teatpuller wrote:fall menu can be found here: http://twitdoc.com/c/hhgmyw

My photos suck, but I noticed a few differences between the twitdoc and the menu we saw last night, only in the "land" and "sweet" sections (e.g. braised kumquats vs. clementine marmalade for the lamb):



Also, since it's not up on the GE web site yet, here's the latest cocktail menu:

I dined at GE a couple of weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. We did a 10 course tasting and with the exception of 2 courses, everything was great. It was a lot of fun eating there. I paired my courses with beer because I tend to get burned out on wine after a glass or two. I also had the Surrender Dorothy cocktail at the bar before we ate. It was awesome.

Here are some general thoughts. My details on the exact ingredients of the dessert items may be off.

Course 1: White Tuna (Escolar) Sashimi with Plantain Chips, Whipped Avocado, Cilantro Sprouts, Passion Fruit.
This was kind surprisingly boring.

Course 2: Hand Pulled Mozzarella
This was the chef’s take on a Caprese salad and I am not sure I can go back to the real thing again. A perfectly ripe yellow tomato sat atop a round of their house made mozzarella cheese. On top of that sat a small quenelle of balsamic vinegar sorbet and some micro basil. It was really cool having the icy balsamic melt in your mouth along with the slightly warm mozzarella.

Course 3: Sweet Corn Bisque
Might have been the dish of the evening. The bowl is presented with a small pool of lime crema topped with chipotle jam and crushed up corn nuts and a garlic marshmallow. The server pours the corn bisque into the bowl at the table and instructs you to swirl the marshmallow and other accompaniments into the soup. Holy crap was this awesome. You got the pure taste of creamy corn with a little heat from the chipotles, acidiy from the lime crema, texture from the corn nuts, and additional creaminess from the garlic marshmallow. I tried a bit of it on its own and it was kind of strange tasting but worked awesome in this dish.

Course 4: Kung Pao Sweetbreads
Pretty much what it sounds like. Veal Sweetbreads served like kung pao chicken. hat really tied this together and took it over the top was the addition of peanut brittle to mimic the peanuts found in kung pao dishes.

Course 5: Seared Alaskan Halibut
Up there with the corn bisque as the best dishes of the evening. Perfectly cooked halibut sat atop some Israeli Couscous mixed with smoked eggplant, caramelized pieces of fennel and some tomato marmalade. Every aspect of this dish was superb.

Course 6: Scallop
A seared scallop sat atop some fairly decent potato salad and is drizzled with what I think was a bacon emulsion. A fried pickle rested on the scallop. All of the elements were kind of good by themselves but together it just sort of became a muddle of flavors.

Course 7:
Tamarind Lacquered Duck. So good that I wanted to return the next night and order it again. Medium rare duck breast with a crispy outer skin sat atop some forbidden rice, banana blossoms, thai basil, and curried coconut.

Course 8
Bison Skirt Steak Med-rare bison on top of some addictive Sprecher rootbeer sauce, killer cole slaw, a nice onion ring and house made baked beans. It was like a steakhouse meal (steak and onion rings) and summer bbq (bbq sauce, baked beans, and cole slaw) were all incorporated into one excellent dish.

Course 9:
Blackberry Panna Cotta A nice refreshing course.

Course 10:
Dark Chocolate Cake - There were two types of chocolate cake at each end. My favorite part was the crunchy meringue on each piece.



I'll probably have a more detailed review up on my blog within a week or so.

The popcorn did involve truffle oil, herbs and parmesan, i think!

I meant to suggest an improvement for the apple dessert that neither happy_stomach or I liked to much...

If they could add that butterscotch gelato to the mix it would be substantially improved! And I think it would go really well.

Sweetest day dinner from my sweetest.
Graham Elliot knows how to cook. Good to great food prepared with refinement. A bit pricey IMHO, but I guess your not going to GE for value...

Chicken Fried Foie...meh. Tried a similar dish @ David Burke's during foie week and again was very disappointed. It took two tries but now my lady and me are convinced that foie is best prepared without breading. The siren call of fried goodness is treacherous and must be avoided.

