EPICUREAN EVANGELIST

Host Steve Dolinsky turns his lifelong passion for food into a delicious career.

BY JORGE JUST

You can tell a man by his mannerisms. When Steve Dolinsky, executive producer and host of CLTV's weekly food program, Good Eating, talks about his music, or his education, or cars-about anything that's not edible, really-his hands stay firmly in his pockets, and he stands, off duty, on his heels. Change the subject to food, though, and he is transformed. His weight shifts, his eyes brighten and he starts talking with his hands, punctuating every thought with a gesture to emphasize his point.

Today his excitement is directed at Shyam Chhablani, the manager of Udupi Palace, a vegetarian Indian restaurant on Devon Avenue, and the subject of conversation is dosai, a pancake-like staple in southern India. Produced each week as a video accompaniment to the Chicago Tribune's weekly food section by the same name, Good Eating packs an adult-size serving into every show: a centerpiece story about a particular food, trend or cuisine; a recipe from a prominent chef shot cooking-show-style; a featured menu item from a local restaurant, prepared and taped on site; a wine review by the Tribune's William Rice; and a "Cheap Eats" segment highlighting a local restaurant with entrees under $10. Dolinsky has produced more than 250 shows with topics that have included Korea Town's Lawrence Street, New Orleans-style po' boys and a round-up of local chefs. This week's centerpiece is "Global Pancakes."

With lights blinding, camera rolling, the kitchen staff watching amusedly and Chhablani narrating the action, chef Paulson Verghese prepares a monstrous first-course delicacy. The dish looks somewhat like a phyllo-dough burrito, but it's closer in size to an elephant's trunk than an appetizer. After a few more questions, a few more answers and a little bite to eat, Dolinsky and videographer/producer Nelson Howard are off to the next location. They work together, rapidly. Nelson runs the camera and Steve appears in front of it, but Steve also helps with the technical, sometimes menial end of things (like lugging the gear), while Nelson has a big hand in brain-storming ideas about future shows and locations. "We're very efficient," notes Howard. "Just the two of us went to Thailand and produced a full half-hour show together. We're a tight unit."

That cohesiveness has certainly helped the show's success. Good Eating has won the prestigious James Beard Award four times, for "Best Local TV Cooking Show in the Nation," and has been nominated for two regional Emmys. In addition, Dolinsky was awarded a fifth James Beard Award and is nominated again this year for his work on Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ as a weekly Food Contributor.

All this for a man who was most certainly not born a foodie. He grew up Jewish in St. Cloud, Minnesota, a town of about 50,000 where only 12 families he knew of were Jewish. "Imagine keeping kosher in a town like that," he jokes. It certainly wasn't good for developing a palate. "For us, kosher meant brown, overcooked food," he recalls. But once Dolinsky's brother and sister-in-law moved to nearby Minneapolis, all that began to change. "I would spend weekends there when I was in seventh or eighth grade, and we would eat Szechwan shrimp, turnovers, homebaked bread..." The awakening was fully realized during college at the University of Wisconsin. "Madison has pretty good restaurants for a small town," he reports.

From Madison he went to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where he worked for a year as the Bureau Chief for Marquette's CBS affiliate. It wasn't pretty: "There were no good restaurants, only chains," he shudders. "I found a Thai restaurant about 50 miles away and arranged my schedule so I could drive there once a week." He left there for a brief stint in Southern Illinois, then went to Iowa, before joining CLTV in 1992 as a reporter. Three years later, he launched Good Eating as the show's executive producer and, in 1996, also became its host.

Moving to Chicago was like stepping into heaven. His first apartment was above King Crab on Halsted, and for the first two months, he didn't even bother to buy groceries. "I would move in concentric circles from my apartment. One night I would eat Japanese, the next would be Middle Eastern," he gushes. "It was a new world of discovery."
Food and romance are often intertwined, and people's passions always find some place to blend. And so it was with Dolinsky and his wife Amy Dordek. "We met thanks to a set-up by my college buddy's mom," he explains. "She told me ‘Steve, I have the great girl. She's lovely - and she's really into food.'" Although the date wasn't unusual (they went to dinner and a show), sparks definitely flew. "We went to Eat Your Hearts Out, which was where Feast is now, and we sat and talked about food for more than an hour," he remembers, "and that was before we even ordered."

The two are expecting a child in September and already have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter named Madeline, who is "the biggest foodie in my family. She loves Dim Sum, and you should see her eat dumplings," Dolinsky says with obvious pride. "We take her out and she's like ‘Daddy! Congee!' She definitely has the genes."