Next: The French Laundy October 28, 1996

I know this menu sounds a little on the very specific side, but there is a very good reason why.  Each and every menu at Next comes with a playbill.  The playbill for this menu tells a very personal story about Grant Achatz.

20 years ago, I was an unemployed cook who had lost his desire and passion for the profession.  I read about The French Laundry in a magazine one day, thought it sounded wonderful, and mailed a letter to Chef Thomas Keller every day for several weeks asking for a job.  Eventually he called and invited me out to Yountville, California.

 My Father and I packed up a car with all of my belongings and drove to Napa Valley.  I arrived there to find a tall cook sweeping the floor early in the morning, I asked him if Chef Keller was in yet.  Of course, that was Chef Keller.  The French Laundry was a very different place with an amazing leader and mentor.

That night something magical happened.  Chef Keller hosted my father and me for dinner.  An incredible act of hospitality, this was, of course, not a formal first day of employment!  Everything about that meal and the generosity shown to us by Chef KEller and The French Laundry team changed the way I viewed being a chef... and pivoted the course of my life. 

May of the dishes presented here are faithful reproductions from that meal.  Others are seasonal favorites that I cooked with Chef Keller during my time at The French Laundry - from 1996 to 2001.  All of these items reflect the core philosophy and attention to detail that has defined The French Landry. 

In preparation for this menu, Chef Thomas Keller welcomed Next Executive Chef Jenner Tomaska into his kitchens to experience The French Laundry magic first hand.  Together, we bring a little bit of Napa Valley to Chicago. 

For me, food is almost always better when its personal.  Now Grant Achatz isn't in the kitchen at Next most nights, but I'm sure his presence is felt deeply by the staff when cooking this meal and I think that is reflected well in the final product.

We started with canapes, three small little appetizers.  The first one is a salmon cornet.  This is a crunch pastry that is filled with red onion creme fraiche then topped with salmon tartare. 

The second bite is a poached shrimp with avocado salsa. 

The third and final canape is a white truffle egg custard that had a black truffle ragout in the bottom.  The item sticking up is a chive chip.  Two very thin slices of potato with a chive in the middle and then baked. 

This is the dish I was most intimidated by all night, oysters and pearls  Oysters are a tough sell for me, and I love caviar in small amounts, but as you can see, there is a gratuitous amount on this dish.  Obviously, we have oysters in this dish.  I don't remember the exact variety but they were from Massachusetts.  The pearls make an appearance in two ways, the golden osetra caviar as well as the based of the dish, sabayon of pearl tapioca.  The team did a fantastic job of cleaning the oysters, no grit at all, and I wouldn't have expected anything less.  The caviar was smooth and balanced, not overly salted like you can get with some caviars. 

The first four courses are all time TFL classics that are on the menu more often than they are off, if the every leave.  The fifth dish started a forray into dishes I was less familiar with.  This a hardened dish of heart of palm, topped with shaved heart of palm, served over the top of date vinaigrette and cilantro oil.  The whole this is topped with a frisee salad.

The genius of Thomas Keller is demonstrated in this dish.  No sauce, no garnishes, nothing to hide behind on this one.  Keller is the man, so he can pull a dish like this off perfectly.  This is a piece of pompano crusted with almonds and brown butter.  When making brown butter, the product takes on this rich caramel nutty flavor that smells ridiculous.

This was a unique place to put the lobster course but it worked well with how this dish is constructed.  Normally, lobster is served with lighter flavors so as to not mask the delicate flavor of the crustacean.  The sauce on this one is a port wine reduction which is then topped with the lobster.  Then, as though, all of that wasn't enough, the whole thing was topped with a slice of seared foie gra.

Now we are onto more game focused dishes.  This one is known and Storey Farms Chicken.  This is a braised chicken breast cooked with the ingredients for a rif on ratatouille. 

