From the Ledge

I’m sorry to disappoint anyone, but, despite the title, this blogpost is not about Chanhassen Dinner Theaters or Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding (and I’m sure some of you have thought I’ve come down from my pretty little perch on a marble pedestal…uhmmm…no), nor is it about some loud, dramatic break-up scene I may have had with a mysterious lover from out-of-town over the caprese salad at Follia (a more unlikely event than the plopping from the pedestal).  Nope, this is about a highly memorable, truly mind-opening, three hour dinner at Moto, that shrine to the progeny of science and gastronomy in the Fulton Market district, built by wunderkind chef Homaro Cantu (who, among many accolades, is probably most famous to the average person as the guy who beat Morimoto in Iron Chef, a feat in itself).  Moto, together with Alinea, really helped create the reputation and stature that Chicago now has on the world map of boundary-pushing dining, a pretty exclusive map that includes Ferran Adria’s El Bulli in Spain and Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck in the UK.  Without a doubt, its reputation for highly imaginative, unexpected, sometimes dumfounding, always thrilling, and yes, impressively theatrical dining, is well-deserved.  Although I felt that some of the dishes were less successful than others in the 12 course tasting menu, the overall experience was uniquely wonderful and indelible, and for the most part, headily delicious.  I can’t wait to go back!

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Tags: Moto

Chicago is food festival central every summer.  Of course, the motherlode of culinary shamelessness, the Taste of Chicago, just wrapped over the weekend (with the hue and cry over violence at the Taste overshadowing any discussions of the quality of the delicacies on view, or more apropros, in mouth).  There’s something for every self-styled Chicago foodie over the next several weeks; from street festivals such as the Taste of Lincoln Avenue (where Chad and Trixie-watching will trump any attempt at true gastronomy) to high-end food celebrations/benefit events such as the very noteworthy Share our Strength/Taste of the Nation at the Trump International Hotel and Tower to idiosyncratic discoveries such as the Sugar Grove Corn Boil in, uhmmm, Sugar Grove, Illinois.  Since corn isn’t my vegetable of choice and Sugar Grove isn’t this white-linen-pants-wearing boy’s kind of town, I’ll be attending, instead, two of the most interesting, culinary-wise, and most significant food events of the season.  Next week, on July 17, I’ll be at the Green City Market’s Chef’s Summer Barbecue Festival.  Of course, the Green City Market, with its wonderful selection of fresh, sustainably-farmed meat and vegetables from small farmers and agricultural producers, is legendary among Chicago food lovers, and this annual benefit event helps the Market continue to enrich Chicagoans’ culinary lives. The restaurants and chefs participating in the festival are some of the boldface names of the Chicago food scene:  Rick Bayless, Blackbird’s Paul Kahan, North Pond’s Bruce Sherman, James Beard winner Carrie Nahabedian of Naha, Food and Wine Best New Chefs of the Year Koren Grieverson (Avec) and Guiseppe Tentori (Boka), Green Zebra’s Shawn McLain, and Top Chef Chicago winner Stephanie Izard.  Wow, with this lineup, you know foodies are going to be buzzing like fruitflies to honey at the corner of Clark and Stockton.  Tickets are available online at the Spice House website or at the Green City Market every Wednesday and Saturday.  Check out the mouth-watering reportage, with yumm-o pics (yep, this whole post is unleashing not just my hunger but my inner Rachael Ray!), on last year’s event that was posted at foodie blog www.lthforum.com.

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Tags: Angelic Organics, Green City Market

Chicago foodies of all shapes, sizes, shades of black clothing, and types of Jimmy Choo heels descended on the Field Museum last night for Gourmet Magazine’s Wine Cellar, a celebration of how great a restaurant town this city is, which benefited the American Institute of Wine and Food.  Thanks to the generosity of Greg, the husband of my friend, the lovely Dulce, and who works for Gourmet in the West Coast, BFF Debra and I got to participate in what was clearly one of the highlights of the Chicago culinary calendar.  Most of the city’s top restaurants and chefs were out in full force and it was a kick, for this inveterate food fan, to see a goggles-wearing Homaru Cantu blowtorching a Baked Alaska with strawberry puree and truffle oil (aptly called, well, Baked Alaska Inferno) at the Moto table; or a very unassuming, and thankfully healthy- and boyish-looking Grant Achatz, one of the greatest chefs in the world currently, hanging butterscotch-flavored, rehydrated bacon on a deconstructed chicken-wire type contraption at the Alinea table, or Christophe David shaving slices off a humungous piece of jamon Iberico at the NoMi stand.  And since my life is always inadvertently eventful, I managed to shamelessly introduce myself and gush all over a very game Stephanie Izard, owner-chef of the deeply-mourned, dearly-departed restaurant Scylla, and currently one of the favorites to win Top Chef Chicago (yay!), as well as get filmed (yes, filmed!) by a Food Network crew doing a documentary on Achatz, while gobbling down the aforementioned Alinea bacon offering (since I never signed the release form..maybe they’ll blur my face?  But will they leave in my stretched out belly?  Could I be recognized from my stomach??? Yikes…and then *faint* with a thud!)

