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Opera
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In October, the Webmeister and spouse were priviliged to attend a cooking demo/class/tasting at Opera, a restaurant in Chicago's newly upscale and still developing South Loop, not too far from where Mayor Daley lives. As we walked into the door fifteen minutes early, we were greeted by executive chef Paul Wildermuth, who invited us to wander around the place and have a look. "There's a lot of eye candy," he said. What an understatement. If Rick's Café Americain had been in Shanghai instead of Casablanca, and if the movie had been in glorious Technicolor instead of black and white, it would look a lot like this. Full of reds, blacks and Asian gew-gaws of every description, flanked by a bar on the north end and an open-kitchen bank of wok stations on the south, with a series of curtained grottoes for private diners, Opera looks every bit the movie set. Which is only right, because the food is highly theatrical while being skillfully prepared and, to bring it right down to cases, flat-out wonderful. Chef Wildermuth has both heritage and training that span Europe and Asia, as well as the skill to take the best of both culinary traditions and blend them into a cuisine that is not fusion, but mainland Chinese food as interpreted by someone with a classical bent, a respect for tradition and an eye toward the tastes of his Western audience. Trained in France in classical cuisine, Chef Wildermuth is equally able to mix batches of Quatres Épices (the ginger, nutmeg, cloves and white pepper blend used in patés) or Five Spice (the Chinese blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds and Sichuan peppercorns) and can use either with equal ease. And it helps that he had help planning Opera's menu from Arun Sampanthavivat, owner chef of Arun's, a restaurant that combines royal Thai cooking with Arun's own concepts. With six at our table, we were able to sample a broad range of Opera's dishes, while still leaving many tempting goodies unsampled, waiting for us in future visits. Now answer this: how many times have you eaten at a Chinese restaurant where the meal led off with a complimentary amuse bouche? Opera did. Each of us was presented with a perfectly executed Crab Rangoon, tasting not at all like the bland/soggy crab-averse version you've seen all too often. With the fifteen dishes that we finally had on our table, I won't burden you with the details of each. At one end of the spectrum was the General's Chicken, a not-much-improved-upon but impeccably prepared version of the old Hunan cliche, General Tso's Chicken, very simply stir-fried chicken in a sauce in which each ingredient's flavors came forth. At the opposite end was a dish called Crab And Chopsticks. We were presented with an exotically flavored crab cake and "chopsticks" alongside, the chopsticks being long, thin, crispy crab spring rolls. Or consider (in fact, meditate upon) the Yin And Yang Of Salmon: two salmon fillets, one glazed and grilled, the other poached in sake with baby bok choy. Even with all the inventiveness on display, the simple dishes shone through. Spider went nearly berserk for the shrimp fried rice. How sad she was that she would be leaving for L.A. at 7:30 the next morning and couldn't take the leftovers with her. They were great, Spider. Your humble Webmeister seldom eats so much that he doesn't take a bit of time for dessert, and the steamed banana and date pudding with date and cognac ice cream and fried bananas simply could not be passed up. And you have to love a Chinese restaurant that has the complete range of Pierre Ferrand cognacs. Even though we showed up late, after Spider's show, and stayed past closing time, we were treated like visiting royalty. The service was on a par with the marvelous food. I'm already planning what to order on my next trip to this wonderful restaurant; Chef Wildermuth's version of Peking Duck is at the top of the list. I suggest that you cancel your next dining-out plans and head for Opera. Opera |
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