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.

Moto was run by executive chef Homaro Cantu (until his death in 2015). A sister restaurant, "iNG" was located next door, and served "flavor tripping cuisine" based on the "miracle berry", which makes sour foods taste sweet.

In 2003, restaurateur Joseph De Vito, who had previously opened a burger joint and a classical Italian eatery, was looking to open a new restaurant. He wanted it to be a bit out of the ordinary and was considering Asian fusion. Chef Homaro Cantu, then sous chef at Charlie Trotter's, applied for the job, pitching something really different. "This guy comes in with these little glasses, he looks like an accountant," De Vito recalled, "and started talking about levitating food. I walked away saying, 'Wow, that's a lot to take in.'" Cantu persuaded De Vito to let him cook a meal for De Vito and his wife. 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. The name Moto, meaning "idea," "taste," or "desire" in Japanese, was chosen for the new venture.

Nestled among warehouses in Chicago's meatpacking district, Moto opened in January 2004. Initially, guests were confused. People would come in looking for sushi and leave when offered a degustation menu instead, De Vito recalled. Enough people braved the menu, however, and soon the restaurant was discovered by foodies. Cantu soon earned a reputation for shocking guests. For example, one feature was synthetic wine squirted into the glass with a medical syringe. An industrial-sized tank of liquid nitrogen was kept outside the restaurant to make hot food cold and give fishes odd shapes.

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. Moto's menu showed off Cantu's zany ideas, describing dishes as "surf and turf with mc escher" and "after christmas sale on christmas trees." At weekly brainstorming sessions, Moto chefs were encouraged to come up with new takes on ordinary food by discussing how they could change foods they ate that week. Prototypes were created, and failure was encouraged. 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. Burger King sent a group of executives to Moto to explore Cantu's edible paper invention and other ideas.

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