Balena

April 11th, 2012 by admin

The image I shot at Balena with my iPhone

Here’s a recipe for restaurant success: Take one part BOKA Restaurant Group (the influential folks behind GT Fish & Oyster, Girl & The Goat, and BOKA), then add one part The Bristol (including Jean Banchet Award-winner Chris Pandel and pastry chef extraordinaire Amanda Rockman), plus a generous dash of sexy interior design and a great location. Mix them together and let it marinate for a few months, and you have Balena.

The newly-opened Italian restaurant takes the place of Landmark Grill, a past-its-prime pre-theater staple across from the Steppenwolf. After BOKA Group was through sprucing up the place, it feels totally new. The rustic pizzas that Chris Pandel is whipping up in the wood-burning oven are great, and Amanda Rockman’s desserts are as tasty as the ones she produces for The Bristol. In short, they’re getting nearly everything right.

We began our meal with a family-style platter of meats, cheeses, and bread. The charcuterie comes from Smoking Goose, a small company in Indianapolis that buys meat from local farmers like Gunthorp, Carley, and Seven Sons, and then turns it into sausages, smoked meats, and larder meats. I especially liked the paprika cured pork, and the juniper-spiced salumi was an intriguing spin on a classic sausage. All the breads on the plate are baked in-house by a chef named Peter, who also makes Balena’s pastas.

After devouring the charcuterie plate, we noticed a unique pizza on the menu: a “Lasagna Pie” with bolognese sauce, ricotta, and basil. Our server explained that when chef Chris was working in restaurants in New York City, he would often work so late that the only place open for dinner at that hour was a pizza spot, where a specialty “lasagna pizza” was Chris’s go-to. In homage, he’s made his own version, which is topped with a slightly sweet bolognese sauce.

Of course, we knew to leave room for dessert. Amanda Rockman’s gelatos were excellent, especially a very memorable chocolate flavor with olive oil powder and sea salt. The pistachio flavor was a close second. Somehow, we also put away a caramel pine nut tart and a rich chocolate budino with amaro and fior di latte (cow mozzarella).

I chose to recreate Balena’s charcuterie plate because the sausages really stood out to me. While the fresh-baked breads were also excellent, they were so unique that I thought it might be impossible to recreate them properly for the shot. We concentrated on the meats here, adding a sheet of parchment paper under the slices to give them a freshly shaved look. Photographing meat can be difficult for a few reasons: First, it can look too dry, which is why we try to shoot it fairly quickly on set. On the other hand, it can also look too greasy, which isn’t appealing either. In that case, we use cosmetic oil absorbing sheets (from the drugstore) to take off some of the extra sheen. Lastly, meat can very easily look too heavy in photographs, especially when you’re including this many types in one shot. To combat that, I kept the light bright and natural, and added some green and yellow accents for freshness.

The photo of the charcuterie that I recreated in my studio. © Stephen Hamilton 2012

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Boon Fly Cafe

March 26th, 2012 by admin

The iPhone photo I took of the doughnuts at Boon Fly Cafe

Recently, Andrew and I traveled to Napa to photograph some landscapes for the forthcoming Who’s Hungry? digital magazine (more on that exciting project here). While in wine country, we stayed at the Carneros Inn, a charming collection of small cottages sprinkled through the Napa hillside. Early one morning, Andrew and I stopped for a quick breakfast at Boon Fly Café, a rustic, comforting restaurant on the grounds of the inn.

A red, barn-like building houses the café, which was named for a Carneros pioneer who planted orchards and vineyards in the area in the mid 19th century. Now, it’s a warm and friendly spot where locals and guests of the inn meet up for a quick bite. In the mornings, that quick bite usually starts with some fresh juice or coffee, and the specialty of the house: old-fashioned doughnuts.

In Chicago, doughnuts have become something of a craze, with restaurateurs like Scott Harris and Brendan Sodikoff opening fancy doughnut bakeries. But the ones at Boon Fly are old-school: simple, classic dough fried to a deep brown, then served warm with sugar on top. That and a cup of coffee are the start of a really stellar breakfast menu, which also includes eggs Benedict, griddle cakes, “eggs in a hole,” and more.

What’s best about these miniature doughnuts is their texture. They’re light and fluffy, almost melting in your mouth. Granulated sugar adds a little crunch, and coffee mellows out the sweetness. It was still cool in the mornings when Andrew and I visited Napa, and these doughnuts were a comforting, warm way to start a day of shooting outdoors. Serving them in a real tin pail is a whimsical touch, too.

