Review: Next - Paris 1906, Escoffier at the Ritz

I'm embarrassed that this has taken SO long to post. Next has already moved onto its next menu and here I am, 2 months behind! Where does all the time go? But for those of you who are still interested in reliving the moment or seeing what you missed out on, I'll (try to) keep this short and sweet and let your mouth do the watering.

We did the chef's table for 6 on a Saturday evening at 6 PM. What a fantastic night! Did I think it was worth the hype? Absolutely! Did I think it was worth the money? No regrets! Overall, we could not have been pleased more as we enjoyed 6 1/2 hours of superb food and execution, non-stuffy service, and lots of laughter and camaraderie all around. I would recommend to anyone wanting to go to Next to experience the chef's table if you can get tickets. Unfortunately, we could not score them for Tour of Thailand but are still certainly looking forward to our "next" encounter on September 25th!

Hors d’Oeuvres
From top to bottom:
-Poached quail egg with anchovy
-Smoked salmon mousse
-Foie gras torchon
-Rabbit pate
-Pork rillette
-Mushroom and leek

Oeufs Bénédictine
-Cod and truffle custard (one of my favorites)

Caviare
- Uruguaya caviar with blinis, crème fraîche, lemon zest, and chives. AMAZING (and I’ve never been a huge caviar fan)!

Potage à la Tortue Claire (no picture)
-Turtle consommé

Puree Palentine
-Cream of hazelnut soup with Jerusalem artichokes
The weakest dish of the night; I did not care for this one. The flavors did not meld together well for me.

Fillet de Sole Daumont
-Sole and crawfish
Similar to a savory seafood crème brulee

Suprêmes de Poisson
-Chicken cutlets; with poached cucumber

Carre d’agneau
-Seared lamb loin, sweatbreads, and onion rings

Caneton Rouennais à la Presse
-The antique duck press! It squeezes the remnant duck bones, meat, and skin out which then gets simmered and made into a fantastic au jus for the duck meat. Performed tableside by executive chef Dave Beran.

Gratin de Pommes de Terre à la Dauphinoise
-Potato au gratin

Salade Irma
-Palette cleanser. Light and flavorful.

Sorbet Sauternes

Bombe Ceylan
-Chocolate Bomb

Souffle au Chocolat
-Translate to English. Served with rum soaked cherries.

Mignardises
-Beet gelée, salted caramal, nougat

The wine highlight for me was the 2003 Domaine de Montbourgeau Savagnin l’Etoile. This is not a wine for everyone. By far the most unique white I’ve ever tasted. Almost a cross between a chardonnay and sherry. I was absolutely stoked to recently find it again on a menu at Eleven Madison Park in New York City (the sommelier was quick to point out that they carry the 2002 however).


Overall rating: 4 stars / 4

Next Restaurant
West Loop
Cost: $$$$

http://www.nextrestaurant.com (will only operate using Safari, Google Chrome, or Firefox)

Review: Maude's Liquor Bar

So I have been dying to go to Maude's for a few months since it seems to be one of the very "it" spots right now. And then lucky me, I went 2 times in a week and even got both experiences paid for...not what you think people! And the urge to go increased when my friend Suzi was there a few weeks prior to and saw Grant Achatz and girlfriend there as well. If it's cool enough for Grant to hang out there, then for sure, I want to check it out! (And no, I'm not obsessed if that's what you're thinking.)

After all the hype, I would say that I honestly have mixed feelings about the place. Here's a quick summary: drinks - average, food - solid, service - wildly discrepant, decor - superb, vibe - fantastic, price - more than what it should be, so overall, what do you rate a place like this? Especially when I want to love it so bad. So difficult! Here's the breakdown.

Over both visits, I had a couple of the specialty cocktails, including the St. German Fizz and Death in the Afternoon. Neither of them were memorable. I did, however, have a lovely sancerre that I need to go back for in order to find out the actual vineyard and vintage. I'm still thinking about it.