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Tags: Alinea, Avec, Gourmet Magazine, MK, Moto, Otom

So it all started with an intriguing post from Moto’s Homaru Cantu (yes, the guy who, together with Alinea’s Grant Achatz, put Chicago on the molecular gastronomy world map; who was chosen as one of the Top Innovators in any field by Time magazine; who mercilessly beat Morimoto on Iron Chef) six weeks ago on the foodie blog and forum, http://www.lthforum.com/.  I’d like to invite you to a special event at OTOM on April 30.  Respond quickly.  Hmmm…of course Chicago foodies buzzed, fluttered, and dashed, hoping to snag one of 20 or so slots for this mysterious April 30 event.  Lots of angst went around when there wasn’t an immediate peep heard from the OTOM/Moto crew.  Then, those who got slots received a very strange email from Omar Cantu containing timeslots in GMT time, a sentence written backward, more cryptic notes.  And once you’ve confirmed that you could actually make it on April 30 and how many guests you were bringing, you got another confirmation email back, this time from Darryl Nash, former number two guy at Moto, Cantu co-conspirator in all things scientific, unique, culinary boundary-pushing.  For the past year, he had been at the helm of  OTOM, Moto’s sister restaurant (these guys like to write things backwards and in anagrams, must be the trait of the genius mind!), which had always been billed as comfort cuisine, without the attention-demanding techniques of Moto’s culinary style.  The several times I had been at OTOM since they opened in the late spring of 2007, I’ve found the food to be very good (I especially liked the trio of mini-hamburgers and the mac and cheese), the service exceptional, and the ambience, with its post-modern 70’s Knoll vibe mixed with warehouse district hip, really fabulous, but I really didn’t get a strong sense of what defined the place.  I thought it was a great addition to the Fulton Market area, but last year, I didn’t think it was destination dining, which, understandably, was quite difficult to be in Chicago where great restaurants of every shape, size, price point, ambience, and twist were available at every street corner.  So I was very excited to go to this special event last night- I had a feeling that there was going to be an update, a revamp, a relaunch, but with the playful, idiosyncractic, smart, guerilla-type antics that these boys were capable of, I was sure it was going to be quite the unexpected night to remember.

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In addition to my usual theater, arts, and culture events, the next few weeks will also bring several interesting, significant, food-related events, many of which I will probably be excitedly blogging about.  On Thursday, March 27, BFF Linda and I are going to the joint 10^th year anniversary celebration of One SixtyBlue and Green City Market.  I still remember those early days in 1998 when One SixtyBlue first opened in a desolate stretch of Randolph Street and was better known as Michael Jordan’s “fancy restaurant” (I’m not sure if Jordan is still involved, but he was a co-owner back in the days).  Has it been ten years already?  (Well, looking at my closet bulging with pants that I remember wearing in 1998 but which now serve as, uhmm, lovely lining for the closet’s shelves…yeah, it’s been ten years, and a dozen-gulp, at least-or more pounds, already!).  One SixtyBlue over the years has gotten over this initial association it was known for (although being associated with Jordan is not a bad thing for anyone) and strengthened its reputation as one of the exceptional fine dining restaurants in the city (and a much lower profiled one than, say, its peer Blackbird, which opened the year after) thanks to the solid, creative cooking of Martial Noguier.  With Green City Market as part of the mix, this cocktail party is turning out to be a promising one, with fresh, organic, sustainable produce from the Market being used both in the food Noguier is serving during the event (I heard there is going to be a Capriole cheese sandwich, yumm) as well as in an “interactive” cocktail station (well, does interactive mean I can pour myself a tumbler, or two, or six, of organic pomegranate sidecar?  Gawd, I’ll be channeling AbFab’s Edina and Patsy once again!). In addition, there will be organic, biodynamic wines served as well as a roving fashion show by eco-friendly boutique, Pivot (bamboo palazzo pants anyone?).  Watch out for my recap of the event, which will benefit Growing Home, which provides homeless people with employment opportunities in urban agriculture.

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