ronnie_suburban

Van Ball's? =R=

Oh! Thanks for the report, Dick. Much appreciated. To this day, the best restaurant meal I've ever had in my life was at Le Francais with Roland at the helm. Needless to say, this is very exciting news. =R=

Yes, the blood sausage with barley was available and it was excellent. I simply forgot to mention it above (along with several other items, I'm sure). I also agree about the desserts. I probably could have found a few desserts that were to my liking but I almost always prefer savory to sweet so I didn't even bother. I was bummed that I really wasn't able to do any shopping (came home without anything for dinner, in spite of a promise to my wife) because I was in a work situation and with other people. I would have felt bad asking them to wait around while I shopped. I considered doing so momentarily and then thought better of it. Today's lunch, regardless of its source, will pale by comparison. =R=

There is a great thread at LTH Forum documenting a group meal at Moto earlier this week. You can read about how the event came to be here and here. =R=

I had lunch today at the Bobak's on Archer and it was a meat-fest beyond compare. I'd forgotten just how much I love Bobak's. Not only is their cafeteria filled with seriously delicious treats, but their massive grocery store is a food shopper's delight. Here are just a few of the better items I sampled today: Beef pierogi Polish-style Hambuger in brown gravy with onions Pork Rib Roast on the bone Smoked Pork Butt Lamb Roast Fresh Polish Sausage Stuffed Cabbage Rolls Breaded Pork Loin Apple Pancakes Potato Pancakes There was just an obscene amount and variety of food. I could go on and on. I ended up not finishing very much, just so I could try as many items as possible. When I left, I could barely stand. Price per person was about $8.00. If you're in the neighborhood (and even if you're not), I highly recommend Bobak's. Bobak's Sausage Company 5275 S. Archer Avenue Chicago, IL (773) 735-5334 =R=

February 2, 2005... From today's Chicago Tribune - Good Eating section: When your computer doubles as a wine shop...Bill Daley explores the on-line world of wine. Skillet sense...Robin Mather Jenkins with the 4-1-1 on frying pans. Salud Tequila Lounge...Janet Franz files a Cheap Eats review of this popular Wicker Park Mexican. Pretzels with a twist...Renee Enna compares several different makes of wheat pretzels and ranks them from top to bottom. A sweet destination in the South Loop...Barbara Revsine visits Canady Le Chocolatier. At sea about what, and how much, to eat?...What's that sound I hear in my ear as I make my way back to the buffet? My mother? No, again it's Janet Helm with the nutritional advice I wasn't really seeking. ===== From today's Chicago Sun Times - Food section: Here's what makes bowl super: food...Sandy Thorn Clark reminds us what Super Bowl Sunday is really all about -- THE FOOD! Chefs, disco make the rounds at benefit gala...Denise I. O'Neal previews the upcoming Grand Chefs Gala wherein the winners of the Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence will be announced. Tastings around town...Celeste Busk previews upcoming events at Kimbark Liquors, Bin 36, Blue Agave, Cafe Matou, Butera, Bistro 110, Spiaggia and Just Grapes. ===== From today's Daily Herald - Food section: Cooking classes...a comprehensive listing of upcoming area food events, tastings and classes; broken out by day. ===== And last but certainly not least, in this week's installment of Chicago Magazine's Dish...Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby explain why it's important to always bring business cards with you to the bathroom. ===== =R= <><><><><> Media Digest Notes... Updates from some Chicago media outlets, which do not 'go to press' on Wednesday mornings, will be edited into each week's post as they become available. Please do not reply on this thread. For discussion of any stories which are linked here, please feel free to start a new thread or contact the forum host or digester who will be happy to do it for you.

Ouch!! =R=

Welcome, lynnbeth Another comparative plus is that in discussion forums, owners, chefs, etc. have open opportunity for rebuttal. Not so with print reviews. =R=

I just learned that Vie is offering what sounds like a wonderful program on Monday through Wednesday nights: 3-course prix fixe menu for $30 and 50% off on all bottles of wine. I think it would be especially tough for us northsiders to take advantage of this, but if I were in the neighborhood (or even somewhat closer) I'd definitely give this a whirl. =R=

Looks great, Paul! Perhaps you could start a separate thread about Waterstone. ← Congrats on the launch! I agree that the site looks great and it would be wonderful if you were to start a dedicated thread for discussion of Waterstone. =R=

