


25

"Opened in Chicago just a year and a half ago, this “relationship-to-table” restaurant has already earned its first MICHELIN Star, spotlighting farmers’ best products at their peak through 25 to 30 thoughtfully composed bites while showcasing Midwestern hospitality. It’s an incredibly collaborative environment where cooks handle much of the service—talking about dishes, marking cutlery, and even pouring wine—and a core tenet is designing dishes around products, not techniques, so guests leave thinking they’ve had the best spinach, tomato, and duck rather than fixating on preparations. Self-imposed limits define the experience: only 20 guests a night, a tiny kitchen with one small oven, a four-burner induction, and a hearth that does most of the cooking, with creativity driven by strict seasonality, preserves made at peak, and partnerships with a very specific group of farmers. One dish that crystallizes the approach features legendary German Stripe heirloom tomatoes from Jerry Boone at Froggy Meadow Farm—never refrigerated—sliced a la minute into thick raw slices, drizzled with a sauce of dry aged pork jus, honey, and a homemade vineyard peach vinegar, then finished with Jerry’s garlic chives. As the chef puts it, “The Green Star feels like recognition of process, and the Star is recognition of results. Together, it really acts as a validation of the Feld experience from start to finish.”" - Michael He