Our 2025 Menus
A Journey Through Past, Present, and Future
In 2025, we embark on a voyage through time, revisiting Alinea’s culinary roots, honoring a contemporary culinary master, and exploring the infinite universe. Join us to celebrate legacy, evolution, and the cosmic potential of culinary art.
The Past - Alinea Year 1
January 25 - May 11, 2025
As Alinea turns 20, we reflect on our origin story.
We transport you back to Lincoln Park, 2005, the first year of Alinea. We didn’t know it then, but this was the dawn of molecular gastronomy in America, a new form of fine dining. A young chef trained at The French Laundry by Chef Thomas Keller and transformed by the philosophy of Ferran Adrià at El Bulli brings bold, playful ideas to Chicago.
How will guests respond to a piece of dehydrated, butterscotch-bacon dangling from a trapeze string to be eaten with their fingers? It was a year of unbounded experimentation to create transcendent dining moments.
In 2005, Alinea set the standard for today with a new train of thought.
The Present – Tribute to Massimo Bottura
May 17 - September 7, 2025
Tradition in Evolution means looking at our culinary traditions from 10 kilometers away, to bring the best of the past into the future.
- Chef Massimo Bottura
Modena, Italy. Home to Enzo Ferrari, Luciano Pavarotti and Osteria Francescana, the brainchild of chef Massimo Bottura. Named twice as the world’s best restaurant, Osteria Francescana is grounded in a mantra that challenges past conceptions and fuels the innovation behind Bottura’s iconic dishes.
In honor of Osteria Francescana's 30th anniversary and in partnership with the non-profit Food for Soul, we transport you to Italy to pay homage to one of the greatest chefs of our time.
September 13, 2025 - January 11, 2026
The Future - Space
The universe - a vast unknown.
We transport you to the final frontier. Endless exploration possibilities, sparking intrigue, excitement, and unease. A human race beyond Earth. Life in an altered atmosphere. Order within new constraints. What is interstellar dining? Envision dining on Mars, in a rocket ship, or in a galaxy far, far away.
This fall, we venture into the cosmos to imagine what comes next.