GT Fish & Oyster Collaboration Dinner

I had been to GT Fish and Oyster before and really liked it.  When I saw that they were going to be doing a collaboration dinner with a chef from El Ideas, I jumped at the chance to go because, while I have not been there, I have met the executive chef, and I like the idea of the restaurant, to turn fine dining on it's head.  It's irreverent and experimental and lets diners ask questions.  I was interested to see where a very good seafood restaurant and an experimental restaurant would meet.  The dinner was held in the Whale Room, a private dining room in the basement of the restaurant.  On the wall was a silhouette painting of a sperm whale and the quote, "The biggest fish is the one that is almost caught."  It had a large communal table with an anchor on it and marked place settings, letting individual diners know where they would be sitting.  With the place settings were our menu cards giving the diners an idea of what we would be having for dinner.  There were also a series of numbers listed after each course.  The numbers were a bit of a puzzle.  Also on the table were several large and thick cookbooks (all the same) that looked to be cooking textbooks.  I guessed that the numbers had something to do with the cookbooks and were something like the recipe number in the book.  I also noted that the menu was much less seafood heavy than I would have expected from a seafood restaurant (not a complaint, simply an observation).

The numbers were explained as the Amuse Bouche was served and the chefs came out to introduce themselves.  The numbers were based on the page on which the recipe each course was based on was to be found.  As I noted very quickly, while the base of each recipe could be seen, the finished courses were very creative and some varied widely from where they started.  The Amuse (which was not listed on the menu as is common with an amuse bouche) was based on Oysters Rockefeller although it was raw (as opposed to broiled) and was served in a dish instead of on the half-shell.  It was served with Spinach and Panko and very flavorful.  Admittedly, it might have been a little much for someone that doesn't care for raw oysters, but I like them and I liked this.

The first official course was essentially a vegetable tasting and it actually reminded me of something that you might see at Moto.  There were three parts to this course.  On the left was a Mushroom Sauce served with a Manchego Cheese Chip.  To the right was a Fried Carrot with a Maple Creme (that kind of reminded me of marshmallow creme).  The center recipe started as Broccoli Almondine.  It used broccoli florets and blanched almonds, but was finished with a White Broccoli Soup (not shown).  There were a variety of flavors and textures in small bites and it was a great stage setter for the rest of the meal.

In a normal multi-course progression, courses progress from Amuse Bouche to vegetable/appetizer to seafood, red meat, and dessert.  The meal progressed in a standard manner with us next presented with the seafood course.  The recipes used were Roast Squid and Romesco Sauce (a Spanish red sauce based on nuts and red peppers).  What we were served was a 17 Hour Slow Roasted Octopus served with Cous Cous, Potatoes, and a very good Romesco Sauce.  Much seafood is very easy to overcook and as such ends up at least a little rubbery.  This octopus had no rubberiness to spek of.  It was meaty and very tender and went very well with the cous cous, potatoes, and Romesco.  It really reminded me of Moroccan cuisine and I really enjoyed it.

Our first meat course was served communally and was called Pork Belly and Black Rice.  When Giuseppe Tentori was the Executive Chef of Boka, there was a dish on the menu that consisted of Pork Belly and Black Rice which I had and really liked and thought I might have had a little familiarity with the dish.  While the flavors were similar, the presentations were definitely not.  The Pork Belly was served as a cut, but it had been cooked for 36 hours and was incredibly tender and flavorful.  It was served with Greek Yogurt and another sauce with Asian spices.  The Black Rice was served in Arancini form (fried Risotto Balls) with a crunchy exterior and very tender interior.  Admittedly, they didn't look exceptionally appetizing, but they did taste good.

Our final savory course was based on Chicken Cordon Bleu which is a dish that I really like.  What we were served was Veal Cordon Bleu  veal rolled around a Dried Ham similar to Prosciutto, Panko, and Swiss Cheese.  It was served (also communally) with Spinach, Garlic Scape (the stem on which the blossoms grow), and a Blue Cheese Sauce (hence the Cordon Bleu and not Cordon Swiss).  While this was a twist on a favorite, they substituted in things that I really like, and they did them really well.  It hit all the right notes with flavor and tenderness and it felt very much like a much practiced dish (vice an experiment).

