Welcome to Three Reasons, a new online column that tells you exactly what you’ll find at various stops around St. Louis. We won’t just tell you that a new restaurant has opened, we’ll tell you what to get there. We won’t simply report that a festival is happening this weekend, we’ll tell you what parts of it truly can’t be missed. Consider them recommendations or think of them as simple suggestions. Either way, here’s three reasons to go. The history of art inspired by food is a surprisingly disturbing chronology. There was the life-size pyramid of bratwurst that collapsed in mid-construction on a Wisconsin artist, entombing him in sausages. Then there was the swimming pool filled with maple syrup that drowned a Vermont performance artist who dived into it while dressed as a pancake in the mid-80s.
Of course, these aren’t true, but you will find art-inspired food every month at the First Saturdays: Food for Thought events at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. The first Saturday of each month, local chefs prepare gourmet snacks inspired by the exhibits currently on display at the museum.
Here are three reasons to hop on over to Grand Center this Saturday and check it out:
1. The food. At this month’s First Saturdays: Food for Thought, chef Sarah Glass of Butler’s Pantry presents her culinary response to two pieces in the current exhibition. Richard Artschwager’s sculpture, Double Dinner, of a restaurant-style two-top booth, led Glass to create an “elegant, fall ladies’ lunch.” The inspired menu boasts roasted acorn squash bisque with a dollop of maple crème fraîche; fall field green salad with feta cheese, portabella mushrooms, frizzled scallions, sweet yellow pepper strips, and herbed crostini tossed with a lemon-sherry vinaigrette; grilled chicken and brie sandwich on baguette with pear and apple chutney and country mustard; and a maple leaf shortbread cookie. (The field green salad was directly inspired by the colorful polka dots in Elad Lassry’s Felicia). The samples sound yummy.
2. The event is free, and no reservations are required. The tasting is at 12:30 p.m., followed by an exhibition tour at 1 p.m. After you nibble, you’ll enjoy a guided tour of Artschwager’s bizarre sculptures made of rubberized horsehair and Lassry’s trippy photography.
3. But wait, there’s more! The tour is followed by a hands-on, artist-led workshop at 1:30 p.m. You can make your own artsy oddities there and, who knows, maybe they’ll even inspire some recipe ideas.
(Picutured: Richard Artschwager, Double Dinner, 1988. Formica on wood, enamel on wood with rubberized hair, 35 ½ x 27 x 85 inches. Collection of Illeana Sonnebend.)
This article appears in Nov 1-30, 2010.