Moto (restaurant)
Moto was a molecular gastronomy restaurant in the Fulton River District of Chicago, Illinois known for creating "high-tech" dishes which incorporate elements such as carbonated fruit, edible paper, lasers, and liquid nitrogen for freezing food.
Sister restaurant iNG was located next door and served "flavor tripping cuisine" based on "the miracle berry", which makes sour foods taste sweet.
The seven-course meal, which featured an exploding ravioli and a small table-top box that cooked fish before the guest's eyes, won De Vito over.
[4] An industrial-sized tank of liquid nitrogen was kept outside the restaurant to make hot food cold and give fishes odd shapes.
[2] In the kitchen, Cantu employed unusual devices such as a centrifuge, a hand-held ion particle gun, and a class IV laser, among other science gadgets.
Within two years, Moto's crazy dishes had attracted the attention of The New York Times and Gourmet magazine, and Cantu had been asked to cook for Nobel Prize winners and molecular gastronomy pioneer Ferran Adrià.
A 2005 review by The New York Times Magazine declared "A 20-course tasting menu can begin with 'sushi' made of paper that has been printed with images of maki and wrapped around vinegared rice and conclude with a mint-flavored picture of a candy cane ...
In 2010, Moto was the main focus of a TV show called Future Food that aired on Discovery's Planet Green and was co-hosted by Cantu.
"[6] Following his death in 2015, Director/Producer Brett A. Schwartz of StoryScreen[7] directed and produced a feature-length documentary film called Insatiable: The Homaro Cantu Story[8] (2016).
In January 2016, Cantu's widow Katie McGowan announced the sale of Moto to the Alinea Group, a restaurant in Chicago.
[3] Explaining his use of the paper in 2005, Cantu remarked "Gastronomy has to catch up to the evolution in technology" and said he was attempting to change preconceived notions of what food is.
"They're tired of just going to a restaurant, having food placed on the table, having it cleared, and there's no more mental input into it other than the basic needs of a caveman, just eat and nourish ... there's so much more we can do.
One of the main courses, "Surf & Turf", combined Hawaiian sea bass, duck sous vide, foie gras foam, mushrooms, and apple butter.
[3] In 2005, Cantu began experimenting with liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze food, and helium and superconductors in an attempt to levitate them.
[11] The Spring/Summer 2012 menu at Moto featured 15 courses, including "Reconstructed Corn," "Forest Foraging 2.0," "The Explosion," and "Smell the Glove."
