Fresh from the Laundry
Trio's pristine new chef talks with
Nancy Ross Ryan
For such a heavyweight, Achatz is quiet, gentle, laid-back and without the narcissicism that frequently accompanies a fast-rising star. What emerges during conversation is a portrait of an acutely focused chef with resounding, fully formed ideas about food and dining -- someone who is so much in love with his work that he's on fire.
Q: Describe your food, please.
A: It's fun. Very modern.
Q: When and why did you decide to become a chef?
A: At a very early age. My father owned a restaurant. But beyond that, the profession chooses you. It has a very artistic, creative side. Once you experience that, your character alters. Once the fire gets in you, you can't put it out.
Q: Why Chicago?
A: That's easy. New York is in a league of its own. It's a city where food is not the most serious thing. It may be the best restaurant, but that doesn't really matter. But in Chicago there are very good players and up-and-coming players. I want to be part of that build to the top.
Q: What chef do you most admire?
Thomas Keller, of course. He's my mentor. But I admire many chefs for different things. For example Ferrand Adria at el Bulli in Spain. At a time when he was doing food that no one else was doing, and a lot of his staff were stages, that is to say apprentices who would leave, he gave them everything -- all the recipes, all the techniques. He said, "The more people I share with, the more who will do this."
Q: What is your dream?
Long term, the dream of most chefs, which is to have a restaurant where they have a following who understand their food. But here, night to night, the dream is to have a table or tables where we think they understand their food. We get excited on a nightly basis -- in the kitchen, in the dining room.
Q: What's your favorite savory dish?
A: A well-prepared classic: steak frites.
Q: Your favorite sweet?
A: Chocolate, no doubt!
Q: Is it hard to match wines with your food -- which has some very unusual ingredients and combinations: black truffle oil, hazelnut foam, and Japanese Bubble Tea -- a combination of cucumber juice, green tea and trout roe sucked through a straw?
A: Lots of people at Trio spend lots of time tasting and matching, especially Joe Catterson, the sommelier. He tries to find obscure bottlings that show well with the food.
Q: Is it true you were a winemaker for a year?
A: I took a nine-month leave of absence from French Laundry to assist the winemaker at La Jota Vineyards.
Q: Why?
A: Ever since I moved to Napa I wanted to do that. It's on the same plane as cooking, but there's a different mentality and different sense of urgency. The palate and nature of winemaking are similar to cooking, but, unlike cooking, there's no instant gratification. You put it in a barrel and you don't know for some time how it's going to turn out.
Q: Do you have a pet peeve?
A: The industry standard for low wages. It's an accepted practice to not pay people well.
Q: If you looked in your crystal ball at the future of fine dining, what do you see?
A: I would hope that all fine dining restaurants don't merge and blur into the same being. I like where we're going at Trio: fine dining is fun, a source of entertainment, the tastes are really good. And dishes like that Japanese Bubble Tea where you suck the caviar roe through a straw -- that's fun.
Q: How often does the menu change?
A: Every day about 50 to 60%. It's exhausting. When we totally perfect a dish, we change it or take it off the menu. But it does two things. It keeps monotony out for the kitchen staff, and for the customers, they're not watching the same movie twice.
Q: What is the best meal you have had in your life?
A: The first meal I had at the French Laundry. Then the first meal I had at el Bulli. Then a meal I ate in a rustic restaurant in Tuscany on a bicycle tour.
Q: What is the strangest ingredient you have eaten or used?
A: Duck tongues at the French Laundry...braised duck tongues. They're very gelatinous.
Q: Any food or preparations that you don't like?
A: I have a hard time with people who take somebody else's technique and produce it unsatisfactorily. Sometimes the dish gets bastardized. The person who created it wouldn't have wanted it that way.
Q: Parting shots?
A: What we do as chefs is a very respectable, exciting profession, and I think that if my peers feel strongly about making a commitment, the level of quality and standards will rise. It's important for all of us, whether four-star or a burger chef, to do the best burger you can do and be happy with it. When you come here, it's my job to provide the best fine-dining meal within my means.