Food. But Is It Art?

Just as the question of whether food can be described as art is subjective, so is art. Art takes the form of many styles, mediums, applications, and periods, and in that same fashion, so does food. Intention and purpose play a massive part in my belief of whether food or dining experiences are classified as art. However, food can be art if someone believes it to be, whether that is the guest or the chef. “Art is produced when one's creativity is used to create something experienced through our senses” (Meyer, 2023).

I believe that just as art has movements, so do food; modernist, slow-food, and casual are all food-related movements that we have experienced in our lifetimes and can very much equate to the likes of minimalism, realism, or even abstract. Each experience or dish can be art, but not all will be for every person. In general terms, some characteristics will determine what some would call mainstream “art.” Of course, the food or service experience should be visually stunning, thought-provoking, or evoke some emotion. Restaurants such as Noma, The Fat Duck, Alinea, and Alchemist are so comprehensive, creative, and thought-provoking that their dining experiences can only be considered art. I believe the general public would agree. Even Massimo’s argument that food cannot be “free” because it must taste good is challenged by Alchemist’s Plastic Fantastic dish meant to “look like” something rather than have a specific flavor and taste profile (World’s Best Places — An inside look into the world’s best restaurants and hotels, 2024).

Acclaimed pastry chef Cedric Grolet is not only one of the best pastry chefs in the world, but he is also an Instagram star! He specializes in visually stunning pastries, including fruit tarts that look exactly like the real thing. If we were to categorize his art, it would be realistic. Even though the pastries aren’t necessarily innovative or ground-breaking, their classical nature and technical precision make them fit for true gourmands.

Oops! I dropped the lemon tart was a dish that shattered the perception of a well-plated dish. Chefs looking to emulate Massimo Bottura’s prowess started splattering sauces on entrée and dessert plates to achieve the same abstract look. This dish was popular during the ‘deconstruction’ era, where individual components of a familiar dish were changed and tweaked into something new visually and texturally. The thought process behind this dish was a humble one of representing the south of Italy, sourcing ingredients from different micro-regions all on one plate, and Massimo described this dish as “innovative and provocative” and to make guests feel comfortable about a supposed ‘mistake’ in the kitchen (Millington, 2018).

Starting as a collaboration with the artist who curates the art for Alinea, the iconic table dessert has become art in its own right. Chef Grant himself describes this debut as performance art meant to entertain and be visually stunning, and the experience is just that… with a bit of nostalgia. The dessert usually takes on familiar forms with a modernist twist, like peanut butter and jelly or banana, peanut butter, and chocolate. Grant’s goal is for this to be an interactive dining experience meant to break the monotony of regular dining. Having experienced this myself in person, I’d say he’s reached his goal.

References:

Bateman, K. (2017, October 18). Surreal fruit pastries have made this chef an Instagram star. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/cedric-grolet-fruit-pastries-instagram

Meyer, I. (2023, August 1). Types of art – An exploration of the different types of art. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/types-of-art/

Millington, A. (2018b, December 12). I met the best chef in the world, and the story behind his most iconic dish is surprisingly relatable. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/massimo-bottura-best-chef-in-the-world-stories-behind-iconic-dishes-oops-i-dropped-the-lemon-tart-2018-9

Snyder, C. (2017, August 14). The best restaurant in America paints a dessert on your table — here’s what it’s like. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/one-of-alineas-most-popular-desserts-work-of-edible-art-grant-achatz-chicago-panel-2017-8

World’s Best Places — An inside look into the world’s best restaurants and hotels. (2024, April 21). Alchemist 2.0 restaurant review — WBP Stars. WBP Stars

What Live Fire Cooking and Modernist Cuisine Have in Common

Let’s examine my favorite way to cook, live-fire cooking, and its popularity juxtaposed against the movement that preceded it: modernist cuisine. These movements are fascinating, as they showcase two different sides of a coin.

The modernist cuisine movement was a time when “anything was possible,” and it also “cued the return to the primitivism of the twenty-teens” when diners and chefs yearned for simplicity (Sexton, 2022).  Like fashion, food has a yin and yang, and each movement pushes or pulls towards or away from the preceding one.

The Modernist cuisine movement started in the mid-1990s and tapered off around 2011 with the publication of Nathan Myhrvold’s “Modernist Cuisine” book series. With the widespread knowledge exchange, the modernist cuisine movement has entered the fold of contemporary cooking techniques. Starting in the Basque country with Ferran Adria’s El Bulli, the modernist cuisine movement was fueled stateside by Chefs like Homaro Cantu at Moto, Wylie Dufresne of WD-50, and Grant Achatz of Alinea. The equipment, technology, and techniques were innovative when applied to food from other industries, but something was still missing (Sexton, 2022b).

