Chicago Foodies

El Bulli at Next Restaurant – The Ferran Adria Retrospective

El Bulli was a phenomenon. It's a large part of the reason why molecular gastronomy is part of our vernacular. Ferran Adria is universally accepted as the thought leader in the world of cuisine. I wouldn't really even think of it as fine-dining. It's something else.

My education is in fine arts. I have a studio art degree and for years have thought about food as a medium. I have had conversations about how restaurants by definition cannot be fine art as they have such expectations attached to them... from performing really only at "meal times" to filling diners with flavorful food. I've always looked at even haute cuisine as applied art. The prettiest food is after all just an entree or just an appetizer or just a salad. Even if it's beautiful, it has such anchors. Tasting menus push this notion a bit but they still are very traditional. Lighter foods first and dessert comes last. This didn't change at Next but after dining at their El Bulli incarnation I'm rethinking things. At the very least those conversations seem beside the point. This is not a concept dinner or tasting menu. It's a retrospective on the years and history of El Bulli and the dishes that resulted from Ferran Adria making his mark. Regardless how functional as a meal his work may be, it is not hard to understand it as art. In fact, I think it succeeds more as art than as dinner.

 

The Unique Dinner Series at Moto with 16 Courses of Black: Recap

The Chicago Foodies Unique Dinner Series launched January 28th with "16 Courses of Black" at Moto. The Unusual Dinner Series was created to give chefs an opportunity to do something a bit "different". In this case I asked Chef Homaru Cantu who is known for doing things differently, "What hasn't worked?" His answer focused on an all black dish that was off-putting for many reasons. From unseen and unexpected  textures to an unappetizing appearance while being eaten, it seemed to be "too different". The next question was "How do you feel about 16 Courses of black?"

I didn't know what to expect when putting the Unique Diner Series together but that was part of the idea and Saturday night, after 7 hours at Moto, in the company of Moto's staff and Chef's Cantu, Jones and Farina I came away amazed.

From his introduction asking the diners to be kind, Chef Cantu demonstrated what the Unique Dinner Series is all about. The audience of 24 came willing to taste something new, experience something unusual. While a dish or two might make it to the main Moto menu, the majority of them were simply inspired by the concept of black. They were one-shot dishes more fun than refined... interesting, surprising, and risky.

As you can imagine after 16 courses, including one we were explicitly not allowed to photograph, I can only do a disservice by trying to re-compile each dish's ingredients, and preparation. Simply enough, I'll let the pictures do the majority of the work and try to add what I can with specifics, pairings, etc.

Walking downstairs into the lab for the first time you would see a large prep-table and around it smaller tables and chairs for patrons. In the corners are several machines, including a freeze drier and a couple of gas tanks. Throughout the evening the staff was plating and prepping dishes and able and willing to answer questions.

Best Bets for Champagne this Season

This is time of year when people who aren't usually looking for bubbly break character and spring for a bottle for a party, a gift or simply as an excuse to celebrate. I'm happy enough to indulge my Champagne jones as well but I would do so just about any time... Here are a few options to consider!

Dark Horse Boffo Brown Ale

I'm having home made moussaka for dinner and was trying to figure out what beer would pair with the sweet and creamy-spicy eggplant-potato casserole. I have a nice stockpile of stouts which would certainly elbow into the flavor party but might not do much to reset or cleanse a palate. I also have a New Glarus Double IPA that I love but would be too bright to fit well with the allspice and sweet. Lingering at the back of my fridge, the Boffo Brown from Dark Horse sounded perfect. A gift from our esteemed Beer Editor M.Sheppard, it promises a rich flavor that should keep "creamy" in mind but still be able to re-pave over the rich moussaka.

Jim Koch from Sam Adams: Micro Loans, Craft Beer & Goose Island

Last week I had the privilege to talk with Jim Koch, the founder of Sam Adams, about their new "Brewing the American Dream" effort as well as what constitutes craft beer and craft brewers, where Goose Island now fits and what's coming up from Sam Adams.

The Brewing the American Dream program focuses on individuals and start ups that wouldn't qualify for conventional bank loans as the capital request would be too small or they have a non-traditional model that wouldn't qualify.

CF: How do you evaluate these opportunities differently than a loan officer would?
JK: “Loan officers won’t even look at the kinds of businesses that we’re lending to. The purpose of the (program) is to make loans of $25K and under. We’re lending in the funding gap.  A bank cannot make money doing this kind of lending. It’s not uncommon for us in the program to help the applicant fill out the application.”
                                           
CF: Do you ever redirect business people who don't qualify?
JK:”Our objective is to help small business grow, succeed and create jobs. (Our speed coaching provides) 20 minutes with experts… open to everyone. (We've) made 100s of loans and 1500+ coaching/educational engagements ."

