Thomas Keller answers...10 questions for a visiting chef
Name Thomas Keller
Age 57
Occupation Chef/Restaurateur of French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon Bakery and many other restaurants.
Welcome to Chicago! Why are you here?
This is the first leg of my book tour for our latest book project: The Bouchon Bakery Cookbook. Chicago is always one of my first stops.
Did you have any fears/anxieties/nervousness about coming to the Midwest?
No, as I am a frequent visitor to the Windy City.
True or false: You will be eating at Avec while in town.
Hopefully true. I like to eat out whenever I have the opportunity. But at the end of the day, Artisan handles my tour schedule. I hope they will be able to carve the time.
Where else will you be eating?
Whenever I am in town, I always try to visit Grant (Achatz) and Brendan (Sodikoff), former chefs at The French Laundry. It would be nice to to eat at their restaurants during my visit.
The Chicago hotdog–yes or no? (Choose one.)
A. Yes!
B. No!
C. I don't know what that is.
A. Yes, of course!
What does Chicago have that your home city doesn't have? (We're talking food and restaurants here, but feel free to go into other arenas.)
We just went through some of them...Avec, my former colleagues Grant and Brendan as well as Chicago dogs are top of mind.
What does your home city have that Chicago doesn't have?
The French Laundry. [Ed. note: Feel free to fix that!]
Tell us an interesting story from your childhood.
I come from a big family and my brother Joseph and I were born 18 months apart. Being born so close together, my mom wanted us to both feel special at each other's birthdays, so she made sure to give both of us presents during each other's birthdays. It was great.
Tell us a funny/interesting/frightening tale about your restaurant.
I didn't come up with the name The French Laundry. I decided to keep the name after I purchased the property from its original owners, Don and Sally Schmitt, back in 1992. Their daughter, Kathy Hoffman, still comes every week, twice a week, to make all our floral arrangements at the restaurant. Don and Sally still supply us with apples from their Apple Farm in Philo, CA. We remain very much connected.
Found restaurant unveils opening menu
Chicken-liver mousse with bacon marmalade. Fried oyster tacos. A French dip sandwich. I knew there was good reason to be excited when restaurateur Amy Morton brought on the very talented Nicole Pederson, formerly of Lula Cafe and C-House, to helm her forthcoming restaurant, Found. The design of the space is inspired by 1920s bohemian Paris and the icons of the Beat Generation, but Pederson's menu (which will change often) is not dripping in absinthe or stained with cigarette burns; it's an eclectic American mix, with everything from housemade tofu to chicken wings. Check it out in the slide show above and full menu below.
Rounding out Pederson's dishes is a locally-driven beverage program overseen by Lee Mosser, with a wine list that includes varietals from Illinois and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Found’s cocktails will showcase nearby distilleries North Shore and FEW, in drinks like A Few Found Fizzes (choice of fruit-infused FEW gin, lemon, sugar, sparkling water) and Wilde’s Folly (North Shore Sirena Absinthe, Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth, Leopold liqueur, dash of molasses, sarsaparilla, cinnamon). It's all served in a long, narrow storefront, decorated with salvaged furniture, such as old Chicago courthouse benches and other “found” objects (antique globes and books, old paintings, prints, and mirrors from the old Pump Room). Finally, Morton is committed to having Found be more than its design, its drinks or its food: She is working with Evanston’s Connections for the Homeless in hopes of filling entry-level positions at the restaurant.
Found (1631 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, 847-868-8945) is slated to open November 15 6.
Great Lake plans a sandwich/cookie sale
If you haven't been to Great Lake in 2012, you may not be hip to Lydia Esparza's cookies. Small and lovely and sometimes savory (I believe the rosemary flavor is referred to as a "biscuit"—i.e. a biscuit of the British variety), the cookies have become as much as reason to visit Great Lake as the pizza. And considering how much my colleagues and I love Great Lake pizza, that's saying something.
A good opportunity to try the cookies is coming up: On Sunday, November 4th, Great Lake will hold a sandwich-and-cookie sale. The sandwiches involve roasted and pulled Gunthorp Farm pork shoulder, a housemade barbecue sauce and a housemade bun. Salads and cookies bookend the sandwiches (which are available to go or to stay); pizza will not be available.
