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Starting Thursday March 20th.

I think Steve is on point. Is the food at Trio French? No. Through years of evolution, American chefs Americanizing French technique and thought processes it becomes hard to identify cuisines of many of the well known restaurants in this country. TFL is not a French restaurant either, maybe an "Americanized French Restaurant" What is Blue Hill, Charlie Trotter's, WD-50, Clio, and even Bouley? I don't think French, but certainly the cuisine of France has shaped the food at these places more than any other. It's easy to see the the way it drifts by looking at the lineage of Trio's food in comparison to the TFL. I spent alot of time there, much of what I was taught I still use today, but our cuisines are very different as Steve said. Cuisine is not constant, its molded by human individuality.

A mixture of dairy with different fat contents cooked sous-vide for about 19 hours at 200* F. The dairy caramelizes to resemble a savory evaporated or condensed milk.

vengroff: Honestly it is hard to recall the ones that didn't make it but I will try. Dishes that failed: a "Bubble" of pulled mozzarella cheese injected with tomato and basil. (don't rule this one out yet though.) Thai pixi sticks clear gelatin ravilois crispy mustard - liquid hot dog a version of egg drop soup where a custard was baked atop the broth in a thin layer. The guest would create the egg drop soup effect by mixing the set egg custard into the broth at the table. Of course, there will always be ideas that fail. That is the spirit of invention. And sometimes things may make there way into the dinning room that should not be there. As far as disarming the movement of forward thinking cuisine I feel there will always be people that are more sucessful than others in the same category. I doubt if one or even many will falsify the movement, the ones that do it well will always be regarded, and patronized.

Jinmyo: Overall I think people cook at home for nourishment and because they art hungry. Of course there are exceptions, but for the most part the focus is different. What we do at Trio goes beyond that and clearly draws the lines between passion and interest, necessity and endulgence, recreation and habit. Both are enjoyable, but altogether different.

FM: It really starts with the commitment to forward thinking. Once you take that step your world changes without you really knowing. For instance.. the caramel popcorn amuse that we are currently serving came from seeing an old air popper at a garge sale. Instead of seeing a kitchen gadget that nobody uses anymore ( because of the microwave) I instantantly knew we could utilize it at Trio. Do you know how many things we tried to "pop" in that thing? Finally after a bit of frustration and focus we decided to look at popcorn itself and what it meant to us. I thought of making a smooth popcorn sauce for a fish dish, its nutty, buttery richness going wonderfully with skate. When we posed the question to the kitchen "what do you think of when you think of popcorn?" A reply came out.. caramel popcorn, and there it was. Trio's sous chef put it together with a technique invented at el Bulli . Wrapping sugar around a filling of various kinds ie: quail egg. Served with a chilled sercial maderia it is awesome. Sometimes it is trial and error as the case with spice water. I played with that recipe for a long time. In my mind I knew what the end result should be, but I didn't know exactly how to get there. That is one of my fondest kitchen memories thus far, all of us tasting various recipes until we all agreed, this is the one. Alot of it comes from analyzing ingredients themselves. What balances, what contrasts, what shares the same flavor profiles, what yeilds texture, how can we present it differently, and so on. Techniques, and equipment inspire as well. Of course inspiration comes from are peers. We all take alittle, or not so little things from each other. Somebody may do white chocolate and wasabi, what if I do white chocolate and horseradish? One chef might dehydrate black olives to crust fish, hey ..what can I do with dehydrated olives? Being aware of your surroundings processing them in a creative way.

