This year for my birthday I had one and only one destination in mind. Senza.
Senza is not a large place. It is modern fine dining. In other words people wear all sorts of clothes but the waitstaff is dressed and the meal for the evening is a prix fixe tasting menu.
Years agp, when I had no idea what was wrong with me, each year on my birthday I would sample yet another Chicago restaurant that had a prix fixe menu where I was turning myself over to the chef and preparing to be amazed. I remember after one such dinner at a restaurant that has since closed my friend and I remarked that we now needed to go home and experience sensory deprivation as the meal had been so fabulous and so fantastically demanding on our senses.
However in the years since I have been gluten-free my birthday dinner has become more of a fish and steakhouse experience since fine dining that could accomodate gluten-free dairy-free and corn-free was out of range. I thoroughly enjoyed the fish places, but it was not the same.
Then about a year ago, I learned that Senza would be opening and that the entire restaurant would be gluten-free and the chef would work with other food issues, They had not opened in time for my birthday last year, but this year, I really wanted to go.
And so I did.
And it was wonderful.
Senza is fine dining. Like the old Charlie Trotter’s fine dining. There may be watercress foam or mint puree. You need to be the sort to trust the chef.
You see, I would never combine coconut caramel, watercress, blueberries and scallops. Or parsnips and lobster in a soup. And I had never heard of any of the wines that were paired with our courses. Which is why Noah Sandoval is a chef and I am working on developing a really good recipe for gluten-free chicken fingers. As expected it was fabulous sensory overload. My husband said that his dessert might well be “the best dessert I have ever eaten…ever”
We called ahead to inform them of my dairy and corn intolerances and they were ready for me and managed to create a fantastic meal complete with a complex sorbet and something with tapioca and mint that I cannot explain adequately.
So if you are gluten-free (or even like me and gluten, dairy and corn free) and you enjoy having a talented chef figure it out for you, I highly recommend Senza.
FYI, there are no photos because I did not want them to know I was a blogger and no I did not get anything for this post. I just really enjoyed it.
Reservations are somewhere between strongly recommended and required and if you are like me with other issues they are mandatory.
Senza’s website is here
http://www.senzachicago.com/
