If you've ever wondered how chefs create insanely complicated plates with a million different ingredients, we've got the video for you. more ›

Always wanted to use hydrocolloids and transglutaminase in your home kitchen? What about learning to sous vide? If you're a geek, these are the cooking classes for you. more ›

Grant Achatz also lost his year-long recognition as having the best restaurant in North America, as his mentor Thomas Keller's Per Se moved ahead of Alinea on the list to sixth. more ›

Today in restaurant news: The Butcher & Larder is teaming up with Kumas for a sausage program, the old Tribute space is being reopened and Alinea is moving towards a ticket system. more ›

Even the string is edible on this balloon. Plus you can suck the helium to get that chipmunk voice your date will love. more ›

Chef Achatz cooks around the fireplace with his sons; partner Nick Kokonas wonders if he can cook without gadgets. more ›

Parks and Recreation star Aziz Ansari strayed away from Jurassic Fork for a an evening to dine at the hottest restaurant in America, Grant Achatz's Next in Chicago. more ›

Leading the charge, unsurprisingly, is Alinea, with an average check total of $736. that places Grant Achatz's restaurant at fourth on the list. more ›

Alinea, Arun's, Charlie Trotter's, Everest and Tru all retained their Five Diamond ratings. This makes us question the relevance of AAA's rankings and whether they reflect the current state of Chicago's restaurant scene. more ›

Today in restaurant news: A chef shakeup at Graham Elliot and Publican Quality Meats is opening soon. more ›

The biggest food story of the year was Next. We were there for the opening, the inevitable parodies and much much more. more ›

Now there is only one three-Michelin-star restaurant left in Chicago, after L20 dropped two stars. more ›

Now that Next Restaurant is onto their Childhood menu, all the hype about their amazing take on turn-of-the-century French cuisine has faded. Now you can make all of the courses from that menu at home with the "Next: Paris 1906" cookbook for iPad. more ›

As food gets more and more complicated and involves more technological wizardry, does it also require legal protection? more ›

Buy gently-used treasures from Frontera, Alinea, Charlie Trotter's and more, and the money goes to a good cause. more ›

If you didn't happen to get one of the reservations (that sold out in 2 seconds) for Next's new Thai menu, we've got a Monday treat for you. A video, released by the restaurant on Friday, which goes behind the scenes and shows off many of the new dishes. Like everything released by the Next/Aviary team, it's absolutely gorgeous - and will make you want to stuff your face full of cilantro, if you're anything like us. more ›

Did you get a chance to dine at Next while it was still in Paris 1906 mode? If so, good for you. If not, we understand - it was expensive and reservations were hard to get. But, it was still one of the best meals of our lives. So, we're ecstatic to see that Grant Achatz and co. are releasing a book documenting the whole experience! more ›

Earlier this week, we mentioned Grant Achatz's new super hard-to-get-into bar, underneath the Aviary. With only 14 seats, and entry by invitation or reservation only, we opined that we'd probably never get in. Our commenters mostly said "Good riddance." Time Out Chicago now has the entire menu, and while we still think we'll never get in, now we're a little bit sad about it. more ›

Next isn't Alinea. That might seem an obvious statement, but it's the most important premise to keep in mind when dining at Grant Achatz's new project. If you go in expecting modernist gastronomical fireworks, you may be disappointed. And that would be a shame, because the cuisine at Next has its own pleasures in store. more ›

Gaze longingly at some shots from dinner at Next last night. We even managed a trip inside the kitchen to get a few shots backstage - you might not have seen these. Review and commentary (and believe me, I have plenty to say, good and bad) will come on Monday, but until then, take a look at the exquisitely-plated food and keep clicking refresh on your email inbox for tickets. more ›

The ticket frenzy for Next started yesterday. First, their system had trouble kicking out tickets, as it was incompatible with Internet Explorer. Then, people had trouble getting through to the Next website! We can attest to the fact that some people did get in, and others made reservations - we'll be headed there very very soon. But, what if you didn't sign up in advance or you don't want to wait till May? AV Club reports that some tickets are going on Craigslist for up to $3000. We've got some helpful tips so that you don't get burned. more ›

