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Next’s 2014 Menus: Steak, Modern Chinese, and ‘Trio’

To all those hoping for the Barbie-themed Next menu: Keep dreaming.
To all those hoping for the Barbie-themed Next menu: Keep dreaming. Photo: Grant Achatz/Twitter

There will likely be some lovely trailers along the lines of promos for the vegan-, hunt-, Kyoto-, and Bocuse d’Or-themed menus in the coming months, but Grant Achatz, Dave Beran, and Nick Kokonas have just released the 2014 calendar of menus at Next.

First up, running from January until April, will be the Chicago restaurant’s take on a steakhouse Achatz mentioned last week. Expect, maybe, some “succulent shrimp cocktail, a silky bisque, simple but perfect vegetables and a few potatoes” in addition to lobster Thermidor. Then there’s the steak itself — because of the dry-aging, expect the menu to be “priced slightly higher than previous Next menus.”

From May through August, Next will go all “Chinese:Modern,” meaning, possibly, “noodles, buns, dumplings, seafood, poultry, pork,” they write, “all the basics could be covered.” This also may include a typically modernist spin on Chinese takeout.

Finally, in commemoration of the ten-year anniversary of the tasting menu that kicked the wheels of Alinea into motion (the meal figures prominently into Life, On the Line) back in 2004, Next will retrace a small window of Achatz’s time as executive chef at Trio, in the kitchen where he first started cooking in the iconoclastic style that’s now the standard at his restaurants.

Announcing Next’s 2014 Menus [Next]
Earlier: Grant Achatz Cooking ‘Chicago Steakhouse’ Menu Next at Next

Next’s 2014 Menus: Steak, Modern Chinese, and ‘Trio’