Power Players Past

Some you know, some you don't. Also, looking back at a favorite meal. And a delightful vintage cookbook that will make you laugh.

The James Beard Foundation has just announced that they’re giving me their Lifetime Achievement Award, and although I know I shouldn’t care about such things, I never imagined anything of the kind and I’m genuinely thrilled and honored.

What it means, of course, is that I’ve been at this for a very long time. Which led me to go back to this article I wrote in 1980 - when many of the people who have received this award before me were still alive. (It also had a decidedly chastening effect, because so many of the influential people of the time are now completely forgotten.)

I’m surprised that I included Buwei Yang Chao in the Power People article above. But also very glad; her How to Cook and Eat in Chinese is one of the most delightful cookbooks you will ever read.

If you don’t know the book, do yourself a favor and order one immediately. The first time I read it I found myself laughing out loud.

Almost exactly ten years ago I was in Chicago eating this meal at Alinea. I thought about it recently as I realized that the chef, Grant Achatz, is about to celebrate a significant birthday. It was a meal that gave me so much pleasure that I thought you might like to share it.

Any meal that begins with osetra caviar garnished with brioche (foam), egg (custard) and capers and onions (clear aspic) that is served with the suave 2005 Special Club Champagne is fine with me. More than fine. 

But what makes Alinea such a fabulous experience is the sheer exuberant fun of the place. It's a carnival of food that takes you on a journey around the world; I found myself laughing throughout the meal. This is food as performance, food as surprise, food as you've never seen it before.  I loved every minute – and the meal lasted more than four hours!

Who could resist this huge block of seaweed-draped ice, which arrived singing gently, murmuring of the sea (there was dry ice beneath the ice). On top, delicate little bites of sushi – abalone wrapped with green almond, ahi with avocado, kampachi mixed with quail egg yolk to spoon on crisp kombu crackers. A tiny oyster. A little bite of green almond, with its surprising softness.

Over the top? Silly?  Definitely. Inside that log with the metal straws was a cold nasturtium soup: its rather austerely prickly flavor seemed like a contradiction, the opposite of its presentation. On top, a tiny little bite of frog's leg to wrap up with more nasturtium. The tiny tangle of flavors reminded me of nothing so much as the Thai appetizer, miang kam. It was especially lovely with the S.A. Prum 2009 Riesling, all sweetness edged with acidity

More silliness here, but great fun. Hidden in this twig basket are two strips of salsify jerky. For a moment I was afraid we wouldn't find it. In the end, it was a purely tactile search: the jerky was softer than the branches.

For this dish we're in India. But it's a gentle India, the curry of the lobster tempered by little dots of coconut and cubes of Earl Grey aspic. My favorite flavor on the plate was the almost candied cauliflower in the back and those little pearls of grapefruit.Wine: Vin de Pays de L'Herault Mas Julien 2008

This is black truffle – lots of black truffle – resting on a bed of bone marrow and the first asparagus of spring.  Served with a 2006 Puligny Montrachet from Benoit Ente it was, hands down, one of the most luxuriously delicious dishes I've ever tasted. I think I actually said wow!, although I'm sure I did so under my breath

.Now we're in China – sort of.  A little take-out box containg tiny bits of fried sweetbread with ginko nuts in an orange sauce. The fun here? Eating it with "chopsticks" made of two long cinnamon sticks. 
Wine: Vouvray Domaine du Viking 2011

And back to Japan. Ebi. Celtuce, the beloved lettuce stem of Asia. Yuzu. And lovely little sea grapes, popping gently in the mouth.

Charcoal?  Yes and no. Hidden in that pile of binchotan is a cube of wagyu beef and another imposter, a rectangle of parsnip. Rescued from the fire, the charred lumps are carved, at the table, to reveal a heart of red in one, a pristine white interior in the other. Pure delight.
Junmai Ginjo Sake, Sudo Honke Shuzo

A little palate cleanser of sliced lily bulb with rambutan and tiny little beads of finger lime, each one a single squirt of juice. Extremely refreshing. Afterward we're handed a heap of newspaper (it was even my hometown paper), and asked to create a tablecloth. And out comes….

which brings us right back home. We're solidly in Chicago now, eating lake Michigan smelt. To drink: a sparkling Riesling Brut Sekt from Von Buhl. 

All night a branch of rhubarb has been circling just above our heads, suspended from the ceiling on an almost invisible wire, twirling silently. Now it is cut down, and we get this lovely little dish…. crisp rhubarb, gentle celery, and tying them together, an almost invisible slick of licorice that makes this more salad than dessert. With it, the loveliest candy-pink rosé from Arnot-Roberts in Clear Lake. 

A tiny bite. An edible pun. Wood ear and pig ear, with a frisk of cracker, a squish of black garlic puree, some garlic blossoms. The joke here is that the pig ear is, by far, the most delicious morsel on the plate. 
Wine: Priorat Clos Figueras 2006

And then, just a few desserts. This first…

The flavors are pistachio, strawberry, black walnut. The bites are tiny. The wine is a Sauterne, Chateau Tirecul la Graviere. And then this…

A balloon made of green apples and helium, that turns every diner in the place into an instant child. 

This would have been a perfect ending to the evening. But wait! There's more! This show never seems to stop. The chef came striding into the dining room and right there, at our table, constructed a chocolate tart.  It was an astonishing performance, Grant Achatz using the table as a canvas, dotting it with cream and violets, making a painting and anchoring it with a tart, much in the fashion of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. It was so beautiful, and so delicious that I found that I did, in fact, still have an appetite. 

And that, in the end, is the genius of this restaurant. Eating here is so exhilarating that you find yourself eager for just one more experience, one more flavor, one more moment of being completely and utterly in the moment – and happy to be exactly where you are.

If you want to ask me questions, here’s my upcoming travel schedule.

Monday April 15 I’ll be in Philadelphia at The Chef Conference. You can read about it here.

Wednesday April 17th I’ll be speaking at the Half Moon Library in Clifton Park New York. Find out about that here.

Ticket information and times for all these events can be found here.

April 20, New York, Cherry Bombe Jubilee

April 21, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

April 24, Washington DC, Bold Fork Books

April 25, New York, Barnes and Noble Upper West Side

May 1, Glen Ridge New Jersey New Jersey, Montclair in conversation with Eric Ripert as part of the Montclair Literary Festival

May 2, Charleston, Buxton Books at Charleston Library Society

May 5, Dallas Texas, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts

May 6, Evanston, Illinois, The Music Institute of Chicago

May 9, Toronto, Hot Docs, tickets here.

May 13, La Jolla, California, Warwick’s

May 14, Rancho Santa Fe, California, Warwick’s

May 14, Long Beach California, Kitchen Lingo Books at the Art Theater

May 15, Los Angeles, Now Serving

May 15, Los Angeles, dinner at Chi Spacca

May 16, Corte Madera, California, Book Passage

May 17, Tiburon, California, Book Passage at Petit Left Bank

May 18, Seattle, Washington, Book Larder

Preorder link is here

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