The crew at Moto have made a video of an entire tasting menu. more ›

16 courses of gastronomic wizardry - all in black. more ›

2012 started off with a shocker of an announcement by Charlie Trotter. The chef who helped lay down the foundation for Chicago's modern restaurant scene announced he would be taking a "sabbatical" from cooking and closing down his eponymous restaurant at the end of August. more ›

Take a "trip" with iNG and the miracle berry. more ›

It's a big day for Homaro Cantu news here on Chicagoist. It's no secret that we were skeptical about using miracle berries to feed the poor, but this is a potentially good idea - Chef Cantu, miracle berry evangelist, told the Sun-Times last week that he's working on a diet book based on the berries. Why miracle berries? Because it would allow you to eliminate sugar from your diet without loosing the sweetness. more ›

When we first visited iNG, we were more impressed by the computer systems than the food. Well, the computer, which iNG servers refer to as "Skynet" (is that creepy or awesome? will it poison us?) has just gotten even better. Chef Cantu is just about to release a new system into the world, which he calls "The Matrix." He gave us a hint of this a few months ago, saying that he planned to distribute the amazing software that runs the complex menus at Moto, and now it's ready to go. The Feast got a full-scale run through of the software last week, and it's worth watching for any foodie, nerd, or foodie nerd. And yes, it can also play Pandora. more ›

We love food, we love maps, and we love public transit. Therefore, this chart by HartmanSalt gave us a lot of pleasure. It maps out the entire food industry in one place, from chefs (Chicagoans Homaro Cantu, Grant Achatz and Charlie Trotter made the list) to grocery store owners, food media moguls and cookbook authors. It's even interactive! Hover over any name for more information. If someone made one of these for Chicago, we'd have to do a little happy dance. Go forth and waste some time. via The Stew. more ›

Chicago Craft Beer Week continues. Also, a seminar on redistricting in Little Village. more ›

When I walked in the door of Homaro Cantu's ING, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I'd been to Moto many times, and to Otom (the previous tenant of the space) once before, but aside from some buzz about miracle berries and a lot of tweets ending in "-ing," I was pretty much in the dark. What I experienced was a potential revolution in restaurant logistics. For all the highfalutin talk about feeding the poor, levitating food and "molecular gastronomy," the real stories of the night were the fun, interesting food cooked by executive chef Thomas Bowman and the incredible machine Cantu has created to run such an immensely complicated restaurant. Food aside, we may be seeing the future of restaurant management at ING. more ›

Homaro Cantu, the mad scientist behind Moto, Otom and ING, is well known for making large-scale claims about the importance of his culinary inventions. He has worked with NASA, extolled the virtues of edible paper, and holds many patents for his culinary inventions. Heck, the chef has a display in the Museum of Science and Industry! His work is exciting, and his ideas push the envelope of food innovation. But an article in today's New York Times has us a little skeptical, not only about Chef Cantu's ambitions for the global food landscape but also for the offerings at his new restaurant, ING, which opens on Monday to Valentine's Day patrons. From everything available in the press, many of the restaurant's tricks center around the "miracle berry," which Cantu believes could be "an answer to global hunger." more ›

Last month, we confirmed that Homaro Cantu, the mad scientist behind Moto, was opening another restaurant. It was to be called "ING" and promised to be our favorite restaurant named after a suffix, but no other information was available. Bits and pieces have come out - due to a quirk of postage, Time Out Chicago got the invitation to the media preview first and posted some potential menu items. Cantu sent Kevin Pang at the Tribune an unmarked pill (Pang made another staffer try it) and we got an email over the weekend telling us that all Otom Groupons would be refunded - the final confirmation that Otom was out and ING was in. Now Cantu has started tweeting out videos of the new space. more ›

Friend of Chicagoist Mark Bazer, of "The Interview Show" fame, recently had moto chefs/Future Food hosts Homaro Cantu and Ben Roche on his show, where they talked about dining at moto, Future Food and other things. We've embedded part 1 of the interview in the post. Check out part 2 here. more ›

We caught up with Chef Homaro Cantu (right) and Chef Ben Roche (left) of moto earlier in the week to discuss their new show Future Food, premiering on Planet Green on Tuesday, March 30, at 9 Central. more ›

We are big fans of the creative cuisine by Chef Homaro Cantu and Chef Ben Roche of MOTO so we were excited to hear that Planet Green gave these two a series called FUTURE FOOD. Our sneak peek into upcoming episode descriptions includes the team creating a seafood menu that does not contain seafood, vegetables that resemble eyeballs, and making a meal of peanut shells and apple cores. more ›

