Sunday, November 22, 2009

In Bed Together: Art & Bites from Ludo Lefebvre at Royal/T

 

Royal/T
8910 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
310-559-6300
http://www.royal-t.org/http://www.royal-t.org/




Currently showing at Royal/T is a group exhibition curated by Jane Glassman entitled "In Bed Together".  At the Novewmber 20th opening Ludo Lefebvre cooked, champagne, wine and sake flowed while food & art lovers co-mingled.



Ludo's ballyhoo'd pop-up restaurant Ludobites will have a much awaited and planned for short run at Royal/T in December. Friday night gave event goers a titillating preview of what's to come.

 
Royal/T knows how to host an engaging event. At every event I have attended, there has at least one interactive element to the festivities. The most intriguing this evening was Ludo and assistant cooking up inspired snacks in a plexiglass box while a line of party goers snaked through the box picking up snacks as they gawked and drooled.



Making thin buckwheat pancakes.

 

Adding goat cheese and some bacony goodness. 

 

Folded over, these turned out to be a savory blintz.


 

Ludo dirties his hands mincing and dicing pineapple and I don't remember what else for a delicious raw scallop dish.


 

 Tidbits for partygoers tummies were also coming out of the Royal/T kitchen,



French maid cosplay waitresses passed paper water cooler cones of French fried potatoes and sweet potatoes.  Light, crunchy and classically delicious.

 

Also passed through the crowd from the Royal/T kitchen were beef wrapped asparagus and caramelized onion crepes.  The crepe squares were delicious, but the beef wrapped asparagus left something to be desired in the flavor department. Perhaps the beef should have been marinated. I once copied Tuna Toast's recipe for beef wrapped asparagus and it was off the hook flavorful, it set a rather high benchmark.

 
One of my favorite pieces of the exhibit, an installation. All separate pieces of  paper, each with a piece of a gorilla's body hanging from above when assembled together representing the entire ape.

 

A beautiful riff on Manet's Olympia.

 

D wondered if this was a parody of Jann Howorth and Peter Blake's work, creators of the Grammy winning Sgt. Pepper's LHCB album cover.


 

Echoing the joy and irreverence of Royal/T itself.

 

"What I miss most is your incredible smile."

The series below is from the screening room. I call this in my head "The Dildo Progression", but I don't really know the name.

 

 

 


 
I found this striking.

 

Poignant.

 

And this reminds me that all art, like all food, is not meant to be understood by all people.  But that doesn't mean we cannot enjoy.

8 comments:

weezermonkey said...

I was there! You must've gotten there after I left. :(

tgirl said...

Did you see Miss Nicola and her art there???

Food, she thought. said...

Weezer,
I am so sad I missed both you and Diana Takes a Bite!!!

T,
I didn't know Nic was in the show, nor did I see her there. But we got there early and left early...

Carrie said...

Love this. Any idea which artist is behind the shot of the woman looking at the girl on the ground?

(btw - if you sneak in another Stella post, we readers will not complain)

Food, she thought. said...

Carrie,

I do not know who the artists are, I was trying to balance pink champagne, appetizers and a dslr at the same time. I go back for a party on the 1st, will take notes and edit the artists names into the posts on the 2nd!

Diana said...

I still can't believe I missed you... AGAIN!

P.S. There was art there?!? ;)

Kristine said...

LOVE the artwork, esp the Olympia one. Would make for a really cool mural.

chow and chatter said...

cool exhibition and loving the buckwheat pancakes I made them this week for the first time after coming from France