For the recreation, I wanted to simplify the presentation to just focus on the doughnuts themselves. I wanted to bring in someone who really knew how to properly fry a doughnut, so we were lucky enough to have Celeste Campise, pastry chef at Spiaggia, help us out. At first, some of the doughnuts she fried looked completely perfect when they came out of the oil. The food stylists and I chose the ones that were less regularly shaped to capture the handmade look that Boon Fly’s had. Then, we topped them with tons of sugar to simulate the granules that fall off when you bite into them. Lastly, I kept the background and the lighting just a bit hazy to mimic the early morning feeling that Andrew and I had as we ate at the inn. Even though we weren’t 100 percent awake yet, we knew these doughnuts were some of the best we’d tasted.

A recreation of the doughnuts that I photographed in my studio © Stephen Hamilton 2012

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The Drawing Room

March 22nd, 2012 by admin

Most people know The Drawing Room for its cocktails. The subterranean, almost hidden location on Rush Street gives it a speakeasy vibe, and the drinks that mixologist Charles Joly concocts are no joke. He’s won numerous international cocktail competitions, and has an affinity for seasonal ingredients and housemade bitters and syrups.

But what most people may not know is that the food can hold its own with the cocktails. The menu is mostly American dishes with some international twists, all with a focus on contrast and unexpected presentation. Even when you expect the unexpected, sometimes you’re surprised by the creativity and whimsy of the chef. In this case, The Drawing Room’s Nick Lacasse came up with a unique take on steak frites.

This traditional French brasserie dish is normally just a steak and thin-cut potato fries, served with pan juices, a red wine sauce or Bearnaise sauce. At The Drawing Room, though, the steak frites took the form of a steak tartare. The frites are re-interpreted as thrice-fried potato squares, similar in appearance to potatoes you’d find on a breakfast plate, but tossed with truffle oil and plenty of salt. The raw beef is cubed flank steak, which gives a substantial bite to the dish. You’d expect an egg on top, but instead, Lachasse binds the beef together with truffle mayo.

When recreating the dish, my first objective was to keep the overall look very clean. When photographing something raw, you want to make sure it looks pristine and very fresh. The second objective was to tie all the disparate parts of the composition together. The sprinkle of cracked pepper, the swipe of mayo, and the herbs all help unite the potatoes with the steak and the condiments. The lighting feels natural, and this simple dish suddenly takes on a more elegant look.

The recreated steak frites I shot in my studio. © Stephen Hamilton 2012

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Vera

March 14th, 2012 by admin

An iPhone shot of Vera's brussels sprouts

Brussels sprouts have a notorious reputation as far as vegetables go. Kids turn their noses up at them during dinner, and few adults would claim them as their favorite veggie. But if more people tried the brussels sprouts with Iberico ham from Vera, they’d quickly change their minds.

The small cabbages are slightly charred, which gives them an added textural crunch. Then, the brussels sprouts are topped with ground Iberico ham that chef Mark Mendez makes himself. He buys whole Iberico ham legs (which you can watch the servers slice over at the bar), then grinds the meat with some of the fat from the leg to hold it together. To finish it off, he adds a splash of acidity by drizzling the dish with sherry vinegar. Liz Mendez, Mark’s wife and Vera’s wine director, has quite a penchant for sherry, so it’s no surprise that it finds its way into this dish. Overall, Mark says, the brussels sprouts are a simple recipe, one that any home cook with a high fat content ham could recreate.

It was just one of the dishes that I really enjoyed at Vera. The wine bar/restaurant opened a few months ago at Lake Street and Carpenter, in a space that used to be a sports bar. Now, the corner storefront has a warm dining room, a wide, wood bar, and an open kitchen window.

The food is authentic, straight-forward Spanish cuisine. Mark Mendez was previously the chef at Carnivale, and he packs a lot of bold flavor into what seem, at first, like simple dishes. The huge garlic shrimp are served with heads on, while the sauce adds a bright burst of lemon and chile. Grilled octopus was also memorable, and not chewy or rubbery like some versions can be.

While the food is Spanish, the wines are global. As I said, Liz has a special fondness for sherry, so you’ll find some surprisingly approachable sherries on the list. There are also wines on tap, which may be the next big trend in Chicago. Wine on tap saves money and waste on packaging, and the wine stays fresher than it would in a half-drank bottle. Of course, there is also an intriguing, global selection of wines by the bottle.