Our dessert was listed as Creme Brulee which was what one of the recipes was listed as.  There was also a Linzer Torte recipe listed so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect even if I was hoping for Creme Brulee.  What we were presented with had many elements of creme brulee, but added some other things and was very much a very flavorful win.  The dish consisted of Creme Anglaise, a Brulee Crisp, Strawberries, Coffee-Infused Tapioca Beads, and a Coffee Crisp.  The coffee went well with the Creme Anglaise and it was like eating a cup of sweetened coffee with strawberries.

The Linzer Torte came with their equivalent to the after dinner Petit Four or Mint.  We were given a package of whale shaped Linzer Torte cookies to take home with us.  They were crisp, sweet, and filled with Raspberry Jam and made for a great finish to a very good dinner.  GT Fish and Oyster does collaboration dinners occasionally and after this win, I will have to seriously consider returning.



   

Moto

I first visited Moto about five years ago and was blown away.  At the time, there were only a couple of restaurants in Chicago that explored the bounds of what was called Molecular Gastronomy, using science to deconstruct and reconstruct, dishes and flavors.  While both restaurants took their work as culinary tour guides very seriously, Moto went about it with a sense of whimsy, starting with an edible menu and presenting a series of courses that really didn't look like what you might expect them to.  For example, a popular dish was a Cuban Sandwich that was presented as a partially smoked Cuban Cigar.  The entire dinner was filled with a sense of magic and whimsy and there was a sense of wonder about each dish.  For a long time it was my favorite dining experience.  When I found that one of my friends had never been to Moto and really wanted to go, I happily agreed to be his dining partner.  When we arrived, we were seated by the general manager, who I had actually met, a few weeks prior at a benefit for Common Threads.  He took care of us very well for the rest of the night.  When we were seated, a terrarium full of microgreens was brought over and sat with us with little explanation.  I suspected that it would be used som time during the dinner, but I would have to wait and see.

As I mentioned earlier, when I first came to Moto, the first course was the edible menu.  At the time it was a pita cracker with edible paper and vegetable ink.  Moto still starts things off with an edible menu of sorts.  They called it a Tasting of the Tasting Menu and we were presented a plate with 13 small bites representing our 13 other courses in our meal.  They were not entire courses of course, but representations of the major elements of each course.  It was fun tasting our way through the tasting menu and it helped to build anticipation for what was going to come next.  After we were presented with our edible menus, we were then presented with a personalized menu laser etched on thin wood that we could take home 9and which would at least tell us the name of what was coming next).

The next course was called Grow Room and it's where the centerpiece came into play.  We were presented with a beautiful Bison Tartare.  Our server (the manager) then came over, opened the terrarium, and trimmed the greens which were served over the tartare.  The first bite revealed that somehow, a very nice (and light) vinaigrette had been added to the greens which provided some brightness to the dish.  I would say that it was a great start except that the actual start was the menu.

I found the next course when it was presented to us, Radish, to be visually arresting, and it was one of those dishes that had me asking, "how do I eat this?"  It was a clear glass tray, on top of which was a clear glass plate on which were served a variety of Radishes, Sunchokes, Caviar, and a Mint Leaf over Aerated Hollandaise Sauce.  It did help when we were told to mix everything together and try to get some caviar in every bite.  The Hollandaise Sauce was like a pudding, the radishes and sunchokes were very fresh and crisp, and the caviar provided some salt.  It was a very good dish and I liked it a lot.

The next course brought the sense of smell into play.  It was called Flavors of the Ocean and was presented on a glass tray over seaweed.  There was a Sliced Scallop in the center of the plate with some White and Green Seaweeds, Fried Tapioca, Fish Chips, and a White Seafood Sauce.  For whatever reason, I didn't have a problem attacking this and I went about trying various things on the platter until my platter was clean.  It was interesting to try the different flavors individually and in various combinations and it actually reminded me of the Duck course at Alinea with 60 accompaniments that we were meant to try randomly.

