Cheap Eats: Top Chefs Talk Restaurant Week

Once a year, high-end restaurants in every major U.S. city open their menus for a week of slash-priced meals, at around thirty dollars a head. This, splurge-deprived restaurant-goers, is called Restaurant Week. Clientele shifts, tables fill, and dishes like foie gras with fig are eaten, guiltlessly, in excess. Here, two executive chefs from New York and Chicago give us a view from the back of the house.     

Chris Macchia, Executive Chef of Coco Pazzo in Chicago

First off, how's the Chicago restaurant scene?

Chicago is known for the deep dish, but people also come expecting good steakhouses. Some restaurants here are also starting to experiment with molecular gastronomy. It's not New York, but I'd have to say within the last year or so there has been a huge boom. Basically, when you think they've done everything, someone thinks of something new. And when you think it's impossible, they find a way to do it.

Was Restaurant Week a success for you?

It was exactly what we wanted; it was busy every night. This is the first year we did it, and it's only the second year for Chicago. The restaurant has had a steady flow of customers, but we wanted to expand our clientele to include a younger audience. Especially with the economy, we wanted to get involved in as many opportunities as we could. What happened was: the people that usually come for dinner came more than once during the week and ended up staying for dessert. And we definitely saw more young people, too. The event just set a really nice atmosphere.  

How did you decide what to include in the prix-fix menu?

You have to think of what you can afford and what's a deal. We definitely wanted to highlight our signature dishes, so we included a risotto and rigatoni for a pasta dish, which we make in-house. And pork and salmon for protein. For dessert, we had a panna cotta.  

Does the back of the house get bored?

No, it actually made it easier because we knew how much product we were going to go through, and mid-week you start to get into a rhythm. And the whole restaurant was just in such great spirits.