Next stop, food. Oysters were some of the best I've had in the city. They feature one east and west coast nightly and what did impress was that even though I went two times less than one week apart, they had 2 totally different sets of oysters both times. On the latter visit, they were serving Stingray oysters from Chesapeake Bay and Shoal Bay oysters from the Pacific Northwest. The first time I went, I was too drunk from my fantastic birthday meal at Blackbird to remember the oysters I was indulging in afterward. I know, sick, right? 3 course meal at Blackbird and then a dozen oysters at Maude's. Lesson here people: there is always room for oysters! The salad we had was amazing. It was the shaved salad special of the night which entailed of red and golden beets, radishes, blue cheese, and walnuts. The roasted bone marrow was also to die for. It was split length wide so you had to spoon it out. It was served with a red onion jam and toast points. Very intriguing indeed. What lacked any pizazz was the foie gras torchon with cherry jam which was unfortunate since I love foie gras. We were debating between the foie gras and chicken liver so next time, I'll go for the liver instead.

The service...ugh. The first time we went, the service was HORRIBLE, all CAPS. The hostesses, our server, D to all. While we were wrapping up our bill at the bar, which was all but 5 minutes, they gave away our table upstairs which we had requested and waited over an hour for. And our server, was super annoyed that we ordered only drinks and oysters downstairs and openly showed it, even though it was her own hostesses that gave our table upstairs away after we told them we were only there for drinks. She was also pretty condescending about a comment my sister made about a beer she suggested tasting somewhat like Blue Moon. OK, I know a place like Maude's does not serve anything remotely close to Blue Moon but she's also talking to 4 people who KNOW their food more than most people out there and certainly more than she did. I can't say enough about how bad the service was. (And I have to say it DID taste like Blue Moon.) Anyway, enough of that. The second time there, however, we had a super friendly, polite, and attentive server who was a breath of fresh air compared to our first experience. So she definitely made up for our first encounter a few times over. Guess service is a wash.

As for the decor, it is truly a scene out of old school France. No complaints. I love the decor and vibe they are going for... quite lovely.

Price seems to be a little all over the place. A dozen oysters are $30 and the foie gras torchon was $18 which both seem to be slightly too high. OK, I know I'm being picky but $2 or $3 less would seem more appropriate. However, the salad at $8 and bone marrow at $13 seems to be spot on.

So overall, I am really torn about what to rate Maude's. I didn't love it as much as I had hoped but there were very promising parts as well. I think a third visit is in order to offer better perspective between 2 and 3 stars! But for now, I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Overall rating: 3 stars / 4

Maude's Liquor Bar
West Loop
Cost: $$$

http://www.maudesliquorbar.com/

(As a side note, pay no attention to the empty tables in the photo. This place is happenin' but I went right at opening since my friend was going to the Hawks game later that night, and I was on mom duty. Yes, I am probably the only person to ever take her baby to a place as cool and hip as Maude's...gasp! It was beyond packed when we left at a more regular hour.)

Pheasant Night

My brother-in-law goes hunting every year for pheasants at the Chain O'Lakes State Park. This year, I had 5 pheasants that he asked me to cook up for dinner. Now I've only ever cooked one wild game animal before, venison, but for some reason, pheasant seemed way scarier! Or maybe it was because I was fearful that I'd ruin something that someone actually took the time to hunt and kill for dinner.

After much research on-line, I read that most people either soak the birds overnight in milk or brine. This is mainly to reduce the gamey flavor or to pull out the excess blood. Gross, I know. I opted for the milk method which I really think worked well.

Anyway, I ended up making an apple stuffing and stuffed each pheasant breast with it, wrapped it in bacon, and added chopped onion. Because I figured even if the birds ended up sucking, at least they will taste better with bacon right? Everything tastes better with bacon! The sauce was made of prunes, apple vinegar, and heavy whipping cream. We even found 2 shots during our meal. Watch out teeth! They're too difficult to find when you're deboning the bird as they're only about 2 mm wide.

On the side, we had a lovely butternut squash, leek, and corn wild rice. And for dessert was a blackberry pear honey goat cheese tart.

World's Best 50 Restaurants

The annual S. Pellegrino's list has just been released. #1 in the world is Noma in Denmark.

Here are the other top 100:
1-50
51-100

I was super excited to see Eleven Madison Park up 26 spots to #24 as I had an amazing dinner there in September. I couldn't stop raving about the experience, both in food and service.

I have been to 4 of the top 100 which means LOTS more dining to do!

