ALINEA

http://vimeo.com/22749603

**Above is the video of the whole dinner. Many of the dishes were vegetarian, so what I ate was a lot different that what is shown on the video. It is important to note that all of the dishes in the video looked almost identical to my meat dishes. The epic dessert is filmed all the way through towards the end of the video. Some of my favorite dishes of the meal are provided below.

Alinea: A new train of thought.

When I found out I was heading to Chicago, I knew I needed to snag a reservation at not just the top restaurant in the city, but the best and most important restaurant in America.

Alinea's food is unlike anything anyone could ever imagine. Led by Grant Achatz, the kitchen at Alinea is less like a normal kitchen and more like a place where science experiments are conducted. One important note is that Chef Achatz had a rare tongue cancer in 2009 and some have argued that he had lost his sense of taste. Regardless of accusations, the food at Alinea is still evolving and eventually I believe that Alinea will be the number one restaurant in the world.

We had a later reservation at 9:30 which worked out perfectly due to the fact that we had a late lunch. The restaurant was walking distance from our house so we got there right at 9:30. Once we arrived, we walked into the main door into a room that was all pink. While walking, a door to our left slid open which was reminiscent of something from Star Trek. We quickly walked through the door and were right in front of the kitchen watching the master at work. We were then directed upstairs and quickly seated at our table. A quick dietary check was in order and beverage pairings were offered which resulted in a housemade soda progression for my

brother and a beer progression for myself. The meal consisted of 20 or so courses ranging from one single bite to a full dish.

I will not go into detail of every course simply because there is so many and they were all fantastic, but I would like to provide some pictures of my menu, some food items not captured in the video and also the video of my brothers vegetarian dishes that looked almost identical to mine.

Here is my copy of the menu.

Each course was well thought out with tremendous precision, but some stood above the others. Here are a few of my favorite dishes.

Halibut- black pepper, coffee, lemon

It was no mistake everything was white on the plate. Intentionally, even the black savory components were in one way or another manipulated into a white hue in order to make the dish completely white. The halibut here was the best I have ever had blowing out anything else I have ever had. The fish melted like butter and had the perfect flakeyness. Just amazing.

Rabbit: parfait, rillete, consomme

Rabbit gelee, sunflower seeds, onion and butternut squash.

Not many words to describe the flavor. So smooth and creamy and the fruit added the perfect contrast to the rich rabbit.

Panko crusted rabbit rillete with blood sausage, mushrooms and squash puree

The mushrooms added the earthness while the crunchy rillete was rich and creamy. The blood sausage also added a good saltiness to the dish which was balanced out by the squash. AMAZING

Rabbit and apple consomme. An insanely rich and flavorful broth of rabbit and apple. The cinnamon added the aroma while the hot black rock in the soup was there to keep it warm. Genius

Hot Potato Cold Potato

This dish consisted of a warm creamy, buttery potato soup. The pin sticking through the bowl is a warm potato ball with little cheese cubes and a black truffle. You pull the pin out so everything empties in the soup and you get the coldness from the liquid mixed with the hotness of the potato and it is mindblowing. Wow.

Black Truffle Explosion

One of the Chef's most famous dishes. This ravioli pasta is filled with pure liquid black truffle with a little parmesan cheese on top. We were instructed to put the whole thing in our mouths and close them. Once we bite down on the pasta, it explodes with truffle juice and coats your entire mouth with one of the most amazing flavors I could have ever imagined.

Sweet Potato: cedar, bourbon and pecan

Our segway into dessert started with this course. This dish consisted of braised sweet potato, cayenne cotton candy, candied pecans and a bourbon gelee. The dish came out on a wood plank which was just lit to provide the essence of burning wood in a fire. The aroma of the wood with this dish just tasted like wintertime in Mammoth. It was an unbelievable flavor and aroma that brought back so many memories which I never thought food could accomplish so successfully.

The last course of the evening was the dessert. The staff brought out a mat to drape across the table. Then the chef came with 10-15 different bowls and started painting a picture on the table. In the video below I provide the whole dessert preparation and also the aftermath of it. The big block of chocolate is actually a chocolate mousse that was instantaneously frozen with liquid nitrogen. There were also pickled blueberries, peanut butter powder, hazlenut and white chocolate sauces and puddings that solidified after only a few seconds.

Chocolate: blueberry, honey, peanut

http://vimeo.com/22749603

Overall, I can easily say that this was the greatest dining experience of my life. More than just a dinner, Alinea is an experience that every person should experience at least once in their lives. The 3 michelin star rating characterizes the restaurant as "Worth the Trip" and with that I can totally agree. Even if I came for one night to eat at Alinea, I could say with confidence that it would be worth it. The food was created with insane precision and each dish was a new unique flavor that I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams. The whole dinner lasted about three and a half hours and only felt like an hour or so. The courses keep coming and they get better and better. Although Alinea is characterized as a "once in a lifetime" event, I am glad and excited to say that I will certainly be back maybe not soon, but in the near future.