The lost meals entries consist of meals that occurred at various times throughout 2012 which, for any number of reasons, escaped my documentation – some due to a cross country move and a new job, some due to the Los Angeles Kings run to the Stanley Cup, and some simply as a result of too much travel. Having enjoyed many of these meals with friends or family and with some of them amongst the year’s very best the reality is that with time my memory has deteriorated and as life moves forward I’ve realized there is little hope to ever “catch up” or document these experiences as well as I’d hope, yet in order to preserve them I present these pictures, notes, and thoughts on the experience.
Sweetbreads – Broccoli, Chanterelles, Wheat Berries
Duck Confit – Wild Mushrooms, Corn, New Potatoes
Country Ham Flat Bread with Kale and Raclette Cheese
Chicken Liver Mousse with Grilled Bread, Pickles, Mustard
Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Mousse and Beet Ice Cream
Helmed by Ashlee Aubin straight off time as chef de partie at Alinea I’d hoped to make it to Wood for brunch during my trip to Chicago but with time short and plans extensive I missed out…only to decide last minute to pay the space on North Halsted a visit for pre-dinner before our reservations at Elizabeth. Named after the wood-fired over responsible for the majority of food emerging from the kitchen and featuring in house butchery, hyper-seasonal produce, house grown herbs, and a menu that is known to change from day to day my assumption was that at the very least my sister and I could grab a plate or two and a drink before dinner…but of course that ended up turning into a quintet of plates as soon as I looked at the menu.
Narrow, long, and surprisingly quiet on an early Sunday evening we were seated immediately on arrival and with a young man named Kevo as our server a quick perusal of the menu indicated at least ten plates I should have liked to try but limiting myself and seeking opinions from both server and dining partner I’m fairly certain we received a pretty good idea of what the restaurant is all about and every bit of it was excellent, the setting and the service no exception.
Promoting a focus on “unique flavor combinations” but in reality successful largely through the use of exemplary ingredients and technique one of my favorite aspects of the cuisine at Wood was how unmanipulated the majority of the majority of the ingredients were – the fine dining/molecular cuisine training saved for the occasional sauce, garnish, or dessert thus rendering the plates almost rustic, the sort of food you think you can make at home but never do; the creamy sweetbreads with toothsome wheat berries and woodsy vegetables the most obvious example and the confit amongst the best I’ve had stateside while the flat bread and mousse were rich – probably too rich for a per-dinner meal – but simple and perfectly executed.
Moving past savories to sweets I decided that restraint should be in order but couldn’t help but order one (I wanted two…or three) and while the composition was certainly less rustic than the prior dishes it was no less delicious; the flavor profile trending much further towards herbal than sweet – a true spice cake with smooth frosting and ice cream that, eyes closed, tasted like a roasted beet with just a bit more sugar and good enough that if we hadn’t already bought tickets for the meal that followed I’d have probably scrapped those plans and stuck around for a while to try a few more plates, both sweet and savory.