[{"totalItems":"627","totalPages":157,"currentPage":0,"items":[{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/1028579","site":"https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":1028579,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/1028579","url":"https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/seattle-menu-artist-patrick-nguyen","path_alias":"seattle-menu-artist-patrick-nguyen","label":"Watch This Seattle Artist Turn Menus into Wall-Worthy Artwork","content":" Patrick Nguyen\u2019s menu art has turned up in restaurants around the country When servers ask Patrick Nguyen if he would like to hold on to the menu, he always says yes, but not for the reasons one would expect. Nguyen works in tech by day and by night is an artist. He creates menu art, sketching on top of the night\u2019s specials, creating black and white renderings of oysters, squids, trees, whatever the restaurant inspires that night. His designs often begin with bold strokes of black, a foundation for his sketching in white on top. The drawings began as a gift to the kitchen for a great meal, but then he noticed them migrating onto restaurant walls, taped up on display. This gave him the confidence to share his work publically. Slowly he turned sketches into commissions for menu boards, which later became larger projects like murals. Restaurants becoming his artist\u2019s gallery for displaying his work. First in Atlanta, where he drew for popular places like Staplehouse, now in his new home in Seattle, where he has worked with Eduardo Jordan, of Junebaby, among others. Once just inspired by chefs, Dozfy, his artist alias, now collaborates with chefs to create live art experiences in their restaurants. Dozfy's rendering of a fish and bear on the 6-course tasting menu for the Eat With Your Eyes Dinner. Patrick Nguyen Dozfy spoke to Saveur about his process and inspiration for his work, as well his new interactive series collaborating with chefs, called \u2018Eat With Your Eyes.\u2019 How did you get started drawing on menus? I started about four years ago in Atlanta. At the time I was with a group of friends and I would just draw on anything possible, which included receipts. I remember throwing one way and I caught one of friends digging through the trash and was like, \u2018whoa what are you doing\u2019 and he said, \u2018well, I love your artwork, I wanna keep it.\u2019 And then a mutual friend of ours, who worked in the restaurant industry, said \u2018you should just draw on the menus, we throw them out anyway. We print them once a week.\u2019 Do you remember your first piece of menu art? It was at Leon\u2019s Full Service in Decatur, Georgia, I drew a lion. I recall giving it to them and then six months to a year later, I came back and I was sitting at the bar, and underneath was the menu taped up. I was like \u201coh you kept that!\u201d and the bartender said, \u201cWe love that piece! It\u2019s our favorite. We always wondered who drew it.\u201d I considered it a gift to the kitchen, because they don\u2019t get to see what\u2019s going on while stuck in the back cooking. So it\u2019s an appreciation and thanks for everything they do. Do they take the entire meal to create? Depending on the medium, what kind of pen I use, it takes me about five minutes to finish one drawing. It\u2019s pretty quick. I have drawn for 25+ years, so I have gotten my own techniques down. I know what I can do with the equipment I have. It\u2019s second nature. Black, white, and gold drawings of a rooster and owl on the 6-course tasting menu for the Eat With Your Eyes Dinner. Patrick Nguyen Did you always have this particular style? It\u2019s kind of ironic because everyone always thinks it's kind of street art, but it\u2019s not really. If you look at my website you can see a range and that comes from my training. I\u2019m most known for the white on black work, which actually was developed when I tried to draw Ansel Adams photographs. I would try to emulate the black and white photos he made. The pens I use on a black background creates this amazing affect. With the white on black you kind of have to find a middle ground, you can\u2019t be too detailed. It\u2019s a matter of the economy of line work, so that the subject pops, in order to catch the viewer right away. It\u2019s how you create this sublime moment with the viewer. Want More? Sign up for our newsletters By submitting above, you agree to Saveur\u2019s privacy policy. How did you develop this technique? I have always drawn, but I became more serious with sketching in high school. I made this goal, which I have stuck with for ten years, to try and finish at least one sketchbook a year, some years I did more than that. I got in that habit in order to hone my skill. Then I did my undergrad in fine arts at University of Texas, Austin, where I\u2019m from. Got my training there, but my fine arts training was more about the thought process and why I draw. I work on all styles though, like recently I have done these three murals, in chalk. The plate art is my new kind of area of concentration. Dozfy's octopus and thyme drawn on the 6-course tasting menu for the Eat With Your Eyes Dinner Patrick Nguyen What exactly is, \u2018plate art\u2019? It\u2019s an extension of the menu art. The plates are already fired and coated, so what I am doing is applying a black paint on top and engraving into the paint an image. So it\u2019s the same process as the menu art, like my white on black work, but on plates. The idea is that when you go to museums and you look at plates or even in people\u2019s home where they have the fancy China, they own it for special occasion and put it on display. That\u2019s the idea of the plate art. Taking a restaurant plate and displaying it like you do a painting. So the canvas is the plate. The plate art is not food ready. It can be, but it wasn\u2019t intended to be. It\u2019s intended to be art on display. View More Art Related Articles Oysters with lemon and sea lettuce from the Eat With Your Eyes event tasting menu Patrick Nguyen And this is what you are incorporating into your \u2018Eat With Your Eyes\u2019 series? The event is called \u201cEat with Your Eyes,\u201d a play on words. The idea behind that event is that Chef Derek Simcik, (of Scout in Seattle\u2019s Thompson Hotel), and I both take turns plating the food, guests are supposed to guess who plated what and the prize is the plate art. The event had 11 diners, the prize winner took home a plate with a squid design. Right now I\u2019m focused on this idea of: can I engage the audience to like the art but also have a meal? Put art in a relaxed setting. Talk with an artist over food like you would with family and friends. Art becomes the bridge of conversation. This year I have focused on how can I make an experience out of the art but not as a performance piece. Ever consider leaving the day job and going full time? Under the right circumstances. Menu art to me is amazing and I continue to do it because the reactions I get good or bad are genuine or priceless. I have been a starving artist and I have been in a position where it didn\u2019t go as well as I expected. The menu art was a rejuvenation, where I became willing to do art work and share it. I was never going to stop doing art work but to share it was a different story. Menu art opened the doors for that, allowed me to have an audience that likes my work. It\u2019s not easy though, to make it a full time job. If I can always maintain that balance of happiness with artwork, then yes I\u2019d do it, but it\u2019s early yet. We\u2019ll see. ","teaser":" Patrick Nguyen\u2019s menu art has turned up in restaurants around the country When servers ask Patrick Nguyen if he would like to hold on to the menu, he always says yes, but not for the reasons one would expect. Nguyen works in tech by day and by night is an artist. He creates menu art, sketching on","ss_name":"awhite","tos_name":"awhite","ss_name_formatted":"awhite","tos_name_formatted":"awhite","is_uid":1169,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2018-04-09T19:00:00Z","ds_changed":"2018-04-09T19:00:01Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2018-04-09T19:00:01Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":true,"bs_field_flag_video":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"bs_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":false,"bs_field_x90_hide":false,"bs_field_last_updated":false,"bs_field_exclude_from_cl":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
