JEFFERSON PARK — You can make your mom a delicious meal while supporting two Northwest Side businesses this Mother’s Day.
Fearless Cooking, 4410 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Jefferson Park, is offering two Mother’s Day packages that include a menu, shopping list, pre-recorded instructional video for a brunch or dinner meal, a chocolate treat from the store’s expanded sweets section and a flower arrangement from Dahlia Blooms in Portage Park.
“What mothers don’t want to do is cook on Mother’s Day,” said Fearless Cooking owner Catherine Siebel, who switched her in-person cooking classes to be virtual during the pandemic. “They should have someone cook for them. The idea is that even people who are not skilled or confident in the kitchen can still do something for their moms and still cook a meal for them.”
People can pick between the brunch package, with a fruit salad, pesto and sun-dried tomato frittata and blueberry scones; or the dinner package, with a pear and goat cheese endive appetizer, beef Stroganoff and chocolate mousse.
Each package is $75. People can buy the Mother’s Day packages online and visit the store to pick up a gift ahead of the holiday.
Siebel will be available on her shop’s Facebook page all day Sunday to answer any questions and guide people making the meals in real time.
The Jefferson Park mother of two said she picked the menu items based on what she’d want to eat on Mother’s Day. At past cooking classes, Siebel never got to enjoy many of the dishes people made, she said. So this year, she’s going to make both menus at home for the instructional video and treat herself.
“Even if it sounds intimating, it all is approachable if you’re cooking with your kid or your teenager,” she said of the menu.
While Siebel doesn’t have Mother’s Day plans, she said the real holiday celebration she would like to have is after the kids go to bed.
“The cards are nice and all, but if we are talking about what moms want, we want to hang out with each other and have a cocktail,” she said.
The packages are Siebel’s first promotions for Mother’s Day. Her business was closed last year because of the pandemic, and she was still figuring out how to offer online classes. The year before that, she was moving Fearless Cooking into the permanent Jefferson Park location.
Siebel said she hopes the packages will provide a new experience for people wanting to show love for their mothers. She plans to create a similar deal for Father’s Day.
Like many small businesses, Fearless Cooking had to improvise to weather the past year and still attract customers who were no longer coming to the store. In addition to online cooking classes, Siebel started selling gift baskets and subscription food boxes with items made by local businesses owned by women and people of color.
After having a clearance sale to reset the store and include more items from the independent makers, Siebel has reconfigured the space and hopes to have in-person classes again. Fearless Kitchen falls under city guidelines for restaurants, which currently allow 50 percent capacity for indoor dining or 100 people, whichever is fewer.
Fearless Cooking reopened this week with new business hours: noon-5:30 p.m. Tuesday–Sunday.
“It has been difficult for us, as it has been for any business owner, but we are so lucky to still be open,” Siebel said.
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Already subscribe? Click here to support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.