Posted by Nils Noren
This is the second post in the Glass House project series. If you want to know more about it click here.
Menu read: Lamb Curry, Coconut & Peanuts | Guests saw: Hot Dog | How it was done: Hot dog made with ground lamb and diced lamb loin, cooked medium-rare in lamb broth using an immersion circulator (lamb+lamb cooked in lamb = lamb-licious) served on a coconut brioche bun. Coconut curry and peanuts ground together are the spitting-image of deli-style mustard. Topped with fried shallots, this is the best hot dog that you'll never have.
The topic for this particular discussion was quite an interesting one: attention span. Or in today’s culture, it is more the lack of an attention span that is the problem. I definitely feel that my own attention span has waned, not that I had much to start with. Think about it—we change TV channels every two minutes, we read only the first part of a news article, and so on. What does this lack of an attention span mean in terms of food? Fast food!
I don’t personally have a problem with fast food in and of itself. I love myself a good hot dog or a herring burger (of course I wish I didn’t have to go all the way to Sweden to have one). Yet I do think it’s a problem that too many people never seem to think about the food they’re eating, especially when it’s fast food. Fast food has become more of a means to refueling and filling up quickly without the onus of having to reflect upon what you just ate. So I wanted to come up with a concept that would grab people’s attention. Is there a better way of grabbing peoples attention then by confusing them? No, I don’t think so.
So here is the concept; I’ll try to make it as clear as possible to avoid any further confusion.The menu listed a fast food item from a specific place in the world (e.g., a hot dog or a chorizo & cheese sandwich). The plate came out looking like fast food from an entirely different place, but it contain all the flavors of the dish listed on the menu (e.g., hot-dog-shaped lamb curry or chorizo & cheese noodle soup). Confusing enough to make you focus and really think about what you’re eating? I hoped so.
At least I managed to perplex the following guests into intently analyzing each dish: Stuart Brown of the National Institute for Play; Dorothy Dunn, Director of Visitor Experience at the Philip Johnson Glass House; Ze Frank of ZeFrank.com; Andrew Hultkrans, author and Artforum Contributing Editor; Pico Iyer, author; Nathaniel Kahn, filmmaker; Maira Kalman, illustrator, artist, designer; Christy MacLear, Executive Director of the Philip Johnson Glass House; Jorge Otero-Pailos, Columbia University professor; Adam Phillips, psychoanalyst; Wolfgang Schivelbusch, author and scholar.
Menu read: Tomato & Basil Salad | Guests saw: Ice Cream Sandwich | How it was done: To up the Italian factor, the parfait was flavored with porcini mushrooms (sorry, no mozzarella this time); the sauce is a fluid gel of yellow tomatoes, white balsamic, and basil syrup. This was our way of serving a digestive salad.
Good fun!