Meet The Maker Elite Event

Thank you Angela S for this great event! Big thanks also to Now We’re Cooking and Bake 425!
Also thank you to Anne S for letting me make pizza with her family!
I have to be honest I never made my own pizza. I just like to eat it. Now I had all these fabulous choices garlic paste, bechemel, butternut squash sauce, chicken, prosciutto, dried tomatoes, diced onions, mushrooms and bell peppers. All these great choices to make my very own first pizza (see photo).
I really appreciate the owner of Now We’re Cooking and two of her clients, Loree and Julie share with us their story of starting up their new food businesses; Edible chocolate birthday candles — Let them Eat Candles and sweet and savory biscotti — Truli Julie.
Thank you to Bake 425 for letting us taste their pizza and for the $ 5 coupon for next time.
I had great time and everyone was unbelievably helpful and friendly.

This was a really great event! A huge thanks to Angela, Now We’re Cooking and Bake 425 for providing some tasty nibbles, team pizza making and the opportunity to learn about the only food incubator in the Chicago area as well as two products of it.
Bake 425 offers a menu that is composed of products made from locally sourced, organic and small batch items. Of the offerings provided at the event, I had the Earth Lover pizza: Bechamel, Shredded Mozzarella, Portabella, Cremini, Truffle Oil, Yukon Potatoes, Fresh Basil, Parmesan and the Americana pizza:
Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Green Pepper, Cremini Mushroom, Red Onion, Black Olives and the Sunshine Salad: Arugula, Roasted Butternut Squash, Cherry Tomatoes, Shaved Parmesan, Lemon Oil, Toasted Pine Nuts. It was all very delicious! The owner and his wife were very pleasant and passionate about what they are doing.
Juli of Truli Julie (love that name) was one of the entrepreneuers we met. She brought both sweet and savory biscotti. She uses locally sourced, natural ingredients as well! The biscotti had a great texture. I enjoyed them immensely. My favorite was the Asiago Peppercorn.
Now, when introducing the concept of edible candles, I thought that I’d heard her wrong but after explaining the concept, I couldn’t wait to try Loree’s Let Them Eat Candles. That is such a cool concept and I will definitely be getting those! They were really good too!
We had the opportunity to work in teams to make pizzas a la Top Chef and that was a great opportunity to see/​sample the various pies that each team created.
Now We’re Cooking is a great resource for someone wishing to break into the culinary business. They have many offerings such as: demonstrations, cooking area, lessons, and other services.
So, it was a fun and well organized event as well as a great learning opportunity. I wish the businesses much success in their endeavors and as always, I appreciate Unilocal for making it happen!

Thank you Angela, Now We’re Cooking and Bake 425! This was a great event!
We were able to bring +2 people to this event, which was cool. I brought my mom to her first Unilocal event! Of course my husband and I love anything related to pizza, so we were happy.
Everyone was so unbelievably helpful and friendly.
I didn’t realize Now We’re Cooking is a food start-​up incubator. What an amazing idea! They provide classes, training, and coaching fr new businesses getting started in the food industry.
We got to meet a few businesses that could their start in Now We’re Cooking.
I love «Let them Eat Candles». This is the most brilliant thing I’ve heard of in a long time. They are chocolate candles. Now you might be wondering why you would want chocolate candles. Well these aren’t decorative candles, they’re candles to go on top of a cake. Have you ever had a birthday cake that was covered in melted wax that dripped from the candles while you were singing? Well what if instead of wax, that was chocolate! Obviously that’s a million times better. Loree is a genius!
We made our own pizzas and tried a few of Bake 425’s classic pizzas. I loved the Magherta and the pesto one! The owners of Bake 425 are so nice.
Truli Julie brought biscotti for us! She makes both sweet and savory biscotti.
I had a blast at this event!

Angela S., thanks for another fantastic North Shore Elite event! The space was great, the pizzas and sodas were tasty, and the pizza-​making competition was a lot of fun. Being put in small teams made it easy to connect with other Unilocalers. It was also interesting and informative to learn about food startups in general and meet two entrepreneurs in the business.

Another awesome Unilocal event thanks to Angela S! This event featured incredible fairly new businesses with inspiring concepts.
Bake 425 offers bake at home pizza using organic, locally grown, and small business ingredients. While everyone can get the typical cheese, pepperoni or sausage pizza anywhere, Bake 425 adds a healthy flare with a wide variety of fresh (better for you) toppings. We had samples of the Margherita, Earth Lover (Bechemel, mushrooms, potatoes, truffle oil), Braised Short Rib (Short ribs, cherry peppers, arugula, onions) and the Omnivore (butternut, bacon, arugula, chicken) along with their sunshine salad (arugula, pine nuts, butternut squash, cherry tomatoes) and all-​natural sodas. Everything was just delish. To add to the fun and fill our stomachs some more, we had a pizza making contest that resulted in some unique tasting concoctions and making new friends.
We learned all about Now We’re Cooking and how it being the only incubator in Chicago, has helped make of their members become successful in their own growing businesses. They featured Truli Juli’s savory biscottis and Let Them Eat Candles’ chocolates. It was great to hear their stories of their thriving businesses and to sample their tasty products.

Always a fun event with Unilocal Elites!
Met up with some old friends and met some new friends and had some fun team building exercises trying to build the best pizza with the ‘makers’ of Bake 425.
All ingredients come from local farmers or are organic.
Very wholesome choices of ingredients were selected by our team – butternut squash sauce, spinach, red onion, pistachios and BACON!
After our fill of pizzas we met Julie of Truli Julie, maker of sweet and savory biscotti, and Loree of Let Them Eat Candles, chocolate candles you can eat.
Really enjoyed the atmosphere at the Now we’re cooking incubator.
Couldn’t leave for home without some fun Unilocal souvenirs!

Thank you, Angela, Now We’re Cooking, and Bake 425, for making this event happen! My plus TWO and I had a blast! We arrived early so we got to talk to Angela and the people working at Now We’re Cooking before the event started. It was nice to hear the background story on how businesses start.
The owners of Bake 425 are California transplant like myself so we connected a bit about missing our hometown and beautiful Cali weather.
The event started with samples of soda and pizzas and then the fun really started when we did the Top Chef contest. I was part of Group 4 with Rowena & her +1. We were so nervous waiting for our turn to pick out ingredients but it worked in our favor. The good stuff like the garlic purée and Italian sausage were still there. We also added artichoke, portebello mushroom, arugula, and baby peppers as our veggies. Rowena was the mastermind behind our pizza and was our team leader.
We decorated our pizza and popped it into the oven while we waited for the judge (Bill) to make his decision.
We also got to enjoy samples of biscotti and chocolate candles by the two business women highlighting their businesses. It was awesome to hear their stories.
My team won the pizza making contest and we got free pizza coupons from Bake 425! And ice trays as party favors! Thank you, Unilocal!=D