A Lesson in History

A Lesson In History

It is interesting to track the progress of an idea such as this one. It began with a Dinner for Mimi Sheraton. Chef Achatz wanted juxtapose a purely classical Escoffier dish into Alinea's contemporary restaurant menu. Deadset on realizing this idea, he and sommelier Craig Sindelar ventured out to Chicago's antique stores. The two spent the entire day scouring the city for the perfect antique serviceware. In the end, the day’s efforts yielded only a single place setting. The concept however, was a success. In the winter of 2009, it was introduced into the restaurant's Tour menu, and Alinea's version of Pigeonneau a Saint Clair was born.

As the summer drew to a close, we started to look at ways to replace the classic pigeon dish for the fall. Venison, turbot, other game? As well as how we will use the entire season supply of Blis trout roe. We searched the classic tomes and came across a version of trout au vin rouge in Le Repertoire de la Cuisine:

Trout Monseigneur

Poached in red wine, garnished with mushroom heads, coated with red wine sauce, surrounded with barquettes filled with poached egg coated red wine sauce and alternated with barquette filled with soft roes coated white wine sauce, slices of truffles. (repertoire 113)

The question arose, “Should we put both the trout and its eggs on the same plate?” These are both amazing artisan products from Blis, more than deserving of their own spotlight dish. The answer – Yes.

We searched, eBay, antique shops, online replacement services, and auction houses to recreate that original place setting for Mimi. We built the collection up to 40 and on Sept. 30, 2009, Brook Trout, monseigneur made its debut on both Tasting and Tour menus.

The dish is a literal interpretation of Tuite a la Monseigneur. The brook trout come from Steve Stallard’s farm in Michigan. They are caught and Fed-exed overnight where we serve them that evening, poached in Escoffier’s original recipe for court bouillon. The roe is hand sieved and cured by Stallard. It is incredibly complex with notes of salted crème fraiche.

Red Wine Court Bouillon

2500 g (5 lb 8.2 oz) red wine
2500 g (5 lb 8.2 oz) water
600 g (1 lb 5.2 oz) onion
80 g (2.8 oz) parsley
10 g (0.4 oz) thyme
0.5 bay leaf
60 g (2.1 oz) kosher salt
15 g (0.5 oz) black peppercorns
400 g (14.1 oz) sliced carrots

In large saucepan, combine red wine, water, onion, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, salt and carrots. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the peppercorns and simmer another 15 minutes. Strain through chinois. Reserve.

Interesting to be using historic recipes as a frame for what is a very product driven dish. Can you tell me a bit more about the necessity of antique service ware? Restated, do diners need stronger visual cues to "place" a dish? What did you discover in the initial reactions to Pigeonneau a Saint Clair?

In particular, I'm interested in the effect on the dining experience of a person who is in on the reference vs one who may be coming without awareness of Contemporary vs Classical cooking. Have you taken things in the opposite direction? An Alinea dish presented with antique service ware paired with a classical dish on Martin's service ware?

Most of us who have not actively scoured though the history of cuisine do not even have a tenuous connection to dishes such as these...perhaps in that context, everything truly is new, regardless of how its presented.