2013: My Ten Dishes of the Year

It may well be the second week of January 2014, but I'm not quite done with 2013 yet. Continuing my tradition of looking back at the most memorable restaurant dishes I had over the year. I thought I'd give you the run down of the ten best things I ate in a restaurant in 2013. I planned to publish this last month but, you know, stuff happened to conspire otherwise. In fact, looking back at the year it was a pretty thin one for the blog. I had some cracking meals, but never got round to writing all the stuff I wanted to. So, New Year's resolution No. 1 is to try and post a bit more often.

Anyway, in reverse order the ten best things I ate in a restaurant in 2013 are: 

La Grenouillère, La Madeleine-sous-Montreuil – Restaurant Review

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of French haute cuisine are greatly exaggerated. In fact, it would appear that the upper echelons of French cooking are alive and well and capable of producing modern, inventive, and exciting food. Behold exhibit 'A' for the defence: the mesmerising and wilfully eccentric La Grenouillère in La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil.

Fäviken Magasinet, Järpen – Restaurant Review

A late afternoon in November, somewhere in Sweden, and already the inky black swathe of sky seems to envelop the rental car tightly. Two narrow yellow beams from the headlights carve out our path through the gloom over the treacherously icy roads of this mountain plateau. It's captivating, hypnotic even; the dull rumble of tyre over ice, the ghostly soft glow from the dashboard, the car seemingly piloting itself. You see, a trip to Fäviken doesn't seem so much of a journey as a pilgrimage. For what else could a jaunt to eat at a restaurant just 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle be? And, like all the best experiences in life, I never saw this one coming.

Viajante, London – Restaurant Review

I was recently in London to embark on what can only be described as an epic week of eating. Over five days my fellow travelling companions and I ate at eight different restaurants with eight Michelin stars between them (reviews to follow, eventually). The damage to my waistline (and wallet) notwithstanding, it was a fantastic and truly memorable trip and confirmed to me just how exciting the food scene in London is right now. One of the highlights of the trip has to have been a monumentally good lunch at Viajante.

Le Louis XV, Monte-Carlo – Restaurant Review

I was recently in Monaco to indulge in one of my favourite things, namely watching insanely fast cars drive round a track. And when the Formula 1 circus comes to town, there's no better place to watch it than in Monte-Carlo, where the absurd speed and noise of these machines is in stark contrast to the perilously narrow and usually genteel streets of the Principality.

I'd taken an early morning flight from Oslo and was due to meet up with some friends travelling from London on a later flight. So, I landed at Nice airport at noon without a clue as to what I'd do to pass the five hours until the rest of the gang arrived. Of course, with my other passion being food I found myself in the baggage hall hesitantly telephoning the three Michelin-starred Le Louis XV restaurant in Monte-Carlo's Hôtel de Paris to enquire if they possibly, maybe, pretty please had a table for one available for lunch in an hour. The answer, to my amazement, was yes.

Koffmann's, London – Restaurant Review

It's not often you get the chance to eat at the restaurant of a genuine culinary legend, but chef Pierre Koffmann is just that. His first restaurant, La Tante Claire, opened in Chelsea in 1977 and went on to gain three Michelin stars, which it held for 15 years until it moved location to the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge. There the restaurant continued until 2003 when Koffmann retired from cooking (or so he thought). The chefs that have trained under Koffmann read like a who's who of Britain's Michelin hall of fame: Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing, Eric Chavot, and Tom Kitchin. So it was with a huge amount of anticipation that Mrs. Nibbler and I went for dinner at Pierre Koffmann's eponymously titled restaurant.

Moo, Barcelona – Restaurant Review

A recent weekend trip to Barcelona saw Mrs. Nibber and me have dinner at Restaurant Moo located in the über-sleek Hotel Omm, just off the city's glitzy Passeig de Gràcia. I'm not usually a fan of restaurants in hotels, often finding their atmosphere to be sterile and the food a bit of an afterthought, but I was intrigued by Moo. On paper at least, it's certainly got the credentials for a good meal – it has held a Michelin star since 2006 and the restaurant is overseen by the legendary Roca brothers, whose own 3-Michelin starred restaurant (and S.Pellegrino's second best restaurant in the world), El Celler de Can Roca, is about an hour up the road in Girona.

Røisheim, Norway

Røisheim

Autumn is such a magical time in Norway. Nature begins its metamorphosis in advance of the rapidly approaching winter; great swathes of landscape start to glisten in shades of crimson, gold, and russet as the foliage starts to change. The last hardy berries of the bountiful summer months still cling on to branches for dear life, and alien-like fungi start sprouting on the mossy forest floor.

