Pilot Light Gala 2025: Feed Your Mind

Pilot Light’s annual Feed Your Mind Gala is one of Chicago’s most anticipated fundraising & culinary events. Guests will experience a one-of-a-kind evening featuring a meal crafted by Chicago’s most-sought after culinary stars and help feed our mission to bring the power of food into classrooms across the country.

This year’s Feed Your Mind Gala will feature a special chef-at-your-table style event, allowing guests the opportunity to enjoy a personal experience with an all-star chef preparing their meal tableside. This event format is a Pilot Light signature experience that guests won’t find anywhere else! 

Finally, we are thrilled to announce that we will be honoring Chef Rick Bayless as our Inaugural Chef Honoree. This award will recognize all Chef Bayless has done for the Chicago charitable community, as well as his passion for fostering youth leadership. Plus, a lucky few guests will have the exclusive opportunity to get face-to-face with Chef Bayless as he will be cooking for two exclusive tables!

This mix of award-winning chefs from a variety of culinary backgrounds creates an unforgettable dining experience for guests as they raise funds to invest in the future of Food Education. No other event offers the opportunity to share the room and eat the food of multiple James Beard award-winners and Rising Stars while also giving back to the community.

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We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Feed Your Mind Tableside Chef Lineup: 

• Matthias Merges, Jason Hammel, Paul Kahan, and Justin Large — Pilot Light’s Founding Chefs (tables SOLD OUT!) 
• Rick Bayless -– Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, Xoco, Bar Sótano (tables SOLD OUT!) 
• Diana Dávila — Mi Tocaya, Antojería 
• Zach Engel — Galit 
• Joe Flamm — Rose Mary, BLVD Steakhouse (tables SOLD OUT!) 
• Sarah Grueneberg and Bailey Sullivan — Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio (tables SOLD OUT!) 
• Genie Kwon and Tim Flores — Kasama (tables SOLD OUT!) 
• James Martin — Bocadillo Market 
• Carrie Nahabedian — Brindille 
• Oliver Poilevey — Obelix, Le Bouchon
• Tony Priolo — Piccolo Sogno 
• Sarah Stegner — Prairie Grass Cafe 
• Paul Virant — Petite Vie, Vistro Prime, Gaijin
• Lee Wolen — Boka, Alla Vita, GG’s Chicken Shop (tables SOLD OUT!) 
• Jonathan Zaragoza — Birrieria Zaragoza, Čálli, El Oso

About the 2025 Feed Your Mind Gala: 

Festivities will include an exciting, completely unique meal prepared tableside by leading Chicago chefs including Feed Your Mind Honoree Rick Bayless, restaurateur and TV personality Joe Flamm, Michelin-starred chefs Genie Kwon and Tim Flores of KASAMA, and many more! Peter Sagal, celebrated author, playwright, and host of NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! will serve as Feed Your Mind’s emcee, bringing levity and entertainment to the evening. 

The Feed Your Mind Gala has been noted by guests for its thrilling live auction, including one-on-one travel and culinary experiences with Pilot Light’s Founding Chefs Matthias Merges, Jason Hammel, Paul Kahan, and Justin Large. An additional silent auction featuring more luxury entertainment and culinary experiences will round out the exclusive festivities. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to experience an evening of food and drink from the brightest stars of Chicago’s vibrant food community. No other event offers the same chance to share the room – and eat the food – of multiple James Beard award-winners, nominees, and other rising chef stars while also investing in the future of Food Education. We hope to see you for this one of a kind celebration of the power of food on November 7th! 

Thank you to our generous 2025 Feed Your Mind Gala sponsors! 

 

• Marquee Development
• High Road Wine and Spirits 
• The Roof Crop
• DNO Produce
• Sysco
• Nestle Premium Water Brands
• Chef’s Warehouse
• William Blair 
• Willkie Farr & Gallagher 
• Six4 Creative – Media Sponsor 

ABOUT CHEF RICK BAYLESS, FEED YOUR MIND HONOREE: 

Most people know Chef Rick Bayless from winning the inaugural season of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters. Others know him from the twelve seasons of his highly-rated Public Television series, Mexico–One Plate at a Time or his nine award-winning cookbooks. And for a few restaurant regulars, he is simply Chef Rick, the Chef and owner of Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, Xoco, and Bar Sótano on Clark Street in Chicago, where he has spread the joys of authentic Mexican cuisine since 1987. Frontera Grill received the James Beard Foundation’s highest award, Outstanding Restaurant, in 2007. The 4-star Toplobampo, which served its first meals in 1991, earned the Beard Foundation’s award for Outstanding Restaurant in 2017 — an unprecedented accomplishment for side-by-side restaurants. At Topolobampo, Rick has also achieved a different feat: earning and maintaining a Michelin star since the guide first came to Chicago. Rick has received a great number of James Beard Award nominations in many categories, and he has won seven: Midwest Chef of the Year, National Chef of the Year, Humanitarian of the Year, Who’s Who of American Food and Drink, Best Podcast, plus two for his cookbooks. The Government of Mexico has bestowed on Rick the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle–the highest decoration bestowed on foreigners whose work has benefitted Mexico and its people. And in 2016, he earned the Julia Child Foundation Award, a prestigious honor given to “an individual who has made a profound and significant impact on the way America cooks, eats and drinks.

 

 

ABOUT PETER SAGAL, FEED YOUR MIND EMCEE: 

Peter Sagal is the host of the Peabody Award-winning NPR news quiz Wait Wait . . .Don’t Tell Me! and the author of The Incomplete Book of Running and The Book of Vice: Naughty Things and How To Do Them. He is a playwright, screenwriter, an amateur athlete, and host to several podcasts and documentaries, including The Chernobyl Podcast and The Plot Against America podcast for HBO and Constitution USA with Peter Sagal on PBS. He also wrote the feature film Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights without meaning to. Peter has traveled to many places and done many things but is now happiest where he lives, north of Chicago, with his wife Mara, two sons, and two dogs.

 

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