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Tuesday
Sep302008

Chicago Gourmet Day 1

DateTuesday, September 30, 2008 at 2:53PM

The first annual Chicago Gourmet was held this past weekend in Millennium Park.  In short, it beats out the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen as well as the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami.  I give this opinion in the most objective way possible.

In the continuing effort to put Chicago on the culinary map, 30 restaurants, 38 chefs, and over 120 wineries showcased their talent over a two day period.  This impressive feat required much set up the days prior and many of us to arrive at the park at 6am Saturday.  The grueling work was well worth it as tickets to such an event does not come cheaply.  I'm proud to say I was responsible for setting up 320 gallons of water (remember 1 gallon of water = 8 lbs) across the four corners of the park.

The morning dew had soaked through my shoes and through my socks.  I was at high risk for trench foot, but the gates had opened.  No time for saving feet.  The gates had opened and to my surprise- nobody was there.  This allowed for the single best 45 minutes of the weekend- line-less entry into the Chaise Lounge, Peninsula Hotel Chicago, and Aria tents.  I couldn't help but chuckle later in the day as people would wait 50 deep under the blistering sun in agony- suckers.

There was great food but then to have such great wine on top of it was an amazing experience I missed out on.  I skipped all the wine.  I washed my food down with Millennium Soda, compliments of the mixologists, then headed for the cooking demos- where the real heart of the festival was.

Chef Paul Bartolotta, Takashi Yagihashi, and Rick Moonen led the first demo I attended- Great Seafood!  This would have been a great seminar if I cared more about cooking seafood.  I love seafood- but I don't have great access to quality product.  Everyone always says- "You'll be fine just get to know your fish monger."  In my neck of the woods there is no fish monger to get to know.  Given the chance I'll work some magic, but I've learned not to get my hopes up.  The lesson learned from the demo was courtesy of Takashi- if you mess something up cooking, just add soy sauce.

Next up Rick Bayless and Jose Garces featuring the Best of Spain and Mexico.  The most immediate difference in demos?  Within the first minute I could smell what these chefs were doing.  There wasn't a protein in Rick's pan yet but I already wanted his food.  As expected, he gave a great demo.  Jose however, a new chef to me, impressed me.  Ancient Spanish secret for the bold home cooks out there- put wine corks in your poaching liquid [for octopus in this case], it will help to tenderize.  He did an excellent job on demonstrating avant-garde techniques such as making lemon powder or olive oil air for us rookies.  These techniques aren't fluff, when used correctly can make significant contributions to classic dishes.

I ended my day talking to Chef Garces as he made himself available for book signing.  He's a really nice guy and one of the more approachable chefs I've met- Ming Tsai being the most intimidating of the bunch.  Everything was great until he asked me my most dreaded question- "Are you in the business?"  Immediately I flashbacked to my confrontation with Rick Tramonto at the 2008 NRA show where he too, spoke those words.  A piece of me dies inside everytime I hear it- but is it so wrong to want to have a better living?  At this point I realized, that pursuing a better living is a perfectly acceptable answer.  If I didn't, this meeting would never have taken place to begin with.  Meeting these great chefs, creating and tasting the food I do, affirms my decision to stay out of the professional kitchen.  After all, there's still a whole other day of the festival left.


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