This was the final savory course of the evening, pot eu feu.  This is The French Laundry's version of post roast.  This is a braised short rib with par broiled vegetables and then topped with crispy bone marrow.  The other cool thing about this dish, is that the wine poured with this one is a wine in which Thomas Keller has nearly complete control of distribution, in that The French Laundry gets basically everything the vineyard can produce. 

We then moved onto the cheese course; this is a chunk of goat cheese and served with plums.  This is not something I say very often, after 15 meals at next I can probably count on one hand the number of dishes that I truly hated, but this is one of them.  Of the top of my head I can only come up with one other one, but I have to think there are one or two more out there too.

This is the first true sweet dish of the night.  Verjus sorbet with peach butter and mint oil and garnished with a peach chip.

Another all time Keller classic, coffee and doughnuts.  Cinnamon sugar dusted brioche doughnuts served with a cappuccino semifreddo.  I don't like coffee at all, I can't stand the smell of it, nothing.  But this dish was really good.

To close out the evening, we had the mignardises, just little one bite deserts.  On the tray there were concord grape jellies, salted caramel, pistachio nougat and one other bite and then in the bowl was peanut butter chocolate truffles. 

This meal was quite the experience.  The French Laundry has always been on my bucket list, and while I've not gotten out the Napa to eat at the real deal, I do feel like I got a very true representation of what the restaurant is like. 





 
 

Next: Tour of South America: Chile

The summer menu at Next is more of a Next theme inside of a Next theme.  The overarching menu is South American.  The tour part comes from the fact that every 6 weeks during the four month run of this menu the restaurant is going to shift to a new country within South America hitting a total of three countries; Peru, Chile and Argentina. 

This Next within Next concept is the brainchild of Jenner Tomaska who just recently became the head chef at Next replacing Dave Beran who had been at the helm since Next opened in 2011.  While I was certainly sad to see Chef Beran leave, he's headed to Los Angeles to open his own place, it's probably a good thing.  Each menu was unique but at times, you could tell there were themes, conceptions and execution of dishes that were the same.  For a restaurant that changes so drastically every four months, fresh blood in the kitchen is probably a good thing. 

The beauty of Chicago summers is how hot it is outside, last year for the Tapas menu the restaurant got permission to serve food on the sidewalk and allowed people who didn't have tickets to come sit outside and have a limited selection of ala carte dishes that they were serving inside.  In a play off of that, the restaurant is starting your meal out on the sidewalk by shaving ice to order that is made from lemon, wheat, and honey and serving that over peach marmalade and topping it with a dusting of black cardamom. 

The first food food of the night was this progression of ceviches.  I don't remember exactly what tye of fish they used, however, the dish was eaten left to right as the different flavors were a progression of tastes.  The first one was a banana and passion fruit, second was corn and chocolate, third was aji, a type of South American chile and the final was a classic lime and orange.  The whole thing was served with the continental drink of South America, outside of Brazil,the pisco sour. 

This next dish was a branzino crudo topped with tomato ice, and the restaurants take on leche de tigre, or the juices of ceviche which is said to cure the hangover.  In this case they used cacacha,cashew and tomato.  This dish was served with a cocktail of Cachaca, grapefruit, garlic and ginger.

This was a tart of Purslane and Grapefruit, with the tart shell made with some aji chiles for a little bit of kick.  It was topped with a piece of uni, or sea urchin, which might be my favorite piece of seafood every.  However, the tartness of the grapefruit in the tart filling simply overpowered with subtle flavor of the sea urchin. They served this dish with our first wine of the evening a sparkling rose from Mendoza Argentina.

This is the point in the meal where things got a little bit ridiculous.  Above our table the whole time was a basket hanging from the ceiling.  The waiter brought down the basket, and in it was the table runner and the first part of the dish the corn nuts.  In addition to the corn nuts from the kitchen came quinoa salad, corn souffle, an chilean salsa that was tweaked slightly with the addition of chicken hearts and finally there were tuna croquettes.  There were two drinks served with this section of the meal, chica, a fermented corn beer and a 2014 sauvignon blanc from Aconcauga, Chile.

