Opposites Attract At Odd Pairs
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Apr 5, 2010 7:00PM
In an office loft located in the North Damen industrial corridor, Goose Island Clybourn pub brewer Jared Rouben pulled a shucked oyster from its bed of ice. Working in tandem with L2O sous chef Emiliano Pimentel Morado, an old friend of Rouben's from culinary school, they removed the oyster from its shell, filled the shell with wort (unfermented beer) frozen with liquid nitrogen, then reset the oyster atop the granita and garnished the whole thing with edible flowers and a citrus emulsion. For added effect, Rouben sprayed an oil he made from citra hops using L2O's distiller as Morado handed the finished appetizer to the curious. "Right now, Citra hops are my favorite," he explained. Around them, guests wandering the loft sampled. "We were also thinking about Italian ice and how we could make it using beer." They uploaded some of their experiment on You Tube.
Rouben and Morado showcased the fruits of their labor in a quarterly, invitation-only event called Odd Pairs. The goal of Odd Pairs is to bring together chefs, sommeliers, brewers, confectioners and other culinary professionals in a collaborative, judged competition. Odd Pairs organizer Jakob Elster of coffee distributor Crop to Cup (which, along with sister company Bean to Body, sponsors the event) said that he wanted to bring together a wide range of people involved with the local food industry. "The people participating in Odd Pairs are the backbone of Chicago's restaurant, bar and catering industries," Elster said. "I thought, 'What a great way to celebrate what's going on with local food.'"
As I looked around the loft, I saw FIG Catering's Molly Schemper dole out sample portions of springtime carrot soup, served with a trio of marshmallow croutons dusted with salts provided by Christopher McVety of gourmet salt company Beyond the Shaker. Karen Gerod of Swim Caf&3233 and Sara Lim of DAS Foods teamed up to make caramelized onion shortbreads topped with fontina, bacon, chili & pecan DAS Caramels, spicy red cabbage slaw and black lava salt. Next to Rouben and Morado, Chicago Glazed Donuts and Ineeka Tea made sambar spiced vada with coconut chutney and green tea, served with Ineeka's green tea beer. Great Taste Café debuted its new "quitan," a quinoa-based protein food served with barbecue sauce made from Ginger Bliss energy drink. In another room, Derek and Sonja Kassebaum of North Shore Distillery set up shop, making cocktails and preaching the Gospel of North Shore.
While Elster was working at moving the evening along and the participants were hustling away at their tables, guests were flitting from table to table sampling the wares. My first impression was that this crowd could have been transported to a gallery opening and wouldn't have missed a thing. Then the judging, led via round of applause by City Provisions' Cleetus Friedman, showed me just how off base I was. Schemper and McVety won the judging, with Rouben and Morado a close second.
For more information on Odd Pairs and how to attend, visit http://oddpairs.wordpress.com.