The Alchemy of Taste and Smell: Fragrant Exhibition

Cutting-edge Event with Top Chefs and Perfumer Mandy Aftel Explores Aroma
and Essential Oils in Cooking and Cocktails at Astor Center NYC November 12-13

The Alchemy of Taste and SmellAstor Center, New York City
November 12-13, 2010
For info & tickets: http://www.astorcenternyc.com/

Cooking is alchemy: the art of transforming raw materials into a perfected form. Cooking fuses taste and smell, emotion and memory, culture and nature. The work of chefs today is much discussed, but the process by which new dishes and flavor combinations are created remains mysterious. This event will explore creativity in cooking, the composite nature of flavors and the importance of aroma in food and drink.

The event starts Friday night, with a cocktail making demonstration, followed by a reception and cocktail party that will feature creative cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Saturday will have demonstrations and talks, followed by a meal.

Seven chefs will collaborate on the dinner on Saturday night. The seven-course meal (one course by each chef) will be experimental in nature, exploring new flavor combinations and making explicit the connection between what we smell and what we taste. For instance, a cucumber/melon salad served on a plate scented with mint essence, as a sensory sleight of hand where by the end of the dish the diner thinks that they have eaten the herb, even though they have only smelled it. Mandy Aftel will collaborate on the dinners. The dishes would be accompanied by appropriate wines.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Friday Night, November 12

5:00PM Demonstration - Dave Arnold and Audrey Saunders Using Aroma inCocktails (The Study, up to 36 people) $55

7:00-10:00PM Opening Party (The Lounge and The Gallery, up to 250 people) $95

Creative cocktails by Dave Arnold and Audrey Saunders. Participating Chefs: David Chang, Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa, Daniel Patterson, Nils Noren, Bill Corbett

Saturday Day, November 13

11:30PM Demonstration- David Chang, Wylie Dufresne New Flavor Combinations (The Study, up to 36 people) $55

1:00PM Harold McGee Thinking about Flavor (The Gallery, up to 100 people) $45

McGee will outline the chemical and biological nature of flavor. He will describe the molecules that stimulate our senses of taste and smell, how taste and smell work together to create the perception of flavor, and how that perception is influenced by past experience and by context.

2:30PM Demonstration - Daniel Patterson and Johnny Iuzzini Flavor and Aroma (The Study, up to 36 people) $55

Dishes that focus on the interaction between taste and smell. They will each make dishes starting from the same flavor combinations, demonstrating a range of styles and techniques.

3:45PM Panel Discussion Creativity and Flavor (The Gallery, up to 100 people) $35

Five leading chefs will discuss the process by which they create new dishes. (ingredients, technique, childhood memories, cultural associations)

5:00PM Mandy Aftel Creating with Aromas (The Study, up to 36 people) $35
Aftel will demonstrate the process of how she creates with scent --- showing you how to orchestrate the interactions between pure and natural essences when blending a flavor or fragrance. This architecture of aroma will be illustrated graphically by smelling some unexpected combinations, over a range of concentration ratios.

Saturday Night, November 13

7:00PM Dinner. The Lounge (40 people) $300

David Chang, Wylie Dufresne, George Mendes, Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa, Nils Noren, Daniel Patterson, Bill Corbett, some in collaboration with perfumer Mandy Aftel using her essential oils. The price includes beverage and service.