Next up was a series of swordfish escabeche.  Again, I'm not 100% sure of all the flavor profiles of each, I believe the green was avocado and the dark red on the right was beets and cherry.  This was another fun dish that I had seen and heard a lot about online leading into this meal.  The wine for this course was the 2014 Bonarda from the Zuccardi Family made in Santa Rosa Argentina.

This was by far the coolest plating of the night.  Next loves to pair up with Crucial Detail to create one of a kind serving platters for the restaurant.  This was one of their designs. Once the plate comes to your table you tear into the paper and get this wonderful wood smoke aroma.  The dish itself is poached salmon, asparagus, lentils, and mushrooms. The wine for this dish was a 2011 chilean pinot noir from Casablanca Valley.

The final savory course of the evening included, garlic rice, a platter of homemade chorizo, pork belly, and figs as well as a clam and ruhbarb salad.  It doesn't happen often at Next but I was seriously running out of room by this point.  THe chorizo was good, though a bit dry, I think it was supposed to be that wasy but I'm not sure.  the pork belly was perfect as were the figs.  There was a 2013 chardonnay from the Mendoza area ofo Argentina served with this dish. 

Desert time!.  The top photo is a summer squash donut served with dulche de leche cream.  THe bottom photo is guava and the restaurant's take on sopapillos.  The final drink of the evening was a glass of Barsol which is a South American version of madeira or sherry.

This menu was a ton of fun, and it's always good to see close friends as part of it.  I think I understand why Phil Vettel, the tribune restaurant critic gave the restaurant its first three star review.  All other reviews have been a perfect four stars.  There are some kinks to be worked out.  Not so much from a service side, but I think chef Tomaska needs some time to really find his voice in a kitchen like Next's.  Unfortunately for him he won't get to do that until the first menu of 2017.  This fall, Next is recreating a menu from The French Laundry and if any of his dishes were to be changed drastically, while having TFL's name on it, Thomas Keller might personally choke someone. 

Next: The Alps

The 2016 season at Next kicked off with an interesting way to take the cold Chicago winters and utilize that weather to pair with the food.  This meal was centered around the food of the Alps.  Naturally the Alps are a very large region in Europe that encompasses numerous different countries.  I think as a challenge to themselves as cooks and to give the diner a representative view of everything that can be offered in the Alps the Next team took you on a tour throughout the Alps hitting, France, Germany, Switzerland,

The idea of the tour was to start in France and work your way up to the most famous area, Switzerland, and then work down into Italy.  The only part of that that doesn't really work is Austria but Austria is really famous for their deserts so it makes sense.

The French part of the meal was tailored around a French Farmhouse, therefore when we sat down the table was set like one would see in the French countryside.  In the middle is what would become the first course, Stone Soup.  The container has rosemary, thyme, black pepper, vegetable broth and a number of other spices in it.  After the introduction from the wait staff they came back with a plate of hot rocks that they placed in the container and then they poured into the tea cups.

The soup was quite flavorful and a fun way to whet the appetite for what was to come the rest of the way.

The next dish that came out was the Game Pie, we weren't told what all went into the pie, but needless to say it was a lot of game, this was served with a small little salad and sweet mustard type topping.  This was served with a nice little red wine from the Rhone region of France.

The first of two parts to the lighter portion of this stop in the Alps.  This is one that has had my attention for a while because this year instead of a teaser video leading up to the start of a menu, the Next team decided to release a series of shorter videos which include the recipes for some of the dishes.  The recipe for this, Gratin of Beaufort and Trumpet Corzets, was the first of those videos.  This is a French sheep's milk cheese served with trumpet mushrooms and vegetables topped with breadcrumbs and then baked.

The second light dish in the French Farmhouse is a Tourton of Salsify and Apple.  The tourton is a small pastry sack that was filled with a puree of salsify and apple that was served with a small salad as well as roasted salsify  These two courses were served with a sparkling wine from the Jura region of France.  This was a nice little sparkling wine to drink especially since my experience with wines from the Jura hasn't been all positive.  Their wines tend to be closer to sherry than a white wine that you would think of.

