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Food Fight! Esquire food critic ruffles feathers in Chicago

by Bob Sassone, Posted Oct 13th 2005 @ 3:30PM

Esquire Two hip Chicago chefs are a little ticked at Esquire food critic John Mariani. Mariani pretty much insulted two young chefs from the city (Homaro Cantu of moto and Grant Achatz of Alinea - though he doesn't use their names), calling them "hocus-pocus chefs" and saying that they have a "total misunderstanding of the experimental cuisine of Spain's Ferra Adria." Mariani also gives a "weirdest dish" award to Achatz, for his "single piece of limp bacon in butterscotch, apple, and thyme and hung on a tiny silver clothesline." Yeah, that does sound a little weird actually.

Filed Under: Magazines, Raves & Reviews, Trends, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants
Tags: midwest cities

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-14-2005 @1:29AM Brandon Michael said... yes it sounds very weird, nonetheless I'd be interested in some pictures of it.
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10-14-2005 @2:33AM Dmnkly said... Heh... this IS the guy who serves you shrimp cocktail in a perfume atomizer :-)

I haven't had the opportunity to check out Achatz' place yet, though I should probably make said opportunity. I have friends eating there tomorrow night and am anxiously awaiting the scouting report.

I did get to Moto (Cantu's place) earlier this year, though. It was kind of hit and miss. I appreciate the creativity and the willingness to push boundaries, but some of it felt like form over function. In particular, Cantu has some patented steaming contraption that he places on the table, so your fish course cooks in front of you while you're eating the course before it. It's okay in theory, except that for me, the result was a piece of overcooked, dry fish.

I don't mean to crucify the guy, especially since I'm talking about one dish from one meal. There were other elements that were really fantastic. But at least in Cantu's case, I did feel like some of his more unique elements were a little gratuitous.
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