ALL THE PLATE'S A STAGE: THINKING THROUGH PERFORMANCE IN MODERNIST CUISINE

Abstract

There has been a revolution in the way we eat and dine over the last three decades. Nathan Myhrvold calls this culinary phenomenon, known for putting airs, bubbles and faux caviar on the plate, Modernist cuisine, for its likeness to avant-garde movements that shook the foundations of art and literature during the nineteenth century. Practitioners of this experimental culinary movement selfconsciously set out to create High Art by using food as their medium. In the process, diners are engaged in a profound dialogue with the chef that is intellectually provocative and emotionally evocative. However, Myhrvold’s elucidation on Modernist cuisine mainly considers food as the only aspect that has been revolutionized in contemporary gastronomy. This perspective is limiting as chefs also introduced changes to the style of service in their restaurants, designed their dining spaces differently and innovated with serviceware under this movement. In this paper, I extend Myhrvold’s conception of Modernist cuisine as art by forwarding the framework of Modernist cuisine as performance. By paying attention to the spatial, temporal and kinetic dimensions central to the dining experience at three prominent and award-winning restaurants in Singapore, I demonstrate that a more forceful appreciation of Modernist cuisine is reached when cuisine is understood not just as an art, but a live art. Through this paper, I depart from the star system that has been created around chefs and instead privilege restaurant staff, not just the chef at the helm, for being members of an ensemble that make culinary revolution come alive with their performance.