afternoon and evening

we decided to visit the Field Museum to see the special exhibit on the Columbian Exposition of 1893 (the White City)

  

having a bit of spare time we went into the regular exhibits - which I always find bothersome- the animals that were destroyed especially the young cubs etc... really make me angry- the whole thing seem archaic to me- not unlike the zoos of the era where all they had were rectangular cages with bars and not even the attempt at reproducing the environment the animal might actually live in- truth be told I am not a fan of zoos despite knowing they do some good work- I would rather see the animals in sanctuaries instead of zoos and would prefer reserves rather than sanctuaries/preserves... let them live in their space and have people come to visit...

after the museum we had dinner with the Chicago Gourmets group at Cyrano's Farm Kitchen. We have been here before and had two outstanding meals - both very memorable in their own ways-

here are the posts from the prior meals-

where we have a great time drinking several bottles of our own wine while the host gets blotto and his wife leaves- LOL
http://semifreelife.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-two-bottles-of-wine.html

and the next - posting on the meal which was superb!
http://semifreelife.blogspot.com/2013/04/back-to-cyranos.html

tonight we enjoyed a fabulous menu - of traditional foods in the style of the Chef's youth- here are some things from the restaurant website- and the menu-

more details and photos below-

so - a wonderful evening and interesting day... coming tomorrow - A10 the new hot spot in Hyde Park (yes, you read that correctly- LOL) see you there!

Le Cordon Bleu goes for the GOLD!

Saturday we attended another fund raiser for Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) competition cooking team at the school's restaurant Technique-

The fabulous meal - under the overall supervision of Chef Austin Yancey - was extremely similar to the one the team prepared at our place in May- here is the menu:

 

The dinner was wonderful but before we get to specifics - this was a fund raising dinner for the students who compete in various events around the state and the nation- both individually and as teams... so we got to meet  a number of them over the course of the evening and also participated in a silent auction and a live auction

 

the items for auction included:

 

 

you may recall we were the high bidders on the very first dinner for ten auctioned last summer.... see prior post called the big night! ( http://semifreelife.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-big-night.html ) it was a lot of fun to see the variations and refinements the team made over the summer on the dishes they cooked for us the first week in May...

 

so without further ado the food!

 

 

and oops! I did miss a course- the hand cut pasta with the truffle sauce was so inviting I just dug right in! LOL--- you can see it in the big night post plated a bit differently but still the same basic dish (sorry! - LOL)

 

(Don Newcomb saves the day- here is his photo! )

 

 

the wines they chose for the evening are listed on the menu and both Phil and I thought the pairings were well done! I laughed an said maybe they learned a bit from us (fat chance- LOL) since we did the pairings for the big night dinner at our place...

 

we had lovely table mates in Julie and her friend Maureen- enhancing the evening's experience; the flowers were also a nice addition.

 

 

I stopped in the kitchen upon arrival to say hi and drop off a gift for the chefs who lead the team (Chef Austin- the big kahuna, Chef Eric Clark who was working the front this evening and Chef Robert (Bob) Benson who was sweating it out in the kitchen with the students most of the time)

 

folks arriving-

tables begin to fill up

the team is introduced before the meal and then focused introductions were done throughout the evening-

 

 

 

directions to the team-

unveiling of the black box ingredients for our final dessert which will be whipped up in the back pursuant to ideas from the diners -

 

the dinner was superb and the auction went well - the dinner for ten sold to a boisterous group for $1000 and the other items raised additional money- a shout out to Michelle Brown from Rational who donated some of the items - she is a big supporter of this team and deserves a mention for her good deeds!

 

just a few more miscellaneous photos as the chefs are presented with gifts from Don Newcomb founder of the Chicago Gourmets-

 

 

 (above) Chef Austin- (below) Chef Eric on the right and Chef Robert on the left-

Chef Robert with Maureen (L) and Julie (R)

 

another coup for the LCBC competition team and their chef instructors- along with Chicago Gourmets, a perfect night!