We've been a tiny bit cynical about the level of hype surrounding Next, possibly because no one we know will get to actually eat there until the year 2015. It's likely that this cynicism stems from a combination of sour grapes (we want in!) and faux-disdain (whatever, I can make Escoffier dishes in eggshells at home). Yeah. It's officially over. The opening video for Next makes us want to go camp outside the restaurant and beg Grant Achatz to adopt us or take us as his secret lover - whatever, as long as we get tickets. Until then, we'll have to settle for watching it over and over and over again. more ›

We're willing to beg, borrow, steal or commit minor acts of vandalism to get into Next, even as a paying customer after opening day. A contributor to LTH Forum, "yellow truffle," was invited to a preview dinner there, and posted an entire gallery of wonderful pictures, along with his comments. more ›

From the Twitterverse comes news from Alinea's Grant Achatz that, if all goes well, Next will open on April 6. As for its companion cocktail lounge the Aviary, Achatz said it will likely open later. "We want 2 make it great," he noted. Could there be some more dry runs in the offing? more ›

Chicagoist got a tip on Friday from a loyal reader named Diana who got to drink at the not-yet-opened Aviary, Grant Achatz's newfangled cocktail-gastronomy concept on W. Fulton. They were wandering around the area, looking for a bar and saw a likely looking spot. Turned out it was a dry run for servers at The Aviary, and the staff let them stay and try a drink! We checked, and the liquor and restaurant licenses for Next were issued on Friday, so it was even nice and legal. Full details post haste. more ›

There has been a lot of buzz about Tribute, the upcoming South Loop restaurant helmed by Chef Brandon Baltzley, formerly of Alinea and Mado. His audition dishes wowed the owners, and his hiring last month created plenty of gossip for the new operation. We're more interested in the food than the gossip, and were excited to see that menu testing has begun. The restaurant uploaded this video yesterday, of Baltzley (and his spectactular assortment of tattoos) plating a "tribute" to Mississippi made with watermelon, jalepeno, rye, pearl onions and anchovies. If the food at Tribute looks like this, we'll be first in line. Warning: if you're at work, turn off the sound. It's a bit loud. more ›

Grant Achatz and his circle are having the best week ever, thanks to great articles in the Chicago Tribune and New York Times that gave us mouth-watering previews of Next, his forthcoming West Loop restaurant project. They also reminded us what we already knew about Aviary, the experimental cocktail lounge next door. Being cocktail nerds, 51 percent of our eager anticipation lies with Aviary. So, left itching for a fix, we re-watched the footage on Aviary's YouTube channel like we were studying game tape. Skip ahead a few hours, and we're sipping on (what we think is) Aviary's dazzling 2-in-1 cocktail. more ›

The best piece of food writing we've read this week is Chris Borrelli's profile of Grant Achatz in the Tribune. Borrelli's article — the culmination of spending seven months hanging around the Alinea chef/owner — is the rare article that manages to find a new wrinkle in a story that's been seemingly covered beyond reason. And Borrelli does it by placing the focus not on Achatz's much-lauded fight with cancer, but his creativity and drive in the kitchen, even as his celebrity grows. more ›

If you're a Grant Achatz groupie, or a fan of chef memoirs, mosey on over to your favorite book-ordering location and order "Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way we Eat." Only short excerpts are available, but go read them anyway - stories of the moment Ruth Reichl told Achatz that Alinea was #1, of the day he realized he had cancer and his tryout for Thomas Keller at the French Laundry. It's unlikely that this will be as lurid as Kitchen Confidential, but we think it might be one of the most touching and informative culinary stories ever told. more ›

The steady stream of videos Grant Achatz and his team have released charting the progress of the cocktail menu at the Aviary has done wonders in selling the sizzle for that proposed new lounge. But we haven't seen or heard much about the menu development of NEXT, the ticket only restaurant he's got in the works. more ›