Patrick Nguyen has made menus his canvas and restaurants a gallery for his work, and you can check them out in his new interactive series \u201cEat With Your Eyes\u201d…<\/div>","ts_bonnier_summary_long":"
Patrick Nguyen has made menus his canvas and restaurants a gallery for his work, and you can check them out in his new interactive series \u201cEat With Your Eyes\u201d…<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Food<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2018-04-09T19:00:02.282Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_image":["https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/sites\/saveur.com\/files\/styles\/325_4x3\/public\/images\/2018\/04\/thyme-octopus.jpg?itok=gu4uss3L"],"bm_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[true],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[true],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"bm_field_x90_hide":[false],"tid":[1002185,1000831,1000804,1001518,1002534],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["food"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Alana Al-Hatlani"],"tm_vid_1_names":["menu restaurants art Food"],"spell":["Watch This Seattle Artist Turn Menus into Wall-Worthy Artwork"," Patrick Nguyen\u2019s menu art has turned up in restaurants around the country When servers ask Patrick Nguyen if he would like to hold on to the menu, he always says yes, but not for the reasons one would expect. Nguyen works in tech by day and by night is an artist. He creates menu art, sketching on top of the night\u2019s specials, creating black and white renderings of oysters, squids, trees, whatever the restaurant inspires that night. His designs often begin with bold strokes of black, a foundation for his sketching in white on top. The drawings began as a gift to the kitchen for a great meal, but then he noticed them migrating onto restaurant walls, taped up on display. This gave him the confidence to share his work publically. Slowly he turned sketches into commissions for menu boards, which later became larger projects like murals. Restaurants becoming his artist\u2019s gallery for displaying his work. First in Atlanta, where he drew for popular places like Staplehouse, now in his new home in Seattle, where he has worked with Eduardo Jordan, of Junebaby, among others. Once just inspired by chefs, Dozfy, his artist alias, now collaborates with chefs to create live art experiences in their restaurants. Dozfy's rendering of a fish and bear on the 6-course tasting menu for the Eat With Your Eyes Dinner. Patrick Nguyen Dozfy spoke to Saveur about his process and inspiration for his work, as well his new interactive series collaborating with chefs, called \u2018Eat With Your Eyes.\u2019 How did you get started drawing on menus? I started about four years ago in Atlanta. At the time I was with a group of friends and I would just draw on anything possible, which included receipts. I remember throwing one way and I caught one of friends digging through the trash and was like, \u2018whoa what are you doing\u2019 and he said, \u2018well, I love your artwork, I wanna keep it.\u2019 And then a mutual friend of ours, who worked in the restaurant industry, said \u2018you should just draw on the menus, we throw them out anyway. We print them once a week.\u2019 Do you remember your first piece of menu art? It was at Leon\u2019s Full Service in Decatur, Georgia, I drew a lion. I recall giving it to them and then six months to a year later, I came back and I was sitting at the bar, and underneath was the menu taped up. I was like \u201coh you kept that!\u201d and the bartender said, \u201cWe love that piece! It\u2019s our favorite. We always wondered who drew it.\u201d I considered it a gift to the kitchen, because they don\u2019t get to see what\u2019s going on while stuck in the back cooking. So it\u2019s an appreciation and thanks for everything they do. Do they take the entire meal to create? Depending on the medium, what kind of pen I use, it takes me about five minutes to finish one drawing. It\u2019s pretty quick. I have drawn for 25+ years, so I have gotten my own techniques down. I know what I can do with the equipment I have. It\u2019s second nature. Black, white, and gold drawings of a rooster and owl on the 6-course tasting menu for the Eat With Your Eyes Dinner. Patrick Nguyen Did you always have this particular style? It\u2019s kind of ironic because everyone always thinks it's kind of street art, but it\u2019s not really. If you look at my website you can see a range and that comes from my training. I\u2019m most known for the white on black work, which actually was developed when I tried to draw Ansel Adams photographs. I would try to emulate the black and white photos he made. The pens I use on a black background creates this amazing affect. With the white on black you kind of have to find a middle ground, you can\u2019t be too detailed. It\u2019s a matter of the economy of line work, so that the subject pops, in order to catch the viewer right away. It\u2019s how you create this sublime moment with the viewer. Want More? Sign up for our newsletters By submitting above, you agree to Saveur\u2019s privacy policy. How did you develop this technique? I have always drawn, but I became more serious with sketching in high school. I made this goal, which I have stuck with for ten years, to try and finish at least one sketchbook a year, some years I did more than that. I got in that habit in order to hone my skill. Then I did my undergrad in fine arts at University of Texas, Austin, where I\u2019m from. Got my training there, but my fine arts training was more about the thought process and why I draw. I work on all styles though, like recently I have done these three murals, in chalk. The plate art is my new kind of area of concentration. Dozfy's octopus and thyme drawn on the 6-course tasting menu for the Eat With Your Eyes Dinner Patrick Nguyen What exactly is, \u2018plate art\u2019? It\u2019s an extension of the menu art. The plates are already fired and coated, so what I am doing is applying a black paint on top and engraving into the paint an image. So it\u2019s the same process as the menu art, like my white on black work, but on plates. The idea is that when you go to museums and you look at plates or even in people\u2019s home where they have the fancy China, they own it for special occasion and put it on display. That\u2019s the idea of the plate art. Taking a restaurant plate and displaying it like you do a painting. So the canvas is the plate. The plate art is not food ready. It can be, but it wasn\u2019t intended to be. It\u2019s intended to be art on display. View More Art Related Articles Oysters with lemon and sea lettuce from the Eat With Your Eyes event tasting menu Patrick Nguyen And this is what you are incorporating into your \u2018Eat With Your Eyes\u2019 series? The event is called \u201cEat with Your Eyes,\u201d a play on words. The idea behind that event is that Chef Derek Simcik, (of Scout in Seattle\u2019s Thompson Hotel), and I both take turns plating the food, guests are supposed to guess who plated what and the prize is the plate art. The event had 11 diners, the prize winner took home a plate with a squid design. Right now I\u2019m focused on this idea of: can I engage the audience to like the art but also have a meal? Put art in a relaxed setting. Talk with an artist over food like you would with family and friends. Art becomes the bridge of conversation. This year I have focused on how can I make an experience out of the art but not as a performance piece. Ever consider leaving the day job and going full time? Under the right circumstances. Menu art to me is amazing and I continue to do it because the reactions I get good or bad are genuine or priceless. I have been a starving artist and I have been in a position where it didn\u2019t go as well as I expected. The menu art was a rejuvenation, where I became willing to do art work and share it. I was never going to stop doing art work but to share it was a different story. Menu art opened the doors for that, allowed me to have an audience that likes my work. It\u2019s not easy though, to make it a full time job. If I can always maintain that balance of happiness with artwork, then yes I\u2019d do it, but it\u2019s early yet. We\u2019ll see. ","menu restaurants art Food","Alana Al-Hatlani","
