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High notes A talk with chef Paul Wildermuth about how he makes Opera sing
Everyone lately has been singing the praises of Paul Wildermuth,
executive chef of the South Loop's Opera, which Newcity recently named
best new restaurant. Wildermuth also presides over the kitchen of Saiko
which opened up a month ago next door to Opera and Red Light on Randolph
Street, and all of which are owned by the KDK Restaurant Development
Group. "My three babies," Wildermuth says. We talked to the culinary
maestro who the Sun-Times labels an "Asian whiz kid" about his growing
portfolio of activity. It seems that the Asian restaurant trend is getting much stronger in
the city.
It's not going away, is it? A lot of places are doing what they call
global cuisine, and they'll blend a lot of the Southeast Asian flavors,
especially Thai and Vietnamese, with Western technique. It's very, very
popular. Would you characterize Opera as Asian fusion?
Opera is Chinese contemporary cooking. Because we're not necessarily
doing a fusion style, there is no Southeast Asian influences, there's
no Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, we use only Chinese products mixed with
the best the United States can offer. You oversee three Asian restaurants - Red Light, Opera and Saiko. How
would you describe the personality of each?
Oh, man. They are all very different. Red Light is a brasserie. It's
loud, it's boisterous, it's fun, it's very sexy, dark. It has sort of
an erotic feel, the undulating ceilings, all the metal work, the cold
metal, stretched metal, especially the upside-down triangle lights that
are on the roof. It has that really sort of sexual feel, coupled with
spicy, bold flavors. Opera is more refined. Opera is more for dining.
Very unique wines coupled with well-thought-out regional dishes, with a
little mix of Western technique. We strive for perfect service. Opera
has more of a refined feeling, more of a correct dining environment.
Saiko is traditional Japanese food, sushi, sashimi, along with some wild
rolls. And hot food that is much more of a fusion technique than the
other two restaurants. Red Light is the best of Southeast Asia, and
it's not fusion so much as using the correct flavors and enhancing it
with a more contemporary presentation. Here at Opera, it's pretty much
the same thing. Classic Chinese flavors enhanced with Western technique
and trendy presentation. Saiko is almost the other way around. The hot
food at least is American steaks, fish, huge portions of salmon, ribeye,
New York strip, with an accent of Japanese flavor. When differentiating between each of your restaurants, you highlight
the décor. Jerry Kleiner of KDK Restaurant Group is known for the design
of his restaurants. How does the design affect the aesthetic of the menu
and the food's presentation?
When we originally opened Red Light, we were doing more of a street
style of food. Things that you might find in Bangkok on the street. I
think the style that we were doing originally didn't fit what Jerry
Kleiner and Howard Davis had in mind. I think that Jerry's designs are
really far-reaching and unique to himself. What we did to sort of change
the style of the food was to make the food's presentation fit the
design of the restaurant as best as possible. So, exotic design of
restaurant, exotic presentation. As far-reaching as we could possibly
go. You get big bowls of curry over at Red Light. It's beautiful, but
the design of the food fits the design of the restaurant itself. Opera,
this to me is Jerry Kleiner's best work. I think with the tile work,
with the staircase, his metal work, his chairs, and his art, it feels
like Jerry took this place very seriously. So what we did, we decided to
make our food much more serious here than whimsical. One of my things is
a play on proteins. I'll do halibut two or three different ways on a
plate. It's sort of trying to present the halibut three different ways,
three different textures--this seems to be a culmination of Jerry
Kleiner's work. There is a little bit of Marché in here, there's a
little bit of Red Light in here, but it's unique unto itself. I think
the refinement of his style here is reflected in the refinement of our
style with the food. It's very tight. You've become one of the main chefs of the KDK Restaurant Group.
My partner in crime is Corky O'Connor (Gioco and Marché). He's so
good. He's a really really great cook. Just so extreme. Our styles are
so different. His style is to take that flavor of hormone-free pork and
make it more. And you'll taste pork. You'll taste what the protein is.
With me, it's a little different. I am more driven by texture than
flavor. I would rather have really strong and bold sauces that
complement the proteins and stand up to the proteins rather than have
the protein as the centerpiece, have the texture and the flavor of the
sauce all come together on the plate. Is Saiko more personal to you because of your background?
