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Michael sigil5/9/2023 Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire. Game of Thrones was the first of these, based on foraging for food references within George R.R. She is 43, with good hair and full-sleeve tattoos, which makes her a compelling protagonist when Elizabeth opened in 2012, former Chicago Tribune critic Phil Vettel called her Alice, because “the fields and farms where she forages for ingredients comprise her Wonderland.” Years before Elizabeth began a program of dinner (and occasional brunch) menus themed to the fictional worlds Regan cares about, she was referencing texts within her meals to tell diners stories about herself. Regan - whose name is pronounced “ Elena Reegan” - is a savant whose culinary education began in her family’s kitchen, was formalized in small-town Indiana cafes, and furthered in some of Chicago’s highest-end restaurants. At Elizabeth under Regan, her use of these sources transcended dining room cliche. ![]() Regan is a gatherer, of both what she serves for dinner and details from the stories she interrogates through her cooking. ![]() The chef, Iliana Regan, has seemingly never done anything half-assed or half-hearted in her life obviously she owns a small army of Game of Thrones dolls, and if she was bothering to cook a menu about it, there was going to be a chest of handmade dragon eggs next to the duck press near the kitchen. Iliana Regan retells stories through her food: The texts she’s dealing with are series like Game of Thrones, while the subtext questions what a high-end restaurant is. ![]() Another Iron Islands dish, clams in a dashi broth, was inspired by a particular line in the fourth book of five currently published: “Aeron broke his fast on a broth of clams and seaweed cooked above a driftwood fire.” These citations were delivered in the same breath as the ingredient sources: This cheese is from Indiana, and that amuse-bouche draws on a description of tables laid with strawberries and sweetgrass. (The plating of these was vaguely scale-like, too.) Within a three-part course that reflected the seafaring Iron Islands culture, one dish, squid “noodles,” was a subtle nod toward the sigil of the local ruling family. If courses were inspired by something exact, the servers mentioned its scene of origin: After Catelyn Stark arrests Tyrion Lannister at an inn, she dines on onions dripping in juices, and we got the same. (This version was dyed with squid ink.) It was served with accompaniments, one of which was an asparagus relish at another table, the server was explaining how he’d seen the chef arranging the asparagus on her bread like dragon scales while testing out the recipe. ![]() We had the “black bread” that is mentioned repeatedly in the novels the TV series is based on. It was April 2017, a seventh season of the show would air in a couple of months, and a friend had come to Chicago to attend this dinner with me, not because we loved Game of Thrones - neither of us had watched for years at that point - but because the idea of a fannish dinner was exciting.īefore each of 10 courses, the staff explained the source or inspiration for everything that was served. The first time I went to a Game of Thrones dinner at the restaurant Elizabeth, the room was decked out in banners bearing ancestral sigils, while dozens of vinyl figurines were stuffed into every possible gap and onto every ledge.
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