If summer in Norway is spent on the coast, then autumn is for the mountains. So it was that Mrs. Nibbler and I found ourselves alone (the Nibbler kids were happily ensconced with the grandparents) on the five hour drive north from Oslo towards the Bøverdalen valley, in the foothills of the majestic Jotunheimen mountains. The name in English roughly translates as "The Home of the Giants" and it is this mountain range that contains the mighty Galdhøpiggen, which at 2,469m is Northern Europe's highest peak. When we were there, its snow-capped summit was hiding demurely behind a blanket of clouds, but you are always aware of its looming presence.

Galdhøpiggen in the distance, shrouded in cloud

But we were not here to just admire the mountains. We're here to spoil ourselves with a stay at Røisheim, a small and rather unique hotel. Røisheim is an 18th century coaching inn that served as natural resting point for travellers along the formidable Sognefjellsveien, the highest mountain pass in Europe, which starts in Lom and travels south west over the Sognefjell mountains and into the village of Gaupne. From May to September every year Røisheim opens its doors to the public, who get to stay in one of its twenty unique rooms.

The term 'hotel' doesn't really do this place justice at all. In fact, the term 'time machine' would be more appropriate. The buildings of Røisheim appear to have changed little in almost two centuries. The tar painted wooden beams of the buildings seem as timeless and solid as the nearby mountains. Indeed, the sod roofs of the buildings give the appearance that Røisheim has magically grown out of the very land it sits on. Inside, it is no different; antique furniture, old books, and traditional Norwegian artefacts abound. Norwegian luminaries such as Edvard Grieg, Henrik Ibsen, Fritz Thaulow, and Gerhard Munthe have all stayed at Røisheim and you sense the weight of their presence all around. Røisheim is run by the ever-smiling husband and wife team of Haavard and Ingrid Hov Lunde, and their warm hospitality makes you feel like a guest of honour in their own home.

Røisheim, 1892

Røisheim, 2010

The main louge

Each room is unique, some have their own fireplaces, and all have himmelseng (traditional four-posted beds) and badestamp (old fashioned wooden bathtubs). Our room was located in the second oldest building (the oldest dates back to the 16th century) at Røisheim, and it entailed a precarious walk up some rickety steps to get in. Once inside though, you have the feeling of being in a giant, luxurious treehouse.

Our 'treehouse' at Røisheim



You stay at Røisheim on a half-board basis, and at 7:30pm sharp a quaint bell rings out signalling dinner. We all filed into a small, but airy, dining room to find our individual tables labelled with rustic name tags. There's just one menu on offer here - gracious hostess Fru Ingrid prepares a daily changing five-course menu that incorporates mostly local ingredients. At dinner, avuncular host Haavard dons traditional Norwegian dress, which includes leather trousers and traditional hunting knife, and plays the role of sommelier. We opted for the paired wine menu that included a rather interesting Italian wine (I forget which type) that is made exclusively for the hotel.

We started with a light and fresh shellfish salad with crayfish that came with a cheese wafer, and sour cream and chervil sauces.

Next was house-smoked blackcurrant marinated halibut with salad leaves and chervil pesto. This dish packed quite a punch; the fish was intensely smokey and the tart blackcurrant balanced nicely with the rich, fatty halibut.

Then, a palate cleanser of some mango sorbet. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but, although pleasant enough, I felt this was somewhat out of place. Given that the rest of the meal was so intensely Nordic and the setting so steeped in history, it just seemed a tad incongruent to be eating exotic, imported mangoes. Surely something local and seasonal, such as a berry sorbet, would have been much more appropriate.

The main course, though, was a masterpiece - a picture of autumn on a plate; reindeer fillet cooked perfectly pink was served with sautéed wild mushrooms, a cranberry marinated poached pear, nut roasted potato, and a creamy game sauce. I often forget that reindeer is considered quite an exotic meat outside Scandinavia (here in Norway it is quite common), but if you haven't tasted it before you're missing out on a real treat - think of a more tender, less gamey, and slightly sweeter tasting version of venison. It is a very lean meat, so you have to be careful not to dry it out, but here it was perfectly moist. The marinated pear provided some welcome acidity that was balanced by the creamy sauce. It actually reminded me of the venison dish I had at Noma, which was served with some of the various things a deer might come across in its natural habitat, and was every bit as good in my opinion.