It starts at 11am and continues until it's all sold out...which, I'm just guessing, will probably be 1:30 or 2pm. Or, if people love the cookies as much as I do, 11:15am.
Eat this tonight: Birria tacos at Masa Azul
Unless your restaurant has the word goat in its name, you can pretty much bet on the fact that your clientele will not be clamoring for this particular meat. (Chicken: of course. Steak: probably.) Yet as long as Jonathan Zaragoza—whose family owns goat-centric Birrieria Zaragoza—is cooking in Chicago, the people are going to want to know: Where is the goat?! Zaragoza's opening menu at Masa Azul, where he became the chef last month, had none of it in sight. (However: It did have terrific cochinita pibil tacos, pictured above, which you can read about, among other things, in next week's issue of TOC.) All that is about to change tonight, when the young chef rolls out his birria tacos ($9): oven-roasted goat, red mole, arbol chile picante, cilantro and onion on handmade tortillas. Sidenote: He's also debuting a pork belly taco with pineapple-chipotle salsa, which may mean this is the first time in forever (?) that pork belly is ceding attention to goat.
Birria tacos debut at Masa Azul (2901 W Diversey Ave, 773-687-0300) tonight at 5pm.
O'Hare's Terminal 5 Transformation
Terminal 5 in O’Hare International Airport is about to have a whole new look. Tuesday morning, the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) and Westfield Concession management held a special event inside the terminal to reveal its redesign plans, which include adding 15 new retail stores and dining options.
“This is a day that is long overdue for O’Hare International Airport, and specifically for Terminal 5,” CDA commissioner Rosemarie Andolino told the crowd. “Our fliers have choices nowadays; they could fly to any airport around the world. We want them to choose Chicago because when they’re here, they're going to have a flavor of our city, and they’re going to get the exceptional service that they so desire.”
Currently, there are 17 dining options in Terminal 5, and barely any of them are accessible past TSA checkpoints. The international terminal hasn't been touched since its construction in 1993, and it shows; after I made my way past security, the terminal felt dismal as I followed the sounds of Kenny G towards the event. The $26.2 million transformation is expected to be completed by fall 2013 and will ultimately include a redesigned TSA checkpoint, a duty-free store and 25 dining options for international travelers.
Chicago-based restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises will be a major part of this transformation, making its first appearance in an airport with four concepts—Hub 51, Urban Olive, Big Bowl, and Wow Bao—inside Terminal 5. Hub 51’s airport menu, like that at the River North location, spans across the board with sushi, salads, sandwiches, tacos, and fresh fish, while Urban Olive (a new concept) has a lighter Mediterranean feel with rotisserie chickens, salads, tapenades, and falafel. (I went back to the Urban Olive sample table for chocolate olives more than once.) Big Bowl’s executive chef Marc Bernard says the restaurant will focus on the big flavors of curry, kung pao and teriyaki, along with stir-fries and sushi. (Side note: 7,000 lbs of the vegetables Big Bowl uses each year are grown on Bernard’s Elburn farm.) Finally, Wow Bao will stick to its proven formula, servnig its signature buns.
Also entering the Terminal 5 scene will be Intelligentsia Coffee: representatives from the company were on hand, handing out a rich Kenyan blend. Rick Bayless’s (Eat Out Award–winning) Tortas Frontera, already in Terminals 1 and 3, will be opening a third location in Terminal 5. Chef Shaw Lash says the restaurant will be adding cazuelas—a hearty stew of shrimp or chicken—to the menu in Terminal 5, where layovers last a few hours and “there’s a tendency for people to want a longer, fuller [dining] experience.” I was pleasantly surprised by blend of flavors in the grilled shrimp cazuela, with substantial amounts of grilled zucchini, roasted potatoes and a creamy chile sauce. (Finally, if you haven’t already tried Tortas Frontera’s mango lime agua fresca, you’re missing out.)
Sunday Suppers: 'Tis the season?
This week, we visited four restaurants that recently launched Sunday-night specials: a three-course chicken dinner at Paris Club, a seven-course kaiseki at Takashi, a retro TV dinner at MarketHouse and a cassoulet meal at Chez Moi. Apparently, the memo is circulating, because just as this issue was going to press, we caught wind of a few more interesting Sunday specials. Newcomer Embeya has introduced "Simple Sundays," a "family-style progressive Asian feast" for $29 or $50 with wine pairings; check out this past Sunday's menu. In addition, Trenchermen is now open on Sundays and offers a three-course prix-fixe menu for $35, with an optional beverage pairing for $15. (A la carte is also available.) Now the only question is: Which one of these six new Sunday specials will you be headed to this weekend?
