On Sunday, May 1st, visit Allerton and enjoy a seven-course meal made by seven talented local chefs. The dishes will use foraged ingredients like mushrooms, spruce tips, and sassafras from the forest and fields of Allerton Park. There will also be beer pairings.
The Forest to Mansion Dinner starts with a cocktail hour at 3:30 p.m. and dinner begins at 4:30 p.m. Diners can add on a two-hour foraging hike on the Wednesday before the dinner. Thirty individuals will get to hike the early spring forest with local chefs and Allerton staff to find ingredients that will be used in the special dinner on May 1st.
Check out the menu for this year’s event:
Local Beef Tartar
with Allerton ramps, egg yolk botarga, Prairie Fruits cheese
and Allerton wild garlic mustard
Chef Ann SwansonPotato Croquette
crusted with Funks Grove cornmeal, maple sugar, and Allerton ramp powder,
cured Table Farm and Workshop duck yolk
nested in a bed of Allerton nettles and ramps,
drizzled with pawpaw vinaigrette and Allerton foraged flowers
Chef Jeff HakeForest Flora Salad
pickled local spring vegetables with Allerton mushroom duxelle
and Central Illinois Bakehouse baguette
Chef Sarah PiersonKoss Farms Tilapia Quenelle
with Allerton ramp gnocchi, pickled ramp bulbs,
braised Koss butter crunch, tilapia nage
Chef Chris AlwesAllerton Wild Ginger Stuffed Chicken
Allerton mushrooms, Allerton nettles and carrot kimchee
with local honey sauce and Allerton spruce oil
Chef Blake BiggsDuo of Meringue Topped Forest Fruit Barges
a pair of barge-shaped tarts made with Allerton Forest fruits
topped with meringue flourishes
Chef Heidi LeuszlerAllerton “Truffles”
Allerton sassafras, chocolate, Allerton morels
Chef Ann SwansonBeertails: Compliments of Tryptich Brewery
“The Lost Garden”
Tryptich’s Hazy Pale Ale with Allerton Japanese knotweed simple syrup
garnished with Allerton spruce tips and local elderberries
Whitney Braddock“The Death of the Last Centaur”
Tryptich’s 80 Shilling Scottish Ale with vanilla Allerton sassafras simple syrup
garnished with Kilgus cream and nutmeg
Whitney Braddock
Tickets are $100 per person. You can purchase tickets here. Space is limited, and organizers expect dinner tickets to sell out.
Read Smile Politely’s coverage of the dinner in 2017 and 2014.
Top image by Jessica Hammie.