Cheddar risotto. Once again...meh. I appreciate that GE was inspired by Wisconsin and so the incredients are almost exclusively from the land of cheese, but really $13 for a glob of risotto w/ some bacon, applies, onions, and cheeze-its? Really?! $13!!! Boo.

Octopus Terrine. Fabulous! Excellent textures and flavors. Accompanied w/ silky smooth hummos, micro green salad, lemon sorbet, and lemon powder, capers, and some sort of nut. Really a wonderful dish especially wonderful to follow the terrine w/ the lemon sorbet. Yum.

Squab. Well prepared and yummy. Not sure of the details, but remember to enjoy the taste from the lady's plate.

Beef Stroganoff. Excellent. Probably would not have ordered, but it is all over the menu and recommended by the waiter over the scallops (which he liked too). Rich, decadent dish. Puree'd portobello w/ truffle oil topped with wagyu beef, chantrelles, and spetzle. Accompanied by a cool cream. There is a reason this dish is one of GE's stars. WOW.

Desert was good, but not great. Had the pumpkin pound cake and the apple shortbread with caramel. Nice prep, well made, still not nearly as exciting as the Octopus or Beef.

Focus group of two verdict. Good, but won't need to head back anytime soon.
Quick note: The hot food came out of the kitchen luke warm. Almost sent back the beef, but decided not to. On a brighter note, the service was excellent, music selection fun and ecletic, atmosphere nice.

We went for the first time last week. I had the Caesar Salad, the Sweet Potato Soup, and the Scallops. (Apologies for not getting the menu names exactly right in all their particularity, but that sums it up.)

I enjoyed all of it, but the course I enjoyed the most, ironically, was the one I expected to be the most generic (but wasn't). The Caesar Salad. It was served on top of some kind of cheese-filled twinkie, and you'd think that whimsical touch would be what made the dish special, but instead, it was the salad part of the salad that did. It was a superior Caesar Salad, with excellent anchovies and a perfect dressing. The whimsy of the twinkie was simply a Lucky Strike Extra, as we used to say in advertising, albeit one that made its contribution to my overall enjoyment.

I was surprised at the high noise level of the place. I suppose that's because the last time I was there it was Harvest on Huron, which was somewhat more sedate, and that's what I've been hearing in my mind when I've read about Graham Elliott. The music was loud and so the crowd noise had to be louder, and that made conversation, initially, more of a challenge among the four of us than I was expecting. But we got used to it.

I went to Graham Elliot tonight for dinner. I was very impressed.



I had an 'Alphabet City' cocktail to start, which was akin to a sweet blackcurrant manhattan. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I had the Wagyu Beef Stroganoff which was really fantastic. I really liked the interplay between the peppered spaetzle with the creme fraiche and the beef with the truffle/mushroom puree. For dessert I had the flourless chocolate cake which I wasn't amazed by, but was really good. The best part of it was the butterscotch gelato, which I thought paired very well with the chocolate.

My date had an 'Eve's Bijou' (I think) as her cocktail, which was made with Ransom Old Tom Gin, Pomegranate Tea and Cassis. She really loved it, and she's not a fan of gin which speaks to the quality of the drink. She had the Thanksgiving Squab for dinner. She liked all of it but the squab, incidentally. She didn't like the fatty/skin part to the squab and didn't eat it, which is unfortunate. I tried all of her dish, and my favorite parts was the roasted chestnut puree and the green bean casserole. Combining the squab with the roasted chestnut puree was delightful. She ended her meal with the pumpkin pound cake. I'm not a fan of pumpkin but I really liked this, especially the cinnamon sauce that it rested on.

Side note, I thought the drinks were pretty large and rather nice for the price of $11 each (yes, I'm used to the violet hour)

I went to Graham Elliot a year ago and thought that it was good, but not great. Definitely some hits and some misses in what we ate. We returned last night, and thought that it was great. Maybe we just ordered right, but the dishes we had were outstanding.

