Galit offers family-style Middle Eastern dining sourced by Midwestern farms
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Michelin-star restaurant focused on sustainability is giving Chicago a taste of the Middle East.
Galit, in Lincoln Park, offers family-style Middle Eastern fine dining with food from local farmers and producers.
"There's something about the liveliness of sharing with people, and breaking bread, and mixing and matching, and like getting your hands dirty," chef Zach Engel said.
Engel traces his culinary journey to his time spent traveling in the Middle East
"For me, it's just kind of about a little bit about who I am," he said. "I lived with a Yemenite immigrant family in Israel for a period of time, and learned all of their family recipes."
Engel has cooked in Middle Eastern restaurants from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv.
"It's just like a cuisine that I have a lot of experience with," he said.
His co-owner, Andres Clavero is part Palestinian, so their menu also features food from his family.
The two created Galit to invite guests in, and have them choose their own adventure through their tasting menu. While the flavors might be from halfway across the world, the produce is not.
"We source as much as we can from local farms and producers, and we also are really focused on the Midwestern ingredients, but through the lens of Middle Eastern cuisines," Engel said. "We always try and hang onto our neighborhood restaurant roots as much as we can."
While still showcasing "the traditionality of what has been going on in the Middle East for thousands of years, but making it with the science and precision of fine dining."
Engel said Galit's menu features the best of the Midwest, "capturing the ingredients at the peak of their harvest."
The kitchen uses what they can while it's in season. Whatever they don't get through, they preserve for use later in the year, making it easier to limit the restaurant's food waste.
"And divert as much food as we can away from the landfills," Engel said.
Buying in season is good for the planet and for the farmer.
"We can get the money into the farmers' pockets during the season when they're growing, because for six months of the year they're not really generating revenue," Engel said.
It's important to Engel that they're not just practicing environmental sustainability, but sustainability of an economy, which means it's not all about making money.
"It's also about limiting what we're putting back from what we're taking," Engel said.
All while keeping it close to home.
"We get to replicate the dining experience that we love of eating Middle Eastern foods with our families; shareable, but delicious and intriguing," Engel said.