Patrick Nguyen has made menus his canvas and restaurants a gallery for his work, and you can check them out in his new interactive series \u201cEat With Your Eyes\u201d…<\/div>","
Patrick Nguyen has made menus his canvas and restaurants a gallery for his work, and you can check them out in his new interactive series \u201cEat With Your Eyes\u201d…<\/div>","
Food<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[1002534],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_field_exclude_from_cl":[false],"bm_field_last_updated":[false],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"bm_in_nps":[false],"sm_field_subtitle":["Patrick Nguyen\u2019s menu art has turned up in restaurants around the country\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[1002185,1000831,1000804,1001518],"im_vid_2":[1002534],"sm_vid_Authors":["Alana Al-Hatlani"],"im_vid_1":[1002185,1000831,1000804,1001518],"sm_vid_Tags":["menu","restaurants","art","Food"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/1028580","site":"https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":1028580,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/1028580","url":"https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/sizzling-sisig-pig-khao","path_alias":"sizzling-sisig-pig-khao","label":"How to Cook (and eat) a Whole Pig\u2019s Face","content":" Chef Leah Cohen from Pig&Khao in New York City shows us how she makes her rendition of sizzling sisig, a traditional Filipino dish with a long history Nights out in Metro Manila are much like the days: hot, humid, and the slightest bit sticky, especially if you find yourself in a crowded bar. And while cocktails and hard liquor are as big in the Philippines as they are anywhere else, Filipinos tend to cool down by popping the cap off of an ice-cold bottle of San Miguel beer, best served with a fatty plateful of sizzling hot sisig. Pork sisig is one of the most sinful and savored dishes in Filipino cuisine. All Filipino food places\u2014from fancy fine-dining restaurants and mall food courts, to side-street turo turo joints and dingy bars\u2014are sure to have the sizzling crowd pleaser on their menu. The meaty dish is a deconstructed pig\u2019s head, complete with ears, cheeks, jowls, and (sometimes) tongue, braised, grilled, saut\u00e9ed with peppers, and served on a hot plate, finished off with a raw egg and a squeeze of calamansi. And although the filling appetizer is (like any other Filipino dish) enjoyed with a hearty helping of rice, it is largely considered a pulutan (munchies for drinking\/ beer food). Sisig has a long history that dates back to the Spanish occupation. But the modern rendition that all Filipinos and non-Filipinos recognize today as \u201csisig\u201d originates from what some consider one of the culinary capitals of the Philippines: Pampanga. It is in the Kapampangan city of Angeles where you can find sisig\u2019s birthplace\u2014a small roadside eatery called \u201cAling Lucing\u2019s.\u201d As the dish became a national phenomenon, people started developing variations that make use of everything from liver and pork belly tor crunchy chicharron. There\u2019s also chicken sisig, seafood sisig, and even tofu sisig. Pig&Khao in New York City\u2019s Lower East Side is known as more of an Asian fusion restaurant, but they stick to a relatively traditional recipe, except for the squeeze of lime instead of calamansi (it\u2019s ok, lime is tough to find in the city) and the cilantro garnish. Watch as owner Leah Cohen shows us how she prepares her favorite sizzling Filipino food. ","teaser":" Chef Leah Cohen from Pig&Khao in New York City shows us how she makes her rendition of sizzling sisig, a traditional Filipino dish with a long history Nights out in Metro Manila are much like the days: hot, humid, and the slightest bit sticky, especially if you find yourself in a crowded bar.","ss_name":"awhite","tos_name":"awhite","ss_name_formatted":"awhite","tos_name_formatted":"awhite","is_uid":1169,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2018-04-04T20:00:00Z","ds_changed":"2018-04-04T20:08:46Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2018-04-04T20:08:46Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"bs_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":false,"bs_field_x90_hide":false,"bs_field_last_updated":false,"bs_field_exclude_from_cl":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
Sisig is a fatty, sinful sizzling pork dish made by braising, grilling, and saut\u00e9eing a deconstructed pig\u2019s mask. Here\u2019s how you make it.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_summary_long":"
Sisig is a fatty, sinful sizzling pork dish made by braising, grilling, and saut\u00e9eing a deconstructed pig\u2019s mask. Here\u2019s how you make it.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Food<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2018-04-04T20:08:47.743Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_image":["https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/sites\/saveur.com\/files\/styles\/325_4x3\/public\/images\/2018\/04\/sisig-2000x1000.jpg?itok=xK2vxWDX&fc=50,50"],"bm_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[true],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"bm_field_x90_hide":[false],"tid":[1001518,1000791,1001849,1002559,1000831,1000989,1002429],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["food"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Jasmine P. Ting"],"tm_vid_1_names":["Food Travel Filipino Sisig restaurants New York City"],"spell":["How to Cook (and eat) a Whole Pig\u2019s Face"," Chef Leah Cohen from Pig&Khao in New York City shows us how she makes her rendition of sizzling sisig, a traditional Filipino dish with a long history Nights out in Metro Manila are much like the days: hot, humid, and the slightest bit sticky, especially if you find yourself in a crowded bar. And while cocktails and hard liquor are as big in the Philippines as they are anywhere else, Filipinos tend to cool down by popping the cap off of an ice-cold bottle of San Miguel beer, best served with a fatty plateful of sizzling hot sisig. Pork sisig is one of the most sinful and savored dishes in Filipino cuisine. All Filipino food places\u2014from fancy fine-dining restaurants and mall food courts, to side-street turo turo joints and dingy bars\u2014are sure to have the sizzling crowd pleaser on their menu. The meaty dish is a deconstructed pig\u2019s head, complete with ears, cheeks, jowls, and (sometimes) tongue, braised, grilled, saut\u00e9ed with peppers, and served on a hot plate, finished off with a raw egg and a squeeze of calamansi. And although the filling appetizer is (like any other Filipino dish) enjoyed with a hearty helping of rice, it is largely considered a pulutan (munchies for drinking\/ beer food). Sisig has a long history that dates back to the Spanish occupation. But the modern rendition that all Filipinos and non-Filipinos recognize today as \u201csisig\u201d originates from what some consider one of the culinary capitals of the Philippines: Pampanga. It is in the Kapampangan city of Angeles where you can find sisig\u2019s birthplace\u2014a small roadside eatery called \u201cAling Lucing\u2019s.\u201d As the dish became a national phenomenon, people started developing variations that make use of everything from liver and pork belly tor crunchy chicharron. There\u2019s also chicken sisig, seafood sisig, and even tofu sisig. Pig&Khao in New York City\u2019s Lower East Side is known as more of an Asian fusion restaurant, but they stick to a relatively traditional recipe, except for the squeeze of lime instead of calamansi (it\u2019s ok, lime is tough to find in the city) and the cilantro garnish. Watch as owner Leah Cohen shows us how she prepares her favorite sizzling Filipino food. ","Food Travel Filipino Sisig restaurants New York City","Jasmine P. Ting","
