Chicago Flower & Garden Show | Preview

Gourmand
He may never like flowers, but he’ll always love food. At the Garden Gourmet stage, 34 Chicago chefs demonstrate how to make tasty dishes using farm-to-table ingredients. Dr. Ian Smith bestie Judson Todd Allen and The Miracle Berry Diet Cookbook author Homaro Cantu are among the chefs scheduled to give demos.

Dinner-party perfectionist
The next time she has a dinner party, her table setting will evoke plenty of passive-aggressive envy. Draw inspiration from the pros at “Tablescapes,” an exhibit featuring the settings of 16 local designers. This year’s slated displays include a tribute to Van Gogh’s Starry Night (the flowers match the painting’s colors) .

DIY home fixer-upper
More than 30 home-improvement vendors hawk their wares at the Marketplace—heaven for this amateur carpenter. He can chat with representatives from contractor-referral service the Home Improvement Network, buy house essentials like gutter guards and try to make Ty Pennington–type celebrities a thing again.

Chicago Flower & Garden Show, Festival Hall at Navy Pier, 600 E Grand Ave. Sat 9–Mar 17: Mon–Sat 10am–8pm, Sun 10am–6pm; weekdays $17 (advance $15), weekends $19 (advance $17), kids ages 4–12 $5.