Ryan Poli, etc., will open Little Market Brasserie this winter
Things to know about Little Market Brasserie, which we now know officially that Ryan Poli will be running:
- It's an American brasserie, and it will be in the Talbott Hotel space that has been operated for a few months as PT. (PT didn't get very good reviews from our critic, but Little Market will be a different concept entirely.)
- Just like Tavernita, this is a Mercadito Hospitality concept, and the Tippling Brothers are partners.
- They will be a 125-seat patio.
- The dining room will supposedly look like a Parisian bistro, but, again, this is not a French spot—it's an American/eclectic one.
- Sample dish: "New York strip steak with short rib-cognac poutine and cheese curds—Little Market’s version of steak frites."
- The cocktail program will revolve around housemade sodas such as Meyer lemon sour, blood orange cinnamon and smoked salted cream soda.
- Moderately priced; will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner; opening in early winter.
Nominate your favorite dish for the 100 Best Things We Ate and Drank This Year
The TOC food team is currently deep in the throes of an unwieldy GoogleDoc, sifting through the hundreds of meals and bar visits we've made this year to determine which of those thousands of foods and drinks we've consumed will earn a coveted spot on our annual list of the 100 Best Things We Ate and Drank, now approaching its eighth year. Still, despite doing our damndest, we're man and woman enough to admit that, hey: We can't eat everything. Which is why this year, we're asking you, dear TOC reader, to be the critic. Head over to the Time Out Chicago facebook page and tell us what should be our 101st dish. Tell us what the item is, where we can find it and why it deserves a spot on our list. As a token of appreciation for your help, we'll pick one lucky winner to receive the TOC Dining Passport, which will include tickets to some of our many food events in 2013, including the annual Eat Out Awards. Go forth: Nominate the dish or drink you think deserves to be the 101st dish!
Magnus Nilsson answers...10 questions for a visiting chef
Name Magnus Nilsson
Age 28
Occupation Chef at Fäviken Magasinet, Järpen, Sweden
Welcome to Chicago! Why are you here?
Thank you! I am here mainly to present the book about my restaurant, Fäviken, that is just coming out.
Did you have any fears/anxieties/nervousness about coming to the Midwest? Explain.
No, should I? Is there something I should know about the Midwest that I haven't been told? :-) I actually have family here in Chicago that I have never met but unfortunately this time there won't be time enough to find and meet them.
Wait, what?
A bunch of my family immgirated in the 20s. A lot of people left Sweden in the 20s, I think, and a lot of them ended up in Chicago. I haven't met my family in Chicago, I've never even had any contact with them. But I know they're there somewhere. Next time I'm definitely going to go find them...
True or false: You will be eating at Avec while in town.
False. There is no time this trip, unfortunately. I am only here one day! I need to come back.
Where else will you be eating?
The Publican
The Chicago hot dog—yes or no? (Choose one.)
A. Yes!
B. No!
C. I don’t know what that is.
A. For hot dog, always yes! I must.
What does Chicago have that your home city doesn’t have? (We’re talking food and restaurants here, but feel free to go into other arenas.)
Probably a lot since I live in a village with 300 inhabitants! It's my first time in Chicago though so ask me again in a few days!
Tell us a funny/interesting/frightening tale about your restaurant.
Things go wrong all the time. That's part of running a restaurant. For me, that's what it's all about. Being a good restaurateur, a good chef, is being able to roll with that.
Finish this sentence: If I had just one more day in Chicago, I’d use it to...
...find my family whose ancestors emigrated from Sweden long time ago.
Eleven Madison Park takes over Alinea | Slideshow
Last night was the first night for part two of 21st Century Limited, the ambitious project whereby New York's Eleven Madison Park and Alinea trade places. In September, Alinea completed a week at EMP; Now, it's time for EMP's run in Chicago. The $495-per-plate dinner runs through Sunday, but is completely sold out. So TOC photographer Erica Gannett snagged a spot in the kitchen so she could show everyone the entire meal, course by course.