Hailing from Patagonia, Francis Mallmann was one of the first chefs I heard of when speaking of live-fire cooking, and Lennox Hastie from Australia was the second.  Live-fire cooking has increased in popularity following the modernist cuisine movement, and many restaurants have formed concepts surrounding the hearth or, at the very least, incorporated some of these primitive techniques into their repertoire. A few key players, like Victor Arguinzoniz from Asador Extebarri, have made strides in equipment design, grilling the lightest and most delicate foods possible. Reaching popularity in the Basque country, Patagonia, Scandinavia, and Australia, the chefs located in the reach region have even commissioned custom-made equipment inspired by the techniques of each other, like the Argentinian iron cross for lamb asado (Sexton, 2022b).

One may describe Mallman’s cooking as “ritual, theater, and an art installation” (Sexton, 2022b), and one may similarly describe modernist cuisine. The comparison of food to art and its inspiration has shifted from being born in a lab to primitive survival techniques.  Cooking techniques and recipes from the modernist cuisine movement were “built for speed and consistency, but [took] the cook out of the process” (Sexton, 2022b). Cooking with wood requires real talent and management of the heat source, which is unnecessary with gas-powered equipment.

At Extebarri, Chef Victor Arguinzoniz has been dubbed the “Ferran Adria of the hearth” (Food & Wine Editors, 2017), and this comparison is very fitting given the origins of modernist cuisine. Food and Wine even mentions that his food is amazing without “a trace of liquid nitrogen or hydrocolloids” (Food & Wine Editors, 2017). Open declarations like this showcase how the country’s popular chefs and restaurants have shifted from gastronomy to ingredient-driven cuisine. Chef Arguinzoniz has served smoked ice cream, grilled baby eels, and even Iranian beluga caviar cooked over coals.

The mention of smoked ice cream also reminds me of a similar dish of ash ice cream I have eaten many times at Roister, The Alinea Group’s live-fire restaurant.  Very interestingly, Roister has now closed and replaced with FIRE, a tasting menu concept that opened about 10 days ago in the former Roister space. FIRE will celebrate different “open fire cooking techniques beyond the hearth” that showcase the layers of complexity fire can provide (Selvam, 2024). “Ember cooking, ash-salt crusting, Patagonia-style asado crosses, Flambadou fat rendering,” searing, and roasting are all techniques Roister executive Chef Adair Canacasco hopes to showcase in the new restaurant. Each of these techniques derives from one of the abovementioned geographies and is clearly gaining popularity in the states. Just as San Sebastian has gone full circle, so has the Alinea Group, with its first and most recent restaurants showcasing the intersection between modernist cuisine and live-fire cooking.

References:

Food & Wine Editors. (2017, June 16). Victor Arguinzoniz: The grilling Genius of Spain. Food & Wine. https://www.foodandwine.com/cooking-techniques/grilling/victor-arguinzoniz-the-grilling-genius-of-spain

Selvam, A. (2024, November 14). Fire is Alinea’s first new restaurant in eight years. Eater Chicago. https://chicago.eater.com/2024/11/14/24294293/fire-alinea-group-roister-closing-new-restaurant

Sexton, J. (2022, April 4). De gustibus: Where food, art and era meet. Edible Manhattan. https://ediblemanhattan.com/intersection/de-gustibus-arcimboldo-where-food-art-era-meet/

Sexton, J. (2022b, December 30). The Future Is Primitive: Bringing Back Wood-Fired Cooking. Edible Manhattan. https://ediblemanhattan.com/artisans/the-future-is-primitive-bringing-back-wood-fired-cooking/

Tonon, R. (2023, July 13). Rekindling an old flame. Club Oenologique. https://cluboenologique.com/story/live-fire-cooking-restaurants-trend/

How I Met My Idols: Norma Listman and Saqib Keval

Norma Listman and Saqib Keval are the powerful couple I would like to emulate when I finally get married. Two chefs and complementary souls that match not only their clothing but their ideals, too. Recently featured on an episode in Season 7 of Chefs Table, Norma Listman and Saqib Keval are the chef-owners of popular Mexico City (CDMX) restaurants Masala y Maiz and Mari Gold. Their venture began as what they describe as a political food project turned restaurant and has received press and accolades following their bold initiatives and stands against injustice and corruption.

