a few weeks ago during our farm visits to spence and kilgus, we met a nice young cow named guillermo.  and as a chef, though i do find all animals cute, i just kept thinking how darn tasty he would be.  alas the ‘wandering goat’ resurged to celebrate his new friend, guillermo.

i decided this time around to change things up a bit and invite a couple of my favorite chicago chefs to tackle the animal.  chef tentori from BOKA, now referred to as ‘the guido’ for his thick italian accent, and chef gresh from primehouse, clearly ‘the greaser’ (i think if you watch the fight scene at the end of the outsiders in slow motion, you can see rick in the background beating up a soc).  both chefs strongly support local ingredients like we do, and well they are just fun to cook with…and kind of fun to make fun of which keeps me entertained…and i just like cooking with talented chefs and learning a thing or two in the process.  so when the veal arrived two days before the dinner, we each grabbed a piece or two and went to work.  what is fun about cooking dinners with other chefs is seeing the different styles.  this dinner in particular was cool because we were all using the same protein for hors d’oeuvres and courses, and all went in very different directions.

tentori got me excited with his hors d’oeuvre of crisp fried veal brain with a moroccan bbq sauce.  brain can some times have a very unappealing texture, but fried just right it is crisp on the outside and melts in your mouth.  and the sauce had just the right amount of acidity to cut through the richness.

rick had tasty little veal saltimbocca dumplings with a sauce of slow roasted garlic and tomatoes that he grew in his own garden at home (yes, rick is quite the gardener… a couple weeks ago he was putting in an irrigation system.  i can’t even keep an herb plant alive.  very impressed.)  a great play on the classic roman dish.  great flavor without being overly complicated.

i wound up doing a couple little snacks.  one was crisp fried dough (for those who have read the chi magazine article, this is the fried dough that brought on the taco bell run) topped with a smoked veal sausage, melted spring onions and a spiced aioli.  i have been getting very in to sausage making lately in preparation for the new restaurant.  we are going to have a daily sausage menu featuring 4-5 sausage composed plates.  figure if we are getting in mainly whole animals, we will have plenty of meats to play with.  for this veal sausage we added in a bit of spice and some gruyere cheese, then lightly smoked the links.  pretty darn tasty.  the other snack was ‘tongue and cheek’ featuring, well, guillermo’s tongue and cheeks.  we sous vide the tongue overnight with some spices, butter and jus, then braised the cheeks and served them together with a pistachio picada.  just enough spice and a little texture to go along with the tender meats.

after enjoying some snacks along with some tasty brew from our good friends at three floyds, we invited everyone to sit down at a few communal tables and enjoy.  tentori started things off with a veal galantine that he served with some pickled kohlrabi, a house made rye mustard and a pistachio puree.  impressive techniques as always with a beautiful galantine featuring various cut of the veal with a nice bold mustard and the perfect creamy puree.

next up was my dish, which kind of came together at the last minute as often is the case.  i have a strange new obsession with fresh masa, so we picked some up and pressed out fresh tortilla, which we filled with roasted veal breast and a little chihuahua cheese, then formed into what i coined the ‘mexican agnolottei.’  it was served with a jus of roasted veal stock, a green garlic vinaigrette and a couple slices of veal loin that just melt in your mouth.  think people were a little suprised to see such a mexican inspired dish… perhaps due to that taco bell trip that i do not quite remember.

to finish off the savory courses, rick served a veal “blanquette” with potato pave, creamed ramps and a black pepper mushroom syrup.  again, beautiful flavors without going too crazy.  the potato was perfectly crispy and delicious (as crisp potato always is to me), the creamed ramps were a great way to celebrate the start of ramp season, and the veal was again just melt-in-your mouth delicious.

not to discredit myself or the other chefs, but the veal from kilgus is just the best veal i have tasted, and i think it would have been hard not to make a delicious meal out of it.  i remember back when dave and i tasted our first sample (not of guillermo, but one of his relatives).  our eyes lit up as we made sounds of pure surprise and delight.  it is just that good.

to finish off the night, i invited my good friend jessie oloroso of black dog gelato to do dessert.  some time last summer, jessie and i were at a turkish friends house for dinner.  all of the food was amazing, but the thing that stood out the most was the eggplant dessert.  she had slowly braised japanese eggplant in a lemon simple syrup and served it with fresh ricotta (a dessert i will be trying to recreate this summer at the goat).  jessie took that idea and made a roasted eggplant tart with some lemon-ginger gelato.  to die for, of course.  a perfect ending.  (by the way, jessie is taking over the old piccolo space on damen and will soon be serving her delicious gelato flavors, so keep an eye out for the opening!)

after a fun night in the kitchen, we all joined in on the party, had a couple beers, met all of the fun guests, and then for some reason decided to sing reo speedwagon (well just rick and i for that part… our cd comes out some time late summer).  all in all a great night filled with great food, fun staff and guests, and plenty of laughs.

i want to give special thanks to zina murray, owner of logan square kitchen where the event was held.  she has put a lot of effort and thought into creating a great space that is not only beautiful, but also ‘green,’ and really celebrates the local food and sustainable culture movement.  it was the perfect setting for our local farm dinner, and i look forward to working with zina in the future for other events.  thank you!!