Hey Guys,
I just thought I’d let you know what I thought about a great restaurant that I went to eat at about a month ago – just one of thousands of opportunities you can have in Chicago!
Peace,
James
Unlike some people, my parents and I never went out to fancy restaurants on a regular basis. During my childhood, we usually ate at small neighborhood locations, if we ever dined out of the house, or we just got takeout. So visiting iNG (951 W. Fulton Market) was a bit intimidating. Having never eaten in a place as classy as iNG, I didn’t know what to expect. Walking out, I was almost annoyed I had never tried this sooner.
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There are a couple of serious conditions to keep in mind when going to iNG. First is the price tag — to really get the full experience, you should go for the 10-course tasting menu, which is $105 per person before tax and tip. Unless you’re a secret trust-fund kid, the only way you will find your way into those surprisingly comfortable seats is on birthdays, anniversaries or with the assistance of parents.
The second thing is the time commitment. Unlike a typical night out, when you’d spend a little more than an hour in the actual restaurant, iNG’s tasting menus are meant to be enjoyed over a long period of time. My girlfriend and I arrived a little after 8 p.m., but we didn’t leave until after 11:30 p.m.
Finally, each course is quite small, which is the antithesis of many restaurants’ large portion sizes and plentiful take-home boxes.
I’d advise you to consider iNG not just as a dinner, but as a night out in and of itself.
So let’s say, given these conditions, you’re willing to commit to iNG — what should you expect? Three things: flavor, beauty and a unique, artistic experience.
If a restaurant is able to charge three figures per person and still remain viable, it must be producing wonderful food. My experience confirmed this, as every course we had was delicious in its own way.
Manager Trevor Rose-Hamblin and Executive Chef Tim Havidic put effort into transforming ingredients to have flavors and textures that you would not normally associate with them. A bone marrow puree, which was the centerpiece of the seventh course, had a completely different texture than any other time I’ve tasted the ingredient, and the combination of pork jowl and garbanzo beans in the sixth course was mouthwatering.
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The food menu is also expertly paired with a menu of drinks — alcoholic for the adults, nonalcoholic for those under 21. These drinks, which vary from herb-infused concoctions to smoked German beers, beautifully complement the courses and add an extra element to the flavor combinations.
Every six to eight weeks iNG, which actually stands for Imagining New Gastronomy, designs a completely new course selection, inspired by a particular artist, concept or idea. When we went, the menu was inspired by Salvador Dali. With this artistic approach to the design of the menu comes an artistic approach to the plating and serving of the food.
Making these dishes appear interesting and beautiful not only attracts your eye but also enhances your palate. For example, the third course, inspired by Dali’s iconic Persistence of Memory (with the melting clocks), included edible clocks made out of goat milk panna cotta that had “melted” over the plate. The first course, inspired by Dali’s quote: “Once my appetite had been whetted I became ravenously hungry,” was served with a grasping glass hand in the center of the dish, reaching for more.
It is these elements that make iNG an experience instead of just a meal — it’s not only great food, but each course is a work of art.
The restaurant’s founder, Chef Homaro Cantu, has been pushing the boundaries of gastronomy for the last several years, including cooking with a class IV laser and introducing scientific equipment, including centrifuges and handheld ion particle guns as chefs’ equipment. Yet one of his greatest advances, and the one that is at the center of iNG’s remarkable menu, came to be through an accidental (and tragic) event.
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According to the iNG website, when one of the chef’s friends was receiving chemotherapy for cancer, and as a result losing taste buds and the will to eat, Cantu aimed to find a way to encourage his friend to eat. This led to the discovery of the “miracle berry” — a naturally occurring biological compound that coats the tongue and increases the ability of taste buds to perceive sweetness and other flavors.
Not only was this able to help Cantu’s friend, but it also revolutionized the way that iNG presents its dishes. During two courses, you will be presented with opportunities to “flavor trip,” using the miracle berry compound, to change your experience of that dish. To test to see if your taste buds react to the berry, you suck on a lemon. After eating the miracle berry compound, the straight lemon tastes like sweet lemonade — a confusing, yet incredibly satisfying experience. After trying the lemon, you turn to your food, and the changes get bigger and better.
It’s expensive, it’s a time commitment, it’s unusual and it’s artistic. If this doesn’t sound appealing to you, don’t go to iNG. But if you’re willing to try something new, invest in a wonderful culinary experience, “trip out” (in a legal, gastronomical way) and have a way to pay the price tag, iNG is an extraordinary restaurant that produces delicious and beautiful food. You’ll love the time you spend there, and enjoy every bite.