If the idea of owning your own restaurant wasn’t cool enough, this week’s campus celeb, first year Robert Lipman, impresses even more with the unique set-up of his on-campus eatery, The Hearth. Even though the restaurant was just created last quarter when Robert entered the College, Robert and The Hearth have already become campus sensations, with hundreds of students vying for just three invitations to his monthly meals. The Hearth is an underground restaurant, meaning diners don’t know where they’re eating until right before the meal. Awesome, right?
“I spent the summer working in the UK, and a friend brought me to an underground restaurant. I thought it was the absolute coolest thing ever,” said Robert, who learned to cook from his mother, an ex-cookbook author. “I thought it would be very fitting for a college setting. There’s no room for home-cooked meals anymore on campus. I think if I give [students] that, I succeed. It’s nice to have good food.”
Each month, Robert plans a several course meal for his diners based on a theme. Since fall quarter, Robert has impressed his diners with his creativity, from “A Night of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” a Harry Potter theme, which included pumpkin pasties, chocolate cauldron cakes, and Butterbeer ice cream to “Spirited Away: A Studio Ghibli Dinner,” where each course corresponded to a specific movie. He has also taken on California’s French Laundry, “one of the greatest restaurants,” he said, re-creating a mini version of their famed menu. A few weeks ago, Robert also taught a chocolate art class in the Resident Masters’ apartment at Pierce Tower, which was a lot of fun for all involved.
Just last weekend, for The Hearth’s first dinner of winter quarter, Robert planned a coffee-themed dinner. Two UChicago coffee enthusiasts reached out to him and helped him pair each course with a coffee bean that was infused into the food. After the meal, the coffee enthusiasts came in and led a coffee tasting, which Robert really enjoyed. “I felt like a guest [at my own restaurant]. It was great,” he said.
At the beginning of each meal, Robert meets his guests at a pre-determined location and then leads them to the table. “I always plan extra surprises at my dinners,” he explained. His next meal is in a little over a week – “I have to start getting ready!” he exclaimed when he realized this – and the theme is “Just Desserts.” That’s right: five courses of just desserts. Robert gathered signature dessert recipes from amazing restaurants around the world: dry caramel salt from Alinea in Chicago, a surprise called walnut and blackberry cream dust from Noma in Denmark, chocolate wine and millionaire shortbread from Fat Duck in the UK, berry salad from Eleven Madison Park in New York City, and a cake Robert described as “thick and chocolate” from the French Laundry. As always, Robert’s dinner guarantees to be a delicious surprise for all of the diners.
In the future, Robert has some great surprises in store. “I want to light things on fire,” he said. “I got a blowtorch for Hanukkah. I have to use it.” He has a list of possible dinner themes, from taking on Chicago’s Alinea restaurant, to a flower theme, to a Turquoise Jeep theme. “Some of [the themes] I came up with, some of them people gave me,” he explains. In April, he said he’s planning the “most epic thing ever,” although he could not divulge what it was.
Robert said he usually works in the Hitchcock kitchen, beginning cooking several days before his meals. He shops for groceries downtown and takes the Metra back and forth to Hyde Park. In his dorm room, he has a plethora of cooking equipment, including an ice cream maker. “For my next meal, I have to make four different types of ice cream,” he said with a laugh. Diners pay only $20 – $25 each per meal at The Hearth, which he says is “creatively challenging.” “I have to recreate as much as possible [on this budget]. It’s fun,” he said.
Besides cooking for The Hearth, Robert is a typical UChicago student. “I like playing Angry Birds and going on walks. I just made an ice sculpture at Hutch. I’m always listening to music – on my iPod, I have everything from Bach to Big Sean,” he said. Hailing from Davis, California, he hopes to study Economics at the U of C. So far, his favorite class has been Human Being and Citizen. “I like the people. I like the topic,” he explained. Personally, he said his favorite meal is a jar of Nutella. “Every night, after homework, around one or two a.m., I take a jar of Nutella into the quad and just sit down. That is my favorite meal,” he shared.
And despite all of his work on the The Hearth and middle of the night Nutella sessions on top of typical UChicago homework, he claimed, “I still get eight hours of sleep a night.”
For more information on Robert and The Hearth, check out his website, www.hearthunderground.com. Look at his amazing recipe for Nutella hot chocolate here http://hearthunderground.com/2012/11/13/nutella-hot-chocolate/.