Jan. 31--There are 331 participants in this year's Chicago Restaurant Week, an all-time high for the eight-year Chicago tradition. And already I can name one restaurant you shouldn't miss.
Bistronomic (840 N. Wabash Ave.) is offering a lunch and dinner menu that blew me away.
Chef and owner Martial Noguier, in acknowledgment of the upcoming James Beard Awards (which will be held in Chicago, for the first time, in May), put together a menu inspired by "The Essential James Beard Cookbook." Plucking classic French recipes from the book, he devised a selection of three appetizers, three entrees and two desserts for lunch and dinner (an additional appetizer and entree have been added at dinner). The page number of each recipe is listed alongside each dish.
Options include a light-tasting but substantial vichyssoise, and a perfectly textured country-style pate with the usual accompaniments. Among the main courses, handmade linguine luxuriates in a blend of Parmesan, Gruyere, goat cheese and pecorino Romano. Try as we might, we couldn't finish it.
Noguier clearly has tweaked some of the recipes, albeit quite respectfully. His coq au vin features chicken, winter mushrooms and potatoes in a cognac-laced red-wine reduction, but while the chicken thigh meat is slow-cooked in the sauce, that succulent, pristine breast? If that wasn't prepared sous vide (vacuum sealed in a low-temperature circulating bath), I'll eat my chapeau.
For dessert, there is a caramelized-pear tart tatin, and I haven't had a version this good in a long time. The other option is chocolate mousse, spooned over hollowed pieces of choux pastry. Think "inside-out eclair" and you'll have a good sense of how it tastes.
Chicago Restaurant Week features more than 300 restaurants offering three-course lunches ($22) and three- and four-course dinners ($33, $44). Chicago Restaurant Week runs through Feb. 12; for participating restaurants, menus and online reservations, go to choosechicago.com
pvettel@tribpub.com
Twitter @philvettel
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