Voyager
GRANT PARK, ILLINOIS | AUGUST 2025
Throughout our La Carte by Le Creuset Supper series, we’ve found oases in the city, scouted ocean views, and built a French flower market outside a historic barn. For our Chicago Supper celebrating the iconic brand’s 100th year, they asked that we really get out there — leave the city and settle into the fields of America’s heartland. We got so lucky when we found Locavore Farm, one of those perfectly special places hidden well off the beaten path, stewarded by people utterly devoted to the land.
Helpfully, farmers Chris and Rachael are also just incredibly nice. They welcomed us the day before the Supper to unpack hundreds of pieces of Le Creuset cookware and showed us around their home and farm. We met squealing pigs sequestered in the shade behind the garden beds, ducks and geese and children who all call the fields and lawns home, and a few cotton-ball kittens who fell asleep between planks of shipping crates as we took inventory around them. Meanwhile, Chris and Rachael shared with us their vision of re-wilding the landscape through regenerative agriculture, and inviting the community in to experience nourishing food in a natural setting.
On the day of the Supper, they got to share that vision with our guests as well, who wandered through the farm and flower beds while sipping Champagne and classic Sazerac cocktails during the Welcome Social before taking a farm tour to the table — stopping for a surprise caviar and vodka bump to prime their appetites for the meal to come. An expansive hand-hewn farm table in the middle of a wild prairie set the stage for Chef Sujan Sarkar’s unforgettable feast. Every course not only tasted incredible, but looked like a little piece of art, framed by Le Creuset pieces specially selected to feel pulled straight out of the French Riviera; shades of cerise and Mediterranean blue complimented by the glistening orange of Flammé Doree. Each bite paired with exceptional wines from French winemaker M. Chapoutier before we finished the night with a sip of exceptional (and not yet released in America) Sazerac de Forge Cognac.
As the light faded in the fields, the sky flamed bright blues and oranges sweeping across the expansive sky, a late-summer sunset that seemed specially designed to match the bright tablescape. We dined until well after dark, uninterested in the wonderful evening ending too soon, much more inclined to linger in good company, listening to the soundtrack of singing crickets as the stars began to blink on above.
WELCOME
We greeted guests on the deck of the barn with a welcome champagne toast, followed by classic Sazeracs and garden martinis to sip while exploring the farm. Across the lawn, the farm’s sweet goats nibbled hay, a few impossibly beautiful ducks waddled around welcoming newcomers to the party, and a New Orleans style brass band played.
A MENU BY SUJAN SARKAR
Chef Sujan Sarkar from Michelin-starred Indienne served an impeccable feast of Indian favorites infused with global influence, from jackfruit birria tacos to perfect, tiny sandwiches inspired by Indian street food snacks. The table was almost overwhelmed with Le Creuset dishes bursting with flavorful food to share!
MENU
WELCOME
Tuna Tart tamarind, togarashi
Three Sisters Garden Grilled Aslam Corn
Cocktails
Classic Sazerac Sazerac de Forge XO, Herbsaint, Peychaud’s bitters, sugar cube, lemon
French 125 Sazerac de Forge XO, lemon, sparkling wine
Garden Martini vodka, St-Germain, lemon
Farm Lemonade cucumber, lemon, agave, basil
ON THE WAY
Caviar Bumps Grey Goose vodka
ON THE TABLE
Masala Babka cultured butter, tomato pachadi
AMUSE
Avocado Bhel Sandwich
FIRST
Shrimp Balchao Kebab
Beetroot Murabba endive, Masala walnut, green garlic techa, yogurt, charred lemon
Wine: 2022 Chapoutier Châteauneuf du Pape la Bernardine Rouge
SECOND
Chicken Gustaba amul cheese fondue
Jackfruit Birria Tacos
Wine: 2021 Chapoutier Crozes Hermitage Les Meysonniers Rouge
MAIN
Lamb Chop Varuval
Petit Salad brussels sprouts foogath
Ghee Rice
Garlic Naan
Wine:
2021 Maison Trenel Côte du Py
2022 Chapoutier Chateauneuf du Pape la Bernardine Blanc
DESSERT
Mango & Coconut Delight
Strawberry & Pistacchio Cassata
Sazerac de Forge Grande Champagne 2000
WINE PAIRINGS
We poured delicious biodynamically farmed wines from M. Chapoutier to compliment the meal. Each glass further elevated the exceptional dishes while continuing the classic French theme throughout the night.
NIGHTCAP
We ended our evening with a very special toast of soon-to-be-realeased single cask cognac from Sazerac de Forge. This true taste of Champagne terroir was a wonderful way to end the evening, particularly sipping it in the surroundings of recently re-wilded Midwestern prairie. These are two different lands with vastly different personalities, but the same sense of care and stewardship to connect them.
SECRET LOCATION: LOCAVORE FARMS
Locavore Farm is a truly special piece of land in Southern Illinois. Farmers Christopher and Rachael Jones have carefully revived their farmstead from large-scale commercial production into a diversified regenerative farm with newly re-wilded prairie land.
The difference was undeniable when driving past countless acres of cornfields to their land. Suddenly, the monotony of neat rows bursted into curling ferns rising seven feet in the air, variegated textures of grass and grain commingling across the pasture, and grasshoppers singing wild chorus all around.
They kindly mowed a path through the pasture for us to host Supper on farm tables Christopher built himself. With a view of the technicolor sunset just beyond the white farmhouse, it made for a pretty spectacular backdrop for our celebration.
