Appears they are waiting for toxicology results.

Here's a published source for that. It's the expected and standard process at this point.

Chef Cantu at Moto is asking anyone who worked for Trotter to IM him (I'm sure other methods would be ok as well) as they are working on a database of Chef Trotters alum. If you know anyone, please pass that along.

Hi,

This is Homaru Cantu's project to create a Trotter Family Tree. It is still a work in progress.

Regards,

Medical examiner: Chef Charlie Trotter died of a stroke

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 6117.story

"Neither drugs nor alcohol contributed to his death," he said. "Additionally, there is no scientific evidence to indicate that recent travel contributed to his death, though there was evidence of a prior stroke.”

Emeril Lagasse showed up for the funeral. Any other chefs?

Elfin wrote:Emeril Lagasse showed up for the funeral. Any other chefs?

Monica Eng wrote an article listing a number of chefs who attended Trotter's funeral, including one who flew in from Australia. This article can be found somewhere on WBEZ's website.

Regards,

WBEZ coverage of Charlie Trotter's funeral.

GAF wrote:I remember when some years ago I ate at Trotters with my wife. She had the vegetable menu which was absolutely perfect. I had the excellent chef's menu, and I mentioned to the waitress after I finished a fish dish that it had been a little overcooked for my taste (not enough to send back, but enough to mention). The menu continued, and as well were leaving Charlie came up to us with a collection of his cookbooks (signed) as an apology.

He kept himself to the same high standards that he kept his employees.

Jean Blanchet, Grant Achatz, and Charlie Trotter are the chefs who created Chicago as a global culinary destination.

I will save my Banchet and Achatz memories for another time, but with Trotter it was a tale of two meals.

In the 80s, probably his first or second year of operation, my beloved grandmother (also my primary food muse) took my new wife and me to dinner at Trotter's. That place was so open, light, relaxed and we went on a weekday evening when perhaps three tables were occupied. My wife, who is picky about her meat, chose the vegetarian tasting, while Gram and I stuck with the meat. By the second course, a basil broth, it was clear to me that I had ordered badly. That broth was an ethereal experience, an aroma so wonderful and enveloping, yet subtle and not overpowering, as anything I have ever enjoyed. On the palate it seemed to evaporate, leaving a clean, essential and perfect flavor of basil - a feat of culinary magic. It left me with a wonderful, vivid, enduring memory, and changed how I view food.

I believe we went back once or twice in the 80s, but my grandmother soon passed away, children came, and we ventured in a lot less frequently from the suburbs.

The other meal was about 20 years later, a late reservation at 9pm with some friends and exquisite wine (La Tour from the 60s). The place could not have felt more different - crazy busy, much more formal and stiff, harried staff. They did not seat us until after 10, no real apology beyond stating that the previous reservation ran late, and we did not get our main courses until after 11. Too late for this old guy, and the meal and experience left me feeling that the place I remembered so fondly was long gone, and I never had to go back again.

As a person I feel for Charlie. It is too easy to see the path of his restaurant and the nature of his death as some sort of expression of who he was, a sort of Greek tragedy about an individual who needed but was unable to find the grace necessary to navigate the life he created. I have no idea of the truth of that, though I do know that a public persona rarely looks much like the reality of the person behind it. Perhaps time will reveal more. As a chef and restaurateur he lost me years ago, gradually becoming a caricature of himself, and a staid, overbearing institution that demanded a sort of obeisance that is neither unique or unreasonable, but in return I expected something a lot more delightful and interesting than what was delivered in recent years. Trotters the restaurant was done for me.

For all that, I will always remember that one meal and the joy he gave me.

Team Trotter, Food Arts magazine from May, 2014 written by Barbara Revsine.

Following in the footsteps of a master, a coterie of Charlie Trotter’s alums have carried the lessons they learned about food, service, what a restaurant should be, and an all-encompassing striving for excellence into their own restaurants in Chicago and beyond.

For over 25 years, Charlie Trotter and his talented staff flexed their creative muscle. Ingredients changed, menus morphed, dishes evolved, and Trotter’s eternal quest for better and best became part of his staff’s DNA. Sadly, since Trotter’s passing last November, the days are gone when giving his Armitage Avenue address to a taxi driver elicited the response, “Oh, you’re going to Charlie’s.” But his legacy lives on in the chefs who worked with him. In addition to the following chefs, all currently working in the Chicago area, the roster of top-tier alumni includes Rick Tramonto (Restaurant R’evolution in the Royal Sonesta Hotel, New Orleans), David Myers (Comme Ça, Los Angeles), Michael Rotondo (Parallel 37 in The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco), and David LeFevre (MB Post, Los Angeles).
...

New Charlie Trotter Documentary Attempts to Untangle the Chicago Chef’s Complicated Legacy

https://chicago.eater.com/2021/10/14/22 ... m-festival

At the Highland Park Library:

"Love, Charlie" Film Screening With Director Rebecca Halpern."Love, Charlie" portrays the rise and fall of chef Charlie Trotter, who revolutionized American cuisine and paved the way for today's celebrity chefs.

Love, Charlie portrays the rise and fall of chef Charlie Trotter, who revolutionized American cuisine and paved the way for today’s celebrity chefs. His eponymous Chicago restaurant was one of the world’s top dining destinations. With exclusive access to never-before-seen material, the film reveals Trotter’s relentless pursuit of excellence. Featuring Grant Achatz, Emeril Lagasse, and Wolfgang Puck.

Director Rebecca Halpern joins via Zoom to introduce the film and for a post-screening Q&A session.

Registration required.

Wednesday, February 22
7:00pm - 8:30pm

https://www.hplibrary.org/event/7944628

For those who can't make it to the library screening, it's available on Prime & Apple TV for $5. Also on DVD at many suburban and Chicago libraries for us cheapskates.

Watched the documentary and found it riveting. Seemed balanced and very well done.