When recreating the brussels sprouts dish, I wanted to compose it in a very different way from the iPhone photo. When I saw the sprouts come out of the oven, I loved how simple they looked against the roasting pan. We tried to keep that look with the darker, metallic surface. When we shot the same vegetables against a white surface, it was also a beautiful photograph, but didn’t give the same impression of the roasting pan that this darker one does. I thought the char on the sprouts should really shine, so I separated the sprouts from the chunks of ham, and let just one leaf crumble off. I also had the stylists add grains of kosher salt, plus a few drops of water for shine. Overall, I’m happy with the depth of color in this shot, and I love the texture of the sprout’s leaves. Hopefully, the photo and the delicious flavors at Vera inspire more people to try this under-appreciated veggie.

The recreated brussels sprouts shot in my studio

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Yusho

March 6th, 2012 by admin

The iPhone shot I took at Yusho

A veteran Charlie Trotter’s chef making the move to Japanese street food may seem like a stretch, but Matthias Merges seems pretty comfortable at his new Avondale yakitori restaurant, Yusho. I stopped in recently with the globe-trotting Food Buddha, Rodelio Aglibot, to check it out.

Before we even ordered, we could tell Yusho had a lot of personality. In the back dining room, a projector lit up a brick wall with Japanese cartoons and movies, and mix-and-match light fixtures in bright, primary colors hung from the ceiling. At the front bar, mixologists shake up cool cocktails with ingredients like barrel-aged stone fruit bitters and nigori sake.

But let’s get to the food. A yakitori is a Japanese style of street food that involves skewered meats or fish cooked over a grill, and true to form, Yusho serves most of its dishes on sticks, skewers, or wrapped in newspaper. It’s still high-end food with quality ingredients, but the menu is playful and encourages you to share.

One of the most fun dishes we tried was a special that the kitchen sent out that night: crispy fried pork skin. Wrapped in newspaper and tucked in a metal container, it had a very cool, almost architectural look to it. The taste would be familiar to anyone who’s ever eaten a chicharon: Salty, crunchy, amazingly light, and filled with tiny air pockets. Each bite just crumbles in your mouth, like a super flavorful piece of popcorn. Even though the pork skin isn’t on the menu, a crispy chicken skin is.

For the recreation, it was a challenge for the stylists to keep the skin from puffing up too much in the fryer. The skin at Yusho didn’t have huge blisters, and I wanted to keep that sort of uniform look for this shot. I kept the Asian newspaper under the skin, but I didn’t want it to obscure any of the food. I kept the background light and airy to avoid making the fried pork appear too weighed down. I love the way the final image catches the light on the very edges of the skin. You can almost hear the crackle as you’d bite into it.

The photo of the pork skin I took in my studio. © Stephen Hamilton Inc. 2012

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Publican Quality Meats

February 29th, 2012 by admin

The photo I shot of the sandwich with my iPhone

Paul Kahan has always had an eye for sourcing and preparing some of the best meat in the Midwest, especially at his casual farm-to-table restaurant The Publican. So it was only logical that the chef would extend this passion with a stand-alone butcher shop, Publican Quality Meats. Just over a week ago, the much-anticipated storefront opened across the street from The Publican at 825 W. Fulton, and I was excited to order a whole smorgasbord of sandwiches for the studio’s lunch.

We ordered nearly the whole menu: lamb meatball sandwich, tuna muffuletta, ribolitta soup, smoked turkey sandwich, and our hands-down favorite, the pork belly gyro. What made the gyro so tasty was simpy the quality of the ingredients. A springy pita-like bread surrounds tender, flavorful pork belly bites, while a traditional tzatziki is replaced with raita, the Indian version of yogurt sauce. Lastly, the sandwich is finished off with grilled vegetables that add a counterpoint to the rich belly meat. Everyone seated around the conference table enjoyed the gyro, complemented by the crispy, salty housemade potato chips and crunchy, tangy pickles that came on the side.

If you go to the butcher shop to try the sandwiches, you’ll need to prepare for a few things. First, you will need to grab a seat quickly, especially on the weekends, when the few tables in the back of the shop fill up fast with folks digging into their lunches. Second, you will not leave empty-handed. An enticing spread of housemade charcuterie, fresh breads, poultry, sausages, steaks, and artisan jarred and refrigerated items make it likely that you’ll leave with a shopping bag full of food along with that sandwich.