To start we had one of the appetizer specials, braised bison short rib. The meat was very good, but what took it to another level was the sauce on the plate. I couldn't get enough and finally asked the waiter what it was. He said, "smoked hollandaise." They make the hollandaise and then put it in a smoker(?). It wasn't overly smokey, it just added another dimension to the sauce.

For the main courses we had the pork belly and the above mentioned beef stroganoff. Both were wonderful. The pork belly was huge and came on top of collard greens and grits. I think what made both dishes were the little details. The grits and collards and spaetzle and mushrooms were cooked perfectly and were the things that made the dishes really sing.

I'm really glad we went back and gave it another shot.

We hadn't been to Graham Elliot in a while. Not having any other plans, we were able to get a reservation on short notice for dinner this past Friday night.

We had a very enjoyable dinner and were regretting letting so much time go by between visits. I had a crab appetizer that was a riff on a Thai papaya salad. The inclusion of tapioca pearls made this a very interesting mix, with some heat provided by Thai curry balanced with the sweetness of the tapioca and the crab. My main course was pork (done in sort of a carnitas style) served over white hominy with some peppers and whipped avocado (sort of a guacamole mousse). Very tasty and fulfilling in that Graham Elliot Bowles sort of way...a humble dish at its heart elevated by careful preparation and interesting presentation (even though the pork was just a tad dry). Dessert was chocolate served alongside a scoop of Guinness ice cream and some chocolate Pop Rocks.

This meal was as good as any that I've had at Graham Elliot. I was a bit dismayed to see several empty tables at 8pm on a Friday, so hopefully we just hit them on an unusually slow weekend night. We'll definitely be back sooner rather than later.

Comp disclosure - We were given a discount on our final bill, basically the equivalent of having our desserts comp'ed.

While I don't have anything more eloquent than "ditto" to add to others' praise of the food at Graham Elliot, I would like to add kudos based on the service my husband and I received there on Saturday night.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whitefish with cauliflower couscous, but did have to pick out a few tiny bones from the fish. After our plates were cleared, the wine director -- Michael, I believe -- approached the table and profusely apologized for the presence of the bones (someone must have pointed them out in the kitchen) and insisted on comping my dinner. Maybe it's a reflection of the diminishing attention to detail and dedication to quality in other restaurants that this seemed out of the ordinary, but nonetheless we were very impressed. It'll go a long way in influencing our decision to return, despite the steep wine prices and high decibel level in the room.

I've been to Graham Elliot six times. The only thing I've had more than once was the Caesar Salad; I don't know if it was my perceptions that changed, or if there was a real difference in prep, but the 'twinkies' which so delighted me the first time were merely good the second time.

Nevertheless, in six tries, I've had two good meals, three great meals, and one off-the charts incredible meal. That's either a 100% or 67% success rate, depending on how you grade; either way, I'm very happy with the place.

Question: does he have a pastry chef? On my last trip there, the showstopper was a chocolate torte that layered in smoky, salty, bitter, and caramel flavors behind an absolute perfect texture. I'm still haunted by the memory of that dessert.

Chef GEB is having a good summer: He's a bona fide TV star!

It's astounding to me how Graham Elliot has evolved in the 3 years that it's been open. At first, it was clear that the chains were off from the Avenues days and Chef GEB was pretty much doing whatever he wanted to do. Then the complaints came, there was a retooling that wasn't really a retooling, and things became ever so slightly more restrained.

Fast forward a bit and you reach the end of the bar snacks, more focus on cocktails, and less stuff like cheese-its and beer foam on the menu. Call that the transition period.

Now we find Graham Elliot inching back towards the Avenues days. This is a restaurant now clearly trying to play in the 3 star league, among the Blackbirds and Nahas of the world. But, the sense of fun and whimsy remains. Servers are in blazers now (not t-shirts) but they're still wearing jeans and sneakers.

Our dinner at GE last night was probably the most refined, most interesting dinner we've had there (probably our 7th or 8th time in). We did a 5 course tasting, with the kitchen very kindly sending out and extra taste of foie gras. Two dishes in particular stood out: soft shell crab and skate.