I noticed the same things at BIN 36, Lincolnshire when we were there a couple of months back. It does seem like a strange marriage and while the move to combine the 2 entities under one roof may have been made for a variety of solid reasons yes, it does smack of desperation -- or at least it did to us. =R=

More media buzz surrounding Moto. Chicago Magazine's Dish reports this week that Chef Cantu will be appearing on NBC's Today Show on Monday, January 31. Break a leg, chef! =R=

It is the most costly fundraiser of this type I can remember hearing about in Chicago. I'm sure it'll be worth it and the proceeds will benefit a very worthy cause -- the Charlie Trotter Culinary Foundation. But yeah, $450 is a lot of dough and that only gets you in stag. I hope that if anyone here attends, they will report back. I'm sure it's going to be a very cool event. =R=

Just received word about what promises to be a spectacular fundraising dinner at Trotter's on March 6. The event will feature Chef Trotter, Heston Blumenthal (Fat Duck) and Tetsuya Wakuda (Tetsuya's) among others. I have to say that from my limited perspective, this is just about the biggest collection of star chefs to ever cook together in Chicago. For event details, please consult the eGullet Calendar. =R=

January 26, 2005... From today's Chicago Tribune - Good Eating section: Fiery Combination...eGullet's own Monica Bhide explores the exotic combinations that are created when Chinese and Indian cuisines are fused. What Chicago drinks...Bill Daley goes inside the numbers and analyzes Chicago's somewhat surprising grape preferences. The Queen of Cucina...Geoff Dougherty trails Marcella Hazan and delivers a grand perspective on one of the food world's most influencial forces. Schnitzel Platz...Monica Eng files a Cheap Eats review of this German eatery in Glendale Heights. Catering with a chef's touch...Ever wonder what goes on at the fanciest catered affairs in Chicago? Brian McCormick goes inside an event catered by Finesse Cuisine and reports back to all of us who will likely never receive invites. New shop for Vosges...Renee Enna reports on the upcoming opening of Vosges' new shop in Lincoln Park, slated for March. Happy Anniversary, Good Eating...on the occasion of the Good Eating section's 10th anniversary, the staff at Good Eating turn the tables and seek feedback from their readers in the form of a detailed survey. When you're in Tequila...Jane Ammeson files this primer directly from the source as she reports on the annual Tequila festival from Tequila, Mexico. Cheesemongers show winning wheys...Joe Ray files this special to the Tribune wherein he reports from Lyon, France and the first International Caesus Award. ===== From today's Chicago Sun Times - Food section: Exhibit traces Chinese restaurants' growth in U.S....Dave Hoekstra reports from New York on this exhibit, running through June, at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. Diners fail Ruby Tuesday...food editor Sue Ontiveros closes the envelope on a valiant yet failed attempt by a nation chain to inject some sense into dining out. Here's help toward critical lifestyle changes...with the new U.S. government dietary guidelines now released, food editor Sue Ontiveros gives us that pep talk that we can probably all use. Rockit Bar goes deep with food, televisions...Denise I. O'Neal scours the town to bring word of various Super Bowl promotions that will be taking place -- not only at Rockit but many other venues as well. Tastings around town...Celeste Busk previews upcoming events at Fogo de Chao, Va Pensiero, Schaefer's and Piazza Bella Trattoria to name just a few. ===== From today's Daily Herald - Food section: Cooking classes...a comprehensive listing of upcoming area food events, tastings and classes; broken out by day. ===== And last but certainly not least, in this week's installment of Chicago Magazine's Dish...Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby report that Grant Achatz has named Alinea's new pastry chef. He's Alex Stupak, who, for the last 3 years, has been the pastry chef at Clio in Boston. Also served up by Dish is the crucial detail of Alinea's opening date, which now appears to be targeted for mid April. ===== =R= <><><><><> Media Digest Notes... Updates from some Chicago media outlets, which do not 'go to press' on Wednesday mornings, will be edited into each week's post as they become available. Please do not reply on this thread. For discussion of any stories which are linked here, please feel free to start a new thread or contact the forum host or digester who will be happy to do it for you.

Moto is even being talked about in Dallas - as is eGullet too. Nancy Nichols from her "Front Burner" column in today's D Magazine (scroll down): =R= Thanks to Scott-DFW for sending this along.

