If the whole physics thing didn’t pan out, and Albert Einstein pursued a career as a pastry chef, he’d probably would have been a lot like Chef Ben Roche. Chef Roche, pastry chef at Moto restaurant in Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood, employs an arsenal of lasers, liquid nitrogen, and alginate powders to construct a new dessert movement in American cuisine. Chef Roche, along with his partner at Moto, Chef Homaro Cantu, are not breaking conventions. They are ignoring them altogether. Chef Roche eschews cookbooks for inspiration, and instead finds inspiration in Surrealism and the experimentation of Salvador Dali.
In our podcast (What is a Podcast?) Roche talks about Dali’s influence, collecting smokey vanilla essence with a class 4 laser, and inventing hot ice cream for Albert Adria of El Bulli.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Ben Roche Interview
You can also view a slideshow of Chef Roche working in the Moto kitchen from Hungry magazine photographer Tuan Bui.
Shawn McClain is one part Steve Jobs, one part Charles Barkley, and just a dash of Jeff Spicoli. Chef McClain, like Jobs, is restless with ideas and vision. McClain focuses on the essence of an ingredient. Whether it’s Asian-inspired seafood at Spring, seasonal and veggie driven cuisine at Green Zebra, or a juicy bone-in-ribeye at his newest venture, Custom House, ingredients shine on the plate. McClain, like Barkley, also isn’t afraid to speak his mind. He is not a fan of snarky food criticism and refuses to be defined by it. Like Sean Penn’s character Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, McClain mixes in a bit of a west coast attitude and serendipity, attending culinary school, even when he wasn’t sure what it would amount to.
It has added up to a small empire that includes three of the finest restaurants in Chicago, all of which have received critical and national acclaim. Chef McClain has received best new restaurant honors from Bon Appetit, was named “Chef of the Year” by Esquire magazine and one of “40 under 40” to watch by Crain’s Chicago Business, and has been nominated by the James Beard Foundation for Best Chef Midwest.
In our podcast (What is a Podcast?) McClain talks about developing his simple culinary approach, what it takes to succeed in fine dining, what it takes to sustain the success, and why GQ magazine food writer Alan Richman should be “put to pasture.”
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Shawn McClain Interview
You can also view a slideshow of Chef McClain working in the Custom House kitchen from Hungry magazine photographer Tuan Bui.
If Dorothy Parker, the irreverent wit of the Algonquin round table, and Elvis Costello, the British rocker, conceived a love child, Doug Sohn would be their offspring. Sohn, the owner of Hot Doug’s restaurant in Chicago, wears thick black square frame glasses and peppers everything he does with a tiny bit of his Ginzu sharp wit. When I asked him to reveal something intimate, he said, “I don’t like to wear pants, I mean if it weren’t mandated….I just don’t care for them.” Convention is not Sohn’s game. For this week’s podcast, we sat down with Doug Sohn at Underbar in Roscoe Village.
In our podcast (What is a Podcast?) Sohn discusses Chicago’s Foie Gras ban, his love of the Chicago Cubs, the genius of the three minute pop song, and how he brought duck fat fries to America.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Hot Doug Interview
If Dorothy Parker, the irreverent wit of the Algonquin round table, and Elvis Costello, the British rocker, conceived a love child, Doug Sohn would be their offspring. Sohn, the owner of Hot Doug’s restaurant in Chicago, wears thick black square frame glasses and peppers everything he does with a tiny bit of his Ginzu sharp wit. When I asked him to reveal something intimate, he said, “I don’t like to wear pants, I mean if it weren’t mandated….I just don’t care for them.” Convention is not Sohn’s game. More »
This week we sat down with Graham Elliot Bowles of Avenues restaurant in Chicago’s Peninsula hotel. Chef Bowles has worked at some of the finest restaurants in the country including the Mansion on Turtle Creek, Charlie Trotters, Tru, and the Jackson House Inn. Chef Bowles earned a nod as one of Food and Wine’s best new chefs of 2004, and since coming aboard at Avenues restaurant, he has earned 4 stars from an assortment of food publications.
Our podcast (What is a Podcast?), turned into a jam session, with Chef Bowles riffing on music, food, art, and politics. We discussed why a chef has to leave his greatest hits behind, the wider accessibility of fine dining, how constraints actually breed creativity in cooking, and the chef’s tattoo collection.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player here: Graham Elliot Bowles Interview
Butter in the West Loop was recently named one of the best new restaurants in America by Esquire magazine. Ryan Poli, the 28 year old head chef, has apprenticed in some of the finest restaurants in the world including Le Francais, The French Laundry, and La Broche in Madrid, Spain.
In our culinary podcast (What is a Podcast?), Ryan and I talk about what his last meal would be if he were on death row, what he learned from Thomas Keller at the French Laundry, what it’s like to face the prospect of cooking dinner for Wolfgang Puck, Jean Banchet, Eric Ripert, Christian Delouvrier, Dominique Tougne, and Sebastien Canonne, all on the same night, and more.
If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can play the file right on this site, below, by pressing the play button. If not, download the file here and play it on your PC or on an MP3 player: Ryan Poli Interview
View the companion article we wrote, recently published in the Chicago Journal: Blue-Collar Butter
Chef Roche Works the Moto Laser - Photo: Tuan Bui
This week we sat down with Graham Elliot Bowles of Avenues restaurant in Chicago’s Peninsula hotel. Chef Bowles has worked at some of the finest restaurants in the country including the Mansion on Turtle Creek, Charlie Trotters, Tru, and the Jackson House Inn. Chef Bowles earned a nod as one of Food and Wine’s best new chefs of 2004, and since coming aboard at Avenues restaurant, he has earned 4 stars from an assortment of food publications. 
Butter in the West Loop was recently named one of the best new restaurants in America by Esquire magazine. Ryan Poli, the 28 year old head chef, has apprenticed in some of the finest restaurants in the world including Le Francais, The French Laundry, and La Broche in Madrid, Spain. 
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