Saqib is the first generation of his family to be born in the United States, as his family is made up of Indian immigrants from Kenya. Norma grew up in Texcoco, a Mexican city right outside CDMX and they met in the Bay Area after Norma moved here to start a new life. Saqib has always worked in the restaurant industry and co-founded People's Kitchen Collective, working as an activist through food movements and political education. As an art and fashion pursuant, Norma worked on a project chronicling the last 12 hours when California was still Mexico and became interested in the power of food upon learning that General Vallejo invited the Americans in for a feast, knowing he couldn’t halt their progression.

After discussing how their cultures treat ingredients during a walk through the market, they started exploring their culinary history. They began learning about the natural and organic merging of cultures and culinary traditions through migration, slavery, and colonization and started as a dinner series. An opportunity to open a restaurant in CDMX came up for them, and they had to decide quickly on whether to seize it. Saqib had reservations but ultimately decided to change the restaurant narrative and his exploitative experiences from the restaurant industry from the inside with Norma.

Masala y Maiz seeks to educate and change the narrative in two key and distinct ways: creating delicious, decolonized food that explores the story of their personal lives (Jordan, 2024) and advocating for better restaurant conditions that do right by their workers. Their restaurant is a tool for environmental and social justice by advocating for changes through the industry, and they are open about the restaurant being an activist project first and foremost (Jordan, 2024).

Through opening the restaurant, they have faced a devastating earthquake, corrupt city officials and being shut down, and cooking in exile for months because they refused to pay bribes. However, their 'Donuts against Corruption' helped them triumph, and they were allowed to reopen after they cooked in friends' kitchens across the city, amplifying their message and voice against corruption and injustice. In their current venture, they are trying to decolonize food and the restaurant model (Pett, 2019). They reject the exploitive nature of the traditional brigade system and have created a restaurant that does right by its people first, including opening from 12-6 to allow worker safety during commutes, cross-training, and providing benefits and fixed schedules for quality of life.

I met both Norma and Saqib this year at the Culinary Institute of America's Worlds of Flavor Conference, and a fundamental lesson I learned from them is to deconstruct and identify the actual narrative and nature of the food and ingredients we are using. A very popular dish of theirs is Chef Norma's Camarones pa'pelar, a dish of jumbo shrimp filled with wild vanilla and Morita chile paste and grilled. When describing this dish, Saqib called into question 2 essential topics: the origins of vanilla and the patriarchal nature of the restaurant industry. We have come to think of vanilla as a 'white' Eurocentric, French ingredient used to flavor sweet applications. Yet, vanilla is indigenous to Mexico and used in various savory applications. Saqib received formal training in France but has always thought the food in Euro-centric dominant spaces was 'boring' and "blind to global influences and stories that shape food future" (Mudaliar, 2024).

Furthermore, this very popular dish is one of Norma's creations, yet Saqib constantly gets praise and credit from parties on the outside looking in. This deconstruction and exploration of indigenous roots and ingredients is well overdue, and the industry is in a great place to start exploring the origins of more essential ingredients.

Speaking engagements, media appearances, and cooking events are just one way Norma and Saqib are amplifying their message, but simple changes in the restaurant operations are also key components. In addition to the enhancements in their daily operations mentioned above, they also use the language of their menu to promote their concept of mestizaje, their new term for 'fusion,' a Latin American term to describe the blending of racial and cultural norms. For the blending of their specific cultures, one may find descriptions on their menu containing words from Spanish, Hindi, Swahili, and Kenyan languages. Keval says, "Language is Power," and it is important to use the proper names of ingredients to provide a time and place for the dish (Pett, 2019).

Overall, I was pleased to meet Norma and Saqib and learn more about their work. As industry leaders, they are steering the conversation in the right direction, and the press and accolades they have received in recent years are well deserved. Not only do they have great ideals and philosophies concerning changes in the restaurant industry, but they also show what's possible within their own operations and create amazingly delicious food in the process!

References:

Jordan, E. (2024, March 27). Turning the Restaurant Masala y Maíz in Mexico City into an Activism Project. Whitewall. https://whitewall.art/lifestyle/turning-the-restaurant-masala-y-maiz-into-an-activism-project/

Masala y Maiz. (n.d.). Masala Y Maiz. https://www.masalaymaiz.com/

Mudaliar, S. (2024, November 27). The activist chef: How Saqib Keval is using food as a tool for social change. https://meaww.com. https://meaww.com/the-activist-chef-how-saqib-keval-is-using-food-as-a-tool-for-social-change

Pett, S. (2019, December 6). It’s not fusion, it’s mestizaje. Saveur. https://www.saveur.com/story/travel/masala-maiz-restaurant-mexico-city/

Time Travel to the Stars: Jeremiah to be Exact

Jeremiah Tower was an enigma of a person, a superstar who fell from grace fueled only by his own hubris. At the height of the California Cuisine movement, he seemingly paved the way for what would become the new normal in current restaurants. He began his career at Chez Panisse and then went on to helm his restaurant, Stars, which is the topic of this paper. As someone who loves to dine out for my enjoyment and the enjoyment of others, Stars resonates with me with its ability to create an entertaining space for people from all walks of life.