11. Daniel - New York
24. Eleven Madison Park - New York
40. Momofuku Ssam Bar - New York
58. Tetsuya's - Sydney, Australia

Next Update: Tickets-Check. Fun Facts-Check.

So after much anticipation and moments of panic, I got the e-mail of the decade today: You are now able to purchase tickets to Next. After months of waiting, today was the moment of truth! After all duplicate e-mails were removed, there were a little over 19,000 people who registered for tickets to Next, whose grand opening was tonight. I was more than geeked up over it and drove by twice today. Once around 5 pm to see a staff meeting going on and another time around 9 pm to see taxi action and diners in front. How exciting! I still feel giddy thinking about how we got in...I still can't believe it! I was really optimistic considering I think I signed up around June of 2010 but with so many people trying to get in and tickets being released on a first come, first serve basis, you never know where you are in relation to everyone else. The first 1000 tickets were released today and I was more than lucky to score tickets as sometime a little after 3 pm, about an hour after people started to get notified, the server crashed and few people were able to get in. Tickets stopped selling 4 pm, just 2 hours later. They were taking the server down around 7 pm to repair and fix the problems, and the next batch of tickets will go on sale tomorrow.

Here are a few fun facts about Next:

10. Epicurious.com named Next the top restaurant of 2010, and it hasn't even opened yet!

9. The New York Times said that Next might be the most hotly anticipated restaurant opening in the country. There is also a secret bar that will open behind Aviary, the bar to accompany Next (how do I get in to that????).

8. The menu will rotate every 3 months to a new cuisine and time period. The first one is Paris 1906. Rumor has it that the next one will be Bangkok 2060. I'd love to get in as I've eaten in Bangkok and had some amazing food there. I'd love to see his spin on what the cuisine will be like several decades down the road.

7. Next is offering tickets in order of people who signed up to receive notification. You pay for your tickets ahead of dining so there is no bill at the end of the night, no substitutions or changes. The menu will cost anywhere from $65-$110/person before tax and gratuity for an 8-course meal. Less expensive options are during the week; more expensive options are for prime time weekend nights. Pairings are $48 for wine, $22 for non-alcoholic beverages. There is no ordering of wine by the glass or bottle. All food allergies need to be put in at time of ordering.

6. On a search of craiglist, I found one ticket going for $1200 for a Friday night for 2 with wine pairings. The face value cost of this should be roughly $400. As you can tell, tickets are transferable but they are advising diners to be aware of scalpers and counterfeits.

5. There is 1 seating each evening for a chef's table of 6 which features an extravagant 16-course meal with the reserve wine pairings. Rumor has it that many of the chefs will come out to serve several of the courses.

4. The idea for Next came from the fact that Alinea, Grant Achatz's signature restaurant, has to staff 4 "reservationists" just to answer phones and tell people "Sorry, we're booked that evening, and that evening, and yes, THAT evening too." You get the picture! For my graduation from culinary school, my husband called 60 days in advance for reservations on my graduation day. He was told that there were no openings but he could certainly be put on the waiting list. When asked how many were on the waiting list, he was told 57. When asked how many seats there were, he was told (going off of memory here) approximately 60. Yeah, pick your jaw up from off the floor.

3. The lucky 1000 today were sent an e-mail, asked to go to the Next ticket website to input their e-mail to then be sent a unique password. Upon entering, the available dates, times, and options were made available.

2. There will be approximately 7500 tickets sold to the first menu run. There will be one or two table that will be left open each evening for VIPs, and there is an e-mail to try for any same day openings (such as last minute cancellations). Hotel concierges are fretting about how they will secure tables for guests as they are not receiving any special accommodations currently.

1. I am going!!! Booked for the exclusive chef's table on a Saturday night, the most premium table and time slot. Ticket price: $406.35 per person. Yes, might seem nuts but I think this ticket will be worth it! I'll let you know on May 28, 2011.

