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TDG: Foodbuzz: Edible Art


anil

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We may go to the media preview on June 10, in which case Ellen or I will post a report. Also there will be a chocolate sculpture by Steve Klc there.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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"Giving visitors a tantalizing glimpse of Chocolate even before they enter the exhibition, the Museum presents eight chocolate sculptural pieces, created specially for the Museum. Talented chocolate chefs including Bill Yosses, Citarella; Colette Peters, Colette’s Cakes; Steve Klc, pastryarts.com; and Kim O’Flaherty, Valrhona Chocolates, Inc., were invited to create these “sculptures”—some up to four feet long and two feet high—inspired by the Museum’s renowned halls, including the Akeley Hall of African Mammals, the Hall of Biodiversity, and the Hall of Reptiles and Amphibians. The sculptures will be on view in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda."

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I didnt get any chocolate at all during the Chicago exhibit - which I felt was a poor move...

I did like how they had the smell of chocolate sifting through the air via vents in the ceiling though...

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We may go to the media preview on June 10, in which case Ellen or I will post a report. Also there will be a chocolate sculpture by Steve Klc there.

Free ride, while some of us have to pay $$$$$$$$$$ as annual membership :sad:

anil

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We've got a family membership. The big media advantage is the ability to see it early, and often there's a free hat or other gear involved.

I don't think there's free chocolate, but Restaurant Associates (which handles the food for the museum) is setting up The Chocolate Cafe on the fourth floor for the duration of the exhibition, and also The Chocolate Shop.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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....... but Restaurant Associates (which handles the food for the museum) is setting up The Chocolate Cafe on the fourth floor for the duration of the exhibition, and also The Chocolate Shop.

That is what we were made to believe. The Cafe is going to be a temp. affair till the duration of the exhibition.

anil

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Brig--didn't we discuss this Field exhibit a long time ago and how it might have been made a little more interactive and educational? Well, the AMNH listened and there are a few add-ons which will hopefully make this stop a little more distinctive. I was a consultant to the AMNH educational department and I had a hand in developing a few programs for the Museum which are unique to this stop, including a parent/child hands-on chocolate discovery class, a master class in chocolate appreciation and connoisseurship, and an evening in July in the Museum's ongoing "Art-Science Collision" series, when Robert Wolke joins pastry chefs and chocolatiers to discuss the artistic processes as well as of the chemical and physical properties that enable chocolate to be molded into art.

The first four chocolate works commissioned by the Museum, and inspired by their Halls and collections, were unveiled this week in the Rotunda--currently on display are the pieces by Chefette and me, Bill Yosses of Citarella, Heather Carlucci of L'Impero and chocolatier Eric Girerd. Then another four will be installed later in the summer by Kim O'Flaherty of Valrhona, Martin Howard of Brasserie 8 1/2, Pat Coston of Ilo and cake artist Colette Peters.

More information on these programs and other chocolate-related programs which might be of potential interest, one with Zarela Martinez, another an evening lecture by Michael Coe, co-author of the fantastic book "The True History of Chocolate," lecturing on its Pre-Columbian history, can be found at this link:

http://www.amnh.org/programs/chocolate/?src=p_ex

Some programs are free, some have a nominal fee.

I'll be there on the 10th for that media event if anyone wants to corral me to ask questions about how any of the pastry chefs made any of the pieces. (Though our media preview was Tuesday June 3rd--the June 10th preview will focus on the curator and the science/history aspects of chocolate.)

The downside of the kinds of contracts RA enters into is that they usually control all aspects of foodservice. I hear the Museum shop will host different authors and chefs on the weekends and allow samples and tastes to be passed out. I think if you come looking for samples you will be disappointed, it isn't set up like the New York Chocolate Show. But I can ensure anyone taking the master class that they will sample quite a bit of chocolate.

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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Hi all. My first post here(finally). Hey Steve S. and Ellen, maybe I'll see you there next Thursday night. There are going to be eight chocolate dresses on display for the evening. I'm really excited at the prospect of seeing Zarela make chocolate from cacao. I just read her story of attempting to grind it on the deck behind her apartment in NYC.

I saw a great chocolate as sculpture/clothing/whatever show at a gallery in the Marais about eight years ago. The smell was heaven!

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Hi all.  My first post here(finally).  Hey Steve S. and Ellen, maybe I'll see you there next Thursday night.  There are going to be eight chocolate dresses on display for the evening.  I'm really excited at the prospect of seeing Zarela make chocolate from cacao.  I just read her story of attempting to grind it on the deck behind her apartment in NYC.

I saw a great chocolate as sculpture/clothing/whatever show at a gallery in the Marais about eight years ago.  The smell was heaven!

Welcome!

Next Thursday is June 12. What's going on then? I'm only aware of the June 10 morning event for media.

