Life, on the Line (33 page)

Three weeks ago, the kitchen team began spending every Tuesday and Wednesday at the test kitchen—which is, unfortunately for now, at my house. While it is adequate, it is certainly not the best environment for them. Still, the alternatives proved to be too costly and we could not find an empty commercial kitchen. So until Alinea is opened, we have cleared off some shelf space, moved some of our appliances, and brought in the best blender I have ever used (everyone go online and buy a Vita-Prep blender right after you read this—you will thank me later).

Despite the limitations, Grant has made sure that the team is well prepared, and it has been an honor to watch them cook. Perhaps most surprising to me is that there are no shortcuts, so to speak . . . peeling grapes is a difficult task even for a skilled chef. But the result is . . .

Peanut Butter and Jelly. Peeled grapes, on stem, coated with peanut butter, wrapped in a super thin cut of bread, broiled for a moment, and served. Ultimately, Grant hopes to get the grape stems with a leaf still on . . .
SEE FIGURE 9

A few weekends ago the chefs were invited to the Culinary Vegetable Institute in Ohio.

The CVI produces over 650 varieties of vegetables, many of them heirloom, obscure, or otherwise unheard of. Here is chef Duffy checking out one area of the farms.
SEE FIGURE 10

They came back energized and excited by what they had seen there. For example, here is an Hoja santa leaf . . .
SEE FIGURE 11

Grant smells it because it's distinctly like sassafras—or root beer. Those squashes in front of him, as well as a variety of mushrooms, will ultimately be wrapped and cooked in the leaf, and presented to guests. I have not yet seen the finished dish here, and it is still under development. But access to these types of products has whetted Grant's creativity, and the lab environment helps to realize a truly finished dish.

Another unique food product came from Terra Spices.
SEE FIGURE 12

 

 

Terra sent Grant a series of “spray dried” juices. These are fine powders that when put in the mouth turn instantly into a pudding consistency.

Grant mixed three of them in perfect combination—coconut, banana, and pineapple—and then added cane sugar, allspice, a thinly sliced hot pepper, and vanilla into a glass. Next to the glass will be a beaker with coconut water and rum. Pour the liquid into the glass and you have a delicious Caribbean pudding . . . instantly made and incredibly smooth.

Here it is just before being mixed.
FIGURE 13
One dish sounded perfect to me on paper—Prosciutto, Passion Fruit, Mint—and ended up tasting just as perfect. A thin, dehydrated slice of rolled prosciutto sandwiches a passion fruit sorbet and mint.
SEE FIGURE 14.

Really more beautiful than this lousy photo, it is surprising and great. One of the nice details is the prosciutto itself. . . . Rather than a simple slice, Grant cut 15-20 slices of prosciutto and then rolled them, wrapped them tight in cellophane, froze it, and cut it crosswise on a meat cutter. Then he dehydrated the resulting slice . . . delicate, tasty, and pretty . . .
SEE FIGURE 15

What is the offal of the vegetable world? Perhaps it is the stem of broccoli—usually cut off and discarded. Grant decided to build a dish around Poached Broccoli Stem.

Of course, first it is cooked sous-vide in butter for about one and a half hours. Then it's placed on broccoli puree. Then it's covered with a super-thin slice of brioche—pan-fried in butter. Around the plate you have an “Achatz-Packet” of smoked wild coho (?) roe wrapped in thin slices of grapefruit like little raviolis. There are also broccoli flowers, broccoli florets, and a grapefruit puree. A nice little veg dish!
SEE FIGURE 16

Finally, one component of the venison dish that is currently being developed is venison “corned beef.” The venison was salt-cured in water, salt, cinnamon, and other spices for three weeks. Then it was poached sous-vide for three hours. Then cooled. The result was tender, amazing venison “corned beef” style. This will comprise one component of a larger venison dish.

Some of what you have seen above should make it onto eGullet in the near future. Safe to say that when Alinea opens, Grant will have a whole new bag of tricks to show the world . . . and it is shaping up well.

Publicity is going very well. We have retained Jenn Galdes of Grapevine Public Relations, and although she is not officially on payroll until November, she has done an amazing job already.

Grant has done interviews for
Food & Wine
,
Chicago Social
, and the
Sun-Times,
and we have scheduled for the
Chicago Tribune Magazine
and several other publications. Grant is doing two charity events: Harvest Moon (run by investor Joel Baer's wife, Jamie) coming this week, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in November. We have already been mentioned or featured in two issues of
Food & Wine
, the
Tribune
, the
Sun-Times
,
Chicago
magazine
,
and publications from as far away as San Diego and Cleveland. Our website has gotten press in and of itself, and has been visited over 13,000 times.

There is buzz in the Chicago press that this is the “most anticipated” or “most highly anticipated” restaurant to hit Chicago in a long time. They are already grouping Alinea with Trotter's.

I hope this update gives you a sense of where we are and where Alinea is going. There are countless items that I did not bring up but easily could have . . . but then that could fill a book.

By the next investor update we should:

Have started the build-out

Know within a few weeks our realistic opening date

Have finalized many more budget items and will present you with a line-item comparison

Have more press, more great dishes, and more good news.