Looking at the menu, I saw that the next course was called Which Came First? and I assumed that it was a chicken and egg course of some sort.  While I was right, it was nothing that I expected and would never have guessed.  We were presented with a piece of wood with a depression holding an opened eggshell behind which was a small metal rod with an alligator clip holding a Fried Cockscomb.  Inside the eggshell was an Egg Custard over which were Shaved Black Truffles.  We were told to unmount the cockscomb and dip it into the custard.  I did that, but I also tried both elements individually and while they were very good together, they were also very good separately.  The cockscomb was like a chicharron, the egg custard was very creamy and slightly salty, and the black truffle provided a nice funky flavor to everything.

After the chicken, our next course was Beans Almondine.  Beans with Almonds is a relatively common combination but this definitely stretched things.  It was an Almond Panna Cotta framed by Garlic Tuiles and topped with several different types of Beans, Garlic Sprouts, and English Peas.  It looked relatively simple but the flavors were pretty complex and it was very good.

From a very simple, almost zen like presentation, we went to chaos.  Having said that, despite the fact that it was chaotic, it made sense that it was chaotic. The dish was called Fallen Log and it was designed to look like a forest floor.  There were a variety of Mushrooms, Broccoli, Spinach, and a Jerky Log.  It was very savory, very good, and reminded me of a dish that I had the first time I dined here.  It also was a mushroom dish with a forest floor presentation, but it was a very different presentation.

 

After the complexity of the mushroom dish, we then went back to another very simple dish.  Called Grilled Goat, that is exactly what it was.  It was four different cuts of goat on a grill.  From left to right we had Goat Tenderloin, Goat Belly, Goat Shoulder, and Goat Sausage.  The cuts were small, only a couple of bites each, but it was enough to get a good taste of each, which were all very good.  All of the cuts were juicy and flavorful but I think I favored the goat belly most.

Reading the menu, we saw that the next course was called Thyme Capsule.  It was obviously a play on words involving thyme but we were curious as to how it would play out.  With that, we were presented with a wooden box with Moto branded on the top.

When we opened the box  we were presented with skewers of Pork Belly and Lamb Belly on a bed of fresh Thyme.  The bellies were both very good.  They were juicy, flavorful, and tender, but the best part of this dish actually was the smell of the fresh thyme.

From simple we went back to complex, chaotic, and a little confusing.  It was called Sus Scrofa which gave nothing to us.  We could tell it was a meat course but were still kind of clueless.  It turns out that Sus Scrofa is the scientific name for Wild Boar which was hunted to order at a ranch in Texas.  The dish came with a Roasted Tomatillo and Jalapeno Reduction, Red Mole Powder, Ancho and Guajillo Chiles, Chicken Skin, Puffed Wild Rice, and Boar Jerky.  It was tangy, spicy and very good.  While it wasn't a pretty dish, the taste made up for it.

For the final savory course we were served a course called Bird's Nest.  I figured that it was going to be a poultry course of some sort.  I was wrong.  It looked like a small bird's nest on a bed of twigs and dried leaves.  The "nest" though actually had nothing to do with birds and the presentation took me back to the first time I came to Moto and nothing looked like what it actually was.  The nest was actually Dried Beef with Malabar Spinach and it was a one bite dish that we ate with our hand.  It was clean, simple, and a very nice finish to the savory side of the meal. 

Generally, in larger tasting menus, after the savory courses and before dessert, a palate cleanser, usually a sorbet, is served. That was true in this case as well.  Called Berries and Whey, it was a Raspberry Sorbet with a Solid Milk Crisp.  The sorbet was sweet and tart and the milk was slightly sweet with a texture similar to a meringue.  It was very good at cleansing my palate and set us up for dessert.

Our first dessert was called Shades of Red and like it sounds, it was an exploration of the color red.  It included Pomegranate cells, Strawberry Sorbet, Mascarpone Cheese, and a variety of Tomatoes.  It was an interesting presentation, but honestly, it didn't quite come together for me.  It either needed something more to tie things together, or something less so things didn't need to be tied together.

The next course, Golden Oldies, was a celebration of the color orange.  It used Apricots, Oranges, Peaches, Pumpkins with Ice Cream and Pound Cake.  It was sweet, fruity, and flavorful with a variety of textures.  It looked pretty chaotic, but it tasted great.

