Thinking about how to design artistic cuisine

PHUKET: Think Design Magazine hosted a wine dinner with a difference last weekend (Friday, May 25), with diners treated to a 5-course dinner influenced by works of art.

Jody Houton

Thursday 31 May 2012, 02:42PM

Chef Alexander with a Gomez Bueno original.

Executive Chef of the Bliss Beach Club, Alexander Oddy said that although he had done themed nights before, this was the first of this type.

“The themed nights I’ve done before have always been based around a particular food like egg or duck or something like that, so this was pretty special.”

Chef Alexander was sent a selection of pop art pieces by Spanish national and L.A resident Gomez Bueno a month before the dinner and revised the menu three times before he was happy with it.

He admitted that although he was initially sceptical about attempting such a unique night, it became easier for him.

“After reading about Gomez and studying his work, I really got into it and didn’t just want to go the easy way of just using colours as the main impetus and driving force for my collections.

Before each course, owner of Think Design Michael Earle gave a brief introuction into each of Gomez Bueno’s pieces and as the dishes were brought out Chef Alexander gave some wonderful insights into the process involved in the creation of his dishes.

For example, he explained that an image that featured the Batman logo inspired Chef Alexander to create a dish with ‘a slow cooked egg’ as the ‘superhero’ of the second course and the chopped salsa, chorizo and Bravas sauce as the sidekick and utility belt to the superhero.

He added that some paintings were easier to create dishes in response to, in particular the fourth course ‘Takeaway beef’ in response to a painting of an archetypal good-looking surfer guy.

“As surfing is the reason for going to the beach, everything else is an afterthought. What do we eat? Where do we drink? Will we track sand into the car?

"It’s something quick. So I made a burger with a difference, with really good quality beef. Each burger came equipped with a limited edition burger wrapper, designed by Gomez Bueno.”