Sisig is a fatty, sinful sizzling pork dish made by braising, grilling, and saut\u00e9eing a deconstructed pig\u2019s mask. Here\u2019s how you make it.<\/div>","
Sisig is a fatty, sinful sizzling pork dish made by braising, grilling, and saut\u00e9eing a deconstructed pig\u2019s mask. Here\u2019s how you make it.<\/div>","
Food<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[1002429],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_field_exclude_from_cl":[false],"bm_field_last_updated":[false],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"bm_in_nps":[false],"sm_field_subtitle":["Chef Leah Cohen from Pig&Khao in New York City shows us how she makes her rendition of sizzling sisig, a traditional Filipino dish with a long history\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[1001518,1000791,1001849,1002559,1000831,1000989],"im_vid_2":[1002429],"sm_vid_Authors":["Jasmine P. Ting"],"im_vid_1":[1001518,1000791,1001849,1002559,1000831,1000989],"sm_vid_Tags":["Food","Travel","Filipino","Sisig","restaurants","New York City"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/1028467","site":"https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":1028467,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/1028467","url":"https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/best-lunch-movie-moments","path_alias":"best-lunch-movie-moments","label":"You Can't Sit with Us, and Other Great Lunch Moments in Movie History","content":" Celebrating our favorite cinematic midday meals Lunch serves as a bridge in the day, a break from monotony, both in real life and for movie characters on screen. Lunch sustains us. In films, lunch can be a bonding experience among friends or a tense standoff between enemies. Eaten alone, it can be a revealing glimpse into one\u2019s psyche. Heroes and villains alike need to eat. A tasty bite of something fresh and warm can be a necessary respite from the chaos around you. Movie moments where the characters stop for lunch are bound to be memorable for this reason. The action pauses, dialogue is shared, and secrets are revealed: Sharing a meal often allows characters in movies to share a critical plot-developing anecdote or impart a piece of conveniently useful wisdom. A great lunch scene can reveal a side to someone previously unseen (\u201cso you agree, you think you\u2019re really pretty\u201d), or they can strike a sinister sense of foreboding (\u201cBlanche, ya know we got rats in the cellar?\u201d). We may not exactly be what we eat, but what we eat or what we prepare for others says a lot about ourselves. Movies often ask not just what a character wants to eat, but what they are willing to eat, given the circumstances; not every meal is prepared lovingly, as seen by several entries on this list. From the delicious and savory to the weird and scary, here are 13 of the most memorable movie lunch moments. The Breakfast Club: Bagged Lunches The five teenagers stuck in Saturday detention during John Hughes\u2019 1985 classic embody many different aspects of the high school experience, right down to their bagged lunches. Sushi served in a bento box for Claire (Molly Ringwald), a quart of milk and several sandwiches for Andrew (Emilio Estevez), and a sugary cereal sandwich concocted by Allison (Ally Sheedy). Judd Nelson\u2019s troubled bully Bender, without a lunch from home of his own, resorts to making fun of his peers\u2019 meals. Each meal, or even the lack of one, teaches the audience a bit more about the teens. Buy The Breakfast Club DVD \u00bb Animal House: Bluto\u2019s Buffet and Zit The college dining hall is a classic place to gorge on food, and John Belushi\u2019s Bluto is not the type to pass up that opportunity. Casually sliding across the lunch buffet, Bluto starts sneaking bites of the pastries as he loads donuts on top of the sandwiches on his lunch tray. With a sly look over his shoulder and his famously cocked eyebrow, Belushi looks to make sure no one\u2019s watching as he slurps up a jello plate. His voracious performance is only half of what makes this moment stand out among the many wild antics in 1978\u2019s Animal House. Across from some snobby Omega Theta Pi brothers, Bluto asks, \u201csee if you can guess what I am now?\u201d before performing one of the most famous spit takes in film history. Buy the Animal House DVD \u00bb The Big Sick: Talk About 9\/11 Hospital cafeterias make for a sad, stiff backdrop to conversations. The food is typically passable, at best, and everyone\u2019s thoughts aren\u2019t on the meal. Yet, in 2017\u2019s The Big Sick, Terry (Ray Romano) attempts to spark conversation with his daughter\u2019s new Muslim boyfriend Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) while his daughter is in a coma. As they pick at food from pre-portioned plastic containers, the two recently acquainted men stammer through a discussion of 9\/11. Buy The Big Sick DVD \u00bb Chef: Food Truck Cubanos Jon Favreau collaborated with chef Roy Choi on 2014\u2019s Chef as a break from big-budget filmmaking. Carl (Favreau) rediscovers a love for Cuban cuisine in the back of a refurbished food truck and reconnects with his son through teaching him his chef\u2019s tricks. Preparing the delectable Cubano sandwiches for the lunch crowd in Miami is only the start of Carl\u2019s cross-country food truck expedition. Buy the Chef DVD \u00bb eXistenZ: \u2018Special\u2019 Chinese dish David Cronenberg is a master of body horror, but he also knows how to whip up a horrific meal. Ted Pikul (Jude Law) orders the special for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, only to receive a plate of what looks like gelatin and bones. Overcome with an irresistible urge to eat the dish, Pikul digs in with his hands, repulsed as he continues eating. Part of a twisted virtual reality game within the 1999 film, the dish\u2019s remains assemble into an \u201corganic gun\u201d required to complete the game. Buy the eXistenZ DVD \u00bb Falling Down: I Don\u2019t Want Lunch, I Want Breakfast Joel Schumacher\u2019s 1993 film pre-dates the advent of fast food joints\u2019 all-day breakfast, but there once was a time where no frustration seemed worse than arriving minutes too late to order off the morning menu. Bill \u201cD-Fens\u201d Foster (Michael Douglas) arrives at the fast food shop on his trek across town, only to be set off when the manager tells him, \u201cYou have to order something off the lunch menu.\u201d Buy the Falling Down DVD \u00bb I Am Love: Extraordinary Prawns Luca Guadagnino\u2019s 2009 Italian romance captures the experience of a meal so good it can momentarily transport your mind. As Emma (Tilda Swinton) closes her eyes to take a bite of the prawns with ratatouille and sweet-and-sour sauce, the lights dim and time slows. It\u2019s as if she and the prawns are alone in the subliminal glow of this elegant meal. Buy the I Am Love DVD \u00bb Mean Girls: Meeting the Plastics Navigating the social structure of the high school cafeteria is a complicated balance. The 2004 Tina Fey\u2013written comedy breaks down the different cliques by table, from girls who eat their feelings to sexually active band geeks. At the center of the room sits the school\u2019s most popular clique, referred to by Lizzy Caplan\u2019s Janis as, \u201cthe Plastics.