For the recreation, I wanted to make sure the filling of the sandwich really shone through. In the iPhone photo, it’s tough to see the tasty pork belly because of the way the bread is wrapped. Food stylist Carol Smoler made sure the meat, sauce, and vegetables were the star, and she charred the wrap just a bit to convey the warmth of the sandwich. I also shot the sandwich against a darker background rather than a white plate, which would wash out the colors and fail to convey the rich rusticity of the sandwich. The final image captures the juxtaposition of the savory, meaty pork and the fresh, bright pop of the yogurt sauce, a winning combination that made this sandwich a unanimous lunch favorite.

The recreated sandwich I shot in the studio.

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Bar Toma

December 6th, 2011 by admin

The photo I shot at Bar Toma with my iPhone

Downtown shoppers in search of a casual, affordable meal can skip the the mall food court, and they have Spiaggia’s Tony Mantuano to thank for it. His newly-opened Bar Toma, located in the former Bistro 110 space on Pearson, is a much-needed addition to Magnificent Mile area. Though it’s home to fantastic fine dining restaurants like Spiaggia, NoMI Kitchen, and RL, the area around Water Tower Place lacked a spot for well-executed, quick, and convenient Italian food. At Bar Toma, airy wood-fired pizza and Italian wines fit the bill perfectly.

I was invited to the restaurant’s soft opening, which was the night before its official Nov. 29 grand opening. What struck me first about the space is just how much is going on under one roof: an espresso bar, the wood-burning pizza oven, a gelato shop, the wine bar, and more. Tony Mantuano is clearly excited about this project; when I talked with him, I could tell how enthusiastic and genuinely passionate he is about a more casual concept. Unlike Spiaggia, Bar Toma is a large gathering place where anyone could just drop in after a day of work or shopping to recharge with a rustic pizza or an espresso pick-me-up. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it will cater to native Chicagoans as well as visiting shoppers along the Mag Mile.

A glass of Italian red in hand, I dug into the signature Mantuano pizza. I can see why Tony put his name on this one: it’s topped with tender rapini, savory guanciale (shaved pork cheek), melt-in-your-mouth mozzarella, and just enough chiles for a bit of heat. The crust is unlike any other pizza in Chicago, and is the result of Mantuano’s almost obsessive recipe testing. For months, he worked at figuring out just the right ratio of ingredients to produce a super light, crisp crust. For $16, it’s also a reasonable dish for two people to share.

Recreating this dish was a tall order. There’s really no way to replicate the dark brown, blistering crust that a wood-fired oven produces. Because I couldn’t just construct an oven in the middle of the studio, I decided to head to the archives and pull out one of the shots I took on my trip to Tuscany. While I was there, I visited a home with a wood-burning oven and shot this photo of a fresh pizza. The work that goes into one of these ovens is amazing. It needs to be heated up almost two days in advance, and seasoned over years of use to produce just the right flavors. If you don’t have an Italian vacation planned any time soon, take a bite of Bar Toma’s pizza, close your eyes, and you’re almost there.

The photo I shot of the wood-fired pizza in Tuscany.

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TR Napa Valley

November 22nd, 2011 by admin

The photo I shot of the wine on tap system at TR using my iPhone.

It’s easy to see why I love Napa. It’s a beautiful, natural environment with amazing scenery and light. When you’re there, you have the chance to watch the growing grapes that will eventually become the wine you drink. I like to know where my food and wine comes from, and there’s no better place to get up close and personal with the winemakers and their grapes than in Napa.

Since it’s not easy to fly to Napa often, I was eager to try the new TR Napa Valley wine bar that opened a few weeks ago in the Gold Coast. The location right on Ok Street makes it a perfect spot to take a break from a long day of holiday shopping on Michigan Avenue. TR is not really a restaurant, more like a bar that happens to have some cheese and, I’m told, will soon have charcuterie. I went in for drinks with a few friends, and despite the fact that there was no food, managed to rack up a pretty hefty bill drinking delicious California cabs.

The set-up of TR makes it the kind of place you can only go with one or two friends. The front area has bottles for retail sale, as well as a few tables where you can drink. The back bar only seats four people, but it’s the best place to sit if you want to really talk wine with the staff. Everything about the interior feels like California, right down to the oak barrel tables. Of course, what’s in your glass is the most important part. About 80 percent of the wine selection at TR is from California, and some of the bottles are fantastic. The only downside is that you’re going to have to pay for that quality, to the tune of $12-$25 per glass.

For my studio shot, I wanted to recreate the moment that the wine pour hits your glass. It’s when you get your first look at the deep color of the wine and catch your first smell of its bouquet. While red wine generally needs some time to open up in the glass, that first swirl of liquid can be really beautiful. To set up this complex shot, I needed the help of special effects master Geoff Binns-Calvey, who built an entire rig to create a continuous flow of wine. The best part of this shot is that in the end, it looks effortless, reminding you of the best days in Napa, spent drinking great wine surrounded by great company.