On to the cheese course next. Here, local cheeses were served with some balsamic glaze and honey. The dark square cheese on the right was an amazing brunost (Norwegian brown cheese) - it was full of glorious caramel and coffee flavours, and was probably the best example of a geitost (brown cheese made with goats milk) I have ever tried.

Finally, we continued on the brown cheese theme with a dessert of homemade brunost ice cream with marinated berries. I was a tad sceptical when I first heard the ice cream described to me, but it turned out to be just heavenly. If you think about it, with its sweet and salty notes, brunost lends itself wonderfully to a dessert like this, and the end result was not dissimilar to a salted caramel ice cream (so good was it, that I even tried to make this ice cream a few weeks later). The berries were perfectly ripe and each one seemed to just explode with bursts of intense flavour in the mouth. This was such a delicious dessert. To round off the evening, we retreated to the lounge for coffee by the fireplace.



Leftovers from dinner

The next morning we awoke refreshed after a long and deep sleep (it's so quiet up here). After a lazy bath in the badestamp, we arrived for breakfast. A wonderful, traditional Norwegian spread had been laid out that included fresh bread from the bakery in nearby Lom, local cheeses, gravlaks, herring, homemade jams (including a delicious cloudberry jam), and mueslis.

Røisheim is such a magical place, and if you're looking for a quintessential Norwegian experience that is steeped in history, then a stay here should not be missed. It serves as an excellent stopover if you're heading from Oslo to the great fjords of the West Coast, or indeed as a great base from which to explore the Jotunheimen mountains. Mrs. Nibbler and I had such a fantastically relaxing weekend at Røisheim, cocooned away in its simple luxury. We left with our batteries recharged, a spring in our steps, and ready to face life anew.

Food:         7 / 10
Service:      8 / 10
Ambiance:  10 / 10

Røisheim
Røisheim Hotel
N-2687 Bøverdalen
Norway

Tel: +47 61 21 20 31

Restaurant Eik, Oslo - Restaurant Review

For a dedicated glutton like yours truly, eating out in Norway can be such a frustrating experience. Restaurants range from the sublime to the ridiculous with alarming unpredictability, but they are united in one thing alone: price. I've said it before, but eating out regularly in Norway is a sure-fire way to financial ruin. So it only takes a few duff restaurant experiences to consign you to home-cooked meals for ever after. So imagine my sheer, unbridled delight at finding a reasonably priced little gem of a restaurant that is ten minutes from my home. Happy days - Christmas has indeed come early!

The place in question is Restaurant Eik. It was set up in 2003 by chef Ole-Johnny Eikefjord, who also has two other Oslo restaurants to his name (Fjord and Restaurant Eik Annen Etage), to provide "good food at reasonable prices". In that sense, it totally delivers on its promise, and in 2006 it was awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand which it has held ever since.

The restaurant is located in the Savoy Hotel, but feels like a completely separate, stand-alone entity. The dining room is dominated by shades of brown and beige, with vibrant flashes of fuchsia adding a touch of colour. The atmosphere is very lively, with an exciting buzz of conversations mingling in the air.

Restaurant Eik offers a weekly-changing set menu, from which you can select three, four, or five courses. Five courses of outstanding food for Nkr 465 (€59/$75) is an absolute bargain in Norway, where a flaccid McWhopper meal will set you back the best part of Nkr 110 (€14/$18). There is also a matching wine menu that is priced at about the same level as the food, and five glasses of decent, but ordinary wine, will set you back Nkr 435 (€55/$70).

Mrs. Nibbler and I both went for the four course menu, skipping the cheese course. We began with an amuse bouche of pumpkin soup that was served with a garlicky blob of hummus with crisp bread, fried squid with seaweed and pomegranate salad, and a filo pastry samosa filled with braised meat (I forget which kind). This was a great start to the meal; the pumpkin soup in particular was rich and warming, and was perfect now that there's a slight chill in the Oslo air.

For our first course we were served a bowl of Jerusalem artichoke soup that was delightfully creamy and earthy. This was served with slices of excellent truffle salami, and a salad with beetroot, pine nuts and artichoke chips. Unfortunately, the salad had obviously been pre-dressed a long time ago, and as a result the leaves were soggy and tasted of laziness.

Next we had pan-fried redfish that was served with pea purée, orange-braised fennel, a lightly pickled tomato, and shellfish sauce. I adored this course. The fish was perfectly cooked with a firm texture and a mild, clean taste, while the pea purée was fantastic with such an intense and sweet pea flavour to it. Also, I loved the garnish of pea shoots. The whole dish looked so vibrant and fresh.

