Back Jacket Hack Job #20 - "Alive"

   

     From molecular gastronomy to humanely killed and raised small batch game restaurants, we have entered a golden age of curated authentic dining experiences.  People these days are eating out and expecting a meal that is not just delicious and unique, simultaneously healthful and indulgent, but also want an experience.  One of the hottest trends in haute cuisine is actually cold - the raw food movement.

     In "Alive," celebrated restaurant critic Piers Paul Reed explores the history of one of the pioneering restaurants of organic free-range raw food, Glaciar de Lagrimas.  Open for a mere seventy-two days in 1972 on a remote mountain top in the Argentinian Andes accessible only by helicopters guided by Chilean mule drivers, Glaciar de Lagrimas started out as a wine bar serving chocolate and tapas locally sourced and flown across the continent.  An unexpected surplus of ice-cured Uruguayan specialty meats led the restaurateurs to hand craft the most unique raw food menu to rock the world of alfresco mountain bistros since The Donner served its last party in northern California. Serving some of South America's most famous athletes and luminaries, Glaciar de Lagrimas was eventually abruptly shut down when the thing lovers of hidden fine dining gems dread the most happened - it was written up on the front page of newspapers around the world.

     "Not only did Glaciar de Lagrimas inspire me to open Spago in the 1980s, it is the main reason I branched out into airport dining establishments." - Wolfgang Puck

     "A better street-meat pop-up than the world thought was humanly possible." - Anthony Bourdain

     "Ride a doomed airplane to Flavortown - I'd donkey sauce the shit out of that." - Guy Fieri