Honey of a restaurant in Chicago/Oak Brook resort (VIDEO)
— September 18, 2016Fans of farm-to-table, or rather, hive-to-table cuisine, will want to make a beeline to B. restaurant which opened in August at the Hilton Chicago/Oak Brook Hills Resort & Conference Center in Oak Brook (3500 Midwest Road).
“We are bringing a whole new casually dramatic farm to table experience to the western suburbs with B.,” said Steven Ellingsen, general manager.
“We are focused on serving local, fresh and seasonal food.
“A wide selection of sustainable ingredients are meticulously handcrafted by Chef Sean Patrick Curry to create globally artistic dishes with depth, referred to here as modern farm cuisine,” Ellingsen said.
Curry, of Naperville, purchases from Midwest purveyors and farms for the hyperlocal menu.
“If we don’t grow it here, we buy it local,” Curry said. “It’s about old-school preparation mixed with new school presentation.”
Curry maintains eight hives on a northern rim of the resort’s 150 acres.
In spring, the honey produced is lighter. In fall, the color is deeper, reflecting the maturing variety of plants the bees visit over summer.
Wax from the hives is set aside to make candles and soap. Curry harvested 350 pounds of honey this season.
“The why of it is, it’s kind of twofold,” he said.
“No. 1, it supplies honey for our brand new restaurant B. and for the hotel.
“But more important, we have to take care of our natural resources and this is my small way and our company’s small way of helping taking care of the environment,” he said.
During an Aug. 31 beekeeping visit, Curry found a yellow jacket in the hive, an indication of challenges facing honeybees.
“See that yellow jacket trying to steal the honey?” said Curry, using gloved hands to point out the intruder on honeycomb wax.
“One of the bees just came up and they were fighting.”
With climate change and chemicals among reasons for dwindling insect populations, Curry fears a honeybee ‘Armageddon,’” he said.
Concerned that honeybees pollinate a large percentage of the world’s food supply, Curry became a certified beekeeper several years ago.
“This time of the year, all of the animals start foraging for how are they going to get through the wintertime,” said Curry, wearing a white beekeeper suit.
“And it’s just my job to make sure that, the honeybees, because of how important they are to us, that we’re taking care of them.”
Curry was inspired to raise honeybees about eight years ago when his daughter was born.
“I wanted to do something for her future,” he said.
“The bee population is declining and they need help.”
The restaurant menu at B. includes dishes such as a honey drizzled brie, bacon and red pepper brick oven pizza with honey used in the crust.
“Milk ’N Honey,” another honey of a signature dish, is a tres leches honey cake dessert with dehydrated milk foam, honey oatmeal crumble, white chocolate honeycomb, edible flowers and buttermilk pana cotta.
Be it a teaspoon of honey or a larger portion, using house-farmed ingredients raised by hand sends a message, Curry said.
“I love this for my two kids,” said Curry, as he closed the lid on the last hive he serviced on that sunny Wednesday morning.
“If we don’t take care of the world, it’s not going to be there for them,” he said.
“And what a shame that would be. I’m just trying to do my little part here,” Curry said. “For everybody.”
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— Honey of a restaurant in Chicago/Oak Brook resort —