\u201d Buy the Mean Girls DVD \u00bb Saturday Night Fever: Cheese Pizzas, Stacked New Yorkers are familiar with having their lunch on the go. As John Travolta struts down 86th Street in bell-bottoms to the tune of \u201cStaying Alive,\u201d he chows down on not one but two slices of cheese pizza. This pizza stacking method is non-traditional but effective: Tony (Travolta) can stuff his face without breaking his rhythmic stride. Buy the Saturday Night Fever DVD \u00bb The Trip: Dueling Michael Caines Originally released as a 6-episode series for BBC Two, 2010\u2019s The Trip features actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as lightly fictionalized versions of themselves taking a restaurant tour of the north of England. In between glasses of wine and plates of gourmet cuisine, the comedians exchange not-so-light-hearted barbs. The height of their banter comes in their dueling Michael Caine impressions. Buy The Trip DVD \u00bb Wall Street: Off the Menu When young, hungry stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) meets Gordon Gekko out for lunch in 1987\u2019s Wall Street, Gekko immediately indulges Bud with the luxuries he has to offer. \u201cTry the steak tartare, it\u2019s off the menu, Louis\u2019ll make it for you,\u201d Gekko commands before Bud has time to settle into his seat. But the real palate cleanser comes when Gekko reaches into his pocket to show off a check for one million dollars. Buy the Wall Street DVD \u00bb Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?: Rats in the Cellar Robert Aldrich\u2019s 1962 psychological thriller about a wheelchair-bound aging starlet (Joan Crawford) tormented and held captive by a jealous older sister (Bette Davis) played off of the Hollywood stars\u2019 real life rivalry to accentuate the tension. When Davis\u2019 Jane arrives with a plate for Crawford\u2019s Blanche, covered with a silver dome, you want to turn away from the reveal. Blanche lifts the lid to reveal a dead rat on her plate while Jane cackles madly from the hallway. Buy the Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? DVD \u00bb When Harry Met Sally: I\u2019ll Have What She\u2019s Having Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan break bread at Katz\u2019s Deli in the most iconic scene from their 1989 romantic comedy. Harry (Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) debate whether or not women can fake orgasms over their plates of pastrami on rye, an argument that Sally quickly settles through her noisy moans of pleasure. It\u2019s not hard to imagine having a similar reaction to the sky-high piles of meat from the NYC staple. Buy the When Harry Met Sally DVD \u00bb ","teaser":" Celebrating our favorite cinematic midday meals Lunch serves as a bridge in the day, a break from monotony, both in real life and for movie characters on screen. Lunch sustains us. In films, lunch can be a bonding experience among friends or a tense standoff between enemies. Eaten alone, it can be","ss_name":"awhite","tos_name":"awhite","ss_name_formatted":"awhite","tos_name_formatted":"awhite","is_uid":1169,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":false,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2018-03-16T17:00:00Z","ds_changed":"2018-03-16T21:12:04Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2018-03-16T21:12:04Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"bs_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":false,"bs_field_x90_hide":false,"bs_field_last_updated":false,"bs_field_exclude_from_cl":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
A roundup of our favorite lunch moments in film.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_summary_long":"
A roundup of our favorite lunch moments in film.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Lifestyle<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2018-03-16T21:12:06.062Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_image":["https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/sites\/saveur.com\/files\/styles\/325_4x3\/public\/images\/2018\/02\/lunch-film-mean-girls-2000x1150.jpg?itok=sjeG7_hi&fc=50,50"],"bm_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[true],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"bm_field_x90_hide":[false],"tid":[1001518,1000804,1002180,1002544,1000948,1002546],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["lifestyle"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Zachary Shevich"],"tm_vid_1_names":["Food art gallery Lunch Month Lifestyle"],"spell":["You Can't Sit with Us, and Other Great Lunch Moments in Movie History"," Celebrating our favorite cinematic midday meals Lunch serves as a bridge in the day, a break from monotony, both in real life and for movie characters on screen. Lunch sustains us. In films, lunch can be a bonding experience among friends or a tense standoff between enemies. Eaten alone, it can be a revealing glimpse into one\u2019s psyche. Heroes and villains alike need to eat. A tasty bite of something fresh and warm can be a necessary respite from the chaos around you. Movie moments where the characters stop for lunch are bound to be memorable for this reason. The action pauses, dialogue is shared, and secrets are revealed: Sharing a meal often allows characters in movies to share a critical plot-developing anecdote or impart a piece of conveniently useful wisdom. A great lunch scene can reveal a side to someone previously unseen (\u201cso you agree, you think you\u2019re really pretty\u201d), or they can strike a sinister sense of foreboding (\u201cBlanche, ya know we got rats in the cellar?\u201d). We may not exactly be what we eat, but what we eat or what we prepare for others says a lot about ourselves. Movies often ask not just what a character wants to eat, but what they are willing to eat, given the circumstances; not every meal is prepared lovingly, as seen by several entries on this list. From the delicious and savory to the weird and scary, here are 13 of the most memorable movie lunch moments. The Breakfast Club: Bagged Lunches The five teenagers stuck in Saturday detention during John Hughes\u2019 1985 classic embody many different aspects of the high school experience, right down to their bagged lunches. Sushi served in a bento box for Claire (Molly Ringwald), a quart of milk and several sandwiches for Andrew (Emilio Estevez), and a sugary cereal sandwich concocted by Allison (Ally Sheedy). Judd Nelson\u2019s troubled bully Bender, without a lunch from home of his own, resorts to making fun of his peers\u2019 meals. Each meal, or even the lack of one, teaches the audience a bit more about the teens. Buy The Breakfast Club DVD \u00bb Animal House: Bluto\u2019s Buffet and Zit The college dining hall is a classic place to gorge on food, and John Belushi\u2019s Bluto is not the type to pass up that opportunity. Casually sliding across the lunch buffet, Bluto starts sneaking bites of the pastries as he loads donuts on top of the sandwiches on his lunch tray. With a sly look over his shoulder and his famously cocked eyebrow, Belushi looks to make sure no one\u2019s watching as he slurps up a jello plate. His voracious performance is only half of what makes this moment stand out among the many wild antics in 1978\u2019s Animal House. Across from some snobby Omega Theta Pi brothers, Bluto asks, \u201csee if you can guess what I am now?