In the kitchen with Charlie
Inside Charlie Trotter’s, the celebrated restaurant of arguably Chicago’s most well-known chef, everyone is doing something. They’ve been at it since dawn.
The restaurant usually is closed on Sunday. But tonight, it will open its doors to 104 people, many of them flying in from across the country, each of whom has paid $650 to toast the restaurant’s 19th anniversary.
It’s a dream lineup of guest chefs for the night: Andoni Luis Aduriz of the two-Michelin star Mugaritz in Spain; Wylie Dufresne of New York’s WD-50; Paris pastry chef Pierre Herme, and Chicago’s own Grant Achatz of Alinea.
And this is only the warm-up, Trotter says — kind of like how “Dennis Rodman used to celebrate his birthday for two months.” more…
Deep in concentration, chefs work in tandem as they plate Trotter’s wild salmon dish, one of nine courses guests enjoyed at the Sunday dinner. (TOM CRUZE/SUN-TIMES)
