One of the biggest cheerleaders for Chicago’s culinary status isn’t a Chicagoan. In fact, he isn’t even American. A native of France’s Rhone Valley, Chef Jacky Pluton made his way to our city less than a decade ago, but has spent that time becoming a spoke in the wheel that will drive Chicago out of its second-city gear.
“We can beat New York, we can beat San Francisco, we’re beating L.A. by miles already,” he exclaims excitedly like a coach in a halftime pep talk. “If we can just get the produce, and we will, we’ll kick their butt!”
He says this while sitting at one of the 15 tables in Pluton, the River North fine-dining venture he unveiled in January. In an economic climate that finds most restaurants implementing clever marketing tools to keep revolving doors spinning–discounted degustations, free corkage, the return of “happy hour”–Jacky Pluton chose the opposite.
“Not too many chefs are crazy enough to get a 5,000-square-foot space and put in a 49-seat restaurant,” he says. “But I know from experience when you do big numbers, not everything comes out perfect, and right now we need a place where people can go and feel that they’re in a two-star Michelin restaurant right here in Chicago.”
Ambitious? Sure. But he does have some Michelin star power to back it up. For starters, he was born on table 17 in his father’s Michelin one-star restaurant in Annonay, France. Classic culinary technique was literally baby steps away.
“My father was very traditional as a chef, part of the old brigade with 30 people in the kitchen making big buffets for long dinners with butter, fat, and aspic everywhere,” he recalls. “As a kid I never thought I’d be a chef but one night when I was 14, I helped him by stuffing these giant Spanish mussels for a New Year’s Eve dinner. The next day I woke up and said, ‘This is what I want to do with my life.’ I stopped high school, went to cooking school and never turned back.”
After graduating first in his class from the Ecole Hoteliere de la Chaise Dieu in Paris, he worked in every station from saucier to pastry in Michelin-starred restaurants throughout France, Monaco and Switzerland. In the mid ’80s he arrived in America to chef at Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia. There were stints in New York, Boston, Boca Raton, New York again, and finally, Chicago.
“I knew Chicago for Charlie, Everest, Carlos and nothing else. Well,” he says smiling and shrugging at once, “except [Jean] Banchet because Banchet is an icon. Every single French guy who grew up in my time knew of Banchet because he is a success story. He came here and he did his own thing.”
After two years at Carlos, Pluton did his own thing as well. He first opened Provence in 1997 in Winnetka, a project that wasn’t as successful as he’d hoped. “It was very confusing to the customer because the location made it seem like it was a destination restaurant, like they had to dress up, but the food had bistro prices,” he says, shaking his head.
His solution was to eliminate the guesswork by closing down for a two-week renovation, transforming Provence into Jacky’s Bistro. Red banquettes to relax in, steak frites to nibble on and prices that made the drive well worth it. Just when the identity seemed to state its presence, a fire stemming from a faulty air conditioner wiped out the entire space.
Starting from scratch in Evanston, Pluton reopened Jacky’s Bistro in the summer of 2000 and suddenly had a hit on his hands. The 84-seat space filled to capacity nightly with fans of the bouillabaisse, sweetbreads, rabbit quiche, escargots, steak au poivre, and it was clear the bistro was back and the restaurant continues to thrive.
“Cooking bistro food is fun. You can do a nice steak, a nice salmon with herb crust and it’s great. But for the last year and a half I wasn’t really cooking that much. It was more putting on the chef’s jacket, going to the floor, talking with the customers, schmoozing,” Pluton says, laughing. “But I missed my Carlos days. I wanted to go back into the kitchen, be more creative. You know, be a chef.”
And so back into the kitchen he went, creating what he calls “contemporary American rooted in French technique” at Pluton. Pluton’s menu might be just that, but it’s also a pretty clear glimpse into his United Nations-like cookbook collection. Bordering near-obsession status (he claims his wife has to literally drag him out of bookstores), he owns something close to 700 cookbooks, with almost equal attention to the cuisines of Asia as to Western Europe. Foie gras terrine with aspic, toasted brioche and pearl onion confit share menu space with a lobster salad dotted with black-ink vinaigrette, mixed seaweed and cucumber granite.
There are sweetbreads, but they are dusted with toasted cumin; there are carrot batonnets, but they’re served aside opakapaka and curry red wine sauce; and France’s favorite feathered friend is present, but this duck comes with greens and grits. This isn’t fusion; this food is like America, distinct in its differences yet part of the same plate.
Pluton’s reach to create a Michelin experience goes beyond his stove (which, by the way, is one of only two Chaudronnerie de L’Isere stoves in the country). There are monogrammed tablecloths, Christofle flatware, Riedel stemware, an American artisanal cheese cart, an impressive 500-bottle wine list, an unobtrusive design, a well-trained and professional staff–all of the elements necessary for a fabulous experience. “The highest compliment guests can pay is if they say ‘We feel as if we’ve come into someone’s home,’ ” Pluton says, gesturing toward his new red front door. “So I say welcome, because this is my new home.”
COLD LOBSTER SALAD WITH SEAWEED AND BLACK-INK VINAIGRETTE
Four appetizer servings
2 one-pound live lobsters
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 head of garlic, peeled, cloves slightly smashed with the flat side of a chef’s knife
2 whole cloves
1 star anise
4 black peppercorns
1 teaspoon red-wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon olive oil (preferably second press rather than extra virgin)
1 egg
1/2 tablespoon water
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon fresh black squid ink *
1/2 teaspoon vegetable stock
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and cut into 1/8-inch cubes
8 tablespoons seaweed salad **
4 teaspoons creme fraiche
Juice of 1/4 lemon
4 teaspoons lobster roe ***
1. Fill a large stockpot with one gallon of water and add carrot, onion, garlic, cloves, star anise, peppercorns and red-wine vinegar. Bring to a boil and immerse the lobsters. Continue boiling for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove lobsters and immediately place them in ice water.
2. Make sesame vinaigrette by whisking together rice vinegar, sesame oil and olive oil in bowl large enough to hold lobster meat. Set aside.
3. Once lobsters are cool, crack shell of the tails and claws and remove the meat, keeping it as intact as possible. Discard shells and head or reserve back shell for decoration. Slice tail meat into 1/2-inch pieces and keep the claw meat whole (there will be four). Toss the lobster meat with the sesame vinaigrette and set aside.
4. To make the mustard vinaigrette, whisk together the egg, water, olive oil, red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. To make the black-ink vinaigrette, whisk 4 tablespoons of the mustard vinaigrette with the teaspoon of black ink and the vegetable stock.
6. Season the diced apple with a pinch each of salt and pepper and fold into the seaweed salad in a separate bowl.
7. Squeeze the lemon juice into the creme fraiche and blend.
8. On each of four salad plates, place 1/4 of the seaweed salad in a small rectangular or circular mold (2″x3″ or 3″ round works well), top with 1/4 of the tail meat and a teaspoon of creme fraiche. Remove the mold, place claw meat on one side of the salad and a dot of black-ink vinaigrette on the other. Dot the lobster roe around the vinaigrette.
* Squid ink can be ordered from Whole Foods with 24-hour notice or purchased from the Fish Guy Market, 4423 N. Elston Ave., Chicago.
** Seaweed salad can be purchased from Whole Foods or at some Asian groceries.
*** Lobster roe is available at Whole Foods or the Fish Guy Market.