Paris 1906 menu - Escoffier at the Ritz

Hors d’Oeuvres

Potage à la Tortue Claire
907

Fillet de Sole Daumont
1950

Suprêmes de Poisson
3130

Caneton Rouennais a la Presse
3476

Gratin de Pommes de Terre à la Dauphinoise
4200

Salade Irma
3839

Bombe Ceylan
4826

Mignardises

(Note: The numbers represent the recipe number from Auguste Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire, a $70 book which I proudly own from school but never use. Escoffier is attributed with developing modern French cuisine and coming up with the restaurant brigade system, i.e. chef de cuisine, sous chef, etc. His book was first published in French in 1903.)

Next is open for business...April 6, 2011

NEXT Restaurant video

'Twas the night before Next...

This just in! The first 500 tickets are being released at 10 am tomorrow morning. It's like trying to sleep the night before Christmas. Wish me luck friends!!!

Next and Aviary...

...first off, if you are a follower, you are probably wondering 'What the ???? I actually got a notice from this blog?' OK yeah, so I took a new job last year about this time, and things have been hectic to say the least! But...I am on a little bit of a hiatus regarding said job. No, I didn't get fired or laid off. And no, I didn't quit or resign. I got pregnant, as in with child. And after pregnancy comes motherhood. So with that being said, I am home for 12 total weeks of maternity leave. As my first half of leave winds down, I need projects. And with the thought of projects comes the thought of "What are all the things I always wish I had time for and never get to?" Not that I have a ton of time now but as I'm getting back into the swing of things and balancing my need for food, a new budget, and new responsibilities, I am wishing that I had more time for blogging, so blogging, here I come, AGAIN.

So my latest news is that I am pumped!!! OK, 3 exclamation points because I'm also buzzed. Enjoyed a Guinness (leftover from corned beef and cabbage on St. Patty's Day that I made), a bottle of cava while celebrating the season finale of Top Chef (I was SO excited for it, I decided earlier this evening that the occasion called for a bottle of bubbly), and now a glass of red wine. I'm trying to build back my tolerance. Moving on, not only am I pumped about Richard Blais winning Top Chef All Stars, but I am also pumped about the eminent opening of Next and Aviary, the latest projects from Grant Achatz, chef/owner of Alinea and Nick Kokonas, co-owner/other business guy, official title). If you don't know what Alinea is, you've been living under a rock. And if you don't know what Next and Aviary are, you've been living under a boulder. Or maybe it's the other way around. Next is based on the premise that dining is an activity similar to going to the theater (ha, I spelled it theatre...underlined during spellcheck, no go). If you go at prime time or have prime time seats, you pay a premium price. If you're seated up in the 3rd balcony, last row, you can still say you went but you went at a more affordable price. If you're on the main floor near the orchestra pit, you pay an arm and a leg and are most likely getting home by your driver. Next is based on that concept. If you go on a Tuesday night at 10 PM, you pay less than someone who goes on Saturday at 8 PM (btw, my favorite dining time of the week). Tickets are "sold" and the menu also changes 4 times a year. Each change involves a change of cuisine and time period. The grand opening just got announced that it could be a week away after originally anticipating it for fall of last year and the first menu will be Paris 1906. See a sneak peak of the menu:

Next-Paris 1906 Test Dinner

I've been meaning to drive by the place and see the progress since I went to Grant's book signing a few weeks ago but am officially going to do so tomorrow on my birthday. Also, at the book signing, Grant and Nick said that 20,000 people have thus far signed up to be on the list for tickets. I have yet to be contacted and signed up over 6 months ago. Sigh...maybe I'll get in if I tell them it would be a fantastic birthday present??!!

Aviary is the bar that will go along with it that will be run by chefs making up cocktail concoctions rather than bartenders, aka mixologists if you want to be "hip."

More to come on newly released book in an upcoming post.

Underground dinner update: 5.2.10

Well folks. This underground dinner wasn't meant to be...at least not in this springtime. So Matt and I just found out today that we have a very important function to be at on May 22 that we cannot miss (like one of those rare life moment events). We can't tell you right now, unfortunately, but I promise it's a good reason and we will try again very soon. Thanks for your patience & understanding!

Underground Dinner: 5.22.10 7:00 pm

I cannot believe that the last underground dinner was all the way back in December! After that, it was traveling to Australia and wrestling season which put my bartender out of commission...until now! As a tribute to our wonderful Australian honeymoon and 2 lovely meals at Tetsuya's and Guru, we are going to do an Australian / Asian theme for this next dinner. All the recipes are actually from Tetsuya Wakudo or Opel Khan (and one throw-in from Nobu Matsuhisa (from New York's famous Nobu). And since I have been neglecting all of you, my culinary friends, fear not, I will make it up to you with our 1st ever 5-course meal. So yay! Let's get started...

