In the middle of our trip to Utah we took a smaller trip to Chicago- just Ken and me, no kids. Ken was speaking at a conference of one kind or another and I tagged along because, hey, Chicago! right? Also it was perfect timing for us to try Alinea.
Now here I must give a few warnings: if you're not interested in hearing about food I have eaten, quit reading. If you're offended by meals that are showy and cost too much, quit reading. And lastly, if you ever plan on eating at Alinea think twice about reading this. A huge part of the appeal of a place like this is the surprise. If you read this first it's kind of like having a movie ending spoiled. Because eating at Alinea is not just going to a restaurant. It is attending a theater performance. It's food as theater, and if you know what's going to happen it might not be as fun. For the rest of you- here's my trip to Alinea.
We took the train there, which kind of confused the front of house- Did you use valet parking or do you need a cab at the end of the night? Well neither actually. I don't think they have many diners arrive on foot. Now they have! The entrance is subtly marked, but there is someone at the front to guide you in the front door and into an antechamber with red lighting that gives the effect of walking into a shrinking room. As you reach what appears to be a dead end, black futuristic doors open magically to your left, revealing the restaurant and an eager wait staff. We were seated on the main floor in a dining room with 4 or 5 other tables. We caught a quick glimpse of the kitchen on our way to our table- it is behind glass doors- it is bright white, very large and bustling with people. I read the memoir of Alinea's chef a few years ago. He describes the pains taken over every detail of the restaurant- a beautiful table that needs no table cloth, plates and utensils designed for specific dishes, even the perfect temperature for the water in your drinking glass so that no condensation marks appear on the table.
We were seated at a beautiful dark wood table in very comfortable, high backed chairs. Two blocks of ice resting on a bed of pebbles were placed before us. The ice had a long tube shaped hole in the top. A server brought us two long glass "straws"- our first course. The bottom of the straw was a golden liquid- butternut squash puree topped with- well I am not really sure what. Stuff that tastes good with squash. The server instructed us to insert the tube into the hole in the ice then slurp the 'milkshake' up through the straw. One quick slurp. We were the first patrons seated and the first served, and when the time came to noisily drink the "milkshake" suddenly there were many faces staring at us. It was delicious! I would have slurped every last drop, except being the first table to make noise made me a little self conscious. After hearing table after table slurp their milkshakes I came to understand the noise was part of the experience and I shouldn't have felt embarrassed. Ah well, next time I will slurp with abandon!
I was suddenly struck by one unique aspect of Alinea. It's pricey and fancy looking. Men are required to wear jackets and casual clothing is discouraged. However, this is not an uptight restaurant. Slurping the starting course was just the beginning. There were more messy or potentially embarrassing moment to come. The servers were all friendly and relaxed. It made a several hour, 17 course meal much more enjoyable once I relaxed too.
After the butternut slurpee we were served four shell fish single bite courses. They were presented on a large piece of driftwood covered in kelp. First we ate the king crab- the menu says king crab: passion fruit and allspice. The flavors are all so subtle. Mostly you tasted the main ingredient and then deliciousness. I don't know if I could have told you as it was in my mouth that the crab was served with allspice.
Next we ate the sea urchin with white chocolate yuzu and wasabi. In the photo the sea urchin is the orange blob. The white foam is the white chocolate. That foam was my single favorite part of the meal. I want to eat it now. I want to keep a huge vat in my fridge and sneak down in the middle of the night to eat it by the spoonful. I love it. I love it.
Moving on...The other two shell fish were lobster and a razor clam (the long thin shell in the photo above.) Our server said to use the top shell of the razor clam as a utensil to eat the clam. Easier said than done.
Just like the memoir promised, Alinea used very few traditional plates used during the meal. Here is otoro (tuna belly) served in a bowl that reminded me of a terrarium from the '70s. It was served with a kaffir lime foamy stuff and something salty and icy that was supposed to remind you of the sea. The server said, "Don't eat it on it's own. It's too salt." And he was right, but with the fish, and the lime it was awesome.
This strange looking plate was made to compliment a painting they have hanging on the wall in the dining area where we were sitting. No joke- it's food to match the decor! I wonder what people in other seating areas thought of this plate. They didn't have the painting on the wall as a point of reference. It's made of all different parts of corn. And I literally mean
all parts of the corn. The copper little fluff in the middle of the plate is corn silk and even stranger- the brown chunky things are made from huitacoche- otherwise known as corn smut or in more familiar terms: the fungus that grows on corn. Here's a visual for you.