Do We Eat Too Much Meat & Dairy? Obviously.

This should come as no surprise to anyone. The American diet, and increasingly the global diet, is too meat/dairy focused. I have a really tough time thinking about a sit-down meal that doesn't revolve around a protein which would make up more than 50% of the bulk of the meal.

From brisket and Thanksgiving turkey to Bacon Double Cheeseburgers, cheesy pizza or meatball subs on the run, egg platters for breakfast, bowls of ice cream for dessert. We are thoroughly engaged in our meat and dairy. It's not healthy. There are studies done ad nauseum that corrolate diet to cancer risk and universally they demonstrate that there is a link. One such study "Meat Intake & Mortality" surveyed over half a million people and concludes that there is a link to "death". Not cancer, death. This includes heart failure and other illnesses we as a society assume are unavoidable. The study done in 2009 suggests that it would be avoidable.

Recipe– Grilled Lamb Kebabs, Veggies, Yogurt Sauce, etc.

I've been cooking on the grill every week for the past month or so and the protein I come back to is lamb, specifically ground lamb. Here is the first of a couple of really simple recipes that are flamably fun on the grill, especially since the fat content of the lamb I get must be really freakin high. No wonder it's super cheap!

Lamb Kebabs and Grilled Veggies

1/2 lb raw lamb per person
wood skewers
2 shallots or 1 yellow onion diced fine
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Morningstar Farms Sausage Links vs. Johns All Natural

I've always been of the mind that if there's something that is the equivalent of meat, why eat the meat version? I've also had many conversations, mostly with non-vegetarians, about how odd it is that so much vegetarian protein is in the shape of and named for meat products. Sausage is a good example. It's a ground meat product that is stuffed, traditionally, into intestine casings... is "sausage" appetizing for a vegan? Or Tofurkey? Veggie Burger? Riblets? Chik'n nuggets? My argument is that it's a cue as to the texture and taste and on a base-level people want what they know. The other argument is what can you do? A burger is a handy, literally, way to eat and cook and that goes double for tubes as well... but frankly (pun intended) "tubes" may be even less appetizing than sausage. The sausages in question here are the breakfast kind. they are both frozen, pre-cooked and should be available in your grocer's freezer.

Out of the box they both look as expected. The Jones has a formed look and Morningstar has a tube-look. When frozen, the veggies don't stick together while the Jones linkes do. Per link the nutritional info breaks down like this:

The Front Lawn vs. The Front Vegetable Garden

The front lawn is a waste of water and requires tons of pesticide... and do you really use it? Really? Glimpse our future...

Spoon Thai – A Poor Man's Next Restaurant Tour of Thailand?

Not sure if this is the "Poor Man's Next Thai Menu" or the "Luckless Man's Next Thai Menu" but either way it's way cheaper and waaaay easier to get a table! That being said, while the rigamarole is apples and oranges, the food is far more similar. It's a testament to Next that they are able to shift to a Thai menu that provides a combination of authentic flavors while adding wonderful proteins and preparations that go a long way to create something more unique.

Spoon Thai has always been notorious for their Thai-language menu, which has changed a bit over the last 10 years. The last 2 pages look like an appendix but you can, and should, order off of that menu for unique and tasty fare that they, in the past, deemed too unusual for western palates. The lettuce leaf salad here is in that part of the menu.
 
I wasn't planning on writing this as a comparison but when I saw the catfish curry in banana leaf, it made me think of my dinner at Next. Those flavors were there but not in the same dish in the same way. In any event I ordered the Hor Mok which is steamed catfish in curry that is pressed into a banana leaf. Think of it as a curry-catfish-cake.

Garlic Scapes – Scape Pasta Sauce Recipe

I was at the Edgewater Farmer's Market on Broadway and Norwood Saturday morning and saw garlic scapes. I've seen them on menus but never really think to cook with them. They come in beautiful long stems and smell, not surprisingly, like garlic. I tasted them raw and they have a very peppery flavor. The stalks are also very course. They would make one hell of a stir in a bloody mary! In any case I figured that I'd cook them up to mellow the flavor and then strain out the fiberous parts. I decided on a quick sauce, one that's fresh and not carmelized down into anything super dense. It's a pretty hot weekend after all.

