I love the show Top Chef. My wife, Amanda, and myself watch the show every week. I would guess you could probably create a lethal drinking game based on taking a shot whenever one of us utters a variation of the phrase “wouldn’t it be amazing to go to an event like this?” We sit enviously gazing as the frazzled contestants hand out their creations to a room full of lucky and always impeccably turned out attendees. Well, Meals on Wheels transformed the ninth floor of the downtown Chicago Macy’s into an event space out of every Top Chef fan’s hobnobbing dreams. Fifty different stations, each serving small plates of deliciousness. Three bars serving up free drinks with quality liquor all night long. A rock band in one room, a DJ spinning in another, and crowds of gorgeous people in perfect outfits lining up to take pictures in the photo studio set up for the evening. Yet never pretentious, even for someone like myself who can be somewhat prickly about that kind of thing.
But you’re not here for a discussion of my insecurities or which things I tried to win in the raffle they had that night (still bummed about not winning the ridealong with the Cupcake Mobile). Time to talk about the food. I regret not being able to eat at every single station, but we gave it the old college try, hitting up 20 of the 50 food booths. A few of the highlights of the night food-wise were:
• Girl and the Goat: It was easy to tell who the big star of the night was. The normal line at a booth was perhaps three or four people at a given time. The line to try the “Walter’s Chicken” at Stephanie Izard’s booth was over 20 people long when we arrived. Izard is a rock star in the food world at the moment. The chicken itself was good, though I’m actually kind of blanking on the details of it at the moment. I remember Stephanie handing it to me though, and that’s something no other dish had going for it.
• Culinary Speakeasy: Another Top Chef Season 4 alum, Valerie Bolon, was responsible for one of the my favorite dishes of the night. Her take on the traditional soup and sandwich was brilliant. Creamy apple and onion soup with a mini-Emmanthaler grilled cheese sandwich, and a bit of crispy prosciutto was the dinner that the best mom in the world would make you when you’re sick. The soup was rich and sweet, the grilled cheese melted in your mouth, and the prosciutto gave the dish the added texture to keep everything from being too soft and decadent. If this is the kind of things being served at the dinner parties hosted by Bolon and Rachel Winpar then I want on the guest list.
• English: What the heck, how about one more dish by a Top Chef contestant? Radhika Desai, a Season 5 contestant, may have opened the door to the next fast food item ready to be all classed-up and given a haute cuisine makeover. Her lamb and feta slider with cucumber sauce tasted like the gyro I’ve spent my life searching for. Tangy, just a little spicy, hot and cool all at once. And really, in a city where people wait two hours at a hot dog stand or spend $20 for a burger, why shouldn’t someone elevate the humble gyro from a late-night drunken food staple into a canvas upon which creative chefs can let their creativity flow?
• Rockit Bar and Grill / Burger Bar: Two restaurants, two sliders, two delicious burgers. Burger Bar’s Hey Shortay slider with Tallgrass beef, porter braised shortribs and caramelized onion slaw was wonderfully beefy with a full flavor, and a bit of sweetness from the onions. Filling and flavorful, yet still light and not overwhelming to the palate or the stomach. The Rockit burger on the other hand was a marauding presence. It came up to your mouth, slapped the taste of everything else clean out, and took up residence like an angry squatter. I loved it. Kobe beef, melted brie, fried shallot, and medjool date aioli on a thick hearty bun combined to bring so much flavor and texture that I was slightly dazed as I ate it. It was almost too much to handle in such an already ultra-stimulating environment, but it made me really really really want to try this burger as a meal on its own.
• Takashi: The Chef’s Ball was on a Friday night. On Sunday afternoon, as I watched the crime against humanity that was the Chicago Bears playing football, one thought kept popping into my mind. Well, one thought that can be printed without copious use of asterisks anyhow. That thought? “Man, I want a big bowl full of Takashi’s chicken-prosciutto croquettes, because those were possibly the best snackable treat I’ve had in my life.” I know rarely does one think of fine dining as something that would go along with chips and guac or Fritos and sour cream and onion dip. I know there was a quite tasty curried lentil soup that surrounded the croquette. But if I could indulge without regard for finance or propriety, I would eat a giant freaking bowl of those little spheres of wonderfulness. Takashi Yagahashi should sell take-out boxes of them on Sundays for deranged folks like myself.
• Bittersweet Bakery / Balsan & Ria: By now you’ve likely heard all you need to hear about the sudden rise of the macaron as a hip new dessert treat. But there is a reason for the explosion. They’re small enough to avoid being overwhelming to the waistline. They have flexibility, allowing so many different flavors that you can keep trying new ideas or returning to old favorites without becoming bored by them. And they’re so decadent that they can fulfill the need for something that feels like a special treat without having to drop an exorbitant sum of cash on them. Both of these places had macarons available. Judy Contino’s Bittersweet Bakery macaron was chocolate. Theirs was a very dense macaron, rich and hearty. It seemed designed for maximum chocolate delivery, a goal I can get behind. Jason McLeod went a more exotic route with the macarons at Balsan & Ria. With flavors of sesame-fig, cinnamon, and very dark bitter chocolate, these macarons were more challenging to the tongue. Unlike the very dense, packed flavor of Bittersweet these were airy and more of a tease, with subtle but exciting flavor. The chocolate one especially was a challenge as this was not a comforting sort of treat for after a hard day at work. This was something to try when you’re ready to really think about what you just ate.
• Lockwood: Last, but absolutely anything but least, was the banana dessert from Fabrice Bouet. With a small disc of shortbread topped with bittersweet mousse, banana, and almond this dessert treat made the top of my head pop off and spin around like I was from a Tex Avery cartoon. With every flavor balanced just right, the banana leading the way but never outrunning the rest of the tastes, and a combination of textures that was pillow soft yet never falling apart this was an undisputed winner for me. I could say more, but every word I type about it means a longer time between when I finish and when I can go find more of this dessert, and I have my priorities in order on this one.
By 10:00 most of the stations were packing up for the night, leaving the guests to try and work off all the food on the dance floors or in the Horseshoe Casino’s gaming area. For us, it was time to leave this wonderland, happily grabbing up the complimentary More cupcakes being handed out as we were leaving Macy’s. I can’t say enough good things about the evening. A very worthy cause made much-needed money to continue doing their important work in these tough times. And everyone who attended was able to enjoy some of the best chefs in Chicago dishing out some of the best dishes they could whip up for us. I’ll be going back next year even if I have to pay for my ticket, which at $100 is still an incredible bargain for all that food, drink, entertainment, people-watching, and oh yeah, helping out a wonderful charitable organization.
No comments:
Post a Comment