Just an FYI for anyone in the (Long Island, NY) area that Mr. Hamelman will be speaking at a Guildhall Gathering of the Bread Bakers Guild of America on Monday February 7, 2005. He will discuss the new book at a wine and cheese reception hosted by the Artisan Baking Center and The Bread Bakers Guild of America. For more information, please consult the eGullet calendar. =R= Edit: Corrected location from PA, to Long Island

Rob, Thanks very much for the write-up. It's especially timely in light of Dennis Ray Wheaton's article, "Suburban Passage," in the February issue of Chicago Magazine. In the article, DRW lists 3 suburban restaurants as examples of the fact that ". . . suburban dining has come of age": Prairie Grass Cafe (Northbrook), Trio Atelier (Evanston) and Vie (Western Springs), which he considers to be the best of the 3 of them. It sounds like your experience didn't quite match up with his. Unfortunately, I haven't yet dined at Vie, so I cannot compare nor contrast it with the other 2. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with being pastry determinist. =R=

The folks at Chicago Magazine have graciously granted us permission to reprint the article here: =R= ===== "Techno-Chefs" by Jonathan Black This is a test. In front of you on a table is a small metal contraption with constricting spidery arms. On the wall, a list headed "Tools from Other Disciplines" includes an "Oil Extraction Screw Press" and a "Disc Bowl Centrifuge." A large carton on the floor is labeled "Heat Gun." You are in: a) the lab of Frankenstein; b) the dungeon of a dominatrix; c) the office of Grant Achatz, a chef. If you picked "c," consider yourself a foodie, and a cutting-edge one at that. Certainly you've heard of Achatz, the former chef at Trio and now on the verge of opening his own restaurant in Lincoln Park, the highly anticipated Alinea (pronounced "uh-LINN-ee-uh"). Perhaps you've already booked a table. You wouldn't be alone. Achatz is part of the latest gourmet trend, put forth by forward-thinking chefs: Some call it "culinology"; others call it engineered food. Whatever it is, the movement's epicenter is here in Chicago, and includes two other high-profile chefs, Graham Elliot Bowles at Avenues and Homaro Cantu at Moto. They're all under 31, they're all affable, chatty, and guileless-and they're all pushing the envelope like never before. Jacques Derrida is dead, but don't tell these deconstructionists. They manipulate food. They take apart its components. They smash it in centrifuges or throw it into dehydrators or hit it with nitrous oxide. Some people call them science geeks. You know they're artists. Here is one of Achatz's new ideas. He's going to serve something but you won't know what it is. It will be totally concealed in a container. Most likely the "dish" won't even be identified on the menu. On Achatz's computer it's a silvery ball that pops open when you squeeze it-"Kind of like a European change purse," he notes-and shoots the food into your mouth. You'll recognize it instantly-or what it tastes like. If this sounds more like Jeopardy! than fine dining-well, you're out of the loop, pal. You like your PB&J with stuff from a jar between slices of bread. Here's how Achatz will serve up his PB&J amuse. He'll dunk two skinned grapes on a stem into homemade peanut butter, wrap them in micro-thin bread, and zap it with a heat gun to turn the grapes into "jelly." Maybe you wonder whether these guys can actually cook-or whether they're like cubists who picked the art form because they couldn't draw faces. Rest easy. Bowles was among Food & Wine's best new chefs in 2004. Achatz was in F & W's class of 2002. Cantu was named Chicago's best new chef in the pages of this magazine last May. And they have worked in some of the top kitchens in the country, including The French Laundry (Achatz), Tru (Bowles), and Charlie Trotter's (all three). The new upheaval in the kitchen took off during the late nineties in Spain, centered on trailblazing chefs Joan Roca, Andoni Luis Aduriz, and, most famously, Ferran Adrià at his legendary restaurant on the Costa Brava in Spain, El Bulli. A few others stand on Adrià's shoulders in the United States, notably José Ramón Andrés at Minibar in Washington, D.C., and Wylie Dufresne at WD-50 in New York. But Chicago is ground zero in terms of talent and concentration, and the reasons are Achatz, Bowles, and Cantu. All three share a derring-do and irreverence, which Bowles attributes to youth. All live to produce fare that's not just unusual but unique. Avenues might seem an unlikely locale for Bowles to lead a daring culinary revolution. It's the high-end restaurant in The Peninsula Chicago-a place so swank it was crowned the top hotel in America by the Zagat Survey. You could drive a bus between the tables, and the linen is so cushy it feels like a bed. Under its former chef David Hayden, it was a luxury seafood restaurant. In August 2004, Hayden left, and Bowles, who had previously spent five years in Chicago but at the time was thrilling patrons at The Jackson House Inn in Woodstock, Vermont, applied for the job and got it. "The majority of the menu at Avenues is very straightforward," Bowles quickly points out. "Frog legs risotto with shaved truffles and fried parsley and garlic emulsion. It's all classic. Of course, on the chef's menu," he adds with a twinkle, "you're putting yourself in the chef's hands." One dish consists of blood sausage and a sea scallop-live. "If you drop a little salt you can watch it twitch." He pops oysters into a soda gun, which injects them with CO2 to give them "fizz." He serves foie gras on a stick, encased in Pop Rocks, and calls it a "foie-lipop." Eggplant soup? "We'll start with olives and purée them, then hit them with a little nitrous, which turns them into black foam, kind of like shaving cream." To replicate the traditional pairing of lamb with mint jelly, he pulverizes Altoids and serves them with sautéed spinach topped off with a little jus. "You think it's really menthol in flavor because of the Altoids," he says. He makes his corn soup with Corn Nuts-the kind you get at a gas station. "I buzz them into a powder. You can spend 30 hours trying to duplicate that great taste or buy it at a store. The idea in a classic kitchen is that everything has to be made in the kitchen. But nobody's harvesting their own flour. Nobody's harvesting sugar cane. So everything's fair. It's fair game." Bowles does respect the sanctity of fresh organic ingredients. He likes a good steak and broils it like anyone else. He's no wild man at the stove. He plates food in the open kitchen at Avenues much like a surgeon in the operating theatre, bent studiously over his work, exuding calm and confidence. Like his compatriots, he's a man working at the top of his profession. (See Dennis Ray Wheaton's review in Dining Out, page 