Stars had a 15-year run from 1984 until 1999. In a similar fashion to Chef Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry, many prominent chefs of the 21st century worked at the flagship California cuisine restaurant. Chefs like Dominique Crenn, Mario Batali, and Steve Ells cut their teeth in the open kitchen for all guests to see. The restaurant was very unassuming from the outside; one would have to walk through an alley and confront the realities of San Fransisco in the 80’s to grace its doors. But once you did and began the ascent up a few stairs into the 150-seat dining room, the magic Tower worked hard to create became revealed to you. You could see most of the dining room and the bar from each corner of the restaurant, and it was not only a place for a great meal but one to host guests and parties. On a busy night, over 500 guests would dine at the noisy, inexpensive restaurant and might happen upon any number of socialites including the original A-lister Denise Hale.

In the summer of 1984, the restaurant began as a partnership between Towers and his partner Doyle Moon, another restauranteur in the San Fransisco scene. In the fall of 1988, Tower outbid Moon and became the sole owner of Stars, and as his popularity as a chef grew, he became an integral part of the restaurant experience. The restaurant had both regular diners and those coming in for the sole pleasure of dining, and the popularity of this restaurant marked the beginning of dinner as an evening activity. Currently, we wouldn’t think twice about an evening out eating at a restaurant, but in the mid-80s, dinner was something to do on the way to a show. Furthermore, at Stars, sitting, eating, or drinking at the bar became the new ‘best seat in the house.’ As Towers explains, he was inspired by several restaurants and brasseries he admired in New York City and in Paris. He wanted to create a restaurant with character, with photographs of celebrities on the walls, a restaurant for models and socialites, and a place with energy and superb ingredient-driven food (Fort, 2017).

Some of the concepts from Stars that resonate with me are the open kitchen serving California cuisine, the unique energy in the dining room, and the overall guest experience. The bustling new type of ‘American brasserie’ inspired by his travels worldwide would have been a novel place to eat locally procured food with friends. I have always loved dining at restaurants with an open kitchen concept, as I like to be connected to the kitchen and watch how the cooks move and act. As a regular diner, some of the patrons developed a likeness to the way different cooks prepared certain dishes and looked forward to dining when they worked certain stations (Tenaglia, 2017).

The beginning of ‘California cuisine’ as a novel way of cooking food intrigues me, as does the restaurant's design. During his early years at Chez Panisse, Tower cooked mainly French food. that all changed in 1976 when he crafted a localized menu for the Northern California Regional Dinner that highlighted the bounty of California with foods like Tomales Bay oysters, Big Sur trout, Sonoma figs, and pears from the Fan Fransisco Farmer’s Market (Hare, n.d.). Tower has said that he believes a plate should consist of a few good components, no more than four. I resonate with this simplistic view of menu development and style, especially in a restaurant meant to entertain, where it’s expected to order more than one dish. Other Stars staples like roast pork with mango salsa, cornmeal blinis with lobster and caviar, and steak tartare with ancho chili are foods that I would have loved to eat. Using regionally inspired ingredients like cornmeal, ancho chili, and mango as highly flavorful and unique components resonates with my appreciation of global food.

The restaurant held a theatrical vibe with some of the best service in San Fransisco. This resonates with me as a former theater kid and someone very particular about hospitality and service in dining. I have always loved dining out and entertaining and have done my fair share of it through various friendships and jobs over the years. Nothing can beat a great setting, great energy, and hospitality to match and that’s exactly what Stars provided. Many accounts feature Chef Towers floating about the dining room with a glass of champagne in his hand, and the generosity with which he showed his patrons made it the place to be for those with money. I am sure many of the patrons loved to interact with him while eating caviar or drinking champagne, but the open and vibrant nature of the restaurant resonates with me. Being able to hear and see other parts of the dining room and bar and add to the collective energy of the dining room is one of my favorite parts of dining at a restaurant. Another thing I like about the accounts of the Stars experience was that it was inclusive, a place where women could partake in all parts of the business whether bartending, serving, or in the kitchen like Chef Dominique Crenn (Miller & Miller, 2020).

