If I had a slice of bacon for every cute cheffy deconstruction of a classic dish that had gone wrong, I’d be bigger than Niman Ranch. Even if the deconstruction goes right, the gourmet-ing up of mac and cheese or PBJ has been done so much that it’s getting boring. Still, one chef whose deconstructions I never get sick of is Graham Elliot Bowles of Graham Elliot. The cool thing about Bowles is he knows when to deconstruct and when to just leave classics alone. If he wants to use Pop Rocks, he doesn’t have some kitchen intern researching how to re-create Pop Rocks for a week, he just goes to the corner store and buys them. Sometimes you just...
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L20: For Unconventional and Luxurious Seafood Inside L20; lamb tartar, ebi shrimp, pickled peach, tarragon; butter dome. Chicago’s been patting itself on the back for the better part of the last couple of years as the new food capital of the world. While I try not to be a one sided cheerleader, I’ve certainly showered my fair share of praise on Windy City eats. It’s a reasonable thing to do when you look at the breadth of offerings here, from the high end to the low end. Truth be told, we had a handful gems at the high end, but really luxurious Michelin-style dining was generally elusive. Even a spot like Alinea, which definitely deserves the accolades it received as...
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