44.) Bowles is not one to indulge in change for its own sake. "You can create a dish that explodes and think, Sure, they got rushed to the hospital, but isn't it cool? No," he says. "We do try and restrain ourselves." Homaro Cantu of Moto goes so far out on a limb, no one's ever used the word "restraint" to describe him. His kitchen is unlike any other. The garde-manger-a cool, well-ventilated area where cold dishes are prepared-is dwarfed by four cylinders (two of carbon dioxide, one of helium, and one of liquid nitrogen) that look big enough to power a space probe. There are stacks of strange-looking clear boxes that might contain lab mice. But no; they're Cantu's self-cooking ovens, which, thanks to an ingenious layer of polymer, retain heat for up to six hours if unopened. Cantu brings a box to 350 degrees in an oven, slides in a piece of fish, and then it's delivered to your table, where, through a couple of courses, you watch it cook. "Would you like a piece of maki?" he asks. What he offers me is a business card-size piece of paper with pictures of maki. On the back are dozens of microdots, intense flavors of rice and tuna and seaweed wrap. I bite off half. I could be at Mirai Sushi. "It's on water-soluble paper. The image on the front is printed with edible ink. I took a bubble-jet printer fitted with specially designed print heads. The orange comes from carrots; the black's from a mix of beets and purple potatoes. I can create any color or flavor. It's vegan, [and] no calories whatsoever. It's become one of our favorite items. Lots of people request it to go. A lady wanted 30 for a private party at home. Here-have another." Cantu is a friendly fellow, but he peers with an otherworldly intensity from behind squarish brown-framed glasses. He's the guy whose answers you tried to copy in high-school chemistry. He always wanted to invent. Right now he's got patents or patents pending on 30 inventions, including the polymer boxes and his corkscrew utensils. He's very pleased with these spoons and forks. They enable him to thread herbs through the handles or stick on a piece of garlic zapped with a heat gun. "Flavor is perceived 75 percent through smell; that's your palatable experience. With these utensils you close your mouth and inhale. It's 75 percent taste you don't usually get." He works in conjunction with DeepLabs, a high-tech network of 15 scientists, several of whom are aerospace engineers and rocket scientists. According to Cantu, the Chicago-based company does 90 percent of the surveillance work for the FBI. It was thanks to DeepLabs that Cantu just received the first restaurant shipment in North America of liquid nitrogen. He is very excited about the lethal gas. It means he can make hot ice cream. Tiny pellets will be frozen on the outside but remain gooey warm inside. He can't say enough about DeepLabs. Whatever he dreams up they oblige with a device or product to help make it happen. Right now he's thinking of food that levitates. He is working on ways to invisibly support food, including injecting helium into foams and spherical encapsulations that would be lighter than air. "I will not sleep until it happens," he says. Also in his dreams, guests can eat a menu. It will arrive in a plastic bag. Then the diner will crunch it up and empty it into a bowl of "alphabet soup." Cantu is also thinking about an inflated ball of helium that will spin and release a food-friendly perfume. Aroma, you understand, is the next frontier. "But everything has to taste good," he adds. "If you give someone a maki paper it's got to taste more like a maki than a maki itself. If it doesn't you're in trouble. Then it's a David Copperfield act with no finish. You can't charge this much per meal [$160 for an 18- to 25-course tasting menu] and have people walk away hungry." In November, Moto announced plans to enlarge the front cocktail lounge and offer customers small sample plates-before they commit to the full tasting menu. The moves had insiders wondering if the original program was too far out for commercial success, but Cantu-who does things his own way-insists everything is on track. Achatz, too, has come up with a crop of new devices. Trio, during his glorious reign from 2001 to 2004, was known for its unusual presentations, including "The Antenna," a skewer that allowed diners to eat without using their hands. He was fond of the vertical, constantly pushing to get past food that "lay down." Now, like Cantu, he wants to suspend food, "like when you hang clothes out to dry and the wind blows them." He's very big on freeze-dried food, and he loves his heat gun. ("The air that comes out is 950 degrees. It's basically a hair dryer on steroids.") At Alinea some items will be served on the "anti-plate," a hockey puck-size spoon holder that elevates the utensil's handle for easy removal. His ideas extend to the restaurant itself, in particular the entryway. "It's such a crucial point. It's the diner's first and last impression. Coming in, we want a feeling of excitement, a little disorientation, intrigue, and anticipation. We don't want people to immediately see the restaurant." So don't expect to sail in and wave to your guest at a table. Achatz plans to create a narrowing hallway with a tapering wall that looks as if it had come from a fun house. On leaving, you should experience something "warm, comfortable, familiar," he says. Tricky recessed lighting, hidden on entering, will emit a "beautiful white luminous light" as you stagger out after 25 courses. Cantu has gone him one better-he has deconstructed the very idea of a restaurant, or at least its hierarchy. The entire staff rotates from the kitchen through the dining room on a regular basis. A cook may be a busboy one evening and a server the next. If all goes as planned, every member of the staff will be a certified sommelier within a year. The evening I was in the basement kitchen a call came over the internal public-address system: More waiters were needed. Andreas, a photography student with no prior restaurant experience (he had always wanted to work in a restaurant and answered an ad), was in the midst of caramelizing micronets of sugar around popcorn with a blowtorch. He immediately snuffed the flame and bounded upstairs. The son of an engineer, Cantu grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He did time at Portland's outpost of the famed Parisian cooking school Le Cordon Bleu, then dropped in on the kitchens of more than 40 restaurants for brief internships-a practice called a "stage" (pronounced "stazh") after the French, "sta-gière." Certain he was ready for the big time, he came to Chicago and literally knocked on Charlie Trotter's back door. Trotter agreed to give him a day's tryout; Cantu stayed for four years, working his way up to sous-chef. When asked about Cantu and Bowles, Trotter