Charlie Trotter: How One Superstar Chef and His Iconic Chicago Restaurant Helped Revolutionize American Cuisine

Copyright © 2012 by the Chicago Tribune.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including copying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the publisher.

Chicago Tribune

Tony W. Hunter, Publisher

Gerould W. Kern, Editor

R. Bruce Dold, Editorial Page Editor

Bill Adee, Vice President/Digital

Jane Hirt, Managing Editor

Joycelyn Winnecke, Associate Editor

Peter Kendall, Deputy Managing Editor

Ebook edition 3.0 November 2013

ISBN-10 1-57284-406-X

ISBN-13 978-1-57284-406-3

Agate Digital is an imprint of Agate Publishing. Agate books are available in bulk at discount prices. For more information visit agatepublishing.com.

Table of Contents

About This Book

Prologue

Part One: Launching a World-Class Restaurant (1987–1992)

Part Two: International Success (1995–2000)

Part Three: Evolutions, Rivalries, New Directions (2001–2007)

Part Four: Closing Up Shop, Looking Toward the Future (2010–2012)

Part Five: Trotter’s Legacy

Charlie Trotter 1959-2013: Chicago’s revolutionary chef

Sources

About This Book

This book was created using articles published in the Chicago Tribune over the past 25 years. The editors have carefully selected from the Tribune’s rich archive of material on Trotter and edited it to present the story of the chef and his restaurant in book format.

Throughout the book, regular text denotes original material taken from the Tribune’s archives. Italic text denotes material created to connect the various source materials into a coherent whole.

This 3.0 edition of Charlie Trotter was updated with new material created in November 2013.

Prologue

Charlie Trotter garnishes a dish at his Armitage Avenue restaurant.

Phil Vettel wrote the following story, with contributions by Mark Caro, Kevin Pang and Naomi Nix, shortly after the renowned Chicago restaurateur announced his restaurant will close after marking its 25th anniversary in August 2012.

New Year’s Eve is a time for drama, but chef Charlie Trotter outdid himself Sunday, January 1, 2012.

Shortly after midnight, in front of some 100 guests in his eponymous restaurant, Trotter dropped a bomb: At the end of August, after the acclaimed restaurant celebrates its 25th anniversary, Charlie Trotter’s would close.

Right after we rang in the New Year, said WGN news anchor Tom Negovan, who was in attendance, "he and his wife, Rochelle, climbed up on the countertop near the wine cellar. He said it’s been a wonderful 25 years at the restaurant, and hoped the next eight months would be even more incredible. He said the restaurant’s going to close and he’ll move on to other things.

Some of us were slack-jawed and really shocked; we didn’t know if he was joking, Negovan said. "Charlie’s got a pretty unique style, kind of a jokester. ... The crowd fell silent, then started to applaud and cheer. ...

He talked about wanting to go back to school and pursuing philosophy, Negovan said. As much as we think of him as an incredible chef, he’s first and foremost a brilliant mind and academic.

His restaurant has been the standard-bearer for fine dining, and perhaps more important, for fine-dining service, for at least 23 of its 25 years. Trotter and his every-day-a-new-menu kitchen have led and inspired a generation of chefs and have developed and cemented Chicago’s reputation as a magnet for top culinary talent. For the restaurant to close on its own terms, on a day solely of the chef/owner’s choosing, is quintessential Trotter: Decisive, defiant and always a step ahead of the expectations of others.

Trotter may have given a hint to the restaurant’s closing in a Tribune interview a few months ago. Back in September, he reflected on, among other things, being taken for granted.

Now he may put those reflections to the test. Trotter says he’s not closing the Lincoln Park restaurant for financial reasons, and that once he completes his master’s degree he will open another restaurant.

This isn’t the first time the chef has contemplated shuttering his restaurant.

In a 2001 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, he spoke of exploring other interests and hinted that he might not be here a year from then. But he quickly backed away from that statement. This time, Trotter announced the closing in front of dozens of people and gave a date.

Charlie Trotter’s has long been considered one of the finest restaurants in the United States, with Trotter having won numerous awards from the prestigious James Beard Foundation over the years. Charlie Trotter’s also has been a training ground for some of the city’s top chefs, including Grant Achatz, Homaro Cantu, Curtis Duffy, Graham Elliot, Matthias Merges, Mindy Segal, Michael Taus and Giuseppe Tentori.

For some chefs who worked with Trotter over the years, the timing of the announcement was surprising, but the news itself wasn’t.

I think this has been brewing for some time, said Merges, who worked for Trotter for 14 years and was the restaurant’s director of operations.

He’s been doing this so long, it’s a wonderful thing for him to do a little traveling and experience life more, said Taus. In this industry, we don’t get to experience that very much.

Chef Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill couldn’t resist firing off a sly Tweet: Frontera turns 25 n Mar; not closing :).

Other Twitter users found it hard to understand all the fuss.

I’m shedding no tears over Charlie Trotter’s closing, tweeted one man, while another user commented, What will the people of Chicago do without a $400 a couple restaurant?

But Oswego resident and self-professed foodie Chris Ross said he plans to call Tuesday to try for reservations. It’s on our wish list because of Mr. Trotter’s accomplishments as a chef, and the recognition of his namesake restaurant in the culinary world and as a premier dining experience in Chicago, Ross said.

The next eight months at Charlie Trotter’s are less likely to resemble a drawn-out wake than a well-earned victory lap. They will be packed with events (some already planned for the restaurant’s anniversary), at least one book release and a whole lot of celebrating.

