Alinea ***

On Sunday December 5th 2010, Ric, a fellow intern from Charlie Trotter's and I went embarked on what is called the best restaurant in the United States- Alinea.

I had called a month and a half in advance, I knew I had wanted to go there as soon I as I got to Chicago. I told them I worked at Trotters and got the hookup. We got a few extra courses and some Champagne and some wine on the house.

Pictured are the Edible drinks which are:

Passion Fruit-Flor de cana 4year, matusalem clasico, sailor jerry

Lemon-Luxardo bitter, luxardo amaro, grapefruit

Apple-Laird's apple brandy, grenadine, thyme

Squash-Cynar, carpano antica, flor de cana 7 year

Kumquat- rittenhouse rye, peychaud's, demerara

Next was Chao Tom- Sugar Cane, Shrimp, Mint

Next was Bass-Black Pepper, Vanilla, Lemon

The next picture is- Canard a la cussy from Escoffier

The first picture is of the famous Chocolate Dessert- it's plated on the table with red wine soaked blueberrys, honey and peanut.

It was an amazing meal!!! There were a few misses, but overall it was totally worth it.

Vie Restaurant- 1 Michelin Star

So I was asked by my fellow co-workers Anistar and HeeJu to go to dinner with them before I left Chicago. I agreed and they selected the restaurant Vie (http://www.vierestaurant.com/) The restaurant is described as seasonal, contemporary American cuisine. The chef is Paul Virant, he has worked at such Chicago restaurants as Charlie Trotters, Black Bird, Everest.
The restaurant is in Western Springs, IL so we took the bus down to union station and then took the Metra to Western Springs. A note about the restaurant, Mondays are half off bottles of wine.
We decided to get the eight course tasting menu.
Amuse-wood-grilled laughing bird shrimp, dill vinaigrette, hard cooked egg.
first-Pan roasted diver sea scallops, caramelized salsify, thyme, royal trumpet mushrooms, preserved lemon butter.
Second- House smoked and seared black cod, spanish olived oil potato puree, grilled fennel and pickled snow peas.
Third- Caveny farm "American buff" goose pate, perigold truffle, semolina bread, pear butter, goose cracklings, swiss chard.
Fourth- Crispy anson mills rice flour gnocchi, creamy celery root, pea shoots, perigold truffle.
Fifth-Butter roasted turbot, crispy bone marrow dumpling, roasted parsnips, baby leeks, baby leeks, bordelaise sauce.
Sixth- Mint creek farm goat bolognese: slow cooked goat and house made sausage, cavatelli, perserved tomato sauce, hend of the woods mushrooms, kale, prairie fruits farm kaskaskia.
Seventh- Wood grilled dry aged ribeye and braised burgundy snails, fried vie toast, wilted spinach, garlic and parsley butter, candied hillside orchard chestnuts.
Eighth- prairie fruits farm "Little bloom on the prairie", cranberry jam, cornmeal crackers.
Sorbet- Lemon lavender sorbet
To finish- Moist chestnut cake, dark chocolate mousse, coffee caramel, chestnut sable cookie, chocolate coffee ice cream sandwich.

Wow where to begin, our server was great made great recommendations for wines. The restaurant really took care of us also, we got a glass of Champagne when we sat down on the house. After the dinner we met chef Paul and everybody from the kitchen when we took a tour and even got a nice little parting gift from the sous chef. The owner then gave us cocktails at the bar and beers to take on the train ride home.
The food was great, the only thing we agreed on was the snails were sweet with the ribeye and it brought the dish down a little. The fish was cooked perfectly with every dish. I can see why they got a star.

Michelin Guide Chicago

So Last week the Michelin Guide came to Chicago for the first time ever, there was talk amongst the kitchen how many stars the restaurant was going to get, the consensus was two stars, which is a high honor.

Here is what every star means :

Overall in the United States there are only nine 3 star restaurants, that is pretty great company. We recieved two michelin stars, Chef Trotter called a meeting to declare " WE WAS ROBBED" and " I HAVE HALF A MIND TO SEND THE STARS BACK"

I am thrilled about working at a two michelin star restaurant, sure it would be even better to get three, but I will take two and add that to my resume.