\u201d before performing one of the most famous spit takes in film history. Buy the Animal House DVD \u00bb The Big Sick: Talk About 9\/11 Hospital cafeterias make for a sad, stiff backdrop to conversations. The food is typically passable, at best, and everyone\u2019s thoughts aren\u2019t on the meal. Yet, in 2017\u2019s The Big Sick, Terry (Ray Romano) attempts to spark conversation with his daughter\u2019s new Muslim boyfriend Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) while his daughter is in a coma. As they pick at food from pre-portioned plastic containers, the two recently acquainted men stammer through a discussion of 9\/11. Buy The Big Sick DVD \u00bb Chef: Food Truck Cubanos Jon Favreau collaborated with chef Roy Choi on 2014\u2019s Chef as a break from big-budget filmmaking. Carl (Favreau) rediscovers a love for Cuban cuisine in the back of a refurbished food truck and reconnects with his son through teaching him his chef\u2019s tricks. Preparing the delectable Cubano sandwiches for the lunch crowd in Miami is only the start of Carl\u2019s cross-country food truck expedition. Buy the Chef DVD \u00bb eXistenZ: \u2018Special\u2019 Chinese dish David Cronenberg is a master of body horror, but he also knows how to whip up a horrific meal. Ted Pikul (Jude Law) orders the special for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, only to receive a plate of what looks like gelatin and bones. Overcome with an irresistible urge to eat the dish, Pikul digs in with his hands, repulsed as he continues eating. Part of a twisted virtual reality game within the 1999 film, the dish\u2019s remains assemble into an \u201corganic gun\u201d required to complete the game. Buy the eXistenZ DVD \u00bb Falling Down: I Don\u2019t Want Lunch, I Want Breakfast Joel Schumacher\u2019s 1993 film pre-dates the advent of fast food joints\u2019 all-day breakfast, but there once was a time where no frustration seemed worse than arriving minutes too late to order off the morning menu. Bill \u201cD-Fens\u201d Foster (Michael Douglas) arrives at the fast food shop on his trek across town, only to be set off when the manager tells him, \u201cYou have to order something off the lunch menu.\u201d Buy the Falling Down DVD \u00bb I Am Love: Extraordinary Prawns Luca Guadagnino\u2019s 2009 Italian romance captures the experience of a meal so good it can momentarily transport your mind. As Emma (Tilda Swinton) closes her eyes to take a bite of the prawns with ratatouille and sweet-and-sour sauce, the lights dim and time slows. It\u2019s as if she and the prawns are alone in the subliminal glow of this elegant meal. Buy the I Am Love DVD \u00bb Mean Girls: Meeting the Plastics Navigating the social structure of the high school cafeteria is a complicated balance. The 2004 Tina Fey\u2013written comedy breaks down the different cliques by table, from girls who eat their feelings to sexually active band geeks. At the center of the room sits the school\u2019s most popular clique, referred to by Lizzy Caplan\u2019s Janis as, \u201cthe Plastics.\u201d Buy the Mean Girls DVD \u00bb Saturday Night Fever: Cheese Pizzas, Stacked New Yorkers are familiar with having their lunch on the go. As John Travolta struts down 86th Street in bell-bottoms to the tune of \u201cStaying Alive,\u201d he chows down on not one but two slices of cheese pizza. This pizza stacking method is non-traditional but effective: Tony (Travolta) can stuff his face without breaking his rhythmic stride. Buy the Saturday Night Fever DVD \u00bb The Trip: Dueling Michael Caines Originally released as a 6-episode series for BBC Two, 2010\u2019s The Trip features actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as lightly fictionalized versions of themselves taking a restaurant tour of the north of England. In between glasses of wine and plates of gourmet cuisine, the comedians exchange not-so-light-hearted barbs. The height of their banter comes in their dueling Michael Caine impressions. Buy The Trip DVD \u00bb Wall Street: Off the Menu When young, hungry stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) meets Gordon Gekko out for lunch in 1987\u2019s Wall Street, Gekko immediately indulges Bud with the luxuries he has to offer. \u201cTry the steak tartare, it\u2019s off the menu, Louis\u2019ll make it for you,\u201d Gekko commands before Bud has time to settle into his seat. But the real palate cleanser comes when Gekko reaches into his pocket to show off a check for one million dollars. Buy the Wall Street DVD \u00bb Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?: Rats in the Cellar Robert Aldrich\u2019s 1962 psychological thriller about a wheelchair-bound aging starlet (Joan Crawford) tormented and held captive by a jealous older sister (Bette Davis) played off of the Hollywood stars\u2019 real life rivalry to accentuate the tension. When Davis\u2019 Jane arrives with a plate for Crawford\u2019s Blanche, covered with a silver dome, you want to turn away from the reveal. Blanche lifts the lid to reveal a dead rat on her plate while Jane cackles madly from the hallway. Buy the Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? DVD \u00bb When Harry Met Sally: I\u2019ll Have What She\u2019s Having Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan break bread at Katz\u2019s Deli in the most iconic scene from their 1989 romantic comedy. Harry (Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) debate whether or not women can fake orgasms over their plates of pastrami on rye, an argument that Sally quickly settles through her noisy moans of pleasure. It\u2019s not hard to imagine having a similar reaction to the sky-high piles of meat from the NYC staple. Buy the When Harry Met Sally DVD \u00bb ","Food art gallery Lunch Month Lifestyle","Zachary Shevich","
A roundup of our favorite lunch moments in film.<\/div>","
A roundup of our favorite lunch moments in film.<\/div>","
Lifestyle<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[1002546],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_field_exclude_from_cl":[false],"bm_field_last_updated":[false],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"bm_in_nps":[false],"sm_field_subtitle":["Celebrating our favorite cinematic midday meals\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[1001518,1000804,1002180,1002544,1000948],"im_vid_2":[1002546],"sm_vid_Authors":["Zachary Shevich"],"im_vid_1":[1001518,1000804,1002180,1002544,1000948],"sm_vid_Tags":["Food","art","gallery","Lunch Month","Lifestyle"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/1028466","site":"https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":1028466,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/1028466","url":"https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/interview-identical-lunch-alison-knowles","path_alias":"interview-identical-lunch-alison-knowles","label":"When a Tuna Fish Sandwich Becomes A Work of Art","content":" An interview with \u201cThe Identical Lunch\u201d artist Alison Knowles about tuna sandwiches, performance art, and how our daily rituals can be vehicles for inspiration. \u201cA tunafish sandwich on wheat toast, with lettuce and butter (no mayo), and a large glass of buttermilk.\u201d That was the start of the score for The Identical Lunch, one of Alison Knowles\u2019 most well known pieces of performance art. Adding in the option for a cup of soup, it goes on: \u201cis eaten many days of each week at the same place and at about the same time.\u201d It has been enacted in various non-identical forms, all over the world, since its original inception in 1969. (As recently as 2012, MOMA hosted the artist for a series of \u201cidentical lunches\u201d with visitors to the museum.) It is a uniquely enduring expression of the value inherent in thoughtful reflection of the everyday, the overlooked, and the routine. It is a story of how a tuna fish sandwich became a work of art. "A tunafish sandwich on wheat toast, with lettuce and butter (no mayo), and a large glass of buttermilk." Alex Testere Knowles was a founding member of the Fluxus art movement, which emerged in the late 1950s as a reaction to the elitism and exclusivity of the art world. A loosely banded group of artists rejected the notion that art couldn\u2019t be ephemeral, and that it could only live in museums. For Knowles, everyday life became art. She cited the variety and intensity of her daily experience as artistic inspiration. Food, in particular, was rife with potential; eating rituals, cooking techniques, and dining habits were all tiny and wonderfully significant daily performances. The Identical Lunch was born at Riss Diner in Manhattan. Knowles\u2019 friend and fellow artist, Phillip Corner, noticed she seemed to have the exact same thing everyday, and allegedly pointed out: \u201cYou have an identical lunch.