That’s the owner of Mr. Beef’s perspective, anyway.
Taking over for his father, Christopher Zucchero has dedicated his life to Mr. Beef. His father established the renowned Italian beef market located at 666 N. Orleans St.
To properly eat this Chicago deep-dish pizza, you’ll need a knife and fork.
He told News, “Italian beef is truly what I believe to be Chicago’s real root food,” in an interview conducted from his Minnesota cabin shortly before this week’s Democratic National Convention got underway.
It’s not pizza, you know that. It’s not dog food. It is authentically Italian meat. It’s an invention of ours. It’s our thing, similar to a cheesesteak from Philadelphia.
According to Zucchero, “an authentic traditional Italian beef sandwich” is made with thinly sliced beef that is “cooked in its own juices,” much like roast beef.
The cooking process at Mr. Beef yields a gravy that Zucchero and his crew separate and use to create a particular kind of sandwich. The beef is taken and thrown into the gravy, sort of swimming around in it, and then placed on a piece of freshly baked French bread from Liborio, one of the few remaining real, authentic Chicago bakeries in the city.
