Alinea is one of those restaurants with a webpage that doesn't make it immediately clear whether they serve food or design furniture for Ikea. The type of restaurant that counts a derivatives trader as part of its creative team and partnered with a science equipment manufacturer to create an "Anti-Griddle," which rapidly freezes ingredients into novel configurations.
It's also one of those restaurants helmed by a chef owner who did four years at French Laundry and went on to pull down a series of awards, including a James Beard, so perhaps we should reserve our snark until after we've plunked down $210 to dine at his Chicago-based restaurant.
The dish in this video is called "Lamb 86":
The 86 in lamb 86 appears to be the grid of 86 individual ingredients that are served alongside medallions of what appear to be sous-vide lamb. While the grids are prepared with a cheat sheet underneath to keep things straight, the diners aren't so lucky. Apparently, guessing what all the ingredients are is part of this dining experience.