\u201d She agreed, and began to formalize it into a series, both in art spaces and with collaborators in the real world. She often invited others to join her, and to document their own lunches. She sees it also as a unique type of performance that doesn\u2019t require an audience\u2014every time we eat that sandwich to this day, it is part of Knowles\u2019 work. In addition to The Identical Lunch, Knowles is also known for Proposition #2 Make a Salad, another Fluxus \u201cevent score,\u201d which originated at the London ICA in 1962 and functioned a bit like a scaled-up recipe. The score itself simply reads: \u201cMake a Salad.\u201d The performance at the Tate in London in 2008 and on New York\u2019s High Line in 2012 involved the artist emptying giant bags of lettuce, vegetables, and salad dressing onto a 30-by-30 foot tarp. The salad was then \u201ctossed,\u201d with the assistance of shovels and rakes. A team distributed the massive salad into individual bowls, and the audience, of course, then shared a salad with Ms. Knowles. As our food voyeurism escalates on Instagram and social media, the thought of bracketing our daily meals for aesthetic consideration feels resonate\u2014appropriate, even. While the components of the Identical Lunch now sound a bit peculiar (a large glass of buttermilk every day?), the act of capturing and considering our lunch is perhaps more familiar now than it was in 1962. I reached out to Ms. Knowles, now 84, to talk a bit about her work, and what we can learn from it now, almost 50 years later. Allie Wist: I\u2019m so thrilled to speak with you about the famous sandwich\u2014the one that has been in the MOMA. Alison Knowles: The Identical Lunch is probably my best-known piece, if not Make a Salad. I think I should be attributed as one of the early people that brought food into art-making. AW: Absolutely. Was that something you thought about at the time? AK: [The Identical Lunch] goes back to the fact that I was from a poor family, and during the war years, there were very finite selections of food we had to eat. Among them were cans of tuna fish. Another was wheat bread\u2014that was also available. Another food we ate a lot of were black beans. For a poor family, the war years were quite a strain. But we made it through very well. We had our own garden later, and I don't think we suffered very much during the wartime. So definitely, the tuna fish and the black beans nourished me through my life. [Alison Knowles also has several pieces about beans, including Bean Rolls Collection (1962), Bean Garden (1971\/2016), and Red Beans All Day (1962\/2015).] AW: And tuna turned up in the daily lunch that eventually became the performance. Why lunch, in particular? AK: I had an assistant who would work through the afternoon, and he'd have a break for an hour to go have his lunch and I'd go have mine. I would always go to Riss Foods, which was on the corner of Spring and Broadway. I\u2019d always just raise my hand when I came in, and they would make The Identical Lunch for me. So they constantly performed for me. It was really one of the best foods they put together. Eventually they put a sign in the window that read: \u201cHome of The Identical Lunch. \u201d AW: So others could be performers in the piece as well? AK: If I was at a school or university, I would definitely propose that my audience have The Identical Lunch with me when I was through with my talk. And sometimes they could do that\u2014they'd make us 50 identical lunches. Of course I couldn't always get a kitchen to make it, and I didn't enjoy eating it in front of my audience and not having them have any. AW: Much of your audience was able to realize through this piece what art and performance art could really be\u2014how their own daily lives could be considered differently. But what would you say that piece is about for you? AK: The Identical Lunch was my opportunity to offer a work that exemplified breakthroughs in intermedia, chance, relational art, and living which emerged from my generation's expanded awareness of the impact of everyday life. The act of making the same sandwich each day, often seen as insignificant, could lead to changes in our daily perceptions once conceived as a personal performance. Ordering and eating the The Identical Lunch allowed art to take place without calling for an audience. You could make a sandwich, sit down, eat it, and art was occurring whether or not you knew it or if anyone else was there. Want More? Sign up for our newsletters By submitting above, you agree to Saveur\u2019s privacy policy. AW: I certainly don\u2019t think these pieces have lost their relevance today, as we seek more communal and engaging food experiences. What about those original concepts do you think still resonates? AK: It\u2019s not really a food piece. My idea [at the time] was to bring work out of the kitchen and show what what was going on there, as something that was relevant to everybody, which it still is. I think now it has changed in some ways, but the poetry of The Identical Lunch is that something as banal as a tuna fish sandwich is never the same, whenever it is made. AW: It still seems radical to look at daily acts in your life as part of a ritual and a performance. Being able to self-reflect in that way. AK: If I'm to be credited with anything in performance art, it's to bring attention to the daily events that we do without thinking, and to recognize them as we're doing a performance. (This went against concepts of theater, and of theater as the only performance art.) AW: Truly, so much of our daily life (especially in the kitchen) is still theatrical and nuanced and ritualized in interesting ways. AK: And is important. It's a hidden performance, but a very individual one. ** This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. ","teaser":" An interview with \u201cThe Identical Lunch\u201d artist Alison Knowles about tuna sandwiches, performance art, and how our daily rituals can be vehicles for inspiration. \u201cA tunafish sandwich on wheat toast, with lettuce and butter (no mayo), and a large glass of buttermilk.\u201d That was the start of the score","ss_name":"awhite","tos_name":"awhite","ss_name_formatted":"awhite","tos_name_formatted":"awhite","is_uid":1169,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2018-03-14T18:00:00Z","ds_changed":"2018-03-14T18:00:01Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2018-03-14T18:00:01Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"bs_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":false,"bs_field_x90_hide":false,"bs_field_last_updated":false,"bs_field_exclude_from_cl":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
Every time artist Alison Knowles eats a tuna fish sandwich, it\u2019s a work of art. Allie Wist interviews her about \u201cThe Identical Lunch,\u201d her life-as-performance piece that…<\/div>","ts_bonnier_summary_long":"
Every time artist Alison Knowles eats a tuna fish sandwich, it\u2019s a work of art. Allie Wist interviews her about \u201cThe Identical Lunch,\u201d her life-as-performance piece that involves, first and foremost, eating a tuna fish sandwich.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Lifestyle<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2018-03-14T18:00:01.81Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_image":["https:\/\/www.saveur.com\/sites\/saveur.com\/files\/styles\/325_4x3\/public\/images\/2018\/02\/identical-lunch-illo-2000x1500.jpg?itok=wJ4rfhxC&fc=50,50"],"bm_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[true],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"bm_field_x90_hide":[false],"tid":[1001518,1000804,1002485,1000948,1002544,1000014],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["lifestyle"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Allie Wist"],"tm_vid_1_names":["Food art interview Lifestyle Lunch Month"],"spell":["When a Tuna Fish Sandwich Becomes A Work of Art"," An interview with \u201cThe Identical Lunch\u201d artist Alison Knowles about tuna sandwiches, performance art, and how our daily rituals can be vehicles for inspiration. \u201cA tunafish sandwich on wheat toast, with lettuce and butter (no mayo), and a large glass of buttermilk.