For our final dessert course, we were brought a campfire.  It was a thick piece of wood with a flame in the middle and marshmallows on skewers mounted around the fire.  The course was called Toasted Marshmallows, but it was actually more than that.  We toasted the marshmallows and found when we bit into them that they were inside out S'mores.  They were sweet, gooey, and a great finish to the official dinner.

As our dinner was finishing, we were brought a menu of after dinner drinks.  I am a sucker for Amaro so that is what I ordered.  My dining partner had a coffee drink which actually arrived first.  This is when we found that the drink also came with a bite to go with it.  With the coffee drink came some hazelnut brittle.  My amaro took a little time and I found out when it arrived that it came with an Oatmeal Cookie that was made to order.  The amaro was smooth, sweet, and bitter, and went amazingly well with the oatmeal cookie which was warm, fresh, and sweet.

After everything came the Caramel Mignardises which were served on a sandcastle dish.  The caramels were buttery, sweet, and gooey, and a great finish to the dinner.  While dinner was finished though, our experience at Moto was not.  We were given a tour of the kitchen.

The kitchen is in the basement of the restaurant with the stairs near the front of the dining room.  We went downstairs and entered the outer demonstration kitchen.  It was modern and very lab-like with many scientific instruments including a Rotovap, a Centrifuge, Volumetric Flasks, Distilling Columns and a Periodic Table on the wall.  

 

The centrifuge looked large enough to make soup.

The final room that we were shown was the Grow Room.  It was a hydroponic garden that grew the greens for the dinner.  It was very cool to see and a great finish to the experience.  Moto has grown up.  They are still amazingly creative and the food and service is still great, but the presentations, for the most part no longer are plays on something else.  The experience was a lot of fun and I would happily return.   

     