is complimentary but guarded. "They're two quality hardworking guys. Both are forging ahead and challenging the accepted norms. Of course it's easy to be in the moment," he adds. "It takes more wherewithal to run the marathon." Cantu, for one, insists he's in for the long haul. "Do I think it will work?" he asks. "I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it work." If it does, he'll owe a nod of gratitude to Trotter. "I took a dramatic turn when I started working at Charlie Trotter's. I saw his attention to detail. He'd walk through a room and see a speck and say, 'What is this mess?' What mess? It was a tiny piece of dirt. But it got me to focus." He hooked up with Joseph DeVito, a native of Chicago's Little Italy who had put in years at Tufano's Vernon Park Tap and later progressed to a Taylor Street staple, La Vita. DeVito met Cantu in 2003 and thought he was brilliant; within a year, Moto opened. It was a seminal event in the forward food movement. With Achatz wowing guests at Trio, the city was gathering critical mass, a point Cantu stressed to his friend-and fellow Trotter alum-Bowles. "I told Elliot a year ago when he went to Vermont, 'I'm going to be doing my food and Grant's going to be doing his and Chicago's going to be the hotbed for food ideas.' Chicago's filled with young, savvy foodies. Given the huge number of steak houses, these younger people want to experience weird things and wind up in clubs or bars. There's no place for them now." It's unlikely that many "younger people" will be padding across the deep carpet at The Peninsula and into Avenues. But Bowles is every bit as excited as Cantu about Chicago. "Was it the major reason I came here? Sure," he says. "Everyone knows about San Fran and New York. But take New York. You've got chefs doing 600 covers a night because the rent's $30,000 for this tiny room. So you have to do salmon with red wine sauce. You play it safe. There's no opportunity to be creative." Even the purported wild man of forward thinking in New York, Wylie Dufresne at the Lower East Side's WD-50, faced resistance when he opened in 2003. William Grimes, then The New York Times's dining critic, called the dishes "borderline freakish," and weighed in at a disappointing two stars. Dufresne sounds almost rueful when asked about Chicago's new scene. "I hold Chicago in high esteem," he says. "I'm interested that people are taking these new, exciting steps to build a movement there. Maybe it will translate to one here." For his part, Bowles will continue offering a nice piece of beef on the three-course prix fixe menu-both Moto and Alinea are strictly tasting-but he's got plenty of tricks up his sleeve, if you happen to be interested. He adores his soda gun so much that he throws in oysters and carbonates with glee. He also drops water into calcium chloride and combines lemon juice with sodium alginate-the chemical used to make gelcaps-"and all of a sudden I'm creating these lemon gelcaps that look like tiny balls of caviar that pop in your mouth." He's got 400 dishes on his handheld planner. He scrolls down the list, stopping at random. Ooni ice cream with yuzu foam. A coconut Key lime pie with a curried crust and Arnolti chilies. Cornflake-crusted bay scallops with milk jam. Where does he get his ideas? Everywhere. "I think of food 24 hours a day. I'll be at a stoplight and see the red and think, Gee, berries are in season. What if I did a berry purée and put it in a dehydrator and made it a fruit loop, then wrapped it around a raw piece of fish? It's like being a musician. You're always riffing." One thing Bowles never does is go to a cookbook. Not for recipes, anyway. "No one uses cookbooks for recipes," he says disdainfully. "They look at the pictures. It's all about who can plate. El Bulli, the mecca, the temple, came out with a cookbook. It's $300 and two inches thick. It's all pictures with a little CD-ROM of recipes. I guarantee no chef has ever opened the CD-ROM." Certainly no one is using a recipe at Alinea's test kitchen in Kenilworth. Instead there's a fat binder with probable menu items like "Stuffed Leeks" and this single instruction: "Basically just determine the best way to cook them and hollow them out. We will work on the flavors later." The kitchen is in the home of the entrepreneur Nick Kokonas, who used to eat at Trio monthly, and became such a rabid fan of Achatz that he happily funded Alinea. It's a fabulous kitchen with woodwork to die for and a six-burner hooded Viking stove. Achatz imported a few appliances of his own, such as a Cryovac food packager and the $4,000 Swiss Pacojet, an industrial-strength blender with fearsome blades that Kokonas says "could go through concrete." It's being used to shave slivers off hard-as-rock frozen apple sorbet, just to see how it will turn out. Achatz is here with his two sous-chefs, John Peters and Curtis Duffy, both Trio veterans. Three months before the Alinea opening, he is creating new dishes and fine-tuning others. Right now he's got a KitchenAid mixer furiously frothing water from steamed mussels and clams, plus aromatics, Pernod, and vermouth, to create what he's calling a "shellfish sponge." Fifteen minutes later it's inflated into a poofy meringuelike pillow. Achatz scoops up several spoonfuls and slathers them atop a ringed puddle of pear purée. Around it he adds intricate tiny forms he has carved from a pear, then tops the pear city with slivers of mussels and clams and, finally, micro fennel and a sprinkling of licorice powder. "It'll be a transitional course," he explains, "from sweet into savory. With the pear and licorice it's a good transition after the four-course dessert. It's right in the middle of the largest tasting menu, probably dishes 17 to 21." Elsewhere in the kitchen his team is working to thin the membrane of a tiny caramel sphere, which will be injected with powders of cream, butter, and egg yolk. It's the Alinea dried crème brûlée and will be served in the "squid," a gizmo that clutches the food with contracting metal threads. In final stages is an artful clump of stone crab that perches on a chilled slab of puréed coconut, cashew, and parsnips. Achatz is particularly enchanted with a single spoon containing the four basic tastes-sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Each is represented by a marble-size translucent ball, created by dropping dollops into a calcium solution. Amid all the gourmet geekery, it's surprising to stumble across a simple recipe for a "yummy frosting" in the Alinea binder. The recipe is for a woman named Angela. "Oh, that," says Achatz. "It's for my girlfriend's birthday. She likes the same thing every year. Crabs with drawn butter and German chocolate cake." He gives a shrug and goes back to his calcium bath. ===== thanks again to Jonathan Black, Jeff Ruby and everyone at Chicago Magazine

