Charlie Trotter just died...

Whoa. His restaurant was all kinds of awesome before he closed it.

I was hoping he'd eventually open another.

 

Yeah, I wonder if there is going to be more of a story behind this once the details are out.

 

My kids were working so quietly that they heard me gasp when I saw the news. Then I had to explain who Charlie Trotter was.

 

My earlier comment about it was only because I wondered if it led to his demise. It honestly crossed my mind when I heard (and especially since I have yet to hear a cause of death) that maybe it was self inflicted. I'm guessing not since it has been reported yet, and I hope not since I think it would be a little easier on the family if that isn't the case.

I wouldn't think less of him or look down on him if he did have mental issues. I have several friends and a few family members who struggle with various levels of mental illness. I think the stigmas attached to it are unfortunate and unfair, but that is an entirely different discussion.

 

If you want to adjust the subject, actually adjusting it instead of critiquing those not discussing it the way you prefer is typically the best option. The whole bees and honey thing.

Charlie Trotter dead: Famed Chicago chef dies - chicagotribune.com


My TFP thread about his restaurant's closing: The best restaurant I've personally ever been to is closing this year. | The TFP


FWIW, I've spent most of the last half an hour looking for a write up I did in another space of my visit there (we sat at the kitchen table, which the first article referenced as "the hottest table in town", we got in on a last minute cancellation on a Sat night). So far no success in finding it, I'll keep looking for a bit.

To date (I expect the next couple weeks to change this) it was probably the most amazing dinner I've ever had. Partially because I hadn't been exposed to nearly as many really awesome culinary things as I have been since, and partially just because it was just that incredible. Our server was phenomenal, the sous chef was great, and once the staff saw how much we (especially my wife) was enjoying the entire presentation, they even brought her into the prep area of the kitchen. They taught her how to plate and present the next course, let her do it, and had her bring it to our table and serve it with the explanation of what it was and how it was prepared. She still considers that a huge highlight.

 

Well, I searched a lot today but I could not find the write-up that I had thought (maybe just imagined?) I made at that time, so I'll do my best to recollect it.


It was in March of 2008, and I had planned months and months in advance to be able to get a Saturday night reservation at Charlie Trotter's for our 10th anniversary. I wanted the Kitchen Table, but I was told that it was booked for that night, and for every weekend night on either side of that week. It also required you to pay for a 4 person minimum even if you had less people than that. So I made reservations for the dining room at 9PM (they had a 6pm seating and a 9PM seating each night, no other times for reservations). We were staying downtown for the weekend at the Intercontinental on Michigan Ave. Sat AM it was snowing and sleeting even though it was mid-late March, and IIRC there was a prediction of up to 9" of snow in some areas of Chicagoland. I got a call midday from Trotter's confirming my reservation. They also said that due to the poor weather the Kitchen Table for that night had cancelled and we could have it if we were willing to pay for 4 dinners. I agreed, figuring that it was a very rare opportunity, even though it was a big stretch to throw down an extra several hundred bucks on ONE meal. However, it was our 10th, my wife asks for almost nothing extra materially, and this was a huge exciting deal for her.

So we took a cab to Trotter's, had a drink in the bar, and were seated right at 9PM. Our server was a nice woman in her mid-30s, and they were very kind and gracious about it being our anniversary. The sous chef was exceptionally friendly as well, and through the night we had a lot of extra conversation with him and a few other people in the kitchen. The Kitchen Table menu that night was 18 courses, and I got the wine accompaniment, which included something like 8 or 10 half glasses of wine paired with various courses. All of the courses were of course very tiny, so that you could actually eat 18 of them. It was also spread across a three hour time period, as each course was given a few minutes to digest and be cleared away before they brought the next one.

I think early on in the evening our server and the Sous Chef realized that we were probably the poorest people in the restaurant, even if we were at the best table, and that we were the most excited and thrilled by the experience. This seemed to obviously fuel them and cause them to enjoy our experience with us. At one point the Sous Chef asked me if I liked tuna steak. I told him that I had had a couple that I liked, but I was mainly a steak guy, and would basically never order a tuna steak over a good ribeye or porterhouse. He said "Are you willing to try something unique made of tuna though?" I assured him I was. He comes back 10-15 minutes later with a small plate. On the plate was a piece of tuna maybe twice the diameter of a quarter, maybe 1/2" thick in the center, and less on the edges. It had a fairly mild wasabi sauce next to it with a small light cracker. He had me try the tuna, then try a piece with the sauce and cracker. It was amazing, and I told him that if he could bring me an entire steak of that, that I would let it compete with my beloved red meat! He laughed and said "That was blahblah (can't remember) tuna. Japan restricts the export of it because it is such a delicacy. All of North America is allowed to import ONE tuna per week. We got this week's tuna. You just ate the cheek (best part) of it." Some people may think that is stupid, or pretentious, or whatever, and I get it. But it was awesome and I was blown away.

As I mentioned, I think the staff soon realized that this was a bucket list type experience for my wife and I. We weren't the typical customer there, and this was a big budget item that we had saved and planned for, not a simple Saturday night out. They took great joy in explaining the dishes, how they were prepared, pointing out the various stations in the kitchen and telling us what each chef (there were 17 actual chefs, not including their assistants and helpers) did, etc. So at one point I got up to use the restroom. I come back, and my wife is not at the table. I see her back in the kitchen, behind one of the stations, surrounded by staff. As soon as I got up the Sous Chef asked her if she wanted to prepare and plate a dish, then present it to me. She readily agreed, and was incredibly excited about it. I'm sure they probably weren't technically supposed to let customers behind the serving counter part of the kitchen, but they did. So she was back there a few minutes plating the various things that went into the dish, learning how it was prepared, and being taught how to present it, which she did. It was very cool.

At the end of the night, we were asked if we wanted a tour of the wine cellar and the rest of the building, which we did. The wine cellar was incredible. They had wines in there that were listed for up to $35k, and they had many, many wines that were over $10k per bottle. I told our server that I thought that was kind of crazy, and I asked how often someone ordered a bottle of wine that cost five-figures. She said it happened more than one might think, and usually the bottle was asked about at the time of reservation, to ensure it was still in-house that night. She said that when they received such an invitation the chefs would usually plan the entire night's menu around that bottle. Since everyone at a 'Tasting Menu' place gets essentially the same courses on any given night (you don't order entrees, the chef basically picks what you eat), everyone in the restaurant would end up eating foods that complimented that wine, whether they were getting any or not.

Anyway, that is the basics of our evening at Charlie Trotter's. We always talked about going back, but it just never happened. Part of it was the cost, part of it was the fact that there are so many great choices in Chicago we try to visit new places as much as possible, part of it was probably thinking we'd save it for our 15th or 20th, and now it is closed.

RIP Charlie Trotter.

 

It is being reported that he had an inoperable brain aneurysm and a little known history of strokes and seizures. It is now thought that this is likely tied to his passing.

 

The Medical Examiner has determined that stroke due to high blood pressure was the cause of death.

Acclaimed chef Charlie Trotter died of a stroke: Cook Co. M.E. - Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News