What does $5,000 get you for a Sunday night dinner in Chicago? Among other things, seaweed, heirloom tomatoes, Scottish grouse, Dom Perignon and a chicken leg. Cookies too.
But consider who was in the kitchen doing the cooking: chef Charlie Trotter and a constellation of the world’s star toques, among them Spain’s Ferran Adria, California’s Thomas Keller, England’s Heston Blumenthal and Australia’s Tetsuya Wakuda.
Which is why Chicago became the center of the culinary universe Sunday evening as the chefs and Trotter marked the 20th anniversary of his eponymous restaurant. That all these people could be found at Trotter’s townhouse restaurant over a weekend’s worth of events was testament not only to the chef’s persuasiveness as a host but underscored Chicago’s newly recognized culinary importance.
“Right now Chicago is the center of gastronomy,” said Adria, whose groundbreaking cooking at El Bulli restaurant has garnered international praise. “Many of the people say that in Europe — even if they haven’t been there. … When they talk about the hot city for gastronomy, they say Chicago.”
And Trotter, fellow chefs say, is among those responsible for the attention.
“Charlie has been the father to this food revolution in Chicago,” said Art Smith of Table Fifty-Two restaurant and one-time personal chef to Oprah Winfrey, who attended Saturday’s chef gathering at Trotter’s.
Some 80 friends gathered Sunday at the restaurant, 816 W. Armitage Ave., for an eight-course meal and reception.
The dinner, a benefit that raised $250,000 for the Charlie Trotter Culinary Education Foundation, capped a weekend that could best be described as “Chefs Chowing Down Around Town.” Lunch Friday was at Topolobampo restaurant, followed by dinner at Schwa.
On Saturday there was a “meet and greet” for local chefs at Trotter’s with hors d’oeuvres from chefs Graham Elliot Bowles of the Avenues in the Peninsula Hotel, Roland Liccioni of Old Town Brasserie and Koren Grieveson of Avec. Later Saturday evening, there was a party at Trotter’s home for the chefs and invited guests with food by Michael Sheerin of Blackbird, Priscila Satkoff of Salpicon and Wylie Dufresne of New York’s WD-50.
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Sounds delicious
England’s Heston Blumenthal, who called his dish “Sounds of the Sea,” planned to outfit diners with iPods so they could listen to the ocean while eating abalone and assorted seaweeds and sipping sake.