There were some tasty parts of this plate, but it mostly confused me. I'm not a fan of the presentation and some of it tasted a little strange. But I do like to try new things. It was absolutely full of new things!
This is the brook trout. I loved this course. It arrived on a wooden plank made from a bourbon barrel. There was still fire burning underneath and it smelled incredible. The whole fish is edible. The bones and tail are cooked super crisp to make this a 'fish and chips' dish. The reddish marble looking object is a maple gel-thing that was really amazing with the fish- as unusual as that sounds.
Next came a little soup called Hot Potato. It's a hot baby potato on a skewer with a black truffle chip, and I think a little cheese cube. In the bowl is a cold potato soup. To eat you simply pull the skewer out, the ingredients fall into the soup and you down it like a shot.
Next came a mushroom course served on a slate slab with a chunk of log, pine branches, and black stones all acting as the 'plate'. The edible part consisted of matsutake mushrooms, pork belly and huckleberry. The point of the pine needles is the scent it added- which was kind of awesome.
Next moving on to Truffle Explosion: a single ravioli with a liquid truffle filling. It was truffley goodness.
Our next course was so beautiful! I was trying to be discrete-ish with my picture taking but I wish now that I had just embraced my desire to document the meal more fully. This was a 'mystery lamb' course. Ken and I were both given a plate with lamb served three ways.
This may have been the only course served on traditional dinnerware. Next a second plate was placed between us. This was the goodie plate with the toppings for our bites of lamb. We were instructed to choose from one to three toppings to go with the lamb (for me it turned out to be 1 or 2 per bite of lamb.) There were still many many little bites left after the lamb had been consumed. So I ate them. Or some of them. Ken was a little embarrassed by that so I stopped before clearing off the plate. Some of them were simple and standard: a mint jelly or sour kraut. But it was the shear volume of choices that really made me smile. Sophisticated of me, huh?
Next came something very reminiscent of hot dog on a stick, except that the stick was actually a branch of an oak tree. And it was on fire. It was a breaded and fried woodcock (I am not exactly sure what to call it- a fritter? maybe?) The leaves of the oak branch had been lit on fire and then the flames were extinguished. The course is served while the leaves are still smoking- giving a oak smokey touch to the flavor of the hot dog on a stick. It was fun.
And this little guy marks the end of the savory part of the meal. These are five different tastes of ginger as a palate cleanser.
The biggest shock of the meal? This crazy looking course included a banana ice cream that I loved! It wasn't hiding its banana-i-ness behind other flavors (like how I like banana bread with lots of chocolate chips). It was full on banana flavored, but I liked it. I would like the record to reflect that i still hate bananas as a general rule. The rest of this course was also delicious. The orange stuff was carrot sorbet- so so good.
In the center of the plate there is a hole that open up to the bowl under the plate. The bowl was filled with herbs and flowers and citrus peels. Our server filled the bowl with hot water which causing all the aromatics in the bowl to smell really good while we ate the desserts on the plate. Then it was an unbelievably good herbal tea to finish the course.
This was the craziest course: an apple taffy helium balloon.
As with the slurping of the first course 'milkshake', it felt a little silly to be eating the balloon in a fancy setting. You're supposed to 'kiss' the balloon and then it pops all over your face- leaving you sticky and talking in a high pitched voice from the helium. Once other tables started being served the balloon as well I felt much less self conscious.
Our final course was a dark chocolate pinata. I don't have any 'before' pictures. Here's why: A large silpat type mat was rolled over the whole table and the chef comes table side. When our friends ate here they had this course prepared table side for them by chef owner Grant Achatz . We did not. I was looking on their website and I actually can't remember who came to our table. I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of the chef at work. Hence the after pictures only. He used the sauces and crumbly stuff you see below to decorate the whole table. It was not too different from the way the corn course looked. Then he took a chocolate bowl and poured dry ice in to it- making an ice cream and other yummy stuff inside the chocolate pinata which he then smashed on the table. We had two spoons and we ate right off the table.
It was an incredible meal. Gimmicky? Yes. Way more than one should pay for food? Yes. But so delicious.
Now here's a strange little side note about Alinea. There were no women working in the restaurant at the time we went. Seriously, not one. I asked about this. Our server told me they don't get many female applicants and 3 female employees had recently quit. There are about a billion employees at this place. The kitchen staff alone must have been 15 people. We saw 8 or 9 servers over our 17 courses just in our section of the restaurant. And not a single woman working in the place. I can't quite wrap my mind around that.
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