Paula Haney of Hoosier Mama

Several of our favorite people in food in Chicago, who also have books out, will appear on the Printers Row Lit Fest’s Good Eating stage this weekend. Paula Haney of Hoosier Mama Pie Company will be doing a cooking demo at 10 AM on Saturday; Jacquy Pfeiffer, who just won a James Beard Award for The Art of French Pastry, will be on the same stage at 11; there will be a conference called Midwestern Writers on Food at 11:45 AM; Lidia Bastianich of Eataly will be there at 12:45 PM; Gale Gand of the new Spritz Burger (among many other things) appears at 1:45 PM; the lovely Ina Pinkney will do a cooking demo at 2:30 PM; and Andrew Zimmern of TV’s Bizarre Foods will be there Sunday at noon. Lots of other food folks make appearances—see the schedule here.

• When I interviewed Peter Veliotis of the south side’s venerable Johnnie O’s he said one of the highlights of his life was getting to sing the National Anthem at Comiskey, where he’d sold hot dogs as a kid. After tonight Kevin Boehm of BoKa Group will be able to tell a similar story—he’s throwing out the first pitch at Wrigley Field’s Cubs-Mets game this evening.

• It may be out in the far-flung reaches of Hinsdale, but it’s always news when one of our very best chefs, Paul Virant (Vie, Perennial Virant) opens a new place. Keeping with the V theme, Vistro (112 S. Washington) will be a more casual spot with a wood-burning oven and comfort foods like fried chicken. Now we just want to know what that other great farm-to-table V is going to do.

• A while back I interviewed Rick Bayless, and photographed Topolobampo chefs Andres Padilla and others as they prepared the first in a series of menus devoted to different historical epochs in Mexican cuisine, which are running every other month this year. So what’s running the rest of the time? Menus with other themes. This month’s is inspired by the Mexican art on display at Bayless’s restaurants. Former Time Out food editor David Tamarkin has a piece about the menu and, best of all, a slideshow showing the art and the dish that comes from it, on the company’s blog.

• Growing Home will host an open house at its Wood Street Urban Farm, 5814 S. Wood, from 11 AM to 3 PM on Saturday. There will be refreshments, a farm stand, farm tours, a kids’ gardening workshop, cooking demos, and more. Check it out here.

• Sportsman’s Club in Humboldt Park kicks off its Sunday backyard barbecue series this summer with guest chef Cosmo Goss of Publican Quality Meats, paired with brews from Local Option. For 20 bucks you get a plate of barbecue, a beer, and a shot starting at 4 PM. Next up will be Pat Sheerin of Trenchermen.