I guess I’m a bit of an amateur food enthusiast. Not a foodie, because I kinda hate that term, but I admit I enjoy learning, reading about, and eating well-crafted meals. (I use “crafted” instead of “cooked” because I feel it imparts an additional level of care put into the dish from the chef.) But I digress. When I find myself intrigued by a topic, I tend to dive into a lot of info… so here’s a list of some excellent food sources I’ve “consumed” recently:
Documentaries
Books (okay well, Audiobooks, I listened to these)
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma - Michael Pollan
- In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan
- Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
- Medium Raw - Anthony Bourdain
Its not super broad and varied in message, but I enjoyed the first books by Pollan and Bourdain so I read a second book from each. Anyways, its a good starter of information if you’re interested in eating better both in health and quality. The documentaries are kind of unsettling (intentionally of course, in a good way) but they motivate you to start moving in the right direction. Bourdain’s books are a LOT of fun and offer a lot of side topics that you can google/wiki/youtube for fun. Pollan’s books have more real world details to accompany the documentaries and a lot of sound arguments, so I suggest you read those in between the Bourdain books to keep things fresh.
So… why in the heck did I post that video above?
Well, if you didn’t know, Chicago’s got an impressive restaurant, Alinea. Mentioned in Medium Raw, Bourdain touted it as a place that’s pushing the boundaries of food and tastes… and judging by their gallery of photos, I’d agree. The food not only looks delicious, but also visually interesting. Bourdain wasn’t too hot on the ritual of the long tasting menu (20+ courses, 2+ hrs) but it’s definitely on my bucket list of places to try someday.
Next, which is a restaurant from the creator of Alinea, seems equally as interesting (world cuisine) but a bit more affordable. It’s set to open this Fall so I’m sure it will be booked for a while. (Intriguing side note: It seems they plan to sell tickets each night instead of booking reservations, making the preparation of food more a performance than a meal.) The cocktail gallery attached to Next will be called Aviary (love the logotype for it at the beginning of the video) and it sounds even cooler. Just check out the video posted above, where the greats, Grant Achatz and Craig Schoettler discuss an awesome Bubble Tea-inspired version of Gin and Tonic. But, here’s why I like this video:
These guys look at a drink that has almost a hundred cucumber bubbles suspended in their take on gin & tonic and are clearly psyched by the premise. They address the idea of making hundreds of these drinks a night… which means thousands of infused cucumber bubbles… and they have a bit of a crazy smile. They say that other’s would claim “its too hard,” but you get the distinct feeling that these guys are going to make this cocktail regardless. That kind of (almost insane) devotion is admirable and awesome.
As an industrial design student, I feel like I know that crazy smile of insane motivation, though I wish I could have it more often (I’m young though, I got time). Anyways, that smile means these guys are going to have one hell of a cocktail gallery in Aviary and one amazing restaurant in Next. Best of luck to them both.
