Their kind of town
RESTAURANTS | More superstar chefs make Chicago their second home
The Windy City is witnessing a delicious invasion this year -- one of top chefs from cities and countries far and wide.
Chicago's cuisine scene is the big winner, as some of the industry's heavyweights bring innovative new restaurant and tastes to town.
(Brian Jackson, Al Podgorski, Richard A. Chapman, Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
They join internationally known local chefs like Grant Achatz, Charlie Trotter and Rick Bayless in further adding to Chicago diners' embarrassment of riches when it comes to fabulous places to eat, nosh and lounge.
This week, celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson -- the Ethiopian-born, Swedish-raised sensation with acclaimed restaurants from New York to Stockholm -- opens the seafood-focused C-House on the ground floor of the new Affinia Chicago Hotel, just off the Magnificent Mile. (The restaurant opens Thursday for breakfast; lunch and dinner service will start in early June).
French chef Laurent Gras, who made his name in the United States creating three- and four-star cuisine at New York's Peacock Alley and San Francisco's Fifth Floor, has teamed up with Lettuce Entertain You's Rich Melman to introduce a new seafood concept called L.20. It opens next week in the space that formerly housed Ambria on North Lincoln Park West.
Ecuadorian-American chef Jose Garces left Chicago's Northwest Side to become a culinary star in Philadelphia. He has returned to his hometown and now has a hit on his hands in Mercat a la Planxa, a fanciful Catalan-style tapas restaurant and bar that opened inside the South Loop's refurbished Blackstone Hotel in early March.
More top names are on the way, including New York's Terrance Brennan, a chef often credited with thrusting artisanal cheeses into the American restaurant and consumer limelight.
Brennan plans to open the first non-New York outpost of his acclaimed Artisanal Bistro and Wine Bar on the sixth floor (with a separate elevator, no less) of 900 North Michigan in late fall.
And Govind Armstrong, the dreadlocked chef and Macy's Culinary Council member behind L.A.'s and Miami's Table 8, will bring his innovative take on locally grown seasonal cuisine to Chicago in 2009.
What's wooing them all -- and why now?
Says Samuelsson: "Chicago's always been a good food city, very diverse in everything from high-end to mom-and-pop. There are lots of cooks, lots of waiters and the restaurant scene is very mature. Of course, having the Trotters and Baylesses of the world cooking nearby doesn't hurt.
"[Chicago] customers are used to going to great restaurants. It's a great restaurant scene already and from a C-House point of view, we want to be part of that."
Moving away from the fine Scandinavian cuisine that put Samuelsson on the map, the sleek C-House will feature grilled, roasted and steamed fish served with everything from salsas and vinaigrettes to Indian-inspired chutneys. C-View, the 29th floor rooftop lounge, will offer a pared-down version of the restaurant's cuisine.
Garces graduated from Chicago's Kendall College with a degree in culinary arts, but built his hefty resume in New York and Philadelphia at award-winning restaurants.
"I've been wanting to get home for 13 years," Garces says. "Chicago's come to the forefront as a very modern culinary town. Along with Grant [Achatz of Alinea] and others who work here in town, that's transformed [this] from a meat-and-potatoes town to a culinary mecca."
At his two spots in Philadelphia, Tinto and Amada, Garces took bold approaches to Spanish cuisine. He's taking it farther at the 162-seat Mercat a la Planxa, with grilled-to-order meats and seafood at center stage.
For research, Garces and his team made a pilgrimage to Barcelona, Spain, to sample food inside the city's famed Mercat de la BoquerÃŒa and local tapas joints.
At his Mercat, "We were really trying to get the essence of Catalan cuisine," he says. "We redefined the tapas experience and put a little extra thought and care into the preparation and the techniques. We use the best hams, best olive oils. Our cheese program here is very unique. Most of our cheeses are from single producers."
The classically French-trained Gras is incorporating Japanese traditions into L.20's menu, from the exotic hirame, or halibut, sourced from Japan to simple dish preparations. And he thinks Chicago is ready.
"The city seems to be a more open field, and that was very interesting to me" says Gras, who with Melman spent the past two years shaping L.20. "I think it's very attractive to do a seafood concept like this that doesn't exist in Chicago."
Plus, these chefs just happen to be big fans of Chicago -- and its homegrown culinary talent. They're hiring locally, from chefs de cuisine to wine directors, sommeliers and servers.
"I really want to make the restaurant part of the community, not come in as a so-called celebrity chef," Brennan says. "It's not about coming to make a statement."
And in a town already blessed with great chefs, these newcomers are taking steps to establish themselves with the local Food Network-obsessed crowd.
Laurent Gras, for example, launched a blog six months ago, sharing seasoning choices, peekytoe crab finds and tales of choosing the perfect Enviro-Pak cold smoker.
As he does in New York, Brennan will offer a regular rotation of cheese and wine classes, helping educate Chicagoans on the art of fromage.
With his strong cheese focus, Brennan knows he's taking on local cheese powerhouses like Bin 36, as well as his Michigan Avenue neighbor Spiaggia. Both Samuelsson and Gras are introducing innovative seafood concepts to a city traditionally known for its top-notch steakhouses. And Garces is taking tapas to the next level, putting a decidedly regional slant on Mercat a la Planxa's 70 tapas tastes.
But Samuelsson says there's plenty of culinary wealth to go around.
"I don't see it as competing at all," he says. "It's a big enough town, and there's room for everyone."
Maureen Jenkins is a Chicago free-lance writer.