Flavor Changing Dinner on Ice at Ing

I was invited, last week, to attend what was called a Flavor Changing Dinner on Ice at Ing by Chef Homaro Cantu. Chef Cantu could be called a master chef, a genius, a mad scientist, or all of the above. His original restaurant Moto, which is next door to Ing, is the ultimate in Molecular Gastronomy and explores the preparation, presentation, and flavors of food. He competed in Iron Chef America and beat Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. He also formed a company to explore the use of the miracle berry which is where this dinner came in.
Ing is Chef Cantu's second restaurant. It has a bit of an Asian bent to it and while the food is quite a bit more straightforward, it all has a bit of a spin on it. The menu is divided into five sections for food: cooling, heating, boiling, melting, and sweetening, each designating the major technique used in that section and the drinks are divided into sipping (wine), brewing (beer), and mixing (cocktails). Thomas Bowman is normally the Executive Chef for this restaurant but for the Flavor Changing menu which focused on Thanksgiving, Chef Cantu was in charge. The restaurant is in the heart of the warehouse district. It has a glass front with a noodle station in the front of the restaurant. There are about four or five tables for four but the largest seating area is a couple of large wood communal tables for 12. Between them is a plastic table with seating on one side like a bar. and the bar is in the back of the room. The room is high ceilinged and the walls are wavy and covered in white mosaic tile. We were seated at the communal table in the rear of the room. We were served our bottled water and shortly thereafter were brought a folded paper cube with a pipette sticking out of it. The cube is actually the menu for Ing. We were having a special meal so with the exception of the alcohol, none of our courses was on the menu. The pipette contained an amuse bouche which was a cool carrot soup. It was an interesting start.Our first course arrived shortly thereafter and it both looked pretty good and showed the playfulness of the culinary team. We received an elongated platter on which one side had a beet and goat cheese salad with arugula and pecans. The other side had a fresh cranberry puree which had been pressed into and out of a can so it could have the rib marks that you would get from a can of cranberry sauce. On top of the cranberry sauce was a slice of tangerine that had been carbonated. In the center of the platter was a small plate containing a slice of lemon and a little red pill. The pill was a miracle berry which we were told to let dissolve on our tongue. In addition to our course we got a cocktail. It was a ginger infused gin and tonic with an apricot liqueur and topped with a basil leaf. We were instructed to try everything first and then to let the miracle berry dissolve on our tongue and try it again. Before the food tasted as expected. It was all good but nothing exceptionally exciting. A miracle berry changes your sense of taste for about 30 minutes so sour becomes sweet and bitter becomes more savory. After trying the miracle berry, the most radical changes were the lemon which now tasted like lemonade and the gin and tonic which tasted like ginger ale. The salad tasted more nutty than it had and the cranberries were sweeter. It was very strange and very cool at the same time and everything still tasted good.
The second course came soon after and it was a sight to be seen. The waiter brought out a small plate with an upside down glass filled with smoke. When the glass was lifted and the smoke dissipated we saw that we got oyster stuffing which was served in an oyster shell. The drink that went with the course was a Great Lakes Nosferatu that was served in a smoked glass. Everything was very smoky and good and placing the oyster stuffing in the oyster shell was whimsical.
If you hadn't noticed yet, there seemed to be a theme running through the courses. As it's November, they decided to do a spin on Thanksgiving. I would call it ThanksgivIng. The next course continued that theme with pork belly, a yam puree with garam masala, and roasted brussell sprouts. Garam masala is an Indian spice mixture with a very pronounced spicy flavor, though not necessarily hot. With the miracle berry still working, the yams had a cinnamony taste and tasted very much like a sweet potato casserole without the marshmallows.
While it could be argued with the previous courses that they were going for a fall theme and not necessarily ThanksgivIng, the next course made it obvious what they were going for. They brought out their spin on a turducken. Now a normal turducken is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken, they are way to big to be served individually. Their version had a quail stuffed with a turkey leg stuffed with a duck breast. If you used the naming conventions that were used in the case of turducken, you would end up with something like a quaikeuck but if they called it a quaikeuck no one would have any idea what it was. Most people do know, however, what a turducken is and the name did fit in a manner of speaking. On top of the turducken was a green bean casserole with haricot verts and fried scallions and everything sat on roasted potatoes and gravy. The bird was boneless with the exception of the quail legs and wings and the meat was nice and juicy. It was all very good and if turducken is like this, I would happily have it again. While we were working on this course, they brought us a Portuguese wine that used the same grapes as port. Tasting it gave me the idea that my miracle berry was wearing off because it was dry and kind of tart. We were told that we would be getting another miracle berry with the next course so we should save some of the wine.
The next course really reminded me of Moto. When I went to Moto a few years ago, I had a massively multicourse meal where nothing looked like what it actually was. The dish we received here was a cheese plate. It looked as if we were being served 3 cheeses, 2 blues and a Parmesan. There were also apple slices in the upper left corner and a puree running across the plate. We also had another miracle berry and a lemon slice sitting at the right side of the plate. While our cheese plate was a cheese plate and the apples and the puree were what the were supposed to be, we only received one cheese that was unadulterated. The cheese on the left that looked like a light colored blue cheese was not actually a blue cheese at all. It was a cream cheese with a couple of layers of herbs that had been put into it. The middle cheese was actually what it looked like, a Shropshire Blue Cheese and the Parmesan cheese was actually a Braeburn apple that was pressed into the shape of a wedge of cheese. Before the pill, the cheeses were rather strong flavored, after the pill they became much more light flavored but they still tasted good. The wine after the pill tasted just like a tawny port.All trips must come to an end and our twisted ThangsgivIng ended with a twist on pumpkin pie. The pumpkin was served in a poptart form, sat on top of a lemon fluff and had some sort of sauce on top. The sauce was the only thing that had sugar in it but we couldn't tell after the miracle berry. The pastry was light and fluffy, the pumpkin tasted like pumpkin pie, and the lemon fluff tasted for all the world like a roasted marshmallow. It was nice and sweet and a fitting end to our twisted supper. I did have an opportunity to try the poptart and lemon fluff after the miracle berry wore off and while it had a similar flavor, without the sweetness it wasn't nearly as appetizing.

This dinner was a lot of fun and it was kind of weird but I am glad that I got to do it. The plan, I guess, is to do a flavor changing dinner once a month. While I am glad I got to do it, it was kind of expensive and while I won't say that I won't do it ever again, there are too many other restaurants to explore to make this a regular event for me.