Tetsuya's was our fantastic New Year's Eve meal in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Matt made reservations in July 2009 for dinner on December 31, 2009. Ridiculous! Tetsuya's was voted the #1 restaurant in Australia/Asia and #17 in the world in 2009. To put this in perspective, Alinea was Chicago's highest ranked restaurant on the list (and #2 in the U.S.) and it was #10.* 2 of the courses that we will have were very similar to what we experienced as part of our meal, including the oysters and tuna tartare (although they had a ocean perch tartare with a frozen and subsequently thawed egg yolk on top with a goat cheese puree).

Tetsuya's

Guru was a random find that we stumbled across during an afternoon stroll in Surry Hills, Sydney. It was actually an Indian French restaurant but we had the pleasure of meeting the chef/owner Opel Khan and his lovely wife Julie. We got to chatting at the end of our evening with them, and he gave us an autographed copy of his award-winning book Sex in the Kitchen cookbook which has won several awards for the photography as well as best cookbook cover (which is actually of his wife). He could not stop talking about Table 52 in Chicago. He and his wife are friends with Art Smith (Oprah's former? personal chef). We will be utilizing 3 recipes from his cookbook which highlights the sensuality of food. It draws the parallel between sex and food - both rely heavily on our ability to see, smell, touch, taste, and who knows, these days, sometimes even hear...thank you molecular gastonomy! Hope the recipes are as inviting as the photos!

Opel Khan

Lastly, the black cod has nothing to do with Australia however I've been wanting to try this Nobu recipe forever. If any of you have had the pleasure to go to Nobu (I've only been to the one in Las Vegas), it is amazing! The miso-marinated black cod made it famous. The black cod has to marinate in the miso sauce for 3 days! And opefully I can get the black code, otherwise, I will find an equally lovely substitute for you all, never fear!

Nobu

Anyway, hope you are are excited about this 5-course treat as we are. And as always, we all pray for the best as the whole purpose for underground dinner is to try new recipes each time!

Menu:

oysters with rice wine vinegar, mirin, & grapeseed oil with chives
-
marinated tuna tartare with asian-spiced goat cheese
-
vanilla mango coconut milk & rum puree (palate cleanser)
-
miso-marinated black cod
garlic baby bok choy
-
vanilla rice pudding with caramlized lychees

Room for: 6
Cost: $50 (cash or paypal)
Wine pairings: TBD

* According to S. Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants 2009:

Event: 2.13.10

Last Saturday, my friend hosted a very swank bachelorette party for her sister at her condo. She hired a sommelier to come in and host wine tastings and education. She also hired a personal chef (me) to match the food with the wine. Overall, I prepared 6 items to complement a welcome champagne, 2 whites, 4 reds, a sparkling dessert white (which was our palate cleanser), and sparkling dessert red. Here was the menu as well as some photos. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun!!!

Assorted Cheeses

Pommery "Brut Royale" Champagne, NV Brut, Champagne, France

Starters

Spicy Tuna Tartare with Avocado & Cucumber
2008 Bodegas La Cana Albariño, Rias Baixas, Spain

Celery, Toasted Almond, & Tarragon Chicken Bibb Lettuce Cups
2006 Zantho Muskat, Burgenland, Austria

Salad

Belgian Endive, Pomegranate, & Blue Cheese Salad
2008 Sherwood Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand

Mains

Baked Mozzarella Ziti
Savory Butternut Squash & Parmesan Bread Pudding

2007 Costanti "Massarossa", Lazio, Italy
2007 Niepoort "Twisted", Douro, Portugal
2007 Ridge "Geyserville" Zinfandel blend, Sonoma County, California

Dessert

2008 Gianni Doglia Moscato d'Asti, Piedmont, Italy

Chocolate Mousse Torte
2005 de Jean Paul Brun Terres Dorées FRV 100 Sparkling Gamay

Underground dinner for 2.20.10

For those of you have been asking, underground dinner for 2.20.10 is off. :( Unfortunately something came up for Matt. We have a lot of booked up Saturdays in next couple of months so we're brainstorming other options. Perhaps a gourmet savory and sweet Sunday brunch? Let me know your ideas!!!

