Hot for Trotter
Two decades after becoming Chicago’s fi rst rock-star chef, Charlie Trotter is pushing ahead, but he’s not afraid to look back.
IN CHICAGO there are superstar chefs, and then there’s culinary legend Charlie Trotter. In 1987, the then-27-year-old opened his eponymous restaurant in Lincoln Park. Almost 22 years later (the restaurant will celebrate the milestone in August, after closing for two weeks in July to refurbish), it’s still setting the bar for high-end dining. After recently announcing that he’d parted ways with Elysian (meaning Chicagoans will have to survive with one Trotter-run restaurant instead of two), the notorious perfectionist reflects here on the past, present and future.
“We used to compete against four or five restaurants, and now it’s 30. It’s great for the consumer because it means we have to try harder. Our menu is very avant-garde; it changes every day.”
“People dine out much more than they used to and everyone wants to try the next new thing. But the truth is, anybody can be hot for two to four years, but how many can continue to wow them for 20?”
“I’m working on a different kind of book, not for the home cook, but revisiting food we did two decades ago. One photo will show how the dish would have looked 20 years ago, and the other will be what it looks like now. Say we served a rabbit loin with fava beans and tarragon in 1989; today the rabbit might be liquefied into the sauce, and the tarragon might be a gelée. I want to showcase the evolution of creativity, how we keep on pushing and evolving.”
“We’re opening in New York next year at One Madison Park [a luxury apartment development]. We’re not trying to duplicate Charlie Trotter’s, but we’ll probably have a focus on seafood. And, yes, ‘Trotter’ will probably appear somewhere in the name.”
Photograph by Katrina Wittkamps
| The complete article appears on page 21 in the May 2009 issue of Michigan Avenue. SUBSCRIBE NOW and get Michigan Avenue delivered direct. |
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