First, the soft shells. Everyone has soft shells right now, so I thought it would be interesting to see how GE would make theirs stand out. The dish included two bundles of 2-3 legs each coated in a "hush puppy" breading. The crab was served with old bay foam, grain mustard, and some slaw. The crab was perfectly fried and the combo of the foam and the mustard really took me back to eating seafood while growing up on the east coast. The slaw was a nice cool contrast to the rest of the dish. Certainly a GE dish in style, but way more "elevated' than other food I've had here.

Second, the skate. Skate is the same everywhere. The wing spread out over the plate, brown butter, capers, done. GE is doing the skate as a roulade, served with macerated pecans, pecan oil, and a ham hock & fava salad. The whole thing is then drizzled with a ham hock vinaigrette. This dish is smoky, salty, briny, and just incredibly complex. It's probably the only dish I've ever had at GE (or even at Avenues under GEB) that I would describe as "thought provoking". I am glad though that I had this as part of a tasting menu. I think that a full portion may have been overwhelming as the flavors here were really bold and almost overpowering (but in a good way).

One final note. This was the first time that the deconstructed Caesar really "clicked" for me. Probably this was because this was the first time that the "twinkie" was served warm when the plate hit the table. The contrast between the ice cold lettuce and the warm oozy twinkie is really what makes this dish work. I've never had this before where all of the parts came together like they were intended, so that just added to my enjoyment of this meal.

If you haven't been to Graham Elliot in a while, I would seriously urge a return visit.

jesteinf wrote:If you haven't been to Graham Elliot in a while, I would seriously urge a return visit.

Or if you haven't been, here's all the more reason to - which I have not. Thank you.

We had a great meal at Graham Elliot a few weeks back. Our party of 5 ordered most of the items on the menu and nearly everything was creative and delicious. Just got a new camera so I figure I can finally post a few pictures.




We started with an amuse of sorrel panna cotta topped with steelhead roe and chive. To accommodate my dad's non-dairy request, he received a sorrel and chive salad with the roe. Surprisingly, we all enjoyed the non-dairy dish better, as the salad matched the roe better than the panna cotta.


The well documented Foielipops. Foie Gras and madiera mousse was coated in watermelon pop rocks, and topped with a pinch of fleur de sel. The pop rocks lightened the rich foie, while loosely keeping the classic fruit and foie combination.

jesteinf wrote:This was the first time that the deconstructed Caesar really "clicked" for me. Probably this was because this was the first time that the "twinkie" was served warm when the plate hit the table. The contrast between the ice cold lettuce and the warm oozy twinkie is really what makes this dish work. I've never had this before where all of the parts came together like they were intended, so that just added to my enjoyment of this meal.

Deconstructed Caesar / Gem Lettuce / Brioche Twinkie / Parmesan Fluff / White Anchovy
I know how Josh feels, because unfortunately, we experienced this at the same time. 2 of us ordered the Caesar, but one twinkie was filled with the warm garlic marscapone cream, while the other had only a little room temperature cream. I'm guessing one was filled in advance, and it had soaked into the brioche. The warm one was fantastic, while the cool one was simply average.


Charred Octopus / Preserved Turnip / Liquid Olive / Smoked Potato / Cured Orange
I had forgotten that this was listed under the cold appetizers, so the temperature was a bit surprising when this was served. There was a very nice brininess when the octopus was eaten with the olives and olive gel.


Foie Gras / Compressed Rhubarb / Wild Strawberry / Caraway Crumble / Candied Angelica
This seared preparation of foie was served over a sweet caraway crumble. There were a number of different forms of strawberry and rhubarb, including compressions and foams. While tasty, I think I prefer cold preparations of foie to warm, as I can enjoy the richness, while still feeling less greasy.



Spring onion bisque with pickled ramps. A log of what appeared to be a spring onion cream came in the bowl with other onion components, and a warm onion soup was poured in tableside. The soup tasted like a giant bowl of fresh ramps.



