I’d always pictured a salon as being in a room with lots of couches, velvet curtains and a hookah. Gertrude Stein, Paris, Picasso. That kind of stuff.
Questlove’s Food Salon was not that. It was a cocktail party with delicious food and engaging people. Creative people. Famous people. Susan Sarandon. David Byrne, Trevor Noah, Wangechi Mutu, Reed Barrow, Nikki Jean and Antoinette Costa.
This food salon is something Ahmir “Questlove” Khalib Thompson has been doing for the past little while: a few in L.A., a few in New York at the event space in the building where he lives, New York by Gehry.
A food lover — he has his own food Instagram and a cookbook coming out in the spring —he invites chefs to prepare three or four courses, and then invites interesting people to mix together to enjoy them. Irene was invited, and I was her guest.
We started with delicious cocktails. (This one was cognac of some kind):
Some of the first people we talked to were food people, in the end. Flynn McGarry and Kate Krader were the bold-faced names, along with Drew Nieporent, whom we chatted with on the terrace.
Funny thing, though, about the “salon” nature of the evening. We’ve all been to so many events where it’s the same food people, over and over, talking about food and the gossip of the restaurant world. This evening was not that. In fact, as soon as Drew found out we were also involved with food, he said, well, it’s been nice, but we all need to go and talk to other people about other things! And we did.
The first course was Uni Lunchbox with rice, sea urchin, tobiko, roasted kimchi, and quail egg by Deuki Hong of Kang Ho Dong Baekjong.
We soon made our way to Questlove. We wanted to be polite, of course, and thank him for inviting us. But we had an agenda, too: Hamilton! We wanted to talk to him about the phenomenon and his producing the album.
He told us a funny story. On one of the songs, he was drumming with his hands on a table. So, half as a joke, he asked an intern to find out what make of table it was. He credited the table in the liner notes of the album. The table is now sold out.
Some fun in the kitchen area between courses:
Next course was Pumpkin soup with dill, broccoli and cheese by Jose Ramirez-Ruiz of Semilla.
After that course, we mingled around the party a while, talking to several people, and found some kindred souls in Kate Werble and two artists from her gallery, Justin Rancourt and Churck Yatsuk. We played a round of Fuck, Kill Marry.
Next course: Bouillabaisse with Bay scallops, saffron-shellfish broth, and new crop potatoes by Christian Ramos of Virginia’s.
Plating:
And finally, Tres Leches cake by Alex Stupak of Empellon.
Toward the end it got a little nuts:
David Byrne and Questlove:
A fantastic evening. It was not at all about the food. And yet, it was all about the food. We are inspired.