2008: A SPICE ODYSSEY

By Thomas Connors

Experimentation is what it’s all about for Daryl Nash, executive chef at Otom (951 W. Fulton Market, 312.491.5804), the sister to molecular gastronomy destination Moto. While his decontructed dishes strike some as food from another planet, they spring from the familiar. His “four-dimensional bowl” of shrimp chili, for example, doesn’t come in a bowl and is certainly no mess of beans. “The chili itself” notes Nash, “is a puree made from a special, smoked poweder blend we get from Terra Spice.” Drizzled on the plate amid a sprinkle of black beans and puffed rice, this is an age-old comfort dish imploded. But it provides the piquancy one expects, especially when combined with a spongy noodle made from pureed jalepeno, blanched cilantro, simple syrup, pureed raw shrimp, lime and salt.
“I want things to be absurd,” says Nash. “I want people to look at this and go. ‘Holy crap, what is that?” That’s a bright geen noodle. The texture is a little wierd, but it’s pleasant. It’s cold, but it goes well with the warm things on the plate. Eating a snail is wierd, but if that snail tastes awesome, you’re going to eat a giant bowl of them. A noodle like this is wierd, but if it tastes good, you’ll eat a bowl of them.”