January 19, 2005... From today's Chicago Tribune - Good Eating section: Crisp and clean...Bill Daley takes on the delicate task of pairing up varietal oysters with their appropriate white wine counterparts. Tasting notes are included. `Power foods': What's really behind the labels?...in a special to the Tribune, Betsy Noxon explores the reality behind today's labeling and packaging glitz. Hecky's of Chicago...food editor Carol Mighton Haddix files a Cheap Eats review of this "new" Chicago BBQ outpost spun off by a long-time Evanston favorite. See's-ing the Midwest...Rick Asa files this special which details the new See's Candies store in Downers Grove -- their first year-round store ever opened east of the Mississippi. Calling all celebrity-chef wannabes...Bill Daley details Cooking Under Fire, a Reality/Game show from PBS set to debut on April 27. Judges will include Ming Tsai and Michael Ruhlman. ===== From today's Chicago Sun Times - Food section: Grills come in from the cold...in a sad concession to the realities of Chicago winters, Sandy Thorn Clark explores a multitude of indoor grilling options. Americans need to adjust to new dietary guidelines...Sandy Thorn Clark reports on the federal government's new dietary guidelines and the positive reception they are receiving in some quarters. Books for cooks...food editor Sue Ontiveros reports on the newest print offering from Food Network, Making It Easy. Tastings around town...Celeste Busk previews upcoming tastings at Que Syrah Fine Wine Shop, Settimana Cafe, Shaw's Crab House, Le Colonial and Salud. Kendall in the city...Denise I. O'Neal reports on Kendall College's new digs and rounds up a variety of upcoming, food events and specials. ===== From today's Daily Herald - Food section: Cooking classes...a comprehensive listing of upcoming area food events, tastings and classes; broken out by day. ===== And last but certainly not least, in this week's installment of Chicago Magazine's Dish...Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby bring news of Cafe Simone, the newest venture from Didier Durand (Cyrano’s Bistrot & Wine Bar), set to open in early March. ===== =R= <><><><><> Media Digest Notes... Updates from some Chicago media outlets, which do not 'go to press' on Wednesday mornings, will be edited into each week's post as they become available. Please do not reply on this thread. For discussion of any stories which are linked here, please feel free to start a new thread or contact the forum host or digester who will be happy to do it for you.