\u201d That was the start of the score for The Identical Lunch, one of Alison Knowles\u2019 most well known pieces of performance art. Adding in the option for a cup of soup, it goes on: \u201cis eaten many days of each week at the same place and at about the same time.\u201d It has been enacted in various non-identical forms, all over the world, since its original inception in 1969. (As recently as 2012, MOMA hosted the artist for a series of \u201cidentical lunches\u201d with visitors to the museum.) It is a uniquely enduring expression of the value inherent in thoughtful reflection of the everyday, the overlooked, and the routine. It is a story of how a tuna fish sandwich became a work of art. "A tunafish sandwich on wheat toast, with lettuce and butter (no mayo), and a large glass of buttermilk." Alex Testere Knowles was a founding member of the Fluxus art movement, which emerged in the late 1950s as a reaction to the elitism and exclusivity of the art world. A loosely banded group of artists rejected the notion that art couldn\u2019t be ephemeral, and that it could only live in museums. For Knowles, everyday life became art. She cited the variety and intensity of her daily experience as artistic inspiration. Food, in particular, was rife with potential; eating rituals, cooking techniques, and dining habits were all tiny and wonderfully significant daily performances. The Identical Lunch was born at Riss Diner in Manhattan. Knowles\u2019 friend and fellow artist, Phillip Corner, noticed she seemed to have the exact same thing everyday, and allegedly pointed out: \u201cYou have an identical lunch.\u201d She agreed, and began to formalize it into a series, both in art spaces and with collaborators in the real world. She often invited others to join her, and to document their own lunches. She sees it also as a unique type of performance that doesn\u2019t require an audience\u2014every time we eat that sandwich to this day, it is part of Knowles\u2019 work. In addition to The Identical Lunch, Knowles is also known for Proposition #2 Make a Salad, another Fluxus \u201cevent score,\u201d which originated at the London ICA in 1962 and functioned a bit like a scaled-up recipe. The score itself simply reads: \u201cMake a Salad.\u201d The performance at the Tate in London in 2008 and on New York\u2019s High Line in 2012 involved the artist emptying giant bags of lettuce, vegetables, and salad dressing onto a 30-by-30 foot tarp. The salad was then \u201ctossed,\u201d with the assistance of shovels and rakes. A team distributed the massive salad into individual bowls, and the audience, of course, then shared a salad with Ms. Knowles. As our food voyeurism escalates on Instagram and social media, the thought of bracketing our daily meals for aesthetic consideration feels resonate\u2014appropriate, even. While the components of the Identical Lunch now sound a bit peculiar (a large glass of buttermilk every day?), the act of capturing and considering our lunch is perhaps more familiar now than it was in 1962. I reached out to Ms. Knowles, now 84, to talk a bit about her work, and what we can learn from it now, almost 50 years later. Allie Wist: I\u2019m so thrilled to speak with you about the famous sandwich\u2014the one that has been in the MOMA. Alison Knowles: The Identical Lunch is probably my best-known piece, if not Make a Salad. I think I should be attributed as one of the early people that brought food into art-making. AW: Absolutely. Was that something you thought about at the time? AK: [The Identical Lunch] goes back to the fact that I was from a poor family, and during the war years, there were very finite selections of food we had to eat. Among them were cans of tuna fish. Another was wheat bread\u2014that was also available. Another food we ate a lot of were black beans. For a poor family, the war years were quite a strain. But we made it through very well. We had our own garden later, and I don't think we suffered very much during the wartime. So definitely, the tuna fish and the black beans nourished me through my life. [Alison Knowles also has several pieces about beans, including Bean Rolls Collection (1962), Bean Garden (1971\/2016), and Red Beans All Day (1962\/2015).] AW: And tuna turned up in the daily lunch that eventually became the performance. Why lunch, in particular? AK: I had an assistant who would work through the afternoon, and he'd have a break for an hour to go have his lunch and I'd go have mine. I would always go to Riss Foods, which was on the corner of Spring and Broadway. I\u2019d always just raise my hand when I came in, and they would make The Identical Lunch for me. So they constantly performed for me. It was really one of the best foods they put together. Eventually they put a sign in the window that read: \u201cHome of The Identical Lunch. \u201d AW: So others could be performers in the piece as well? AK: If I was at a school or university, I would definitely propose that my audience have The Identical Lunch with me when I was through with my talk. And sometimes they could do that\u2014they'd make us 50 identical lunches. Of course I couldn't always get a kitchen to make it, and I didn't enjoy eating it in front of my audience and not having them have any. AW: Much of your audience was able to realize through this piece what art and performance art could really be\u2014how their own daily lives could be considered differently. But what would you say that piece is about for you? AK: The Identical Lunch was my opportunity to offer a work that exemplified breakthroughs in intermedia, chance, relational art, and living which emerged from my generation's expanded awareness of the impact of everyday life. The act of making the same sandwich each day, often seen as insignificant, could lead to changes in our daily perceptions once conceived as a personal performance. Ordering and eating the The Identical Lunch allowed art to take place without calling for an audience. You could make a sandwich, sit down, eat it, and art was occurring whether or not you knew it or if anyone else was there. Want More? Sign up for our newsletters By submitting above, you agree to Saveur\u2019s privacy policy. AW: I certainly don\u2019t think these pieces have lost their relevance today, as we seek more communal and engaging food experiences. What about those original concepts do you think still resonates? AK: It\u2019s not really a food piece. My idea [at the time] was to bring work out of the kitchen and show what what was going on there, as something that was relevant to everybody, which it still is. I think now it has changed in some ways, but the poetry of The Identical Lunch is that something as banal as a tuna fish sandwich is never the same, whenever it is made. AW: It still seems radical to look at daily acts in your life as part of a ritual and a performance. Being able to self-reflect in that way. AK: If I'm to be credited with anything in performance art, it's to bring attention to the daily events that we do without thinking, and to recognize them as we're doing a performance. (This went against concepts of theater, and of theater as the only performance art.) AW: Truly, so much of our daily life (especially in the kitchen) is still theatrical and nuanced and ritualized in interesting ways. AK: And is important. It's a hidden performance, but a very individual one. ** This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. ","Food art interview Lifestyle Lunch Month","Allie Wist","
Every time artist Alison Knowles eats a tuna fish sandwich, it\u2019s a work of art. Allie Wist interviews her about \u201cThe Identical Lunch,\u201d her life-as-performance piece that…<\/div>","
Every time artist Alison Knowles eats a tuna fish sandwich, it\u2019s a work of art. Allie Wist interviews her about \u201cThe Identical Lunch,\u201d her life-as-performance piece that involves, first and foremost, eating a tuna fish sandwich.<\/div>","
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