Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Bartolotta declined and made his name opening San Domenico instead, before coming here to Spiaggia for several years in the early 90s. The two were already friends when they finally became colleagues, both opening restaurants at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Despite their long friendship, this will be Boulud’s first visit to Bartolotta’s hometown, and a rare touchdown in the midwest for him. I spoke to Boulud about his upcoming visit by phone; the dinner will be $150 per person, which includes an autographed copy of his new book, Daniel: My French Cuisine; reservations can be made at 414-727-6980.
Michael Gebert: Have you been to Milwaukee before?
There’s a lot of good products from Wisconsin, both meat and, of course, it’s a huge dairy state. Do you ever use any of the Wisconsin cheeses in your restaurants?
Well, all the books before I was trying to be, I think, approachable. To make people be more comfortable with cooking and doing more of a home interpretation of the inspiration we have in the restaurant. And this book is more about Daniel, the restaurant Daniel. Have you seen the book yet?
Well, in France we’re pretty well versed in many things. You know, the Spice Road wound up in Europe, and part of it was in France. So when we use Indian spice in our cooking, it’s because in the 1800s they were already bringing spice to France. But for example, in Milwaukee I’m going to do a salad, which is a lobster salad with biryani masala, fresh coconut chutney, and spiced sheep yogurt. I think the salad is interesting because of the seasoning of the lobster, it has an application which is not really French, but with complexity with the yogurt and with the biryani masala.
