Relish Underground

So I've been invited to a gluten-free dinner at a relatively new underground dining establishment, Relish, run by Chicago chef Julia Pham. I did a quick search here and came up empty-handed... just wondering if anyone has met her or eaten her creations.

If not, then I'll do my best to document the dinner and share my impressions here.

Never heard of it before - please let us know how it is!

There are a few other open events, if anyone else is curious.

From http://www.facebook.com/RelishUndergroundDining:

About: Fucking up the perverse food industry, one dinner at a time.
Mission: My mission is to promote local/organic/sustainable food, change the current perverse food industry, create a communal space and spread ideas, and feed people!
Description: relish is underground restaurant in Ravenswood, where local, organic, seasonal ingredients are used as much as possible. relish also serves as a space to discuss, share, and express ideas about the world around us and celebrate DIY culture in a safe, positive environment over glasses of wine and delicious handcrafted food.

These prix fixe dinners are held monthly at an affordable price. The menu will be announced 2 weeks ahead of the planned date to give me time to observe what's in season and sold at the markets.

There are two or three seats left for the gluten-free Relish Underground dinner on Friday, Nov. 9, at 7pm. It's in Ravenswood.

The planned menu:
Appetizers:
Bacon-wrapped figs
Apple carrot ginger soup with a dollop of yogurt and toasted pepitas
Entree:
Apple cider braised pork loin with sweet potato puree and a side of herb salad
Dessert:
Chocolate beet cake (made with almond flour) topped with pumpkin whipped cream

This will cost $30/person, which will include hot spiced, spiked apple cider.

Email me at mamagotcha@gmail.com and I'll hook you up if you'd like to join us.

Last night, I attended my very first "underground" dining experience. It was delightful in every way, and the chef kindly allowed me to document the dinner to share with you here.

I arrived at the Ravenswood address and climbed several stories to find a pretty apartment, sparkling clean and set up for us five diners.



Chef Julia Pham welcomed us with a warming cup of Seedling Michigan cider, gently spiced and generously spiked with Jameson's, and an equally warm smile. She was a gracious hostess, and never gave a sign of any of the stress that producing a meal like this must have generated.



Julia is young... early twenties?... and according to her own tale, has only been cooking seriously for the last three years or so. She's finishing up a job cooking at a local B&B, and moving into a position at the Little Goat cafe opening soon (a new venture sprouting off of Stephanie Izard's Girl and The Goat). She's also spent time at Dolce Casa, which is where she first became inspired to explore gluten-free cooking.



She never mentioned her family background, but it looks like she is related to the family behind the Ba Le chain (a local banh mi favorite), so she has probably been around the good stuff all her life; this might help explain how such a young woman has enough composure and confidence to start her own underground dinner club.



The mugs of cider were filled often, as were our Mason jars of cucumber water. We sat at the table and tucked in our paper-towel napkins... the contrast between the promised delights and the rudimentary materials was charming. Our appetizer arrived:



Cucumber cups filled with roquefort cheese topped with fig jam and shards of thick crisp bacon. We weren't sure how to eat these... most people tried to slice them into bite-sized bits, while I decided to use my fingers (is that terrible?). A nice play of crisp and creamy, clean and smoky, sweet and savory. A great start!



Next up was the soup, with roasted carrots and apples and ginger and cayenne, topped with yogurt with chives and roasted pepitas. I think we all shut up and just devoured this... a wonderful creamy winter soup that was very filling and warming. The carrots had sweetened with the roasting and gave hints of molasses behind the other flavors. This was one of my favorite things all evening!



Then we had our meal arrive: pork loin braised in cider, with roasted sweet potato puree and a lightly dressed salad with herbs. It was all delicious, though the pork was a tiny bit on the dry side.

Then we had what I thought was by far the best dish of the night:



Chocolate beet cake with pumpkin whipped cream. The cake was rich and dark, with a pleasing chewy crust not unlike a brownie. But it wasn't heavy like a brownie; it was airy and light. Julia said there were more beets than chocolate in the recipe, but aside from a very slight earthiness, there was no veggie taste at all. Terrific!

The experience of underground dining puts you somewhere between just hanging out at a friend's house and a formal sit-down restaurant visit. Of course, Julia and her friend Alex (the evening's server) did not ever sit down and join us, but it still felt very intimate and comfortable.



The desserts came out very hot (served right out of the oven!), so Julia let me come see the kitchen while I let mine cool. It was shining clean and very well organized. We talked about the joys and challenges of cooking in other people's kitchens, and I have to say that I would have loved to take a crack at making something in hers! I swear, her dinky apartment's kitchen was twice the size of my suburban house's.



For the price ($30), we had a terrific meal skillfully prepared with local foods in a lovely space with a talented young chef. If you are looking for an affordable culinary adventure, gather a few friends and call Chef Julia... you will not be sorry.

I'm doing the [img]and[/img] things, why aren't my images showing up? Argh!

mamagotcha wrote:I'm doing the [img]and[/img] things, why aren't my images showing up? Argh!

In order for them to appear here, they have to be jpg's with a .jpg extension.

=R=

Thank you, Ronnie. Gorram flickr and their deceitful linkage! All fixed now, I think.