Chicago chef Grant Achatz honored at USA Network’s Character Approved Awards

The 2011 Character Approved Awards will recognize 12 cultural trailblazers for innovation and contributions in their fields in a one-hour documentary that premieres Tuesday, March 8, at 11/10c. Grant Achatz will be honored for his groundbreaking molecular gastronomy.

In the space of a week last year, two different friends told me they’d just eaten the best meals of their lives. Both were speaking of dinner at Grant Achatz’s Chicago restaurant, Alinea. So it was no surprise that USA Network chose Achatz as a recipient of one of their Character Approved Awards.

Achatz is at the forefront of molecular gastronomy, a movement that is turning the kitchen into a lab, using scientific tools and techniques and changing the very idea of high-end dining. As USA Network’s Character Approved website reports, “With incredible imagination and whimsy, Grant Achatz re-envisions the way we experience food.” Continue reading “Chicago chef Grant Achatz honored at USA Network’s Character Approved Awards” →

What Happens When: A restaurant experiment with a built-in expiration date

What happens when… That tantalizing question is the basis for an exciting temporary restaurant experiment in New York City. It’s also the name of the restaurant. What Happens When will be open for nine months and will completely transform its menu, its look and even its sound once a month. At the end of nine months, the building housing the SoHo restaurant will be torn down.

Opening even one restaurant is incredibly hard work, with tons of risk involved. What would possess someone to attempt nine restaurants in nine months in the same space? Continue reading “What Happens When: A restaurant experiment with a built-in expiration date” →

Small Bites: Bring-your-own-pan lasagna in Brooklyn and some tasty Chicago food events

In my latest USA Character Approved Blog post, Brooklyn restaurant Brucie offers BYOP lasagna service. And in Chicago, a Valentine’s weekend pastry market, frank talk about the birds and the bees and Provenance turns five.

In New York, even restaurant chefs have tiny kitchens at home. A recent New York Times article reported as much. Still, even with minuscule kitchens and more than 20,000 restaurants to choose from, New Yorkers don’t want to eat out every night. If you live in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood, now you can have the best of both worlds—home cooked lasagna without cooking at home.

Brucie, a friendly Italian-American restaurant and market, offers bring-your-own-pan Lasagna Service. Drop off a lasagna pan and pick it up filled with one of three lasagnas. Continue reading “Small Bites: Bring-your-own-pan lasagna in Brooklyn and some tasty Chicago food events” →

Rick Bayless brings Mexican food with street cred to the streets of Chicago

Mexican street food as celebrated by America’s authority on Mexican cuisine is the subject of my latest USA Character Approved Blog post.

Street food is enjoying a moment. Whether it’s food taking to the streets in gourmet food trucks or street fare from the world’s street corners and marketplaces moving indoors, the street is increasingly becoming the source of some of the most exciting food these days.

One direction street food has taken is fusion mash-ups. I recently wrote about Korean tacos, for instance. They first showed up in LA on the Kogi Korean BBQ Truck. Now they’ve gone bricks and mortar at Chicago’s Del Seoul. Celebrity chef and Mexican food authority Rick Bayless’s cuisine is the exact opposite of fusion. Continue reading “Rick Bayless brings Mexican food with street cred to the streets of Chicago” →

Chicago’s Longman & Eagle: A 21st century update for ye olde inn

In the eighth grade, my class went on a field trip to New Salem, Illinois, the reconstructed village where a young Abraham Lincoln lived for a while. It was here he had worked in a store and famously walked miles to return three cents to a customer he had accidentally overcharged. It was here he had been postmaster. But the building that made the biggest impression on me was the Rutledge Tavern.