Then, a little palate cleanser in the form of a mojito granita. This was really lively, with crisp, cooling flavours of mint and lime.

For our main course we were served grilled lamb cutlets that were accompanied by risotto-style orzo pasta cooked with ceps, baby turnip, carrots, Brussels sprouts, and a concentrated rosemary sauce. Again, this dish was just outstanding and was a joy to eat. The lamb was cooked perfectly pink and tasted as though it had been lightly smoked. Unlike the anaemic cutlets of milk lamb that I've had in the past, these cutlets packed quite a strong lamb flavour. The orzo pasta was a touch of genius. It was cooked al dente, with a satisfying Parmesan kick, and a beautiful aroma of cep mushrooms - at long last a main course served in a Norwegian restaurant that didn't feature potatoes!

For dessert we had a trio of apples: slices of spiced stewed apples, an apple soup, and an apple-cinnamon sorbet with vanilla cream and cinnamon toasted oats. I'm pretty sure there was some popping candy in there too. What a stunning dessert this was! It was just how I like my desserts: light, fresh and tangy, the flavours of apple just zinging on your tongue.

To round off this excellent meal we had petit fours of mini-macaroons and caramel truffles that looked like nuggets of burnished bronze, both were heavenly.

Service was really pleasant and friendly; every dish and every glass of wine was described in detail to us, even though the restaurant was packed. But therein lies the one downside of the evening: the pace of the service was glacially slow. By the time we had finished eating, mullets were back in fashion, and I'm not talking fish, I mean this.

I suspect the tardiness has something to do with the Norwegians' habit of eating out in large groups. Now, Norwegians are a sociable bunch, and tables of 8, 12, and more are quite common here, and there were quite a few large groups that were eating at the same time as us. Inevitably, this leads to backlogs in the kitchen. In the end, our four course dinner took the best part of three hours. As good as the food is at here, it is such a major frustration for service to slip up in this way. I understand the economic need for restaurants in Oslo to serve large tables, but at least they should stagger the bookings accordingly to give the kitchen a fighting chance of serving everyone on time.

Ultimately though, this place serves truly delicious food. The level of cooking was outstanding and, given the prices here, you'd have to say that this is one of Oslo's real culinary bargains. In order to keep the prices reasonable, the kitchen uses ingredients in a very intelligent way - they minimise the use of the relatively more expensive ingredients, but then what they do with the cheaper ingredients is to be commended. This is just delicious, intelligent, and well-executed food. I will definitely be back for more, and I can see Restaurant Eik becoming one of my regular haunts in Oslo.

Food:           7 / 10
Service:        5 / 10
Ambiance:    8 / 10

Restaurant Eik
Universitetsgata 11
0164 Oslo
Norway
Tel: +47 22 36 07 10

L2O, Chicago - Restaurant Review

Sadly, all good things must come to an end and, after three blissful weeks in the magnificent city of Chicago that included, among others, meals at Alinea, Moto, and Topolobampo, it was time to leave. For our final blowout dinner we headed to Lincoln Park to chef Laurent Gras's exciting restaurant, L2O.

Frenchman Gras opened L2O in 2008 and brought with him an impressive résumé, having worked with culinary legends such as Alain Ducasse, Guy Savoy, and Alain Senderens, who between them have accumulated an astonishing 27 Michelin stars. The restaurant's name is a twist on the chemical formula for water and, as this might suggest, the focus here is on seafood. In particular, chef Gras focuses on preparing seafood with strong influences from Japan, and this extends to adopting the Japanese trait of an almost obsessive attention to detail.

The restaurant is rather incongruously located in the dated and stuffy Belden-Stratford Hotel. A modern looking wooden door leads off the main lobby into the restaurant. Contrary to the rest of the hotel, the inside of the restaurant is an exercise in sleek and modern interior design, and is a truly stunning dining room. Quiet, soothing music is piped over the speakers. Such is Gras's attention to detail that he worked with Buddha Bar NYC resident DJ, Timka, to provide a soundtrack for L2O that reflects the changing seasons. He even commissioned Riedel to custom-make water glasses that are just the right shade of blue.

Mrs. Nibbler and I were warmly greeted and seated at a quiet corner table. We sat side-by-side, giving us a perfect vantage over the beautiful dining room. Before seeing the menus, the first amuse bouche arrived to ease us into the evening. This was a succulent lobe of lobster, I can't quite remember how it was prepared, but suffice it to say that it was delicious.

