Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cutting-Edge Kitchens
132
Moto
Molecular Gastronomy in Chicago #2
Chicago, Illinois
peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. “Nachos
and cheese” turns out to be a dessert,
with sweet chips of Mexican corn and flan,
chocolate granulated to look like ground
beef, and grated mango sprinkled on top
like Monterey jack cheese.
It's also an interactive experience—
diners are instructed to mix and match
bites with contrasting flavors, to squeeze
a bulb of liquid into their mouths before
eating another ingredient, or to pour hot
liquid onto something to watch it melt. To
get the full three-ring circus, you can order
the 20-course Grand Tour (close to $200—
but cheaper than Alinea's), though there
are also five-course and 10-course options.
The dining room's spare black-and-white
decor is even more minimalist than Alin-
ea's, but then who needs dramatic decor,
with so much entertainment right there on
your plate?
The paint was barely dry at Alinea before
Homaro Cantu, a former sous-chef at
Charlie Trotter's (see ), opened his own
culinary laboratory, Moto, in late 2004, out
west of the Loop in the Fulton River dis-
trict. Cantu's Asian-inspired food is even
more whacked-out high tech than
Achatz's—he does stuff like pumping car-
bonation into fruit so that it bubbles in
your mouth, twining herbs into special
patented forks that infuse herbal tastes
into the food while you're eating, and
printing his menu with food-based inks on
edible soy paper so you can eat it once
you've ordered.
Cantu's culinary wit makes dining at
Moto a mind game as well as a meal. You
may start out with a bowl of hot miso soup
filled with globules of liquid-nitrogen-fro-
zen egg, which bubble and smoke in the
soup. A hot black resin box set on your
table contains a piece of sea bass that
starts cooking, to be eaten two courses
later on. Cantu's version of surf and turf is
a sliver of smoked salmon resting on a
puddle of sea-salt foam, next to a com-
posed pile of duck breast, duck confit,
and foie gras (accompanied by an edible
print of M. C. Escher's design in which a
sky full of birds morphs into an ocean
of fish). Bread crumbs surround a blob of
grape gelatin that sheathes a dollop of
peanut-butter cream—a deconstructed
945 W. Fulton Market (
&
312/491-
0058;
www.motorestaurant.com).
(
O'Hare International (17 miles/27km).
L
$$
Homewood Suites,
40 E. Grand
St., Chicago (
&
800/CALL-HOME
[800/
225-4663] or 312/644-2222; www.home
woodsuiteschicago.com). $$
Hotel Alle-
gro Chicago,
171 N. Randolph St., Chicago
(
&
800/643-1500
or 312/236-0123; www.
allegrochicago.com).