Much speculation has been made about Homaro Cantu's Disruptive Food countdown and the big reveal he's supposed to announce on November 13. Privately we've been asking ourselves and others, "Wouldn't it be a big letdown if it just turned out to be another Food Network show?" Our suspicions were further piqued by the Chicago Bites team of Tammy Green and Bridget Houlihan. They had dinner over the weekend with Ted Allen in moto's private downstairs dining room and said the room will "apparently will soon be transformed into to a TV studio for a new cooking show." more ›

From Homaro Cantu's twitter feed this morning: the moto chef/owner is giving away a free electric car to the first person who can answer this question on his Disruptive Food website. more ›

• WTF is Homaro Cantu up to now? "Disruptive food?" [Homaro Cantu's Twitter]
• Chicken McNuggets confit [Fancy Fast Food]
• Ice Cream from one single ingredient [the Kitchn]

Both Grub Street Chicago and LTHForum were abuzz yesterday by the video above featuring moto's Homaro Cantu and Ben Roche working their dark arts of the kitchen. The video shows Cantu and Roche brewing crumbled Dunkin' Donuts for cops, serving pizza-flavored photos to pizza deliverymen and making ice cream that doesn't melt at room temperature. Cantu asks in the LTH thread, "When was the last time we had a real paradigm shift in food? Get ready, because its about to happen and every top tier food company ceo is going to be scratching their heads trying to figure out what Moto has been up to with the crazy NDA's (non-disclosure agreements) and secrecy. Its almost time to let the ticking bomb go off. Tick tock tick tock tick tock..." Ellipses his. more ›

Not a single Chicago restaurant made it onto Esquire's list of the best new restaurants of 2007, chosen by Esquire Food Critic John Mariani in the magazine's November issue. MenuPages suggests that Mariani has a thing against Illinois restaurants and that's why he didn't choose any Windy City restaurants either this year or last. Time Out Chicago critic Heather Shouse takes it a step further and essentially accuses him of being unethical in how he... more ›

When Moto’s Homaro Cantu said he’s worked with NASA to develop space food for astronauts because, “One day we’ll all have to start thinking about Mars,” it was a pretty “out there” comment. But statements like these come from Cantu, a modest, hospitable and friendly person, because, well, he’s borderline genius. The dishes he serves at his nationally acclaimed, four-star restaurant fit just this description. They’re totally “out there,” but they’re incredibly ingenious, creative, scientific,... more ›

If watching Homaro Cantu make maki made you want to eat a Big Mac on Sunday night, you aren't alone. The Food Network's "Iron Chef America" and Oakbrook-based McDonald's are catching some heat after a McDonald's logo and the phrase "I'm Lovin' It" appeared for a split second during the show. more ›

We're a little behind on this because we missed the Sunday show and just watched a recorded showing last night, but did anyone see Chef Homaro Cantu on Iron Chef America on Sunday night? Kitchen Stadium had never experienced anything like it. Cantu was up against Chef Masaharu Morimoto, and he sure gave him a run. We thought it would be a pure-traditional vs. way-modern matchup, but Morimoto did end up pulling out some liquid nitrogen himself. more ›

Almost a year ago, we wrote about what we imagined would be one of the most interesting battles of the year in kitchen stadium — an epic battle between Homaro Cantu of Moto and Iron Chef Moriomoto. We were excited about the battle, wondered when it would be on, and then promptly forgot about it. We were reminded about the battle via Hungry Magazine, who announced that the long awaited battle will be broadcast in January. The first airing is January 21, 2007, at 8 p.m. more ›

In news that sounds more like it came from Homaro Cantu's kitchen than from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, scientists have developed a flavor wrapper for food that protects the food from E. coli bacteria and tastes good as well. more ›

Moto’s Chef Homaro Cantu has invented an edible paper on which he prints his menus using organic inks and a Canon printer. OK, that’s a little off the wall, but we’ll believe it. After all, Chicago’s stock as an experimental culinary destination has been on the rise as of late. What makes Cantu’s paper, and many of his other gastronomical creations, different is the fact that he is applying to have them patented. He even goes so far as to print the following legal jargon on his tasty paper: Confidential Property of and © H. Cantu. Patent Pending. No further use or disclosure is permitted without prior approval of H. Cantu. more ›

Esquire magazine recently named the West Loop's Butter one of the 20 best new restaurants in the nation, a designation that surprises Chicagoist. more ›

In its December issue, Travel + Leisure Magazine chose the best new American restaurant in 10 cities.. and guess what? They've profiled 7 Chicago restaurants. Yay us! On the list are: more ›