Jonathan: A co-worker told me about egullet only a few weeks ago, although looking back I remember Michael Anthony mentioning it to me in Aspen. The reason I started the TRIO QUESTIONS thread was to gain a perspective that few chefs have the opportunity or are willing to commit to. At first I just browsed, as time went on I became impressed with the stimulating, intellectual, and opinionated conversations that took place here. I knew I could learn a great deal, possibly educate and explain in the process. It is not often enough that chefs find a medium to candidly explain themselves and their food. It helps us grow, as well as the dinning public. I think if more chefs knew about egullet the response would be great. Many chefs would be open to such Q&A s if they read the quality of discussions present here, felt the passion, and realized the learning potential. I think the audience that should be tapped into is the energetic chef de parties of the restaurant world. All of my guys have found the site incredibly exciting. It reflects an enthusiasm, respect, excitement and passion about our field that we rarely see up close. This site should be mandatory reading for culinary students, teachers could build lesson plans around it, and students could really benefit. I have to think it gives the restaurant patron a great platform to discuss their experiences, meet people that share their excitement about food and gain knowledge to help them navigate their upcoming dinning endeavors. I will frequent egullet often, and although my posting will be minimal, I would like to start a Q&A with the members in the future where I ask the questions. I think this would be a truely unique perspective for chefs and all others. Until then.

wingding: Just about everything. I love Pot Belly Deli's "wreck". Double meat, no mayo, light peppers. Big fan of Thai food, and anything that my girlfriend cooks. Mostly her carnitas, and pot pies. I love to go out to a restaurant and be inspired.

Gordon: The focus depends on the focus. We make a conscious decision if we are persuing a unique combination... focusing on the blending of flavors, or if we are going to drive one or two flavors into your tongue. Each application is different and approached uniquely. For instance: "pizza" When you think of pizza what flavors do you think of? Of course people get many different things on their pizzas. But when you think of the quintessential American pizza what are you thinking? Me..mozzarella, tomato, garlic, pepperoni. So when we stumbled across this "vegetable paper" that melted in your mouth we knew it would be a great canvas for an interesting way to present a familar flavor. Pizza seemed to have enough intense, easily recognizable flavors to work, so we broke it down. What is pizza? And how do we get the flavors on a tiny square? When we were done ...it tastes like pizza. Integral? You be the judge. Osetra caviar - kola nut ice, frothed milk A very unusual caviar dish, yes. But it shows very well. The sweetness of the kola nut infusion that is turned in to an ice balances nicely with the saltiness of the roe. Texture is incredible, the firm crunch of the ice melting away to leave you with the texure of the extremely cold eggs. The absolute earthiness of the kola nuts (those of you that have had them, or remember old cola sodas that used the real nuts will back me on this one) blending perfectly with the rich nuttiness of the caviar. The caviar is the focus, and stays front the whole way through. The other ingredients are present but playing a support role. It is a caviar dish. I think that is one of the things we do really well, is keep the integrity of ingredients. People comment on how intensely flavorful the food is, how distinguishable the flavors are. If we set out with a flavor goal, we will attain it or scrap it.

LML: Cuisine is defienately not constant. I think Ferran summed it up best when he said he would not be satisfied until he could serve a seemingly bare plate. It will be just like now, there will always be chefs that think beyond, some day the cuisine of Trio with be considered "passe". And people will be executing it like people are executing "dated food" now. Doesn't make that food not good, just not "of the moment". Food will continue to evolve as people evolve, it is our nature.

Chefdontl: I am from MI so I sypathize with you. The shear number of people in these cities make for more people that are into food and wine. Also more open minded consumers, which is very important when you are doing this concept. Look at some of the great restaurants in this country though, TFL is in a town of 3000, that almost doesn't count though as Napa has surpassed DisneyLand as a tourist destination, but what about the Herb Farm, The Inn at Little Washington, and some others that I can't think of right now. In Europe it is almost more common for the elite to be in the middle of nowhere. Trio is not in Chicago, we are a 25 minute cab ride from the city. Doesn't sound like much, we undoubtably would be much busier downtown. I would say go where the people are. I read recently that Tetsuya moved his place into the heart of Sydney from the burbs. You don't want to compromise your vision because you have to chase numbers. Field of dreams is a fantasy.

