This Clear Pumpkin Pie Is Cool and Confusing

We've seen pumpkin everything, right? The past few falls have brought us pumpkin spice pizza, breakfast pumpkin, and even pumpkin spice latte beer. But the latest pumpkin item is kind of freaking us out...because it’s taking a classic and making it something straight out of a science fiction movie. Alinea, which has been named the best restaurant in America a whopping three times, is currently weirding all of social media out with its tiny pumpkin pie. And not just because it's tiny...but because it's clear. Like, the filling that's normally orange is colorless and you can see straight through it.

Based in Chicago, Illinois, the restaurant prides itself on being "not a restaurant...at least, not in the conventional sense." That’s pretty clear (heh, get it?) based on a September Instagram video that has recently gained traction on social media because it’s just so goddamn weird. In the video, Alinea chef Simon Davies holds a tiny piece of the colorless pumpkin pie that appears to have a normal crust and the tiniest dollop of whipped cream on top of the clear, gelatinous (allegedly) pumpkin filling. He rotates it in the light to show that you can completely see through it to the crust, and it’s absolutely wild. “Pumpkin pie for the fall menu,” he wrote in the caption, before adding the hashtag #surrealism.

In response to understandably confused Instagram commenters, Davies commented that the pie is a "distillation of pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, and clove," adding that texture is "very important" to Alinea. "This melts away," he continued. "If it were over-gelled it would not be worth serving. The main texture that brings on nostalgia is from the pate brisee."

If you don't speak foodie, that essentially means it's tasty, healthy, and natural without any scary artificial preservatives--while being cool as hell. Just look at this picture from chef and Alinea owner Grant Achatz, who has posted multiple pictures of the dish this week:

Pumpkin is officially cool again, folks.