I am Japanese by blood. My mother is second-generation Japanese, she
was born and raised in Hawaii. But from a passion standpoint, I've got
to be honest with you and say Southeast Asian, Vietnamese and Thai,
those flavors, those herbs, I love that. There's really bold strong,
fresh chili pop in the mouth, or when you crunch into mint or fresh
cilantro, something about that. You can eat that every day. You can
never get tired of that. Or at least I can't. What has been the evolution of the menu in the past year or so of
Opera?
We start out with a simpler menu, with less items, and then, after
the first few weeks, we see which dishes really seem to be falling into
place, and we call the rest of them dogs. And with the dogs we either do
one of two things. We sit down, me and my team, and we say, 'Okay. Do
we like this? Yes. Are we all in favor of keeping it? Yes. How do we
make it better so it actually sells and people enjoy it?' And then we
come up with creative ideas how to make it better: maybe it needs to be
more streamlined, maybe it's really hard to pick up from a kitchen
standpoint, or maybe it's a tableside service that's too difficult to
do when you're doing 500 covers. It just depends. But then some
dishes...We had this gorgeous Hunan braised pork, forty-percent fat, it
was just massive amounts of fat, and when you bit into it, it was rich,
it was so good. But I don't think the customer could really figure it
out. It was like, 'It's fat.' It's like, 'Yeah, it's the dish."
And typically it's eaten with rice, and sweet sauce, and Chinese
mustard, so it cuts through the fattiness. But the funny thing is is
that, I might love it, my chef de cuisine might love it, my sous chef
was just okay with it, and we only sold like one a night. And it was
like, we'll keep it on the backburner, and use that down the road maybe
with a pork tenderloin. So maybe you might have this killer pork
tenderloin across the top of it that people here in Chicago can
understand. What Opera dishes have you been the most proud of?
The duck service, definitely. It's correct, in the sense that when
you eat Cantonese duck or Peking duck, you get the skin with some buns
or some pancakes, then you get a leg or thigh stir-fried in the noodle
dish, and then the bones or all the shredding is put into a soup, and
it's never served last, it's always served second or third dish in a
Chinese banquet. When it comes you get these three different
presentations of one duck, nothing goes to waste. So here we try to do
the same thing, but make it more built for Chicago. You get the breast
with the pancakes, you get the leg or thigh with the sweet sauce, sort
of like a Chinese style duck a la orange, and then you get the shred,
instead of a soup, we do it with Chow Fun, rice noodles, and that's a
little play on it. So you get three different textures, three different
flavors of duck. Opera is known for having some really hot items on the menu. Do you
have a philosophy about spices?
I don't think you should cover it up. I think if it's supposed to
be a certain way, you should make it that way. We do a firecracker
chicken here that's braised in chili oil, and it's got a lot of heat.
But it has fun cassia, which is Chinese cinnamon, so it has this sort of
cinnamon essence you can smell, there's more to the heat. I used to
work in D.C. with Mark Miller at a restaurant called Red Sage--he's the
founder of Coyote Café lines--and he taught us about chilis and to look
beyond the heat. And actually to see where the heat comes from, from the
chili. A green chili is going to be hot in the mouth, a dry chili is
going to be hot in the mouth, but as it goes down it's going to last
for a long time. I could certainly tone things down for people who want
things toned down. But I think you should try it first the way it is. What restaurants do you think are essential to the city?
I would say Arun's, for sure. It is most important. Tru, because
it's on the edge. Places like Tru, and Charlie Trotter's, restaurants
of that quality, and Arun's, you have to put those together, Les
Nomades, you need high-end restaurants because there's a core group of
people who fly into cities to eat at these places. They love to eat
high-end. People like Roland Liccioni (of Les Nomades), you need to have
that sort of draw, because us guys, we're not on that tier. We're more
casual fine dining. That gives validity to the rest of us. That helps
the rest of us. And also, all the great taquerias. I don't know if you
ever get up to Argyle and Broadway, but the whole Vietnamese section is
so necessary because how else are people like you and I going to taste
correctly prepared traditional food? I mean, there's no way. You go up
to Devon, and you eat. Some of that food, maybe you might not like it
all, but it's important to see and to know that you can get Indian food
or Pakistani food, or Israeli food, prepared correctly. Do you ever make it to Chinatown?
There's one restaurant we always go to, and it's Lao Sze Chuan, on
the new side of town. That cat can cook. That cat can cook. That
food for me is hands down the best Chinese food on the South Side.
Also by Kate Zambreno After the Factory
Sexy Uggly
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Valley of the Dolls
Give up!
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Tip of the Week
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Red Scare
Fun with plastic
Rainbo blue
Window shopper
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