There was a very nice metion by Jeff Lyon about Alinea and our project in this week's Chicago Tribune Magazine: =R=

Inspired by Fifi's post, I cooked up a huge batch of Chickeny chicken last Sunday (bought the enormo-pak of boneless, skinless thighs at Costco) for my family and some friends. Now, the chicken is all gone I'm still sitting on a beautiful, large stash of paprika'd onions. Hungarian Onion Soup? I think so. =R=

I appreciate the discussion and feel much more informed than I did before it. The reason that the Advantium was suggested/recommended to us is specifically due to the limitations of putting an oven in a relatively standard office space (space, venting, etc.). I have to say that the portable DeLonghi convection oven I mentioned upthread seems to be a better option for us. I've used that unit to turn out some great stuff over the years, it'll fit on the countertop and I no longer have a use for it at my house (bought it back when I lived in a house with only 1 oven). I think we (at my company) have to proceed with caution if we stick with the Advantium or make some other arrangements. I'll continue to update as we move along. Thanks again for all the comments. =R=

Yes, Andie, this is what I kind of fear with this unit. I have large (but portable) DeLonghi convection oven which I am considering bringing to the office (and leaving here). That will take care of some of our cooking requirements but still, I don't want us to then install an additional unit that we will rarely or never use. And Nullo, the answer is no. From what little I know about Advantium, one must still use the conventional, microwave-safe, non-metallic vessels with it. Thanks, both of you, for the comments. =R=

Thanks, John. I sincerely appreciate the input. We've ordered one for the kitchen in our office (at work). I'm just not sure it's the right move and it's still reversable. But, I also don't envision us doing a huge amount of serious cooking here either. Again, thanks very much for taking the time to reply. =R=