Though many might think Shen was the ideal candidate to run Red Light after the rise of Paul Wildermuth to chef/partner (he now oversees Red Light and sister property Opera), in fact Shen's pan-Asian credentials are a little skimpy. Shen's training is in French cooking (as anyone who remembers her stellar Lincoln Park restaurant, Jackie's, will attest), and for the last seven years she has been the executive chef at Lawry's the Prime Rib.
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Nevertheless, when Wildermuth asked Shen to jump to Red Light, she didn't hesitate. "I really like Lawry's," Shen says, "but one million pounds of prime rib later, I needed a new outlet." What gaps may exist in her Asian repertoire are being filled by Wildermuth, still a regular dining-room presence, and consulting chef Arun Sampanthavivat (of Arun's), who helped design the menu.
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"Arun is coaching and foundation; Paul is ideas and inspiration," Shen says. "I have the best of both worlds." Diners have it pretty good, too. The all-things-Asian menu careens happily from port to port, offering Chinese five-spice ribs, Thai chicken satays and Vietnamese spring rolls--and that's just the appetizers. One clever starter is dubbed Bird's Nest and offers a nest of puffy rice noodles and watercress coddling a quail bathed in a tamarind glaze whose sweetness nicely balances the mildly gamy meat. Beneath the quail is a bit of curried egg salad, which I found amusing and a little sad: There are eggs in the nest, but alas, they're broken.
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Sesame-crusted ahi tuna slices are propped into a tall pile, crowned with caramelized onions rolled into a ball; underneath is a creamy wasabi sauce. A separate vegetarian menu lists a half-dozen dishes, among them a handful of crisply fried, lime-marinated artichoke nuggets, presented with sweet (passion fruit), salty (light soy) and spicy (Thai chile) dipping sauces.
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Shen's Asian bouillabaisse is a bounty of shellfish and soba noodles in a darkish-brown fish stock enhanced with lemongrass, kaffir lime, ginger and Thai chilies; the broth has a gentle, lingering sweetness that I find irresistible. There's a bit too much sweetness for me in the Peking duck, slices of crispy-skin duck in an overwhelming cherry-cognac sauce.
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A small box at the bottom of the menu urges diners to "Ask about our chef's tastings," and indeed you should. The $60 tasting is a multicourse exploration of the menu, plus a few surprises.
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After a series of small-bite courses, including a whimsical crab rangoon alongside a shredded-crab salad and pot stickers stuffed with pork and foie gras, a composition of shrimp dishes hit the table--tempura shrimp with blood orange and passionfruit-chile sauces, spicy kung pao shrimp and a very good shrimp pad Thai. Next was a trio of curries, two Thai and one Japanese, fleshed out with beef, prawn and chicken, respectively. Then there was Hong Kong Jerry, a dish named after co-owner Jerry Kleiner: Rare strips of pepper-crusted steak tossed in vegetables, mushrooms and oyster sauce. There were more flavors, but my notes disintegrated into a sensory-overload stupor at that point.
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I recovered in time for dessert, luckily, as pastry chef Elvia Granados (she oversees the sweets at Red Light and Opera) is a real talent. Offerings include wonderful sorbets (the peach is especially good), rich banana-cream pie with coconut sorbet, chocolate-lava cake with green-tea ice cream and something called Thai coffee, which is an Asian-accented tiramisu. And of course there's Jackie's Chocolate Bag, a dessert Shen created 20 years ago; the chocolate container, filled with fluffy white-chocolate mousse and bits of fruit, still knocks me out.