CHIRP: The Chicago Independent Radio Project

Cameron Gray writes

Bone-in, Skin-on

The appeal of cooking for me is the fusion of art and science, an arena where feel is hard to teach and innovation is a personal thing I can do with a cigar, a glass of scotch, and a record playing. And all of the technique and microgreens and fresh herbs out there won’t help unless I’m working with bone-in meat, fresh poultry with the skin on, and fresh fish with the shimmery skin firm and pretty. Boneless is a waste of my time and money. Bone-in, Skin-on. I think I have two shelves of cookbooks, I consult them infrequently nowadays. It is more fun to experiment, once in a while you get something truly innovative. Which brings me to the same theme as it applies to art & music. The women & men whose work stays with me remain in this zone for a stretch, sometimes a few years and sometimes a lifetime, where the basis is dedication to musicianship or painting or photography, and their commitment to innovation and a personal body of work forces them in and out of favor, in and out of financial viability, in and out of retail catalogs.

I turned 38 and my wife took me out to Violet Hour. Duck meatballs, 22 year rye whiskey, A.H. Hirsch Select. Now I want something else for when I turn 39 and then 40. If Chicago is the new destination for emerging and established chefs, here’s my two cents on a way to differentiate their establishments.

I started cooking when I was looking for my first job in 1998. There were some cookbooks around the apartment, all Italian cooking. So I cooked Italian. Then I got more cookbooks. I went in for anything provincial or authentic, thinking if it’s good enough for the folks that are closest to the food, I’ll learn something. In 1998 I had just left biochemistry as a career, so I thought about food in terms of what heat or acid or alcohol does to tissue. That was a helpful way to start. I found my way to a butcher and a fishmonger that I could depend on and got whatever looked good. I discovered epicurious.com in 2000 and made myself a reference book of recipes so I could learn what techniques applied to Japanese cooking, Indian cooking, Moroccan cooking, Spanish cooking, etc. I got all the James Peterson cookbooks, then I got a copy of Thomas Keller’s cookbook shortly after a meal at The French Laundry. I didn’t cook the same after that.

I graduated up from a small Weber grill to a large one in 2001. I added hardwood a year later. I chose never to have a kitchen with an electric range and got myself All-Clad pots and pans. Now I work with soaked wood in tin foil, I get what I can find. Hickory and mesquite are easy, Cherry, Applewood, Maple, and Pecan are harder. I introduce citrus with grated rind, Keller taught me that there’s a wider range of flavors than just lemon and orange, a way of being more egalitarian toward fruit.

The concept for a new restaurant experience is this: 3-course meal chosen from one of three menus. One menu is fish & chips, i.e. a seafood preparation and a potato preparation as the middle course. One menu is meat & vegetables (graze & soil). And one menu is poultry & grains (birds & seeds). There’s nothing boneless on the menu. And every plate should prompt clients to stick a fork into it and take a bite. If there’s consternation as to how the dish should be maneuvered, sliced up, and eaten, it’s wrongly conceived as a dish. The first course is served with champagne or an alternative sparkling wine. The second course is served with a glass of red or white wine. The third course is served with a dessert wine, an aperitif, or a distilled spirit. I don’t go in for dessert wines, but I’d jump at the opportunity to put together a list of scotch, bourbon, whiskey, rum, cognac, tequila, mescal, and a couple throwback cocktails. Imagine that, dessert with a negroni!

Here’s the part I want and have never gotten. Each course is served with one music and one art accompaniment. The music part is easy enough, one side of an LP, both sides if it’s a shorter LP, here meaning 30 minutes or less. The art part requires some technology, all available for several years now. If we’re doing this indoors, framed pictures where the pictures are chosen from a specific solo gallery exhibition of an artist. If we’re doing this outdoors on a patio or overlooking the water, perhaps it is a projection on scrolls strung along the perimeter.

With this template, all kinds of playful modifications spring to mind. Maybe bands could play three sets of original material. Or an artist might show work in a new format. This would take “site-specific” installation in a new direction. I think that would be cool as hell. I wonder if Jeff Koons wants to develop a line of casual dining centerpieces. I wonder what it would take to showcase Sonic Youth or their progeny for a one-time dinner on July 4th, like a floating dinner event par excellence. For the winter holidays, maybe Tom Waits could do Swordfishtrombone and David Bowie could do, well, whatever the hell he wants. Like a dream duet for the holidays. And just like Jasper Johns had a show of all greys, perhaps Sugimoto might be persuaded to photograph winter scenes in tones of white grey & night black.

But let’s get back to basics. Bone-in, Skin-on. That’s the name of this gig. Some things can’t be on the menu, some music cannot be played, some art cannot be shown, and some wine won’t be served. That’s the way it is. You have to do that if you’re going to market this thing successfully and justify the pricing. More importantly, boneless chicken may be healthier, but it dries out quick and it never tastes as good as a whole roaster shoved on a beercan with rosemary and thyme and sage shoved in there by the fistful. Butterflied lamb is nice and all, but a slow-grilled leg of lamb with garlic, rosemary, a little rub on there with some heat, turned over every hour – that’s just a different beast altogether. Fresh fish with the skin all crispy, softshell crab done up with a dusting of flour and herbs, sautéed in butter, splashed in white wine, and served up with a sprig of parsley and capers, this is what the concept is about. And this stuff will purr just right when coupled with the right Albarino or Burdundy or Barbaresco. And then imagine what it will be like coupled with Eric Dolphy and Coltrane over high-end speakers, Basquiat and Warhol from the PS1 show rotating very very slowly through the frames on the walls or projected on the scrolls between you and the lake.

Food, drink, art, music. Did I mention the wait staff is on rollerskates or skateboards? Bone-in, Skin-on. Cheers.