Avsnitt
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Turns out you don’t have to grow up with a golden palate, a gourmet family, or even the desire to be a great cook as a teenager if you want become a future Michelin-starred chef.
Or at least that’s how it worked for Donald Young, owner of Duck Sel, one of Chicago’s best restaurants which just happens to be run out of a private apartment in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.
I like Young’s story because we now see 10-year-olds being forced to specialize by training year round in a single sport in the hopes of going pro. Society often has expectations that every kid graduating high school has a ten year plan for their self-realization as adults.
The reality is as a forty-something, I am still figuring my life’s path out
It is rare that any of us know what we’re really destined for at any particular time in our life. Even if you do know, for most people that understanding and the work to support that dream doesn’t always come when you’re born.
As a teenager young preferred plain hamburgers ordering them instead of the Bloomin’ Onion (he didn’t like onions) at Outback Steakhouse. He got a job working at Culver’s and also a top Chicago kitchen, Les Nomades, but he got burnt out and walked away from the kitchen for a minute. As a young adult while Young navigated his early culinary career, he made some poor decisions that led to some run ins with the law and sleeping on a friend’s couch.
Eventually he doubled down on his passion, found his direction, and received his first star at Temporis in 2019. His current project Duck Sel is not a traditional brick and mortar restaurant. With a 2 to 1 guest to staff ratio, excellent food and servers with great wine knowledge, there are no compromises. The food and quality is absolutely top-notch.
One of my favorite dishes from Young, King Ora salmon with a variety of refined garnishes including carrot pudding, avocado & chimichurri emulsion, charred eggplant puree, and kishmish (Afghanistani raisins) could easily slip in to a tasting menu at Oriole or Ever.
By that I mean Young is as technically and creatively brilliant as Chicago’s top chefs, and he’s doing this in a home kitchen. He does have his own definitive style which feels like a mix of French traditional, molecular gastronomy, and beautiful naturalism
I hope you enjoy this interview. If you stumbled on this podcast via iTunes or Spotify, check out thehunger.substack.com for more.
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The HVAC system at 816 W. Armitage fired up like a jet injecting a loud whoosh into the air. You might recognize that address as the townhouse that held the original Charlie Trotter’s restaurant.
I was recording this podcast with Trotter’s son Dylan Trotter on the second floor. I was willing to accept the background noise because I didn’t want to disturb what was a mesmerizing conversation for any Chicago restaurant history lover.
Dylan, noticed immediately, stood up, walked over to the thermostat, shut off the AC and then returned to his seat and kept talking.
That may not seem like that big of a deal, but I’ve recorded thousands of interviews as journalist, and no one is ever paying attention to distracting background noises and they certainly aren’t fixing the issue.
But, that Dylan did, well, it’s hard not to read it as a reflection of the DNA he shares with his notoriously detail-oriented and fastidious father Charlie.
Dylan, has been quietly working in restaurant kitchens like the defunct GT Fish and the defunct A10 in Hyde Park, as well as mixing salads “15 feet in the air” table side at BOA steakhouse in West Hollywood over the last decade.
Post-pandemic, he came back to Chicago, where he’s been quietly celebrating his father’s legacy and preserving his memory. He hasn’t done a lot of press, but while talking to him for research about a piece on the Next restaurant Charlie Trotter tribute menu, I asked him if he’d want to do a podcast.
He graciously said yes. I’m so glad he did. He told so many great stories including how he’d play chess with his dad mid-service or how Charlie would run over to Chicago's Oz Park in his suit in the afternoon for a little one-on-one basketball with Dylan.
Dylan certainly talked about his dad as the famous chef, but it was these beautiful moments about Charlie the man he shared that I will really cherish. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
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Over the years, chef Grant Achatz of The Alinea Group and the Next Restaurant team have created a series of tasting menus inspired by Escoffier at the Ritz, Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, and the legacy of Julia Child.
Starting next week, September 7th, 2024, the Next team unveils their newest culinary homage: the work of Charlie Trotter.
Trotter was both an inspiring and polarizing figure. Trotter’s example changed America from a meat and potatoes-loving concern to a fixed-menu-hungry dining public. Without Charlie Trotter’s, Alinea, Smyth, Oriole, and Ever, the rich tasting menu landscape Chicago has today, probably doesn’t exist.
Trotter and his team which also included Chicago legends like Reggie Watkins, Guillermo Tellez, Matthias Merges, Bill Kim, Giuseppe Tentori, Mindy Segal, Graham Elliot, Beverly Kim, Curtis Duffy, and John Shields is responsible for the invention or proliferation of so many now familiar dining trends including tasting menus in America, the spread of micro-greens, kitchen table seating, rich wine pairings, raw food, conservation, and non-alcoholic offerings.
What people may not know is that chef Achatz worked at Charlie Trotters for a short time, but ended up quitting after a few months. In the documentary Love Charlie, Achatz talks a lot about how at times he didn’t know whether he and Charlie were friends or enemies.
In this podcast, we talk about the complex, innovative Trotter, and how Achatz’s early experiences transformed in to a full appreciation for the man and how he will be celebrating that legacy at Next. We also talk about Achatz’s evolution as a chef, his friendship with the magician David Blaine, and his funny scene on The Bear.
If you stumbled across this podcast and you love this topic, make sure to subscribe to The Hunger because I will be unveiling a long-form written piece next week on the development of the Next/Trotter menu.
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In this episode I explore what it means to be unsung with a review of the Puerto Rican restaurant Estacion from chef Mark Mendez and a recent concert at Chicago's Empty Bottle by the musician Ondara.
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A look at what it means when taco gentrification comes to a city with a wealth of authentic tacos. This audio review of Tacombi and Carniceria Mirabel is free, however, like my written essays, many of these podcasts will only be fully available to paying subscribers of thehunger.substack.com. Paid subscribers will get a private RSS link that allows them to access the full feed.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thehunger.substack.com/subscribe
