Conscious Choice: Seasonal Epicure

August 2001 | Conscious Dining

Seasonal Epicure

by Lauren Malloy

Ever since Blackbird hit the Chicago restaurant scene three years ago, it has been gathering up a firestorm of critical acclaim at both the local and national level. But what makes the food so special at Blackbird is not just the talents of chef/ owner Paul Kahan (chosen by Food and Wine magazine as one of America’s top new chefs in 1999), but also the quality of the ingredients that go into those dishes.

Kahan, also co-chairperson of the Chef’s Collaborative in Chicago, an organization that is devoted to promoting the use of locally grown, organic produce at its seasonal best, designs Blackbird’s menu around "whatever farmers have available," as he puts it. This could mean up to five new menu changes a week — or none at all — depending on what’s in season.

But relationships between local growers and chefs don’t happen overnight, which is why some chefs might shy away from the extra work it takes to go back and forth about products or make that proverbial trip to the farm. Fortunately, Kahan has spent the last ten years building such relationships with Midwestern farmers, as has one of his cooks, Brian Wolf, who brought to the Blackbird table his connections with farmers from the Evanston Farmers Market, which carries only certified organic produce. (Chicago’s Green City Market, which Blackbird supports, is nearly all organic, but not completely so, as it must carry enough products to attract demand).

While hand-picked ingredients make a good starting point for the kind of dishes that could land a chef on the pages of Food and Wine, even the most beautiful ingredients need a skilled chef to bring them to their full potential. To this end, Kahan and his staff combine seasonal ingredients in innovative ways or enhance their natural virtues using clever techniques. For example, to preserve the colors and flavors of the freshly picked vegetables used in daily soup specials, the kitchen blanches them, purées them in a Vitamix blender with a few ice chips to keep the heat from discoloring them, and combines the result with a leek and potato base for added creaminess and flavor. On one occasion, this process culminated in a fluorescent orange carrot soup that was so bright I originally thought it was seasoned with saffron.

Of course, not all products used in Blackbird dishes are produced locally. Fish is flown in overnight from wherever it was caught, from sustainable fisheries whenever possible, as are specialty varieties of produce not available from local growers, such as maitake, forest nameko, and brown clamshell mushrooms, which Kahan buys from California. Being able to get products from almost anywhere in the world overnight is a relatively recent phenomenon that Kahan, while admittedly not an "Internet guy," attributes to advances in technology. Because the Internet often cuts out the middlemen, Kahan increasingly deals directly with producers, enabling Blackbird to get ingredients to the table as fast as purveyors can pick them or catch them. "Wild salmon caught in Alaska one day is in the Blackbird kitchen the next," beamed Kahan.

Unlike the stuffiness and formality of some highly rated restaurants, Blackbird is as hip as it is epicurean. Stark white walls provide a neutral backdrop for the presentation of the food. A minimalist, almost austere décor lends a Zen feel to clean surroundings that are a fitting setting for Blackbird’s spa-like cuisine. Servers dress in designer clothing "provided by Joseph Abboud" — shirts and the occasional tie with the traditional waiter uniform of black trousers and white apron from the waist down. The long, rectangle of a room affords more privacy than one would expect from its tightly spaced rows of tables. Nearly half the room’s length is taken by a bar space that is typically populated with beautiful people.

While open for both lunch and dinner with nearly the same menu, dinner is when the restaurant really springs to life. There are more people watching, a more seasoned staff, and more stages to the meal — especially given the progression of complimentary tastings the kitchen sends out between courses. We received four of these on one evening, including such novelties as a cold cucumber soup served in an espresso cup and a post-dessert plate of cookies not quite as large as quarters.

Soup is clearly a specialty of the restaurant. On every occasion, a new variety of interesting vegetables were reduced to their very essence, and blended into a creamy consistency without the use of cream. On one day, the soup was green garlic, a variety of garlic picked so young it tastes sweet. Another time, unfamiliar flavors emerged from a blend of baby turnips and fresh vanilla bean. Using mushrooms imported from France, the Chanterelle Mushroom soup was introduced one week during early June. Each soup features a lone garnish — typically a piece of shellfish — which adds the finishing touch to the presentation. Soup is a realistic option as a starter, since portion sizes are merely large enough to whet, rather than sate the appetite.

The same is true of other appetizers. The Roasted Baby Beet Salad, for example, is a delicate, pretty arrangement of miniature arugula leaves, baby beet cubes, purple onion slivers, artisan goat cheese wedges, and Chanterelle mushrooms drizzled in a barely detectable walnut oil vinaigrette. For the less adventurous, Blackbird’s version of a Caesar salad dresses whole leaves of baby red and green romaine in a mild, not overly garlicky, dressing accompanied by a lone anchovy fillet draped over a sun-dried tomato.

More intriguing was Kahan’s version of a fish salad, which mixed hot and cold components by pairing a crispy fillet of skatewing with a salad of leeks, orange pieces, chioga (a species of beets), and asparagus marinating in a chilled, citrus-tasting broth. The operative word when describing any of Blackbird’s dishes is, inevitably, baby. Many ingredients are either cut into microscopic pieces or inherently small since they are younger varieties of their fully grown counterparts.

The appetizer that sent our heads reeling with euphoria, however, was a new take on an old favorite on the Blackbird menu, the Atlantic Salmon Tartar. A bundle of pinkie-sized salmon cubes so fresh they nearly melted in the mouth was perfectly complemented by a few transparent slices of cucumbers, a sprinkle of capers and caviar, and a dab of crème fraiche and horseradish. The large, crackling, slightly spicy wafer described modestly on the menu as a "saltine" was really closer in texture and taste to an Indian pappadam and, in my view, the key to the whole dish.

Kahan, who is frequently disappointed by the lack of vegetarian options most restaurants offer beyond pasta or risotto, typically features a dish based around whole grains as the vegetarian selection. This summer, for example, he featured millet, a high-protein grain consumed by one-third of the world’s population, in a Gateau of Millet, or spongy, almost sweet, pancake, crowned by a medley of baby vegetables, designer mushrooms, and spring onion broth. Fresh fava beans and brown clamshell mushrooms supplied added texture and substance, while a tapanade of oven-dried tomatoes and capers gave the dish stronger, almost Indian, flavor elements.

Fish selections are the low-carb dieter’s dream, since most consist of a four-ounce portion of fish perched on an assortment of fresh vegetables resting in a clear, herb-flecked broth. While the fish entrées could stand on the strength of the fish quality itself (check out the Alaskan Wild Salmon, which is white in color and nothing like any salmon I’ve ever tasted), the Walleyed Pike was enhanced even more so by its accompaniments. A purée of sweet peas, molded into a patty shape by a sojourn in the freezer, was later coated in bread crumbs and pan-fried, providing a tasty base for the walleyed pike and California prawns. A side salad of pea shoots, which looked and tasted a bit like watercress, were dressed in a light sprinkle of lemon vinaigrette that gave the whole dish a fresh summer feel.

Dessert items, prepared by a different chef, nonetheless also focus on the enhancement of the natural endowments of high-quality ingredients. Sorbet, spun from fresh fruits, is a specialty, but we opted instead for a dessert inspired by the charms of a "frog hollow farm peach." The pastry chefs, unwilling to adulterate the exquisite taste of this rare peach, served it simply with real vanilla ice-cream and a small trickle of red wine sauce. While I at first doubted whether the peach could stand on its own, my fears were alleviated once I took a bite of the revered fruit. Like the rest of the menu items on the Blackbird menu, the peach proved that sometimes the healthiest choices can also be the tastiest.

Blackbird, 619 West Randolph, Chicago, 312-715-0708

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