Ideas in Ideas – Ideas in Food Workshops and Collaborative Dinner at EL Ideas
It is with great pleasure to announce that EL Ideas and Chef Phillip Foss will be hosting the cutting edge Ideas in Food for ‘pop up’ workshops and a collaborative dinner at EL Ideas. Widely considered pioneers in modern gastronomy on account of their refined and inquisitive nature towards cuisine, Chefs/Authors Alex Talbot and Aki Kamozawa are [...]
Raw to the Bone
For those of you not interested in hearing about my silly life and thoughts, you can see the cuisine in other posts and details on EL Ideas in the sidebar on the right. April 8, 2012 Riding the train on the way to Milwaukee mid afternoon. The girls are with their mother and it is [...]
EL Ideas – Press Release: Changes to Reservation Process
The below is probably the longest one paragraph ever took me to write. Is it any wonder I’ve all but buried F.U. Public Relations Company and am giving a go with Restaurant Intelligence Agency? Now that I’ve come out of denial that just because I’m pretty good at making news doesn’t really say that I’m good [...]
Anti Restaurant Week in Review
One evening a couple months ago, I posted an update on Twitter that I was enjoying a pot pie that had been spiked with some fresh black truffles that were gifted to me. It was about 1am, but the taste of the comfort food combined with the luxurious aromas of the truffle was enough for [...]
EL Ideas – Thoughts on the Departure of Chef Andrew Brochu
Since opening EL Ideas in July of 2011, there is plenty to reflect upon and I have not been diligent about logging it. From the collaboration with the ultra talented Andrew Brochu, to the closing of the food trucks (already relayed), to personal trials and tribulations that have been deep (to put it gently), and [...]
The Rise and Fall of Meatyballs
This post began as a take on the food truck movement as a whole, then segued into a breakdown of my business and personal strengths and shortcomings.
Chow.com’s ‘Innovators’ Video
Though long overdue, here is the video to the chow.com Chefs to Watch in 2011 feature from a month or 2 back. Though EL has certainly evolved since pre-opening, I am humbled for the nomination and would like to thank all involved in the production of the great segment. A big thank you also goes [...]
What’s in a Name? Part 2 – EL Ideas
The name EL came from a conversation with a potential food truck investor who suggested we come up with a core name that could corral a movement in lunch/casual cuisine. As soon as the idea (lightning bolt) came into my head to launch a restaurant about 2 months ago, there was never another name contender to [...]
Statement on Non-Inclusion to the Chicago Food Truck “Summit”
Although we respect the position and right of Ms. Heather Shouse in not extending an invitation to The Meatyballs Mobile for the Chicago Food Truck Summit to take place at Goose Island on April 19th, we would like to state that we are sorry to have missed this opportunity to put some pavement over our rocky past. [...]
Nobody Told Me There’d Be Days Like These
Time has been moving like a freight train and there has hardly been time for a stop along the way, more or less an update. Which has now turned into a long one. It’s been mentioned by a couple of friends/colleagues that I belong on the highway preparing the style of cuisine I have developed [...]
Ready, Fire, Aim
A few months back I had a conversation with my dad in which I explained to him my thoughts towards becoming a business owner, and how I was considering leaving Lockwood to do so. I explained the leap of faith that would take and that it was reckless to be sure, but my belief was [...]
Foss Family Food Trucks: The Meatyballs Mobile
I am feeling as raw as steak tartare before being dressed… like a piece of toro falling off the blade of a Masahiro… like carpaccio awaiting a drizzle of good olive oil and sea salt. I’m feeling exposed as in a dream in which I’m walking down the streets naked…. like a negative that has just [...]
F.U. Public Relations Company
Not sure what you were thinking it stood for, but the F.U. stands for ‘Foss Unlimited’. And as in Hair Club for Men, I am going to be the president of this start-up company and also a client. Over the period of the last three years since I started my last position, it amazed me [...]
Memoir Excerpt – New York, 1996
If there is such thing as a generic way to go about living life, the road I have traveled has in no way, shape, or form been the over the counter variety. Little has come to me by script, and whatever will be next in my career fits perfectly into this shapeless mold. What follows [...]
Food for Thought
So strange. Now that my Fridays and Saturdays are essentially free, I suppose I’ll put this post out that I wrote in May before it is essentially a moot point. _____________________________________________________________ I make no qualms about being Jewish, and now actually tend more to shout it out from a mountain top. I wasn’t always like [...]
Nunavut Char Dinner at Blackbird
It is too rare that an opportunity comes along to collaborate and cook side by side with fellow chefs. We all seem to do enough benefits and I am grateful that these offer the opportunity to get to know some colleagues, but they rarely amount to more than hellos and possibly drinks afterwards since we [...]
Sunday’s Pop Up
I just wanted to write quickly how wonderful it was on Sunday to cook more for the citizens in Chicago than for hotel guests. The amount of support we’ve received has been humbling and our gratitude goes beyond those that words can express. Most of all I’d like to thank my wife Kenni for being [...]
Leaps of Faith
As many are aware, I have departed my post at Lockwood Restaurant at the Palmer House Hilton. It has been an amazing run that began on a leap of faith very similar to the one that is now in front of me, and I want to thank the hotel, the ownership, and all others for [...]
Speakeasy Throwback in Review – Part 2
Round two of photos of The Speakeasy Throwback. Photos by Lorenzo Tassone.
Pop Up 1
After a successful and very draining 24 hours that had myself not only developing very rudimentary signage and business cards for our grassroots proprietary venture, my lovely wife Kenni and I just prepared and served about 700 portions of our newly named Puffy Pan Bread at Share Our Strenth’s, Taste of the Nation. My eyes right now [...]
The Speakeasy Throwback in Review – Round One
Apologies for the delay in getting this posted, but it has been a most unusual week since the event. Anyhow… Of all the environmental, political, and social causes I have been involved in this year, this was an extrememly special evening not only for how it turned out, but more so for those it helped. Over the [...]
A Sleepless Dream
There is so much running through my mind this evening that sleep is elusive. I fell asleep on the couch at around 1:30am only to be woken by my one year old daughter Noa’s deep cough at 3:30am. Since then my mind has been wandering over the new venture I was dumb/bold enough to advertise [...]
Foss Family Food Trucks – Puffy Pan Bread
The focus of this blog is going to be veering from most things culinary to a conglomerate effort that will chronicle the development of my wife Kenni’s first -and hopefully ensuing – food trucks. Though I guess that’s still culinary, to reflect this movement, the name of the blog has been changed to “The Pickled Tongue [...]
Graham Elliot vs. Chicago Magazine
Since deciding it best to leave creative writing off of the Pickled Tongue for reasons I’m not going to get into, I decided to start writing ‘memoir style’. In about the last 2 months, I am 56 document pages and 36,000 words into the process and am only in Brazil in 2002. I’m not sure [...]
