spoon’s staff. Here’s Medill sophomore David Sun.
DAVID SUN: I feel like everyone likes to eat, but like I feel like I’ve always had a, like a good relationship with food. I’ve always liked trying new restaurants and trying new places and you know, I felt like Spoon made sense to me since I was also a journalism major.
Now, Sun serves as the event’s other co-head alongside Weissmann. The two have been working tirelessly for months to ensure the success of one of the campus’ favorite events. But it’s a tall order.
WEISSMANN: We see 400, 600 students come into SpoonFest and we have nine vendors and six more student orgs. It’s not exactly an easy undertaking
That’s putting it mildly. The two have to navigate contracts, permits, and the very crucial recruitment of vendors.
SUN: We compile a large list of vendors that we would maybe like to see at Spoon Fest, sort of trying to encompass a wide variety of cuisines and like different styles of food. I think we’re especially lucky because we’ve done it for so many years at this point. We have a lot of returnees and people are willing to collaborate with us because they know that every year it’s like a pretty big hit among students.
While 4 of the vendors are said returnees, 5 of this year’s vendors are new to Spoonfest. However, Spoonfest doesn’t just recruit people outside the campus community, there are also a fair share of student organizations present as well.
Northwestern cooking club Cookology was one of six student organizations present. McCormick sophomore Alex Sangster helps plan the cooking events for Cookology. Last year she attended Spoonfest as a participant but has gained a newfound appreciation on the other side of the table.
ALEX SANGSTER: Now coming as a club, I also think it’s great just to get more people to try our food and come to our events, which I think is really good for exposure and I hope people like what we have made.
Among her organization’s offerings were basque cheesecake squares and fudgy brownies, but arguably the biggest star of the show was the brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies.
SANGSTER: We also brought these last year and they sold out in the first hour. So we tripled the amount that we made.
This reporter can confirm that they were indeed out of this world.
And while the festival is a lot of work, Weissmann and Sun find Spoonfest provides the campus with a greater appreciation and excitement for the vibrant Evanston and Chicago food scene. Here’s Weissmann again.
WEISSMANN: Students don’t really regularly get to experience a lot of those restaurants. I’m excited that they’re coming to not only be able to do that collaboration, but also just for Northwestern students to be able to enjoy their food.
And for Sun, once Friday rolled around, the months worth of work all became worth it.
SUN: I feel like that’s kind of where all the magic comes from when you’re there with all the vendors and all the students and all the student orgs and you just see like everyone sort of like having fun eating food, talking with each other, I think that’s just the coolest experience.
Spoonfest was held Friday from 11-4pm. If you missed the fabulous food this year, feel free to check out the list of vendors on Spoon’s instagram and do yourself a favor and make the trip.
For WNUR News, I’m Sophia Casa.