As Vettel notes, 2012 will be a year of reflection and celebration surrounding the central figure in Chicago’s ascent to world-class gourmet dining destination. Over the years, Trotter has seen his share of drama as well. He was the target of anger during the dustup over the ethics of serving foie gras in Chicago restaurants in the mid-aughts. Earning his reputation for unflinching perfectionism and an iron-fisted demeanor, he has partnered with some elite chefs while competing for dominance with others.

Throughout the past quarter-century, though, the heart of Trotter’s story has always been the Lincoln Park restaurant that bears his name, where patrons will wait months for a chance to dine at the chef’s table: the coveted seat in the kitchen where they can watch Trotter himself at work. This book explores and documents the pivotal role Trotter has played in Chicago’s dining world and its evolution over his restaurant’s pathbreaking 25-year run.

Part One: Launching a World-Class Restaurant (1987–1992)

The interior of Charlie Trotter’s restaurant.

What I’ve learned is that a restaurant can be as much of an art as you want it to be, but it has to be a successful business first.

In September 1987, William Rice reported on the opening of a new restaurant by an up-and-coming Chicago chef.

It’s a familiar story: A young man with a talent for cooking becomes a journeyman apprentice. He works, sweats and learns in more than two dozen restaurants on two continents. Finally, he becomes a chef and, after a year of planning and construction, opens his own restaurant.

One fall evening in 1987, Charlie Trotter was celebrating the completion of that journey. He feted the opening of the townhouse restaurant bearing his name (816 W. Armitage Ave., just west of Halsted Street) at a dinner for a group of friends and well-wishers that included more than a dozen fellow chefs.

There is a twist on this tale, however.

Charlie Trotter, seasoned veteran of all those kitchens, leader of a kitchen crew of eight, a culinary talent praised by notable chefs from California to Florida, had turned 28 just that week.

Clearly, this Trotter is a sprinter.

He’s a marathon man, testified Norman Van Aken at the party, chef of Louie’s Back Yard on Key West. He’s been with me in three different restaurants and in every one his spirit and persistence has lifted morale. I’ve never seen such drive, single-minded vision and generosity.

Bradley Ogden of San Francisco’s Campton Place Hotel, one of the dozen or so superstar chefs the new American cuisine movement has produced, spoke in the same vein. I have high standards, but Chuck and Geoff (Trotter’s sous-chef Geoff Felsenthal) both went beyond them. Their attention to detail was incredible. Being a good cook and putting out good food mattered to them personally. There was nothing they didn’t want to learn, or learn how to do better. I knew how much they cared. I knew I didn`t have to worry when they were on the line.

The subject of this admiration, not surprisingly, radiates intensity. Compact and pencil-thin at age 28, he grew up in the affluent suburbs north of Chicago and went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a political science degree. Presumably, he would line up at one or another of the starting gates of the yuppie fast track. Instead, mesmerized by cooking and the restaurant business, he talked his way into the kitchen of Sinclair’s in Lake Forest and began the odyssey that brought him full circle to Chicago. I worked in various kitchens from two days to five months, the young Trotter recalled that evening. I would leave when I wasn’t learning anything. I gradually began to conceive of the sort of place I would like to have and the style of cooking I felt comfortable with.

Once he felt he was ready, it took a year to restore, remodel and add a kitchen onto the two-story townhouse in west Lincoln Park. Trotter’s family had a major financial interest in the project, which reportedly cost about $1.2 million, including purchase of the property, to launch.

After customers pass through a two-story bar and reception area, there are dining areas on two floors, each seating a maximum of 34 persons. The sleek and very stylish furnishings include tables and fabrics designed by Joseph Hoffman, period sconces on the beige stitched wallpaper and a 1908 work by the German painter Joseph Muller.

The state-of-the-art kitchen, which is as large as the main floor dining area, drew many of the guests before and after the celebratory dinner.

See what happens when a cook gets to design a restaurant, Trotter said. There’s room here to spread out. We don’t have to work on top of one another.

Trotter’s kitchen staff consisted of five women and three men. I went for youth and enthusiasm, Trotter explained, and it is going pretty good so far. We’re learning to think more as one. But opening has been tough. Working from before 8 a.m. to past midnight takes a toll.

His aim, he said, was to do French-inspired modern American food. I want the niceties and refinements of French cuisine without the circumstances and formality, he said. To me food isn’t all there is. The food, the service, the wine and the ambiance should all be equal. It’s important that guests get knowledgeable answers when they ask questions about food and wine. I want them to ask questions.

The menu Trotter served that evening included a crayfish consommé, an innovative terrine of leeks with smoked salmon salsa, a warm salad of quail and foie gras, saddle and rack of lamb and an assortment of tiny-portion desserts. Wines came from Italy, Germany, Oregon, California and France.

I’ll use products from the Midwest if the quality is superior, but this won’t be a regional restaurant, Trotter said.

Trotter said the opening had been easier than it might have been because he had been able to convince Felsenthal, another well-travelled Chicago area native, to join him as sous-chef.

At the restaurant’s 1987 opening, Geoff Felsenthal, sous-chef, center, talks about the restaurant’s menu with Rick and Deann Bayless, left, and Cindy and David Jarvis, right.

I came because I’d worked with Charlie before and believe he’s completely dedicated to achieving the best despite the cost or the time it might take. I like the size of the restaurant and I felt it was a good time to come back to Chicago. There has been good food here, but it hasn’t been recognized around the country. Now we’re catching up.

Felsenthal, age 30, envisioned opening his own restaurant in two or three years. In the meantime, "cooking excites me. Sometimes you wait a lifetime to learn whether your work is good or not. We can get instant gratification every day if the