Then it was time to move into the German Beer Hall and no beer hall is complete without freshly made pretzels.

The traditional accompaniment for pretzels and Next was no different spicy brown mustard and pickled vegetables.  On the left was a variety of I believe a liverwurst sausage and a quenele of fermented mustard greens and chestnuts.

Additionally, Next included a homemade dried pork sausage known as Landjager.  This basically resembled a spiced pork jerky.

This dish was a nice little palate cleanser almost for everything that was going on with this section of the menu.  This is a pork belly schnitzel served with cherries and black walnuts

Everything for the German Beer Hall to this point came out at the same time.  Then the waitstaff brought out this cart with a huge wheel of raclette cheese with a fire burning which was used to melt the cheese while you ate a few bites of what was already on the table.

Once the cheese was melted they poured it over boiled potatoes.

I have no idea why this picture is sideways but the beer hall courses were served with a pilsener from Jever brewery in Germany.  This was a classic pils that served the style well.

From the German Beer Hall we moved onto the top of the Swiss Mountain to a warming yurt for a transitional course.  This is hot chocolate with a gratuitous amount of black truffles underneath.  Paired with this course was a yellow Chartreuse which had been infused with black truffles.  The infusion process is a yearly tradition at Next and The Aviary when black truffles are in season.

Continuing on in Switzerland, the staff brought out a swedish log that was on fire and smoking and placed a piece of raw arctic char on top and then covered int with the glass.  This sat on the table while the brought out the next course.

This is a dish of preserved summer berries with cognac and honey.  I suspect this dish has something to do with alpine preservation methods to be able to eat stuff from the short growing season all year long but I don't have anything to confirm that.

Now it was time for the fish.  The first picture is what it looked like before the fish came off the log and went onto the plate and the second is the completed plate.  This dish is a testament to how much food can be and how much planning needs to go into a menu.  To design a course where your primary component is going to be fully cooked while sitting on the table while your diner eats another course is ballsy.  Either way this one was absolutely delicious.

The final dish at the top of the Swiss Mountain is a beef goulash and barolo wine with sour cournbread.  This is definitely a much refined version of what mom's everywhere made at some point or another and probably didn't make it well.  The plate came to the table looking like the top picture and then you got to fill the bowl with as much or as little of the liquid and vegetables as you liked.  All three of these dishes were served with a Swiss red wine of which very little makes it to the United States.  We had the 2013 version of Gave from Anne Garole et Gonrad Caloz out of VAlais Switzerland.  Apparently, you can grow grapes there it's just that the yields are terrible and you don't get much wine from them. 

It was now time to descend off the top of the Swiss alps and head Into Italy with the transitional course.  This is bitter green salad with pomegranate and fennel ice.  This was a good way to back off the savory and get into the deserts.  The ice was much more flavorful that I would have guessed, very similar to a bitter tart granita.   This dish was served with a proseccco cuvee from Monte Rossa.

 No trip to the Alps is complete without a trip to Austria for the deserts and so here we are.  This is pie spiced ice cream served along side and apple strudel with clove and cinnamon.  Personally, I'm not a big desert guy but overall this one made me happy.

The final desert for the night was the Salzburger Nockrel.  A sweet, egg souffle that was light an airy just as it was supposed to be, a really good way to end the night.  The desert courses were served with a Limoncello Crema that was distilled in Chicago.  Nice to support a local business but I think I would have preferred a regular limoncello to finish.

Overall, this was a good meal, there's a part of me that thinks that with the non-premium meals of the year, that Next has sort of hit a bit of a rut.  The food is always delicious they staff usually pretty attentive, however it feels like with the dishes Dave and his team seem to hit a lot of the same notes over and over with how dishes are plated and how they are eaten.  Will be interesting to see if I see some more of the same in June at the Tour of South America.