Chef Phillip L. Lopez's serves an upscale version of the dish his mom used to make for him--lobster chilaquiles - at Square Root on Tuesday, April 23, 2014. Lopez's family is originally from Cuernavaca, Mexico and he likes to innovate with traditional Central Mexican dishes. (Photo by Julia Kumari Drapkin, Nola.com | The Times-PicayuneThere are no tables in the dining room at Square Root. A wide, polished metal bar, surrounded by 16 chairs, wraps around an open kitchen, which is well equipped both with copper pots and complicated machines that likely evolved from a research laboratory.
Chef Phillip Lopez, clad in bespoke herringbone-patterned aprons like the rest of his cooks, stood in the middle. One moment he hunched over plates enveloped in frost, the next he pivoted to deliver a dish along with a wry explanation.
The food at Square Root, despite the sly games and avant-garde tricks that play out over more than a dozen small courses, feels strangely grounded, whether in nostalgia or the purity of flavor coaxed from familiar ingredients.
Lopez's first restaurant was Root, which opened in 2011. With a sprawling and eclectic menu that embraced
the ever-evolving techniques of molecular gastronomy, it established Lopez as one of New Orleans' most ambitious chefs.
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