Thursday, December 27, 2007

Pastiche @ Blackbird






JJPCHICAGO & MUSIC MASTERS


PRESENT PASTICHE

Artist Corey Sanford and Owner of JJP Chicago Julia Jacobs have teamed up for yet another event at Blackbird. This event displayed a wide variety of talent portrayed by this creative duo ranging from the literary arts, murals, and music.

pastiche [pas‐teesh] A dramatic, literary, or musical piece openly imitating the previous works of other artists, often with satirical intent.
Food for this event was provivded by Chef Mike Sheerin

As Blackbird’s first Chef de Cuisine, Mike Sheerin steps up to the stoves of one of Chicago’s most beloved and respected restaurants. To watch his easy manner and quiet confidence, though, you wouldn’t know that this 30-year-old has taken on such a responsibility and is now being closely watch by a curious culinary community. Sheerin’s cuisine is a delicate departure from that of Executive Chef Paul Kahan, and yet he seems to carry on Kahan’s uncanny ability to make quietly revolutionary food.

Recently, Sheerin shook up the menu with disarmingly pedestrian ingredients, such as garnishing parsnip soup with puffed rice (simply fried in oil and seasoned), as well head-turning preparations, such as his delicious bacon caramel and smoked grapes with venison, and a crisply bitter radicchio sauce with pike. His fried shallot broth, served with lamb and butternut squash panisse riff on traditional preparations in a most modern way.

Sheerin comes to Blackbird from Kahan’s friend Wylie Dufresne and WD-50, where he worked as sous chef for 3 1/2 years. Prior to working at WD-50, Sheerin worked at Lutece, Atlas and Jean Georges in New York. In his hometown of Chicago, he worked at Everest.

Sheerin has a Bachelor of Culinary Arts from Grand Rapids Community College.

Tim Dahl

Tim Dahl, Pastry Chef at Chicago’s nationally renowned Blackbird, finds his pastry passion in the singular flavors that can be showcased in a dish. Unlike savory food, where meats, vegetables, sauces and the like all compete for attention, pastries can concentrate on just one perfectly ripe fruit and the adept Pastry Chef can build the entire dish around it. At a restaurant like Blackbird, where seasonality is a religion, a pastry chef with Tim Dahl’s focus can really shine.

Thirty three, the Madison, Wisconsin-born Dahl comes to Blackbird from Naha, where he was pastry chef for three years. Prior to Naha, Dahl worked at Nomi and Restaurant Magnus in Madison. It was at the latter that Dahl learned the beauty of seasonal produce, “we used to go to the Dane County Market every Saturday and pick out what we were going to cook for the week. It was amazing and a great education in the importance of seasonality.

Often incorporating root vegetables, olives and other hallmarks of the savory kitchen in his pastries, Dahl has a firm foundation in the savory kitchen from 10 years of experience in various restaurants in Wisconsin and North Carolina. He began to make the switch when the “bread guy” didn’t show up for work one day and Tim took over.

Dahl graduated with a Bachelor in Hospitality Management and Food Science from the University of Wisconsin, Stout. His culinary degree began first at Kendall and then to Le Cordon Bleu.

It's also nice to know that Corey Sanford owner of musicmastersrock.com has made his way through this incredible venue.

Availability Checker: www.musicmastersinc.djintelligence.com/availability

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