Food blogger Nancy Luna recently attended the restaurant industry’s biggest conference in Chicago, The National Restaurant Association Show, and International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event. Check out her coverage: moto of Chicago: No words can describe this molecular feast

Zagat Restaurant Review recently posted an article highlighting which Top Chef–run restaurants rank the highest in the nation.  Thanks to Chef de Cuisine Richie Farina and Director of Culinary Innovation Chris Jones, moto restaurant has a place on the top of this list.  Check out the full feature here: Which Top Chef-Run Restaurants Actually Live Up to the Hype? on Zagat.com

Dear moto guests,

Celebrate eight fantastic years with moto!  Tuesday, February 9th and Thursday, February 11th experience our 15 course tasting menu with beverage pairings for $150 (2012 value of $255).  Seats are available but limited: Call (312) 491-0058 to reserve!

Warm regards,

Chef Homaro Cantu

You may have heard of the miracle berry, the flavor-tripping fruit that changes the tongue’s taste bud molecules, allowing foods that are sour or bitter to taste deceptively sweet. Well, one prominent chef’s hoping to give the fruit a purpose that supersedes its trippy reputation: alleviating world hunger.

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  Homaro Cantu's Bio (PDF)

Homaro Cantu

Executive Chef, Moto Restaurant
Chairman and Founder, Cantu Designs

Chef Homaro Cantu is an internationally recognized chef and leader in the field of postmodern cuisine and an inventor of futuristic food delivery systems.

Chef Cantu graduated from Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon. After developing his culinary skills at several establishments along the West Coast he traveled to Chicago to work at Charlie Trotter’s restaurant where he rose to the position of Sous Chef. After he left Charlie Trotter’s he concentrated on the development of his concept of an experiential design based restaurant with a molecular gastronomy approach. Moto Restaurant, one of Chicago’s most notable restaurants, puts Cantu’s concepts and creations into practice by melding food with science, technology and art to create an unmatched dining experience. 

The New York Times described him as “a chef in the Buck Rogers tradition, blazing a trail to a space-age culinary frontier” and included one of his inventions among one of their best ideas of 2005. Michael Eisner once described Cantu as the most revolutionary person in food since Ray Kroc. Several of Cantu’s patented inventions appear on display in the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum and Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
 
Through his company Cantu Designs, Chef Cantu has filed numerous patent applications covering dining implements, cookware, printed food and is currently working on developing his inventions for commercial, humanitarian and aerospace applications. In addition to consulting on creativity and innovation to the Fortune 500, Chef Cantu’s innovative approach to cuisine and food delivery has influenced thought across several disciplines. Chef Cantu and his “edible paper” have been featured in Gourmet (cover story October 2006), in Food and Wine (November 2006) as well as in the Wall Street Journal (June 2006) and American Scientist (August 2005) and was chosen as one of the best ideas of 2005 by The New York Times Magazine. Fast Company (May 2006) featured Chef Cantu and Cantu Designs in a cover story entitled “Weird Science” which praised his practice to running a small business and philanthropic goals. Cantu Designs’ interactive utensils were part of the exhibit “Feeding Desire, Design and Tools of the Table, 1500-2005” at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, and currently appear in Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry as part of their “Fast Forward, Inventing The Future” Exhibit.

Chef Cantu’s television appearances include “Battle Beets – Morimoto vs Cantu” on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America (defeated Morimoto), Dinner: Impossible, Good Deal with Dave Leiberman, Roker on the Road, the Ellen DeGeneres Show, TODAY, The Early Show, MSNBC, WGN News, Chicago Tonight, and dozens of local Chicago news and lifestyle programs. In under 6 years he has been featured in over 1000 articles in 37 countries including The New York Times, USA TODAY, The LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, Esquire, Maxim, Chicago, Wallpaper and Dwell.

In 2010 along with his sidekick Pastry Chef Ben Roche, Cantu created and produced his first television series for Discovery Network’s Planet Green titled Future Food. In over 55 million homes, Future Food displayed Cantu’s ingenious knack for thinking outside the box and apply his ingenuity to global food issues.

  Ben Roche's Bio (PDF)

Ben Roche

Pastry Chef – Moto Restaurant
Director of Research and Development – Cantu Designs

Chef Ben Roche is one of the worlds most creative culinary geniuses. In less than 3 years as Executive Pastry Chef of Moto in Chicago, news of Ben’s work has been the subject of numerous print articles and national television shows including Iron Chef America, Dinner: Impossible, Unwrapped, Sugar Rush and print articles including USA Today, The Chicago Sun Times, The Chicago Tribune, Fast Company Magazine and Gourmet Magazine.

Ben has also been featured as a keynote speaker at prestegious gatherings around the world for his inspirational approach to innovation that influences numerous aspects of creative sciences. These appearances have included a design symposioum for the Nasa Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), Stanford University’s Design School, Taste 3 Napa Valley in both 2007 and 2008, Pop Tech’s Impact of Technology on People in Camben Maine and numerous other venues.

When asked to describe himself, Chef Roche simply states, “I look to improve ideas we are all familiar with and reconstruct them to meet todays challenges with food and technology.”

Chef Roches involvement with food does not stop at the kitchen level, he has also been an instrumental R&D collaborator with Cantu Designs which is currently working on innovative food products for consumer outlets, medical applications and developing nations.

Ben Roche discovered a fascination with the scientific process early on, conducting experiments such as creating Alka Seltzer “bombs” as a boy in his best friend’s kitchen in Beaufort, South Carolina. So it seems fitting that this young, aspiring pastry chef now creates technically innovative and “explosive” desserts at Moto, where the kitchen resembles a lab with tanks of nitrogen gas, helium and liquid nitrogen. Roche’s love of science and his culinary degree (Johnson & Wales, 2001) are in perfect harmony.

Already a world leader in pastry innovation, Chef Roche is poised to take his highly unconventional approach to creativity well beyond the realm of the kitchen.

In 2010 Chef Roche filmed, produced and created his first television series for Discovery Network’s Planet Green titled Future Food. Along with his sidekick Chef Homaro Cantu, Roche displayed his ingenious approach to radically thinking outside the box with food.