Alinea: Food As Play

The 12-course tasting menu at Alinea in Chicago lasted from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., but somehow it did not feel like 3.5 hours had passed. Perhaps it was the constant anticipation that comes from not knowing what you would be served next and the certainty that you couldn't have predicted it even if you had tried.

Below is the tasting menu of September 9, 2005, taken from the menu. The comments that follow are my own.

1. cucumber: mango, several aromatics
2. hearts of palm: in five sections -- Each of the hearts of palm came with a different filling, with the vanilla pudding a particular favorite.
3. litchi: horseradish, chervil juice, oyster cream
4. lobster: chanterelles, ravioli of coconut powder -- The vibrant orange ravioli was made of carrot, and it surprisingly melted in your mouth, releasing a burst of coconut juice. The lobster consomme was garnished with a homemade "lobster chee-to," which might have seemed daring had I not been weaned on MSG-laden shrimp crackers.
5. dover sole: mosaic of mostly traditional flavors -- You've got to love the qualifier, given that the sole came with bananas, brown sugar powder and a green powder that I am presently unable to recall.
6. pork: dijon, orange, california laurel branch -- The pork came dangling on the laurel branch, which was attached to a multi-pronged steel apparatus. It was succulent. I became an instant pork lollipop convert.
7. lamb: fig, pernod, pillow of anise air -- Lamb cheek, to be more precise, and no, the pillow was not for consumption. It was to infuse your space with anise air, naturally. The dish itself was tender and made you wonder why more restaurants do not serve lamb cheek.
8. bison: truffle, pistachio, sweet spices -- This was the most artistically presented dish, with the bison encased within a sculpture of beef noodle, surrounded by pureed, crushed, and whole pistachios.
9. matsutake: pine nut, mastic, rosemary -- Apparently, matsutake is a mushroom, a fact I did not know when I tried this dish and disliked it.
10. corn: honey, tonka bean, vanilla -- Corn as dessert turned out to be a very nice segue from savory into sweet, much more so than the matsutake.
11. chocolate: avocado, lime, mint -- Possibly the most traditional dish we had all night, but also my favorite of the sweets. The servers mentioned twice that the pastry chef had developed such a flexible chocolate ganache that you could pick it up and swing it around like a lasso.
12. chicory: peanut, milk chocolate, wild rice

I was a bit concerned that I would feel compelled to like Alinea because it had become quite the darling of avant-garde dining. I needn't worry, it turned out, since the entire dining experience -- no matter how avant-garde -- was still judged by one unchanging criteria: the food was sublime. That it also challenged my palate was only the cherry on top.