jefft To imagine how my cuisine will develop is very hard to say. I look back to July 5th 2001, when we started at Trio, we have come along way. I am sure there is a development curve somewhere, but I feel we are far from a plataeu. Of course, there are so many places I would love to go and experinece the cuisine. Japan is #1 right now. As far as chefs' cuisines I would like to explore: Gagnaire Blumenthal Bras those are the top three.

explorer: Expectations are the enemy in some cases. We have all experienced watching the trailers and commercials for the "hit summer movie" only to go and be dissappointed. As a restaurant all we can do is to maintain the standard and evolve past it. For regular diners we obviously take extra effort to create new menu items and different stylistic touches to keep the excitement level high. I think guests should have a reasonable expectation when they dine, based on the standard the restaurant projects and reality of the objective nature of what we provide. I doubt any restaurant would intentionally avoid or cap the buzz about itself, unless it were untruthful.

stone: My comments were made under the assumption that a person would have a passion for cooking. That being the case I feel this industry offers many possibilites to fullfill that passion, besides attaining the positions the small percentage of Charlie Trotters, Thomas Kellers, and Ferran Adrias occupy.

jogoode: No, Trio's oysters and beer only shares three common denominators with TFL's oysters and pearls. It uses oysters, fish eggs are present, and the seemingly similar name.The dish is as follows: Two raw oysters, usually Kumomoto. Ginger gelee, micro sliced scallions, anchor steam beer foam and steelhead roe. I believe technique is fair game but dishes are not. In other words we use alot of technique that I learned at TFL: stock work, reductions, sauces, blanching, you name it!. You won't see anything resembling a cornet, mac and cheese lobster, oysters and pearls and so on. The industry is very competitive, the "stealing of dishes" or concepts is going to happen. The tough thing to quantify is where is the line between "stealing" and simply following the movement of food starts and ends. It happens everywhere, in art, in automobiles, literature, everything. Just like food, time is marked by periods of homogenization. The impressionist era lead by Monet, the enormous size and fins of the cars in the mid 50's to early 60's, style is persuasive. I have missed 4 services since I began at Trio nearly 2 years ago. 2 were James Beard related, my presence at the awards for my rising star nomination, to prep the Trio dinner we did at the Beard House and 2 for the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen where I was awarded in the class of Best New Chefs 2002. No, I do not employ a personal assistant, although many high end chefs do. Please see the post "Thomas Keller's Influence" in this Q&A, it may give an insight into Chef Keller.

lizzee: Thomas is THE influence in my development as a chef. My time spent with him was one of ultimate learning and growth. It was more than cooking at TFL. It was Thomas washing pots, and doing dishes when the guys were is the shits, Thomas mopping the floor when something spilled, working like a madman 6-7 days a week (14 services), picking up a gum wrapper in the driveway, cleaning the blender and wrapping the cord when he was finished so it looked brand new, taking the time to show the chef de parties exactly how he wanted something done and why he wanted it that way, the respect he gave the cooks, the trust he had in their abilities, the way he looked at food..I mean looked at it ..like it was a diamond ring, the way he would do the "bottom of the barrel" so to speak jobs in the kitchen..peeling favas ..cutting brunoise the stuff the commis did, the way he got upset when something went wrong, how he talked to the guests when they came back to the kitchen , the way he thought about food, his generosity, all of this stuff.. plus the way he cooked. That may be the the most glaring difference between him (at this stage in his career) and myself where I am now, the way he feels about repetoire, signature dishes and creating the "perfect dish". He owns many, and why wouldn't anyone want to show the world those perfect dishes? Furthermore, does one tire of eating a perfect dish? I can't count how many cornets , oyster and pearls, mac and cheese, coffee and donuts, agnolotti, and so on I have eaten. I totally respect his position, and maybe someday I will adopt it. But for right now I want to create constantly, I would rather not have signature dishes, only a signature style. Just like he did when he was at my career stage?....