Farm Egg / Green Garlic / Fiddlehead Fern / Wild Watercress / Pebble - Moss - Soil - Stone
At this point it started to hit me how comically large some of the plates were in relation to the food. I was very full by the end of the meal so I didn't have any complaints. Just amused me.

jesteinf wrote:Everyone has soft shells right now, so I thought it would be interesting to see how GE would make theirs stand out. The dish included two bundles of 2-3 legs each coated in a "hush puppy" breading. The crab was served with old bay foam, grain mustard, and some slaw. The crab was perfectly fried and the combo of the foam and the mustard really took me back to eating seafood while growing up on the east coast. The slaw was a nice cool contrast to the rest of the dish. Certainly a GE dish in style, but way more "elevated' than other food I've had here.

Crab Cake / Soft Shell / Old Bay / Kohlrabi Slaw / Grainy Mustard
Not much to add that Josh hasn't already said about the deconstructed crab cake. Delicious dish, one of our favorites of the night.


Veal Loin / Sweetbread / Green Asparagus / White Asparagus
The veal was well cooked, but the sweetbreads were a throwaway. They were cooked schnitzel-style, but they were dry and rubbery due to the thin cut.


Jidori Chicken / Israeli Couscous / Baby Carrot / Granulated Honey / Chamomile Essence
Surprisingly, this was probably my favorite entree. The chicken breast was perfectly cooked and juicy, I'm assuming sous-vide. Probably the best piece of chicken breast that I've had. The israeli couscous had a nice touch of acidity that went well with the chicken.


Colorado Lamb / Pea Cannelloni / Morel Mushroom / Homemade Lambcetta / Eucalyptus Froth
I only had a few bites of this, but the lamb was tasty. The lamb was cooked on the rare side of medium rare, a bit too rare for some of our group. The eucalyptus froth evoked the traditional mint and lamb combination.

jesteinf wrote:Skate is the same everywhere. The wing spread out over the plate, brown butter, capers, done. GE is doing the skate as a roulade, served with macerated pecans, pecan oil, and a ham hock & fava salad. The whole thing is then drizzled with a ham hock vinaigrette. This dish is smoky, salty, briny, and just incredibly complex.

Skate Confit / Cornmeal / Fava Bean / Ham Hock / Pecan Oil
Ours also had an orange peel puree, which went beautifully with the ham hock vinegarette and pecan purees.


Chocolate Framboise / Jivara Ganache / Manjari Cremeux / Coffee Earth / Ancho Chili
There were multiple forms of chocolate (chocolate raspberry sorbet, cremeux, ancho ganache), as well as coffee bean nibs, powdered raspberry, and balsamic glaze. A rich, but decadent chocolate dessert.


Lemon Cake / Citrus Curd / Blueberry Gelato / Poppy Ribbon / Violet Foam
This dessert was my favorite of the night. Similar to the chocolate dessert, lemon was in many forms (cake, ribbon, etc). The blueberry gelato was especially flavorful, as well as the lemon gels.

jesteinf wrote:If you haven't been to Graham Elliot in a while, I would seriously urge a return visit.

Couldn't agree more.

Thanks for the great photos, Dlongs. Mr. X and I will be heading to Graham Elliot's tomorrow night for Mr. X's birthday dinner. I'm looking forward to it!

We had a fantastic dinner at Graham Elliot for Mr. X's birthday. Before dining, we each had a cocktail. I had the French Broad (Calvados, Plymouth Dry Gin, Pineau de Charentes, egg white) in honor of Bastille Day. I found it on the sweet side. Mr. X had New York Sour, (Buffalo Trace, lemon squeeze, orange bitters, claret float). It was a lovely color, but to my palate, also skewed sweet. For dinner, we did the five course tasting menu with wine pairings.

Popcorn (truffle butter, black pepper, parmesan fluff) We pretty much inhaled this. Amazing stuff. I don't know what they did to the cheese, but it was so delicate.

Consomme (compressed watermelon, mint leaf, jalapeno oil) Served in a shot glass, we were encouraged to do it as a shooter, but be cautious of the watermelon pieces. This was fine.

Caesar (gem lettuce, spanish anchovy, brioche twinkie) GE's signature dish that has received well-deserved accolades. Great flavors all around.