Next Restaurant – Tour of Thailand, Not Bangkok 2060

I'm not sure where I had it in my head that the next concept from Next Restaurant was Bangkok 2060.  When I asked the waitstaff about what makes this restaurant "futuristic" they said that it's more of a tour of Thailand, not futuristic. I'll confess that I was disappointed. A big part of what really worked with Paris 1906 was the believability of that history in the food. The flavors were big and French but also conveyed authenticity and laborious techniques which are simply not done anywhere else anymore. It made it more than the Next Restaurant's "take" on French food. A restaurant set in the future, in Bangkok, when the Bangkok Post states that "the planet may be unrecognizable by 2050" –what a concept! How do you cook with no abundance of fresh water? Half of Bangkok will theoretically be underwater by then... not to mention placesettings! In any case it wasn't to be.

What is at Next now is a broader-stroke interpretation of Thai cuisine and while I'm sure I can get into a fight about just how good our Thai restaurants are in Chicago, all this said, I wasn't looking for an authentic dish.

Escoffier, A Guide to Modern Cookery – Paris 1907

NEXT Restaurant goes from Paris 1906  to Bankok 2060... So try Paris 1906 at home with Escoffier's famed 1907 cookbook.

George Auguste Escoffier is roundly admired as one of the primary chefs to define what we understand as French cuisine as well as the brigade system in restaurants. While he shares many innovations with Antoine Careme who is the father of haute cuisine, it is Escoffier, above all others, who's name is synonymous with modern cooking.

This all boils down to his 1907 classic, "A Guide to Modern Cookery" from 1907. From fonds to roux, house lamb to chicken terrines, if you can manage the recipes in this book your stomach will get a glimpse of the past. There are no pictures, apart from the one posted here and I frankly haven't attempted a single dish. Here's a link to the PDF file...Download the cookbook.

Feel free to download it, cook from it, but be sure to share the results and opinions on the results! Since Next is switching from Paris 1906 to Bankok 2060, this might be the next closest thing to vintage cuisine. 

--Josh Brusin

Next Restaurant – Paris 1906... In Pictures.

CLICK TO ENLARGE. PICTURED IN ORDER: Gougeres/Hors d’Oeuvres (assorted bites)/Potage à la Tortue Claire (turtle soup)/Filet de Sole Daumont (filet of sole)/Suprêmes de Poussin (chicken supreme)/Caneton Rouennais à la Presse (pressed duck)/Gratin de Pommes de Terre à la Dauphinoise (potato gratin)/Salade Irma/Bombe Ceylan

At this point a review of Next Paris 1906 is a bit late. The best I can do is provide my photos from that night's dinner and say that the reserve wine pairing was worth the money. From the gougeres-amuse through the mignardises (unpictured), it was terrific. The accessibility of the meal reminded me of a meal I had at Grant-era Trio.

Australia Complicit in Animal Cruelty – Boycott?

Australia has a problem with their policy of exporting live animals for slaughter abroad in other countries. Specifically, Indonesia. Indonesia lacks anti-cruelty regulation. A quick google search should find some --extremely-- offensive videos that I won't post directly here. Even Aussie butchers are backing a ban on this type of export.

The Sydney Morning Herald has the story in a nutshell. It's pretty obvious that the government is in a compromised position and due to trade scale, 500,000 animals are exported annually. But that's no excuse for their position.

Setting Expectations Higher for NEXT Restaurant

This is a neat video about Alinea on their Anniversary from the staff at Next. It really sets the bar even higher for Next. Considering I'm looking forward to a dinner there this weekend, I am kind of re-grading my expectations quite higher. I'm curious to see how well the disciplines from Alinea can be "taught" and how comparably mindblowing the food will be.

NEXT Restaurant to Dark Lord Days - Hype or Hassle?

"I never expected that we would sell 20 tables in 1.5 seconds as we did this morning."
-Nick Kokonas, co-owner of NEXT (on LTHforum)

These days people are waiting in line for hours to get into Aviary, they're refreshing their Firefox browsers every second for hours on end to get tickets to NEXT. Craft beer fans had about a 2 minute window to score tickets online for Dark Lord Days and a slightly bigger window for Baconfest... Is it all worth it?

To quote Charlie Bucket from Willy Wonka, "I bet those Golden Tickets make the chocolate taste terrible."

Google's New Recipe Search - So I Gotta Reformat EVERYTHING?!

How frustrating it is to, on one hand, be buoyed by technology that provides access to hundreds of thousands of people, a plethora of different forms of media to engage them- video, audio, photo, text, and have the option of an immediate interaction and response but on the other hand, be forced to keep up with an ever-flowing spigot of innovation. Google has added a "Recipe" search option and indie websites are all atwitter (sorry, I had to) about their inability to keep up.

The bottom line is that larger corp sites are more capable to optimize their SEO tactics constantly and thusly get coveted placement. This includes things like how long it takes to make (faster is better?!) and calorie count (fewer is better?!) I think, if you're satisfied with the same recipe that everyone else sees, you're not exactly my target. That said I'm adding recipe-optimization to my growing to-do list.