As the years went on, Stars began to lose money, to the tune of 1 million dollars per year, until the business could no longer sustain itself. I like to think of how the business could have pivoted and changed, however sometime when a restaurant’s time is due, it’s due, and that’s exactly what happened to Stars. One could be skeptical of how extravagant the restaurant was and if it was really inclusive for all, or just the rich and famous of the time, but I would have loved to experience Stars in it’s heyday and see just how innovative the cuisine was compared to the rest of the industry.

References:

Fort, E. (2017, May 5). Jeremiah Tower talks SF critics, and the State of California cuisine. Eater

SF. https://sf.eater.com/2017/5/5/15474884/jeremiah-tower-bauer-film-san-francisco

Goodyear, D. (2017, May 1). Jeremiah Tower, a forgotten father of the American food

Revolution. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/jeremiah-tower-a-forgotten-father-of-the-american-food-revolution

Hare, B. (n.d.). How this 1976 dinner changed the way you eat. CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/11/specials/jeremiah-tower-menu/

Hitz, A. (2017, November 9). How Jeremiah Tower changed the food world forever. Town &

Country. https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/dining/a13452588/jeremiah-tower/

Miller, S., & Miller, S. (2020, May 14). Interview with Chef Jeremiah Tower: A Charming

Revolutionary | CulEpi. CulEpi. https://www.culinaryepicenter.com/jeremiah-tower/

Parsons, R. (2019a, March 1). After 25 years, chefs call a truce - Los Angeles Times. Los

Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-06-wk-parsons6-story.html

Parsons, R. (2019, March 2). Fabulous as always - Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-dec-25-fo-calcook25-story.html

Rochlin, M. (2017, April 5). Chef Jeremiah Tower takes the high road with Alice Waters in a new

documentary (and shares a recipe) - Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-fo-jeremiah-tower-recipe-20170310-story.html

| San Francisco Chronicle Archives. (1989, March 30).

https://sfchronicle.newsbank.com/doc/news/0EB4F1591D8AC188?search_terms=jeremiah%2Btower&text=jeremiah%20tower&date_from=1985&date_to=1990&content_added=&s_dlid=&s_ecproduct=SUB-FREE&s_ecprodtype=INSTANT&s_trackval=&s_siteloc=&s_referrer=&s_subterm=Subscription%20until%3A%2012/15/2030&s_docsbal=%20&s_subexpires=12/15/2030&s_docstart=&s_docsleft=&s_docsread=&s_username=refuser&s_accountid=AC0114070818394531470&s_upgradeable=no&pub%255B0%255D=SFCB&pdate=1989-03-30

Tenaglia, L. (Director). (2017). Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent. The Orchard.

https://www.amazon.com/Jeremiah-Tower-Last-Magnificent/dp/B071K7HFXV/ref=sr_1_2?crid=215890C4HIIYX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4XTu2NYSKxYibDeHbmMFT637F3XaywT2BNatVys-vWN03uUIdY1HDMhG3Ls-pAOlQYkmY_OcUaZ7JeRU0kf1PKQ6RBnzAds1lKGykZajmODk7AEpFtGgDbseb9K5vD6ndgiCjc1Ftj_GYsMcARz_ivFEHqwFO3R7TaUYxwNx_M7Szv2iJgsOC4NcMaCZsH4_Z7NWlXvb11e4KSndlRAK-SMBbqcdS5_zhO7xm36FNt8.zpSNuGiWcJ0WQwt5FQBl5sPNpDETLRqWo41pjM5qkUs&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+last+magnificent+tower&qid=1729655067&s=books&sprefix=the+last+magnificent+towe%2Cstripbooks%2C202&sr=1-2-catcorr

Topgun. (2024, March 8). The gay gourmet and chef Jeremiah Tower reminisce about legendary

stars restaurant - San Francisco Bay Times. San Francisco Bay Times. https://sfbaytimes.com/the-gay-gourmet-and-chef-jeremiah-tower-reminisce-about-legendary-stars-restaurant/

Washington, K. (2018). He’s a legend in California cuisine. Now he’s leading the Tower Bridge

dinner  Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/article196101939.html#storylink=cpy. Sacramento Bee Logo. https://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/article196101939.html

Whitney, A. (2017, April 25). Jeremiah Tower is done with these gimmicky food trends. Bon

Appétit. https://www.bonappetit.com/story/jeremiah-tower-last-magnificent-interview