The wine pour recreation I shot in my studio

TR Napa Valley | 61 E. Oak Street | (312) 929-2299

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Telegraph Wine Bar

November 9th, 2011 by admin

It’s no secret that I like my wine. A new wine bar, Telegraph, opened in Logan Square in July, and I headed there with food stylist Carol Smoler and her husband for dinner a few weeks ago.

The shot I took at Telegraph with my iPhone

Telegraph is located not far from Longman & Eagle and Lula Cafe, making Logan Square one of the up-and-coming restaurant neighborhoods. But it wasn’t all hipsters seated at high tops; you could tell the crowd came from all over the city.

We sat at a table near the front window, which looks out onto Logan Boulevard. The restaurant sort of reminds me of Avec, and not just because chef Jose Anderes used to work in that kitchen. The wood, neutral colors, and minimal interior are also similar.

Even if you’re familiar with wines, the menu at Telegraph might throw you off. They serve only Old World wines, with a focus on small-batch and off-the-beaten-path biodynamic bottles. Luckily, the passionate and helpful servers are there to guide you.

The focus of the food menu is shareable, wine-friendly small plates. My favorite dish was the pickled pork loin tartine with whipped feta and plums, which I’ve recreated for this shot. Though pickled pork sounds strange, it wasn’t overwhelming, and tasted something like a pulled pork with vinegar base. We also shared the marinated olives plate, which was just a snack-sized dish of olives with a few pieces of cured ham and cheese, and the grilled half chicken. Overall, the menu has the feeling of a wine bar, but with better quality. Because the menu is so seasonal, don’t expect all these dishes to stick around through the fall and winter. In fact, the newest version of the menu no longer contains my favorite, the pork tartine.

For the studio shoot, I chose to recreate this tartine. I wanted to make sure each layer really stood out, because the components were hard to distinguish at Telegraph. I wanted to keep it very clean, very natural, and to use beautiful afternoon light. I’m happy with how rustic and crunchy the bread looks with its crumbs spread on the table, almost inviting you to grab one of the slices and share it with friends.

The photo I took of the pickled pork tartine at the studio.

Telegraph | 2601 N. Milwaukee Ave. |  773-292-9463

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Pump Room

November 4th, 2011 by admin

The shot I took at Pump Room with my iPhone

A few weeks ago, I was tipped off to the Pump Room’s soft opening. A few tables were available each night before the restaurant’s grand opening, so I had a chance to check it out without the long wait and buzzing crowds.

The hype about this restaurant makes sense. It’s a Chicago legend, serving the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra back in its heyday. The old Pump Room closed in January for a much-needed makeover courtesy of hotel hotshot Ian Schrager, with a new menu from star NYC chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Throw cocktail consultant and nightlife fixture Billy Dec in the mix, and you have a recipe for one of the most anticipated re-openings in years.

So I had to know: Would it live up to the hype? When I first stepped through the door of Public hotel and into Pump Room, the answer was definitely “yes.” The interior is awesome, from the shiny white marble to the dramatic lights. If you’re looking to impress your dinner guests, this is the new place to go. The atmosphere alone is worth stopping in for a $12 cocktail.

Unfortunately, the food was less consistent than the decor. An heirloom tomato salad, which I’ve chosen to recreate for this shot, was fantastic, as was a simple but flavorful salt and pepper shrimp with citrus and basil. On the other end of the spectrum, a pretzel-crusted calamari appetizer fell flat, and the flavor profiles of my pork chop entree with green chili butter didn’t add up. Chef Bradford Phillips honed his skills at venerable spots like LM, Tru, and the Park Hyatt, so hopefully he worked out the kinks in his menu during the soft opening period.

For my recreation of the tomato salad, I wanted to simplify the layers of the dish so that each ingredient was clear. I chose red and yellow tomatoes that would stand out from each other. I placed the berries front and center because they were the most unique ingredients in the dish. Instead of a whole mess of microgreens, I kept them simpler so that they wouldn’t distract from the produce. In hindsight, I think the styling of the shot could have been more elegant to better reflect the atmosphere at Pump Room. Still, I’m happy with the clarity of the ingredients and the crispness of the colors in this late-summer dish.

The photo I shot in the studio of the tomato salad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pump Room | Public Hotel | 1301 N. State Parkway | 312. 787. 3700

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