Jaz: I believe people do not come to Trio for nourishment or sustanance. I doubt whether they come because they are hungry. People are making reservations long in advance, how do they know they will be hungry? In fact I would say people plan their schedule to become intentionally hungry to go to high end restaurants to eat. If you make a reso at TFL 2 months before you actually dine, I would think you will plan your meals the day of your reservation accordingly as to not spoil your dinner. I hope I am not giving the wrong impression about the food served at Trio, it is not all vapors, and stamp sized pieces of paper. It is one of our goals that people leave satiated. And we do so with unique twists on fairly common ingredients, presented in an artistic manner. I think the more we intellectulize, the closer to my goal we are. We are crossing the line of "a meal" or "dinner" and moving into the realm of entertainment: in the forms of theater, education, dicussion, visable art. The overall experience becomes so fullfilling on so many different levels it could become the ultimate form of recreation. OK, that might be a stretch, but you see what we are pushing towards.

Bux: Some people have criticized me for devoting as much time as I have to the egullet site. Publicity is not the motovating factor, believe me. The conversations that have transpired have been stimulating to me in many ways. Obviously the more I discuss Trio's food and philosophy the more I understand it myself. Issues brought forth require me to take a position, or explain ours if we already have one. Also the more I converse with past or present guests of the restaurant the better I understand the diners needs and expectations, therefore making the experinence more enjoyable. In these conversations new dishes, techniques, philosophies, and menu formating may be realized, making the time I spend here more valuable than anyone can imagine.

Rosie: Starting at age 5 my family were involved in restaurants. My mother and father owned a restaurant through my high school years, and that is where I spent alot of my time. Some of my childhood memories are somewhat strange, maybe that was the start of my fastination for unique flavor combos. I vividly remember my uncle showing me how to wrap a "burger blanket" pickle around a bundle of fries. Delicous. You grow up with lasagna, stew, and mac and cheese all the comfort foods that are to familar to us all. Same with holidays, dry turkey ruled the wasteland.

estafarian: To say that we are unaware of the potential crossover of aroma with the rosemary would be lying on our part. When the dish was concieved we made the decision to run it as you had it, after many different options had been explored. We played with the linen hood as you would if eating an ortolan, picking the rosemary spring up and smelling it before every bite, misting the air around the diners with a rosemary scented solution, and even making a natural rosemary scented votive to be placed on the table when the course was present. The problem is this: In order to produce a continuous aroma we needed to carry the scent in a strong fashion, ie: with heat. To use a hot plate only went so far, as the plate would cool to the point it would not aromatize the rosemary before the diner finished the dish. Same problem with mists. Conversely the candle and vapor techniques have the potential to be obtrusive to other tables not enjoying that course. We have since removed the dish and replaced it with a scallop dish with the technique applied to orange rind vapor. It is much more subtle than the volitile rosemary and less intrusive. The aromas that Trio uses is also preventive from diners mixing the 4 and 8 course menus within a table. If a four top were to order two and two, 2 would experince orange rind vapor with their bass course and later 2 would inhale the smoked paprika fragrance with the not intended rootbeer of short ribs. We certainly recieved more enthusiastic commentary regarding that dish then negative. But it is a valid point that we have given much thought.

npandolfi: I would discourage anyone from going to college that wanted to become a chef. That is if you are 100% confident you want to become a chef, if you have doubts college may be a good way to sort them out. Competion is fierce in the high-end segment, people devote a great deal of time to gain knowledge, for someone to postpone 4 years would seem wasteful. Compromise with your folks, go to culinary school for 2 years. Then get into the field where you will begin to learn and develop. Or maybe you want to pursue the 4 year program at a culinary school, pleasing your parents and still staying focused on your goals. Travel is huge. Go to Europe, you don't need to work necessarily, but find out where this reverance for cuisine started. Study the regions, and food styles of each. Familarize yourself with different ingredients and food cultures. That will give you a huge edge.

ian: The question of the philosphy working verticaly has never struck me, with the exception of too much food consumed. Sometimes people are force fed the last few dessert courses in other restaurants and even at Trio, if they eat too much bread, or are light eaters. I have eaten some large meals, and have never felt palate fatigue in situations where the food avoided repetition in all it's forms. I feel as long as the courses remain small and stay intersting most people will not become confused. I think time becomes the issue more than anything. Average TDF takes about 4 hours. That's a big commitment to dinning. Remember sitting through the movie Titanic? Or that flight from NYC to San Fran? Hopefully the meal you are eating is more interesting than an airplane ride but you see my logic. You reach a point where you become fatigued from sitting in one place for so long. VIP meals at the FL would routinely run 5 hours and some stretch the TDF to 5 1/2. You have to be mentally prepared for such gluttony.