Our tour guide conjured up images of stagecoaches pulling up outside and disgorging tired, dusty passengers. In the tavern, they would be fed a meal cooked in the fireplace and served something stronger than the sodas we eighth graders were able to buy Continue reading “Chicago’s Longman & Eagle: A 21st century update for ye olde inn” →

For Mario Batali’s dad, retirement is a delicious sausage-making adventure

Forget bologna and cotto salami. Cured meats have returned to their artisanal beginnings. The delicious fare of a famous Seattle cured meats master is the subject of my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

Sometimes a place just starts showing up on your radar. We started hearing about Salumi long before we started planning our recent trip to Seattle and Portland. About its delectable handmade salamis, prosciuttos, pancettas, lardos and guanciales—and about the famous owner with the even more famous son. Then when our trip started taking shape, we asked mado chef/owner Rob Levitt what places we should hit. Top of his list was Salumi. Continue reading “For Mario Batali’s dad, retirement is a delicious sausage-making adventure” →

Celebrating America’s birthday by eating our way around the world in Michigan

America isn’t a melting pot. It’s a smorgasbord. A road trip over the Fourth of July weekend proves it without even trying.

Yeah, it’s Wednesday. There should be a recipe here. But we had too much fun in too much heat with too much driving over the holiday weekend—more than 800 miles by the time we got home Monday night. Tuesdays are my absolute deadline for my weekly Wednesday posts. If I haven’t cooked my post before then, it’s do or die time. This Tuesday, it was just not in me to cook something, photograph it and tell you how I did it.

So instead, let me tell you a little about our weekend—mainly about what we ate, this being a food blog. You’re not going to get restaurant reviews here and certainly no photos of what we ate. This is more a celebration of the wealth of food experiences available here in America—more specifically, in three Michigan cities not especially known as culinary centers, but all serving up plenty of good, diverse eats. Detroit, Hamtramck and East Lansing.

Whenever we find ourselves in Detroit these days, one required stop is the Detroit Beer Co., a friendly, comfortable microbrewery, Continue reading “Celebrating America’s birthday by eating our way around the world in Michigan” →

Women chefs raise $19,200 for Greater Chicago Food Depository at 14th annual Girl Food Dinner

We’re big fans of the Greater Chicago Food Depository and all they do to help fight hunger. So I was delighted to hear the results of the 14th annual Girl Food Dinner, held this past Sunday night at West Town Tavern. The sold out event brought in an amazing $19,200 to the organization; 100% of the $150 ticket price paid by 85 lucky attendees went to the Food Depository, as did the proceeds of a raffle held at the event.

The annual event is called the Girl Food Dinner because the meal is prepared exclusively by Chicago women chefs. Continue reading “Women chefs raise $19,200 for Greater Chicago Food Depository at 14th annual Girl Food Dinner” →

American cider, Italian onions: Cider-Braised Chicken with Cipollinis and Sage

Crisp, dry hard cider combines with fresh sage, garlic and chicken broth to create a deliciously complex sauce without a hint of apple, for Cider-Braised Chicken with Cipollinis and Sage. Recipe below.

When we were recently invited to a dinner pairing food with super-premium American hard ciders, I planned to enjoy the food and be a good sport about the cider. I don’t drink beer and am not a real fan of apple juice either, so I merely hoped I could make it through the evening, politely sipping without openly grimacing in the presence of our hosts, Crispin Cider Company.

I needn’t have worried. The four ciders we sampled were delicious. Unlike many ciders, Crispin hard ciders are not styled as a traditional “sweet beer” beer alternative. They are crisp and clean, not sweet and sticky, and meant to be served over ice. From our first sip of their European-style brut—our favorite of the bunch—we knew we’d found a refreshing, light alternative to our go-to summer drink, pinot grigio. Continue reading “American cider, Italian onions: Cider-Braised Chicken with Cipollinis and Sage” →

A quick taste of Toronto

domenics-fish-mkt

I don’t know if Toronto has an official tourism tagline, but maybe they should consider stealing IHOP’s: “Come hungry. Leave happy.”

On a recent visit, Marion and I did just that. I’ll get to the food in a moment, but first here’s how Canada’s largest city fed our urban souls. When we’re traveling, some of the things we look for in cities we visit are great museums [art and otherwise], active gallery and music scenes, cool shops, a diverse, lively street culture, walkability and, if possible, decent public transportation.

Toronto delivered on all counts. We parked our car at our downtown hotel and didn’t touch it again until we were headed back to Chicago days later. Much of what we wanted to do and see was walking distance, down streets that invited and encouraged walking. Continue reading “A quick taste of Toronto” →