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.
