Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
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TASTE continued from page 74 Considering the chef���s exacting standards, it makes sense that North Pond���s cuisine is fastidiously composed: harmonious assemblages of deconstructed textures, colors, and flavors that result in deceptively simple, satisfying contemporary American dishes. Crab/mandarin salad tempts with delicate layers of myriad ingredients���hearts of palm, radish shavings, tiny wedges of juicy Satsuma citrus, warm rice croquettes, and an Alaskan crab claw���while beet/trout offers candied red, gold, and purple Chioggia beets displayed like rare jewels amid ruby-red grapefruit wedges, sweet endive marmalade, waferlike croutons, and tender bits of smoky Wisconsin trout. The seasons spill out over the plate: ���For us,��� says Sherman, ���spring is halibut, salmon, rabbit.��� That means dishes like bacon-wrapped rabbit saddle with carrot pur��e; halibut with asparagus, smoked caviar, and redonion caper; and a comforting starter plate of soft-boiled hen egg (Sherman���s ���perfect food���) with morels and fava beans. Sherman is also excited about the season���s North Pond���s oft-changing menu. ramps, asparagus, and everything ���fresh and green.��� Ultimately, the key to Sherman���s success may be simplicity. ���The most difficult things to execute are the most simple; it���s not the dish with 47 components, it���s the one with five or three to make it really sing.��� That philosophy also guides Sherman���s attitude toward the restaurant���s 15thanniversary celebration, or lack thereof. ���We���ll recognize it in some way and in some stage,��� says Sherman. ���We understand under-the-radar; very little is in your face [here]. That goes along with how we choose to recognize a special occasion, whether it���s ours or yours.��� MA White chocolate mousse is piped into molds. DRINK SPRING Mixologist Dustin Zimmerman takes serious advantage of North Pond���s ��berseasonal setting with cocktails like a carroty spring sipper that pairs perfectly with dishes like steamed halibut with snap peas and is a spin on the classic corpse reviver #2 of gin, Cointreau, Lillet Blanc, lemon juice, and absinthe. Says Zimmerman, ���Spring is the time that everything comes back to life, so what better drink than the corpse reviver?��� CARROT, GIN 1 �� oz. fresh carrot juice �� oz. North Shore #6 Gin �� oz. Lillet Blanc �� oz. fresh lime juice 1 bar spoon of ginger syrup Shake ingredients, then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with thinly sliced radish, carrot, black pepper, and chives. Pastry chef Greg Mosko THE SWEET SIDE ���A huge dessert that comes toward you, that���s not my style,��� says North Pond pastry chef Greg Mosko. A French Pastry School grad, Mosko joined North Pond in 2006 before doing time at NorCal���s famed Bouchon Bakery and French Laundry. In 2009 he returned to North Pond, bringing modern takes on classic desserts and dishes that are ���clean, simple, and not over-thought.��� But the chef, who pairs a smoked olive oil sorbet with praline feuilletine and chocolate mousse in the winter and loves arugula ice cream with strawberries in the spring, admits he���s not afraid to push the envelope. ���I like to put as few components on the plate as possible, with one ���wow��� factor,��� he says. Whether he���s pairing pear with fennel or pine nuts with grapes, Mosko puts a twist on the familiar. ���I try to find that balance,��� he says. ���[It���s not about] doing overly sweet stuff that hurts your teeth���it���s about having fun.��� 76 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 074-080_MA_Flavor_FlavorOfTheMonthV2_Spring13.indd 76 2/11/13 6:23 PM