Also, I've just received a media alert from the museum that there will be two programs on June 17:

Tuesday, June 17:

The Science of Chocolate:  New Discoveries, 1:00–5:00 p.m.

Linder Theater, free with Museum admission

This symposium presents the latest research by scientists from the United States and Mexico working in the fields of anthropology, chemistry, and paleobotany, reporting on a range of topics including the first-known cultivation in the Americas of the cacao tree, the use of chocolate among the Maya, and the detection of chocolate in archaeological samples.  Symposium organizer and paleobotanist Cameron L. McNeil will discuss her research on one of the oldest known pieces of chocolate:  a small lump of chocolate residue found in a deer effigy pot during a recent excavation of a tomb at the archaeological site of Copán, Honduras, where one of the early local Maya kings was buried.  The tomb has been dated to about 437 C.E., suggesting that the residue is one of the oldest pieces of chocolate ever found.  A section of this chocolate is on public view in the exhibition for the first time at the American Museum of Natural History.

Can Chocolate Save the Rain Forest?, 7:00–9:00 p.m.

Kaufmann Theater, $15 ($13.50 Members, students, senior citizens)

Can cacao supply an economic incentive for preserving the rain forest canopy, as shade-grown coffee does?  In this roundtable, Chris Bright and Radhika Sarin of the World Watch Institute will discuss the future of “forest-friendly” chocolate agriculture in Brazil and the Ivory Coast with Meg Domroese, Outreach Program Manager of the Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

For more information or reservations, the public should call 212-769-5200 or visit www.amnh.org.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Next Thursday is June 12. What's going on then?

Thursday June 12th is yet another preview hosted by Chocolatier/Pastry Art and Design, with a reception announcing their Ten Best list for 2003. The pastry chefs listed here, including myself, will be doing a tasting. It is invitation-only, though I've been hearing the guest count is over 800.

...and an evening in July in the Museum's ongoing "Art-Science Collision" series, when Robert Wolke joins pastry chefs and chocolatiers to discuss the artistic processes as well as of the chemical and physical properties that enable chocolate to be molded into art.

This one sounds great... wish I could be there!

Michael Laiskonis

Pastry Chef

New York

www.michael-laiskonis.com

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Steve - will you be willing/allowed to post a photo of the sculpture?

I know you were probably addressing the other Steve, but I checked with the museum's press people and they said there's no problem with taking photos -- so I'll be able to post some on the 10th most likely.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Terrific exhibition. Ellen or I will post some notes and photos later. For now we've got a couple up in the Foodbuzz feature for today.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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When you approach the exhibition there are several chocolate dresses on display.

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The exhibition itself is well put-together, and the AMNH has enhanced it with several items from its own collection, such as this cocoa-pod-shaped coffin from Ghana.

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The rest is what you'd expect from a first-rate museum exhibition: various storyboards, models, the oldest piece of actual chocolate extant (macroscopic), videos . . .

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The chocolate sculptures are not in the exhibition hall; they are in the museum's main rotunda. Hang an immediate right as soon as you enter from Central Park West. The workmanship and creativity on the sculptures is astounding. Unfortunately because they are behind glass they are tremendously difficult to photograph, especially Steve Klc's because it is the first in the series and therefore in the corner. Maybe Steve K can post about exactly what we're looking at here because I can't do it justice. The important thing to remember is that everything is chocolate. The colored things are chocolate paint, dyed chocolate, etc. You have to get up close and personal to appreciate fully the effort and thought that must have gone into these, each inspired by a different part of the museum's collection and each in a very distinct style. The food-and-art debate ends here.

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Immediately outside the exhibition is a chocolate shop, where you can purchase various trinkets.

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And upstairs is the chocolate cafe, where the media people (today was the press preview; the exhibition opens on the 14th of this month) were in a feeding frenzy, literally. You'll see in the last photo of this series what the typical reporter was loading onto her plate.

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Ellen Shapiro

www.byellen.com

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Wowee Ellen, gorgeous pictures, and did you (sphewwww) put ma' mind at' ease about those chocolate .dress things. I loaned the AMNH the mannequins for the opening. and I am happy that they look, in photographs, better than life (shouldn't we all?). Well, I'll see how good, or bad. (oy, I sound like my Aunt Bea) they look afterwords.

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One thing worth noting: because the chocolate sculptures are in the Rotunda, you can just wander in off the street and view them without the need for admission to the museum's exhibit halls. So if you're walking on Central Park West past the AMNH, you really should step in and take a look.

Also, I was very disappointed at the lack of attention given to the chocolate sculptures at the media preview event. They're the best part of the whole production, yet they were not part of the program -- the gaggle of reporters was led through the exhibition, the shop, and the cafe, then given gift bags and sent away; no mention of, "Go to the Rotunda to see the sculptures." The only way I found them was by calling Steve Klc on his cell phone and asking, "Dude, where the hell are the sculptures?"

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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