Chicago chef’s use of a strawberry and tomato exhibit René Descartes’ deceptive senses
Strawberries that taste like tomatoes? Floating apple-flavoured balloons made of sugar? While these may sound like Willy Wonka creations, they can be found at Alinea, a small restaurant in Lincoln Park, Chicago. “Why do you have to eat with a fork or a spoon and why does it have to be served in a plate or a bowl? […] Rules? There are no rules. Do whatever you want,” said Grant Achatz, the renowned Michelin star chef and co-founder of Chicago’s Alinea restaurant. Guests dining at Alinea can expect a night full of gastronomical trickery and disorientation, far from a night of standard white dining plates and traditional food presentation. What separates Alinea from the countless other Michelin acclaimed restaurants is their desire to create an engaging dining experience for guests, in addition to serving delicious food. Instead of simply thinking of how to make a dish taste better or how to incorporate more flavour, Achatz asks questions a chef would never seem to ask, like if something can be made to float or if it can be made invisible. To evoke a greater sense of awe, Achatz developed a plating idea where aromatics are placed in a simple pillow and fragrant puffs swirl and billow around the dining guest as they indulge. But, the creative deception does not end with scented pillows; food is painted and arranged on the very tablecloth diners eat from, almost in the abstract expressionist manner of Jackson Pollock, and sugar floats as green-apple flavoured sugar balloons are ushered into the dining room.
In René Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes explains how the senses are deceptive and can be a source of illusion in our life: “However, I have noticed that the senses are sometimes deceptive; and it is a mark of prudence never to place our complete trust in those who have deceived us even once.” Achatz’s unorthodox methods rely on such sensory deceptions, and Alinea’s illusory ways prove that things may not always be as they seem. While Achatz was probably not quoting Descartes while curating Alinea’s dishes, he has expressed his desire to create an experience where guests expect the unexpected. A definite manifestation of such Descartian deceptions is Alinea’s tomato strawberry: “It is a kind of mind game,” said Achatz, while describing the dish that deconstructs a tomato to look like a strawberry.
Perhaps the difference between Descartes’ observation and Alinea’s deception is the willingness of the person to be deceived. Achatz has created an environment where guests look to be played with, tricked, and surprised, but it is their choice to partake in Alinea’s distorted reality. Illusions are everywhere in our world, even in places unassuming, like with tomatoes that taste like strawberries and floating sugar balloons. Perhaps Alinea can be seen as a deception and trick, but isn’t a little surprise and awe part of life’s beauty?