A Look at Rick Bayless’s New Taco-Tasting Menu Inspired by Mexico City

Chicago is in the midst of a new era of taco-inspired menus, with chefs favoring masa and using just about any fresh tortilla as a vessel: Uptown’s Cariño offers a late-night menu, and Bucktown’s Taqueria Chingon hosts occasional pop-ups. In Wicker Park, chef Rishi Kumar, who worked with him at Rick Bayless’ downtown restaurant, hosts the occasional taco festival at Coach House, and Kumar and chef Zubair Mohajir are preparing to open Mila, a Mexican-Indian restaurant in Bucktown.

Before opening his Uptown restaurant, Cariño chef Norman Fenton vowed to give back to the community. When it first opened, Cariño’s late-night taco dinners were touted as a more affordable way to get into the restaurant, with the regular tasting menu costing $210 and the eight-course taco omakase costing $125. But in June, Cariño turned its attention to raising money for charity and as a way to “continue to provide a multi-faceted experience in our little place,” as Fenton told Eater. Fenton brought on board Wilson Bauer, a former colleague of Schwa’s who is chef and owner of Flower Power in West Town. The two worked together on the first Tacos with Friends, $250 Dinner profit per person Latinos Progressive SandFenton then worked with Won Kim as Kimski, Jenner Tomaska ​​as Esme, Scheduled to be held on September 22nd With Bon Yeon and Park Sang Tae of Omakase Dream.

As Chicago chefs like Fenton embraced the format, Bayless, one of the most influential chefs in America, remained a curious but largely on the sidelines. “That was one of the biggest struggles for me, because I didn’t want to seem like I was just jumping on the bandwagon,” Bayless says.

But Bayless changed his mind. In mid-July, Topolobampo began offering its first taco tasting menu, costing $165 to $185, inspired by the 13 taquerias and food trucks that Bayless and his team visited during a trip to Mexico earlier this year. Four of them were Eater’s Best Taquerias in Mexico CityFrom now through Saturday, September 7, Topolo is serving up a menu called “Mexico City: Taco Capital of the World.”

Bayless called the visit “a legendary day for us.” The chef owns an apartment in Mexico City and organized a taco crawl for his staff with about four stops. The crawl was longer, as they spent about 12 hours navigating Mexico City traffic, sampling more than 35 specialty dishes. All 13 taquerias that inspired Topolo are featured with their logos in art promoting the new menu, and Bayless hopes to encourage Chicagoans to visit them in Mexico. They sampled dishes like tacos campechanos, which are bone marrow roasted by throwing the bones directly onto the charcoal fire.

Upon returning home, Bayless and his team, led by executive chef Megan O’Connor, held a few brainstorming sessions. The highlight is a bone marrow dish made with Creekstone Farms brisket, served with thinly sliced ​​Japanese A5 wagyu beef and chorizo. Guests can scoop out the “bone marrow” to create their own tacos. There’s also a vegetarian option made with eggplant.

O’Connor and Bayless have been to Mexico more than 20 times, so sourcing ingredients wasn’t difficult. The menu was inspired by Mexico City, but seasonal Chicago produce and Japanese turnips grown in the restaurant’s rooftop garden make it unique.

“We noticed we were seeing a lot of different styles of tacos that we don’t really see in Chicago or in the U.S.,” O’Connor said, “so we decided to create this menu item to highlight that a taco might not always be what you think of as a taco on a plate.”

Pastry chef Jennifer Eniyat, who left the Bayless empire with her husband, Brian, to open Dos Urban in Logan Square, is back, and she’s created dessert tacos to round out the meal. One is based on al pastor, the gringo taco, a tortilla filled with melted cheese and roasted jackfruit, which O’Connor says combines cheese with a traditional dessert course. Another dish is based on tacos dorado, a flaky dough made with chocolate and mesquite flour stuffed with chocolate semifreddo.

While Bayless is proud of his team’s accomplishments, he’s not the only one with misgivings about the taco-inspired menu. When Danny Espinoza and Jonah Lewis first saw the Northwest Side space that would become Tacos, Santa Mesa TamaleliaThe pair’s eye was drawn to the countertops with stools, which would be perfect for a taco tasting menu. Though it was appealing, the pair decided not to move, though they do plan to offer special dinner pop-ups in the future.

Some chefs use the Japanese term “omakase,” often used for sushi, to describe their dishes. Customers who enjoy omakase are at the “chef’s whim,” meaning the menu may change without notice depending on the chef’s mood. However, it has no direct connection to Japanese culture, and some chefs are reluctant to use the term. In the world of fine dining, some believe Mexican food is not worth the high price tag. Omakase has no such problem There’s even a male culture that gets excited about buying expensive sushi. Opponents argue that Mexican food doesn’t need a connection to Japan. Mole is complicated and time-consuming. It’s worth spending a lot of money even if it’s not called omakase.

“We didn’t want to make some kind of taco omakase, and we didn’t want Topolo customers to say, ‘It’s just a taco, it doesn’t belong at Topolo,'” Bayless says. “So we worked really hard. We were constantly pushing everyone to make this taco from the perspective of what we do at Topolo, so it’s inspired by people and places, but at the same time, it’s also ours.”

Mexico City: Topolobampo’s Taco Capital of the World until September 7 Tickets are available from Tock