Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
get a slightly different menu, a more free-
form version of the fare served in the main
dining room. The kitchen table is cramped
and noisy, hardly as luxurious as the linen-
draped tables in the thickly carpeted for-
mal dining rooms; out there, amid pale
walls and draperies and fresh flowers, you
get the muffled clink of china and crystal
and the low murmur of conversation, while
the kitchen table is surrounded by the fre-
netic sizzle, clang, whack, and whoosh of a
working kitchen. (Luckily for Trotter, his
kitchen is relatively disciplined and smooth
running—don't expect
Hell's Kitchen
-style
tantrums.) Naturally, those are the most
coveted seats in the house, typically
booked up to 4 months in advance, the
earliest you can book ahead.
Parties can also book a private dining
room called the Studio Kitchen with its
own cooking demonstration and a live
camera feed into the kitchen. It's a cool
experience—but hey, nothing matches
the thrill of sitting at the kitchen table,
catching the pulse of a genius chef and his
brigade at work.
Chef Charlie Trotter presiding over his name-
sake restaurant in Chicago.
dishes from recent menus include steamed
Casco Bay cod with cockles, picholine
olives, artichokes, and stinging nettles; a
poached Sonoma duck egg with Burgundy
truffle, torpedo onion, and parsley; roasted
veal loin with spiced pumpkin and juniper;
and roasted saddle of rabbit with fingerling
potatoes, turnips, and mustard greens.
To share his passionate opinions about
food, years ago Trotter started allowing
certain guests the privilege of dining in his
kitchen, sitting at a four-to-six-person table
shoved into the corner where they could
watch him work. The kitchen guests even
816 West Armitage (
&
773/248-6228;
www.charlietrotters.com/restaurant).
(
O'Hare International (26km/16 miles).
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).
Chef's Tables
143
Momofuku Ko
Rocking Out with the Anti-Chef
New York, New York
Like everything else in New York, culinary
fashions come and go at the speed of
light, but few chefs have blazed to star-
dom quite as quickly as David Chang. In
some ways he's the Anti-Chef, still in his
30s with a buzz cut and profane language,
committed to keeping his restaurants
moderately priced and open to walk-in