Jonathan: Both. I would say we are focused on creating a new dishes for the restaurant but at the same time our food is sometimes playful by nature. Things like pizza and caramel popcorn are whimsical. David, the sous chef came to me with grilled cheese the other day. Puffed Velveeta with bread ice cream. I want to try and break away from the whimsy though, as it is now being used widely. Alittle is fun. We don't have time to experiment for fun, I envy el Bulli for having an "off season" to create. Sometimes silliness helps create a dish. "Let's do "shaving kit" someone says.. poached razor clams and some type of foam...that one got a laugh ...but that's about as far as it went.

tan319: The team at Trio is composed of some "blue chip" resume holders and some that are more "green". That matters very little, with a few exceptions, to their stature in the kitchen. I believe cooks in restaurants are like personal relationships. Some cooks fit in some environments and others don't. I have witnessed cooks coming from the most highly regarded restaurants in the country not succeed in different kitchen environments. The sous chef came with me from the TFL, we have a few from CT and a few that have spent time in Europe. Overall the group is very diverse in their culinary background and the food styles they enjoy the most. This is a huge benefit to a restaurant that pulls inspiration from all over the globe. We are small in comparison to most restaurants that do this type of food, 9 total with a spattering of externs. We spend a great deal of time together so you come to understand the quirks of each. It makes for a great environment to work in. We have yet to draw interest from Europe, understandably. How many of you knew of Trio and the food we do before the Q&A? I hope to set up relations with other chefs that support forward thinking cuisine so we can all benefit and help expose it. We have taken people people that have barely cooked, in stage situations due to their eagerness.

Fat Guy: Daily is a stretch for us, as I mentioned in another post we change bi weekly or monthly. It takes that long for us to conseptulize, test, and implement new dishes. El Bulli seems to have a unique situation being a seasonal restaurant, they claim to run dishes through a given season. The next season starts a set of new dishes, avoiding repetition. So depending on the dish we decide how long it will run. This depends on seasonality and the movement of other dishes within the menu. The multi course meals we serve are very much like a game of jenga. If you pull a dish the whole menu may collaspe due to repetition of ingredients, techniques, flavors, styles, flow and whatever else we can think of! This means the entire menu changes at once, which is a huge undertaking, both from the aspect of conceptulization, and implementation. Yes I would say most chefs build a repetoire, set up the kitchen systems and execute those dishes. I feel there are pros and cons to each camp. As I said before Thomas' "oysters and pearls" is probably the best dish I have ever tasted. I enjoyed making it, just so I could taste it on a daily basis. This also ensures the kitchen has the knowledge and repetition to execute the dishes perfectly. Like a sports team practicing. On the other hand as a cook I wanted to explore, and create. Night after night running the same food can become monotonous. Excitement, development of new ideas and techniques also encourages longevity, which every chef loves to have within his team. Creativity is very important in the searching for cooks at Trio. It is very difficult to determine ones creativity during a stage of a few days. I find it usually comes out in conversation. Most of the time people drawn to forward thinking food are creative, that's why they are intersted in positions to begin with. But more than anything I find it is infectous. We have stimulating conversations about food frequently. When you sign on at Trio you are committed to the creative process. I think being submersed in that environment constantly helps people tap into their own creative side. These guys are dedicated. We work hard but we also think hard , it is doubly draining at times. I think it is so fresh and exciting they tend to forget they just worked 16 hours. That's passion.