Corn Bisque (spiny lobster, toasted coquito, vanilla marshmallow) There were a couple of dabs of something in the bowl along with the ingredients listed above. The hot soup was poured over everything. We were encouraged to stir it up to get all the flavors. It tasted like creamed corn. Good, but not mind-blowing.

Canape (coconut tapioca, black bean, curly scallion) This was fantastic. There were a few pieces of mango. It tasted very tropical. The sweetness was balanced by the black bean accent and scallion.

Halibut (leek brandade, house bacon, haricot vert) The fish was complemented well by the bacon. A good dish that was outshone by Mr. X's substitution of:

Whitefish (potato confit, smoked mussel, artichoke relish) Everything in this dish worked. If it wasn't his birthday, I wouldn't have given the plate back when we switched for tasting.

Bison (baked bean, texas onion, pepper salsa) Bison loin, cooked medium rare, with a roasted pepper on top and the pepper salsa made for a strong pepper taste. To me, all the peppers were a touch overwhelming, but all was made right with one of the best onion rings I've had.

Intermezzo (grape juice, purple essence, soda spritzer) Pretty much a shot of fancy grape Nehi. Refreshing, very sweet.

Chocolate (flourless chocolate cake, root beer, port cherry, birch caramel, sarsaparilla gelato) This is where the sweet worked for me that night. We like desserts. We especially like chocolate. I'm still thinking about this dessert. We scraped the plate even when there was nothing left to get on the fork.

I almost forgot to comment on the wine pairings. They really elevated the meal. The corn bisque was good, but was better because of the wine pairing. That's one of the main reasons I urged Mr. X to go with the tasting menu because we could try a range of the dishes with what I expected to be great wine. We enjoyed our meal. Service was quite good as I would expect for a restaurant at this price point. I appreciated being told we wouldn't have to remember each dish as we would receive a menu at the end. I loved that they had a single candle standing on the other side of the dessert plate to honor Mr. X's birthday and printed "happy birthday" on his menu. For a special occasion, it was a lovely meal, but is not something we can afford to do regularly.

Many of the recent posts here go into the sorts of details that I will not provide, but my wife and I went to GE for the first time not too long ago as well, and our opinion as well as that of our dining companions was that the meal was uniformly excellent. We loved the contrast between such a casual restaurant and such exemplary, creative (but not distractingly so) food. To echo an earlier post, if you haven't been about Graham Elliot is a while, they seem to have gotten their second (or third?) wind.

The GP wrote:Popcorn (truffle butter, black pepper, parmesan fluff) We pretty much inhaled this. Amazing stuff. I don't know what they did to the cheese, but it was so delicate.

The popcorn was delicious. I could eat a really, really big bowl of that stuff. I'm guessing they microplaned the cheese over the top.

Dlongs wrote: The popcorn was delicious. I could eat a really, really big bowl of that stuff. I'm guessing they microplaned the cheese over the top.

That was our first guess, but it seemed to be more than just microplaning. We had plenty of opportunity to admire the cheese as it stuck to our fingers, then was very apparent on the black napkins.

Going for a birthday dinner this week. Just wondering if it is preferable to order the 5 or 10 course tasting or a la carte (2 people)? One person doesn't do fish although im sure they would alter the tasting courses..

Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.

Thanks.

welshie wrote:Going for a birthday dinner this week. Just wondering if it is preferable to order the 5 or 10 course tasting or a la carte (2 people)? One person doesn't do fish although im sure they would alter the tasting courses..

Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.

Thanks.

You can sub out items on the tasting menu for a cost. I believe each modification was $5.

We had a thoroughly excellent meal at GE last night. I had my fifth or sixth version of the Caesar, which has not lost any of its charm or brilliance. Oh, those spectacular white anchovies! The lobster reduction with the risotto is truly, as our server described, liquid gold--dark and intense and just boozy enough. The sturgeon with pierogi was an impressive marriage of western and eastern European flavors and cooking technique. And I loved the faux bones carved from potato and filled with actual marrow that accompanied the wagyu--rich, comforting and whimsical. I can't think of another restaurant in Chicago where technique and deliciousness match playfulness to the degree that it does at GE.

