Results tagged “seafood”

    

Lovers of Lula, rejoice! Yet another alum has taken her place among Chicago’s great executive chefs. Nicole Pederson, former sous chef at Lula (who has also cooked at Gramercy Tavern in New York) has taken over the helm at C-House. Owned by Marcus Sammuelson, the chef-owner of Aquavit, C-House primarily focuses on seafood, with a well-stocked raw bar and a selection of eight different oysters.

Certain fish have the texture to handle direct heat (e.g grilling) very well, like salmon, swordfish and tuna. Another fish that makes a good steak is shark. Shark has a great flavor and the preparation is best kept simple: lemon and a little butter will suffice. Pete's Fresh Market had shark loin for sale at $4.99 per pound last week and we had a couple steaks cut from it.

         

2008 was already shaping up locally as a banner year for new restaurant openings. L2O was recently named the best new restaurant in America by Esquire, with Takashi and Mercat a la Planxa also making the list. Bill Kim left Le Lan to focus on Urban Belly; Graham Elliot Bowles responded to criticism of his eponymous River North outpost by slowly tweaking things until he got it right. Ryan Poli came back to town with Perennial. Superstar chefs such as Marcus Samuelsson and Terrance Brennan targeted Chicago for restaurant locales. And we're still waiting for Lula Café's Pilsen location to open in a bit (with Jason Vincent at the helm).

Arguably the most anticipated restaurant of the year, The Publican finally opened its doors before they were torn down by the hungry, excited masses. We were initially surprised there wasn't a wait, being 8:00 on a Saturday, until we saw the space. Eyeballing it, The Publican is about the size of three avecs and although we were seated immediately, the German-style beer hall was full of people at long wooden communal tables, small groups at pig pen-esque private booths, and others just sitting at the bar for a drink.

For those of you asking about when the Publican, Paul Kahan's new beer, seafood and charcuterie palace in the Fulton Street Market (845 W. Fulton Mkt.) helmed by Executive Chef Brian Huston, is finally opening, pencil in Thursday. This definitely trumps "Must See TV."

After a visit to Café Ba Ba Reeba and a taste of their excellent Gambas al Ajillo (spicy garlic shrimp), we decided we had to replicate it at home. After some experimentation and advice from friends, we came up with this adaptation. The recipe calls for a pound of shrimp, which will serve two as a main course or four as an appetizer. Be sure to have some bread on hand to sop up the garlic-flavored oil. Watch out – everyone will want to steal your recipe!

       

With more out-of-town, internationally acclaimed chefs now able to find Chicago on a map, we could be reaching a point where "Rock Star Chef City" hits critical mass. And that's without Gordon Ramsay's recent threats to test the local waters. In short, when a chef earns the name recognition and acclaim affording him to branch out to different cities, he starts to balance that fine line between chef and restaurateur that draws the watchful eyes of the critics.

Everyone around us is frantically grilling their way into summer, and, as usual, big chunks of meat seem to rule the day. In our search for alternatives to steaks and chicken breasts, we ran across an article that suggested grilling clams. After doing a little research, we found out that this wasn’t as far-fetched as it sounds and decided to try it out. After a couple of attempts, we can whole-heartedly say that clam-grilling is both tasty and entertaining – but the recipe needed some tweaking to fit our tastes. Next time you’re looking for something new, try it out!