I think when you have people like Grant Achatz, and Wylie Dufresne out
there, innovative becomes a relative term. I think that we are doing some
really cool things in our kitchen, but I would be a fool to think that a lot
of the techniques haven’t been done already.. I guess our flavor
combinations and our “riffs” on dishes are what make us become part of the
inventive group. We use a lot of the same toys in our kitchen as a lot of
other chefs these days; immersion circulators, dehydrators, coagulants,
smokers, cryo vac machines. Etc.
For me innovation comes in the form of that feeling a guest gets from the
moment of reading the menu and getting that “what the hell could that be”
feeling to when it gets to their mouth and they are like “holy crap, that
makes since”. One of those dishes for us is the Duroc Pork dish we currently
have on the menu. It is pork tenderloin that has been brined in brown sugar
and bourbon, seared and poached in aromatic olive oil at 120 degrees using
an immersion circulator. We then top the pork with what we are calling
“Lardo brulee”. We take lardo and whip it in the paco jet. We place it on
top of the pork and hit it with a propane torch as you would a traditional
crème brulee. Very old technique but a new idea to use it on. It works well
and paired with jalapeño jelly, wild boar sausage, and English pea puree
the dish is one of our favorites.
Greg Biggers
Executive Chef
Sofitel Chicago Water Tower
20 East Chestnut Street
Chicago, IL 60611, USA
Tel : + 1 (312) 324 4041
Cell: + 1 (312) 841 1228
Fax: + 1 (312) 324 4026
Email: greg.biggers @sofitel.com
Website: www.sofitel.com
Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards, 2010
Condé Nast Gold List and Readers’ Choice Awards, Top Hotels, 2010
USA Today’s Best Chicago Hotels for Business, 2009

Despite being surrounded by wheat fields, up until now, Chicago has been unable to use locally sourced wheat and flour. Nellcote's Executive Chef, Jared Van Camp has gone to extreme lengths to fill this singular void in the Chicago food scene by milling his own superfine double zero flour with local heritage wheat sourced from regional farmers. Being the first restaurant in the US to mill its own flour in house daily, Nellcôte's custom made flour mill resides in its own room in the basement of the West Randolph venue.