We needed to make some space for dessert, so strolled to Ria to end our meal with a fantastic pear-almond cake and chocolate-caramel tart. Solid one-two punch.

happy_stomach wrote:And I loved the faux bones carved from potato and filled with actual marrow that accompanied the wagyu--rich, comforting and whimsical.

I took my cousin there about two months ago, and had a fun time with the bone marrow.

She'd never had marrow before, and was a little uncertain, but was willing to trust me. When it came, I chuckled at the presentation, and noted that it was actually potato cut to look like a beef shank. Thinking that it was just potato, then, and not actually marrow, she dug right into it and commented on how tasty and rich the 'mashed potatoes' inside were. I replied that, while the outside was a carved potato, the filling inside was indeed roasted beef marrow. She hesitated, reiterated how delicious it was, and finished the rest in two bites.

Anyway, I don't have much to add other than it was my first time ordering the tasting menu there, and almost didn't make it to the end. I think I'll start new topic on that in the 'Other' folder - given how much trouble I have with 10-course tastings, I have no idea how I would ever survive a 30-course tasting.

I'll just close by saying that GE was one of the first restaurants that really opened my eyes to what was possible with food, and for that, I'll always be nostalgic for the bar snack days. That's not to say anything against current, the more refined incarnation, but that first year at GE happened to coincide with my first year of really getting out and getting serious about food. I got my start at the same time as GE, and the deliberately casual atmosphere just happened to hit exactly in my sweet spot.

I've had a soft spot for the place ever since, and it's never let me down.

Andrew Brochu leaves El Ideas for Graham Eliot

at ChicagoTribune.com, Kevin Pang wrote:Brochu was approached by the Elliot team less than a month ago. Elliot and restaurant group director Merlin Verrier told him they wanted to push their flagship restaurant towards refinement. The restaurant was awarded one Michelin star in the last few editions of the guidebooks, and now they're shooting for two. They told Brochu he was their first and only choice.

I'm trying to figure out what exactly this indicates. Is it that GE feels he's reached the limit of his abilities? Or is it that he's just too busy to elevate the restaurant any further? In any event, bringing in Brochu is a brilliant move. He's extraordinarily talented.

=R=

Hasn't GE been pretty clear about his hands-off approach to the kitchen? He's more of a figurehead at this points; other chefs do the heavy lifting, at least as I understood it.

Vitesse98 wrote:Hasn't GE been pretty clear about his hands-off approach to the kitchen? He's more of a figurehead at this points; other chefs do the heavy lifting, at least as I understood it.

I don't know. That's why I asked.

=R=

Vitesse98 wrote:Hasn't GE been pretty clear about his hands-off approach to the kitchen? He's more of a figurehead at this points; other chefs do the heavy lifting, at least as I understood it.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011 ... hef-ramsay

Yes. From the Tribune article linked above:

"Within the industry it's widely known that he's not really in his restaurants very much, or if he is, he's not cooking or in the kitchen," said Grant Achatz, Elliot's longtime friend and the much-acclaimed, hands-on chef/co-owner of Alinea, Next and Aviary. "He's more swooping into the dining room, shaking hands and kissing babies than he is back on the line cooking."

grack wrote:

Vitesse98 wrote:Hasn't GE been pretty clear about his hands-off approach to the kitchen? He's more of a figurehead at this points; other chefs do the heavy lifting, at least as I understood it.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011 ... hef-ramsay

Yes. From the Tribune article linked above:

"Within the industry it's widely known that he's not really in his restaurants very much, or if he is, he's not cooking or in the kitchen," said Grant Achatz, Elliot's longtime friend and the much-acclaimed, hands-on chef/co-owner of Alinea, Next and Aviary. "He's more swooping into the dining room, shaking hands and kissing babies than he is back on the line cooking."

Thank you, for the information. Looking forward to checking out chef Brochu's food at GE.

=R=

Chef Bowles will also be spread thinner (so to speak) with opening his upcoming GEB in the West Loop, in addition to Graham Elliot and Grahamwich.