L2O offers three menus: a seasonal 12-course tasting menu; a 10-course tasting menu that incorporates luxury ingredients such as foie gras, lobster, and caviar; and a 4-course prix fixe menu (L2O also has Tatami rooms for private dining that offer Kaiseki-style menus). Given that we had spent the last three weeks eating our way round Chicago, Mrs. Nibbler and I were starting to feel a bit like foie gras geese. So, we opted for the smaller four-course à la carte menu, which is just as well as this turned out to be nine courses.

Amuse Bouche 1: Lobster

After we ordered, the second amuse bouche arrived. This was a lightly set olive oil custard with an espelette pepper emulsion. It was light and creamy, with a mild chilli twang to it. Both amuse bouches were a really fantastic way to start the meal.

Amuse Bouche 2: Olive Oil Custard with Espelette Emulsion

At this point I should also mention the bread. Bread is taken very seriously at L2O and is baked once before the dinner service and again halfway through. Mrs. Nibbler and I selected some excellent pain de campagne and a Yukon Gold potato and garlic bread (although sadly none of their famed rosemary croissants were available that night). Both were moist in the middle with wonderfully crispy crusts. These were served with salted butter made in-house from grass-fed cows' cream, which had a deliciously full, almost cheesy flavour.

Pain de Campagne, and Yukon Gold Potato and Garlic bread

For her first course, Mrs. Nibbler opted for the cryptically titled "Eighteen Flavours of Summer". As its name suggests this is a seasonal dish and it was an extraordinary presentation of different preparations of summer fruits and vegetable. It included an avocado and jalapeno sorbet, radishes, asparagus with asparagus sorbet, a tomato sorbet, beetroot, and watermelon. This was such a spectacular dish, vibrant in colour and bursting with fresh summer flavours.

Eighteen Flavours of Summer

For my first course I also had a visually spectacular dish of tuna with tomatoes, hibiscus, and foie gras 'snow'. Tuna sashimi had been cut into neat cubes, each topped with a slightly smaller cube of a tomato and hibiscus jelly. Accompanying this were some pearls of olive oil gel and flakes of frozen foie gras. When I saw this dish on the menu I knew I had to try it, as it was such an unusual combination of flavours. It worked fantastically well and I loved the way the foie gras snow just melted and dissolved on your tongue. Visually, this dish also had such a satisfying sense of geometry and order to it.

Tuna, Tomato, Hibiscus, Foie Gras Snow

For her second course, Mrs. Nibbler opted for a dish of octopus. Octopus is first peeled and frozen to tenderise it and then cooked slowly in olive oil. It is served with a coconut sauce and freeze-dried soy sauce powder. This was a delicious dish, the tender, but meaty, octopus combined well with the soft, silky coconut sauce. Although a somewhat unconventional combination of ingredients, it was really very good. In fact, it reminded me of a similar dish by Ferran Adrià that I had at La Alqueria in the El Bulli Hotel a few years ago; there, squid ravioli was filled with coconut milk and it too worked very well indeed.

Octopus, Coconut, Olive oil

For my second course I had grilled prawns served with pappardelle pasta in a rich and creamy tomato and saffron sauce. This was garnished with small discs of courgette and tempura-style courgette flowers. This was a fairly heavy dish but I enjoyed it immensely, the pasta in particular was stunning - paper thin and toothsome. The dish was, however, not without fault; the prawns had been over salted and the courgette flower tempura was a little oily - I remember the tempura I had in Japan being impossibly crisp and almost grease-less.

Prawn, Saffron, Pappardelle, Zucchini blossom, Tomato

For my main course I chose a very decadent version of surf and turf - wagyu beef and lobster served with potatoes, mushrooms and a truffle and foie gras emulsion. I had originally wanted to order the kampachi with yuzu and caviar (with a whopping $75 supplement) but this was already sold out, even though we were dining at 7:30pm. I should have trusted my instinct and gone for another fish dish as the wagyu, although perfectly cooked, was not as tender as I have had in the past, and a couple of the potatoes needed to have been cooked for longer. The lobster however was divine and it paired beautifully with the intoxicating and impossibly rich foie gras and truffle sauce.

