The Lincoln Park Trixie Society today issued a statement following reports in the Chicago Tribune that the Michelin Guide intends to retire its Green Star, the distinction it had reserved for the city's most sustainable kitchens.
The Society wishes to settle one matter before all others. Charlie Trotter was the greatest chef this city has ever produced, and the Society will hear no argument to the contrary. His restaurant stood on Armitage Avenue, in the heart of the village, for twenty-five years, and held two Michelin stars. He wrote some two dozen books — proper books, with photographs and forewords and weight — several of which members of the Society own, display, and have on at least one occasion opened. He removed foie gras from his menu on principle in 2002, a decision the Society regards as among the most important in the history of Western dining and possibly the Republic. He passed in 2013. The village has not fully recovered, and mentions this regularly.
Two blocks from where Charlie Trotter's once stood is Alinea, the restaurant of Grant Achatz, who trained in Mr. Trotter's kitchen and today holds three Michelin stars — one more than his teacher, a discrepancy the Society has elected to attribute to inflation rather than to talent. Mr. Achatz's memoir, which concerns his cooking and his survival of a cancer that briefly took his sense of taste, is the finest book ever written by a chef the Society is prepared to rank second. He is, by the Society's measure, very nearly a saint, and is held in the highest regard the Society is able to extend to anyone who is not Charlie Trotter.
Which brings the Society to its grievance. Charlie Trotter held two of these stars. Grant Achatz holds three. And Michelin now proposes to retire them.
"The Society has nothing against Michelin," said Executive Director Ashley Munroe. "We simply observe that a tire company in France is in no position to take back the green stars our chefs earned — Charlie's most of all. The man was composting before the French had settled on a word for it."
The green star, as the Society understands the matter, is awarded to the kitchen that treats the earth as a guest, and no kitchen in the history of this city treated the earth more graciously than the one that stood on Armitage. The Society declines to be instructed on the point by a company whose other great gift to civilization is the radial tire.
A commemorative brunch will be held in honor of both chefs, and of the green star, pending confirmation of a venue. The menu will be sustainable insofar as the venue allows. The bar will open at eleven.