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Article posted: 2/7/2013 5:06 AM

The hunt is on at Next in Chicago

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This sort of production has its risks. Go too showy and the restaurant will seem gimmicky, like an upscale Rainforest Cafe. Get too conceptual and the whole thing's just pretentious.

Christian Seel/Courtesy of Next Restaurant

Dave Beran, Next's Hunt chef, helped conceive the game-focued menu.

Christian Seel/Courtesy of Next Restaurant

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The idea of Next's Hunt menu is to invoke baroque hunting lodges: 'We were thinking of old guys sitting with cognac, talking about the big hunt,' said chef Dave Beran.

Christian Seel/Courtesy of Next Restaurant

One of the dishes on The Hunt menu is served on birch bark. The menu revolves around wild game, blood, organs, nature, hunting life.

Christian Seel/Courtesy of Next Restaurant

About this Article

For "The Hunt" menu at Next restaurant in Chicago the culinary team enlisted 15 artists to make flat, rustic plates. They sourced birch bark that would be used to serve dishes, and learned how to clean and reuse it each night. They wrote the menu as a narrative, beginning in the woods, with mushrooms in glass terrarium-like boxes and smoked trout served on wood.