Rangers Valley Wagyu Beef, Lobster, Foie Gras-Truffle Emulsion, Potato, Mushroom

Since our arrival in Chicago, Mrs. Nibbler had had a craving for lobster that she had not yet managed to itch. So naturally for her main course she chose lobster (tail and claw) that was poached in butter and served with a thermidor sauce, squares of a peach jelly and purslane. This was a stunning mix of flavours; the sweet lobster meat was offset by the slightly sour purslane and the acidity of the peach, while the creamy sauce provided a perfect bridge to bring everything together.

Lobster, Sauce Thermidor, Peach, Purslane

Before dessert, we were served a small palate cleanser of a meyer lemon frozen marshmallow. It had a cold, silky consistency and was very light and refreshing. Just perfect.

For dessert, Mrs. Nibbler had the "chocolate surprise", which was presented as a rectangular box of chocolate with perfect 90-degree angles. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside of the chocolate box as it was filled with a multitude of sweet goodness that included caramelised almonds rolled in cocoa butter, milk chocolate mousse, dark toffee, and caramelised almond mousse with a touch of Murray salt. The small blob of chocolate sauce was garnished with gold leaf, giving this dish a rich and opulent feel. It was delicious.

Chocolate Surprise: Guanaja, Praline, Almond

I had a similar dish for dessert, but here I was presented with a Valrhona Manjari chocolate egg that had a remarkable velvet texture to it. The egg was filled with an impossibly airy salted caramel mousse and was served with a malt 'snow' and a caramel foam with a just a hint of coffee. This was also a spectacular dessert, both in taste and presentation.

Caramel, Manjari, Malt Snow, Hint of Coffee

We rounded off dinner with some delicious Intelligentsia espresso coffee and some petit fours of apricot macaroons with saffron, and passion fruit and ginger marshmallows. I love macaroons and L2O's versions are as perfect as the ones I buy from Ladurée, although there was perhaps a bit too much saffron in this one for my liking, overwhelming the flavour of apricot and leaving a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Petit Fours: Apricot Macaroon with Saffron, Passion Fruit and Ginger Marshmallow

Although a relatively new addition to the high-end of the Chicago dining scene, L2O has already made its mark, and is more than a welcome addition to the already excellent list of restaurants in Chi-town. Chef Gras serves beautiful, light, and inventive food. He seems to have such knowledge and mastery of the raw ingredients that go into a dish, having an almost instinctive feel for how to combine flavours. The service at L2O was without fault and it hummed along like a well-oiled Michelin-starred machine. I enjoyed a monumentally good dinner here, but it wasn't without a couple of small, niggling faults. I feel there's much more to come from Gras, the sheer precision of his Japanese-influenced cooking combined with his impressive classical experience in some of the world's best restaurants should lead him to greater things indeed. Watch this space.

UPDATE 16.11.2010: Well if you did watch this space, you will have seen that L2O was awarded Michelin's highest complement of three stars in their inaugural guide to Chicago (the only other recipient of three stars in the city was the sublime Alinea – see my reviews here and here). In a bizarre twist though, it was announced that Laurent Gras left L2O suddenly at the beginning of November 2010, ostensibly for a temporary leave of absence. No motive was given, other than the generic "for personal reasons," and it is unclear whether Gras will return. I do hope we see him back in a kitchen in the not too distant future as his is a precocious talent for cooking. I'm not sure what this means for the three stars, as typically Michelin have a habit of removing stars when a chef leaves a restaurant. So again, we watch this space!

UPDATE 18.11.2010: As was my suspicion, Laurent Gras has indeed decided to part company with L2O, citing irreconcilable differences with owner Rich Melman. Gras plans to set up a new venture in NYC that will focus more on casual dining. L2O's Chef de Cuisine Francis Brennan, who worked with Gras for years and helped set up the restaurant, will take over the reigns. I wish him the best of luck, as never has the phrase "out of the frying pan, into the fire" been more appropriate.

UPDATE 10.11.2011: It was announced that Brennan would be leaving L2O to be replaced by Matthew Kirkley (28) who used to work under Brennan and Gras. Judging from this interview, it looks like Kirkley will be making some changes to the L2O menu.

UPDATE 15.11.2011: L2O was docked two stars in the 2012 edition of the Chicago Michelin guide following the departure of chef Laurent Gras just over a year ago. The restaurant now holds one star in the guide, leaving Alinea as the city's sole three-star restaurant.

UPDATE 13.11.2012: The restaurant was awarded its second Michelin star in the 2013 edition of the guide rouge.

Food:          9 / 10

Service:       9 / 10

Ambiance:   9 / 10

L2O

2300 N. Lincoln Park West

Chicago, IL 60614

Tel: +1 773-868-0002