Review: TRU (2.6.10)

Matt and I went to Tru to celebrate my new job and promotion. The food was amazing!!! Savory portions were all wonderful however I thought the dessert was a little weak (especially after having an amazing mid-afternoon treat at Hot Chocolate). Service is incredible. Even to minute details such as putting both of our plates down at the exact same time and taking them away. They called us a cab when we were done and have us a little cherry muffin to eat with our morning coffee. It is a little stuffy and sterile however so the atmosphere might not be for all. Jackets are required for men, conversation is almost TOO quiet (I think I had to laugh out loud twice too), and with the all white walls and black furniture, it's a little cold. One other thing that I would improve is to have a wine pairing option with the degustation menus. There must be some reason why they don't? We got the 9-course (which is really more like 15) so it's hard to pick a bottle or 2. We ended up just opting for glasses but it would have been nice, however, to have had the option to have coursed pairings.

Menu (pictures flow opposite though...don't feel like redoing them. Deal :)
Cornte cheese gougere - no picture

Beef consomme: wagyu beef ravioli, espelette pepper, parsley - no picture

White sturgeon "caviar", avocado, hazelnut (one of my favorites)

Red ace, candystripe, & golden beet collage, horseradish

Celeriac veloute, celeriac profiterole, olive oil - no picture

Maine lobster, romanesco, madras curry, espelette tempura (another favorite)

La ratte potato gnocchi, white veal glaze, fragile lace tuile

Miso-marinated sablefish, kale, radish, banyuls brown butter sauce (Matt's favorite)

Prime beef ribeye (I upgraded to the Kobe beef option), grilled foie gras, hedgehogs, parsley - no picture

Selection of 3 cheeses (another favorite. They wheel out a chart with 10 cheese options and you get to pick 3. It was unreal!)

Meyer lemon puff, tapioca, mint yogurt

Tahitian vanilla cremeux, hazelnuts, manjari chocolate ice cream (weak!)

Mignardises & lollipops


Overall rating: 3 stars / 4

TRU
River East
Jacket requred for menu
Cost: $$$$$

http://www.trurestaurant.com/

Recipe: Mexican Lasagna

This was a good easy weekday recipe. You might need to cook the lasagna a little longer than the recipe calls for to make sure the cheese is nice and bubbly and slightly browned. It needs some additional toppings in my opinion; I served it with with sour cream, sliced avocados, finely sliced iceberg lettuce, and chopped tomatoes. Serve with Spanish rice on the side and enjoy within 30 minutes!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/mexican-lasagna-recipe/index.html

Dining in Dublin

If anyone of you are reading this, let me know what you think about posting restaurant recommendations in other cities. My favorite thing on this planet is food but my second favorite is traveling, and what better activity to do than to check out food WHILE traveling?!

I was in Ireland the early part of December and randomly discovered this quaint restaurant called The Winding Stair. It is a twist on traditional Irish food and specializes in seasonal and local produce and purveyors. It was a gem and definite recommendation, especially in a place that might not be known for its food.

I had a tasty smoked fish platter of eel, 2 kinds of salmon, and trout served with soda bread and caperberries. Entree was duck two ways: confit and breast with a berry sauce. Irish bread pudding in whiskey is a must for dessert!

Reservations are also a must. The place is tiny.

http://www.winding-stair.com/

Underground Dinner 2 complete!

I've been traveling the world eating some great culinary delights in Scottsdale, Ireland, and Australia. After taking almost a month off, the docent is back!

Our 2nd dinner was a great evening of fun with Trisha, Justin, Natalia, and Brett. The wine pairings were a little off this time but the pear cider was stellar: a wonderful compliment to the smoked fish, peppery arugula, and sinus-clearing horseradish. Main and dessert were fantastic. I was very pleased with the results.

I only remembered to take 1 picture again...next time I will have to remember better (or drink less) :)

Underground dinner will take a break for January due to crazy full-time job and traveling but we will be back on track for our February dinner on 2/20...menu pending.