The Flirtatious Relationship Between Artists and Chefs
By Bruce Gregg
Anthony Bourdain; Sourced through Pinterest
To be a good artist is to be a curator for the people. A musician’s record plays as a couple falls in love. A painter’s piece hangs behind the desk of a corporate executive. A screenwriter’s quote is referenced, a designer’s clothes are worn and a photographer’s photo is seen. Then, from the Michelin-star-holding, gourmet restaurant in Paris to the Burger King on Delancey, a chef’s food is eaten.
Throughout culture, artists have been infatuated with the world of culinary. Every artist’s dream project takes place in a kitchen, producing timeless pieces in modern media. Disney Pixar’s Ratatouille won an Academy Award thanks to the genius of screenwriter and director, Brad Bird. The late and amazing Anthony Bourdain became a superstar with his novel, Kitchen Confidential, never looking back as he defined his legacy. FX’s The Bear has been the hottest show for two years with no sign of slowing down, sweeping the Emmys and launching names into the mainstream along the likes of Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White. The people eat up artistic pieces about restaurants more than food itself.
Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White; The Bear BTS
Artists and Chefs have a historic, flirtatious relationship. Obviously, A chef is an artist in their own respect, hence the culinary arts. There is no profession that holds creativity to such a high status of efficiency and discipline as a chef. Artists have a deep rooted lust for chefs out of envy, shame and respect. If every artist had the cut-throat mindset of a chef, everyone would be at the level of Andy Warhol.
Although artists yearn for the lifestyle of a chef, they already have a lot in common. Artists and chefs both want to produce amazing work. They both just want to sit on milk crates in the alley of a bustling city as they smoke a cigarette. They both want to run around under the lights of Paris with their beautiful significant other. They both understand that they are not the main character, their consumer is. They both just want to be curators. They both want to be the best background artist of all time.
Lots of artists in the culinary arts have made a transition into the fine arts. There are two camps: the guy who yearns for commitment to the fine arts, but has to pay the bills. These artists bounce around line cook and dishwasher gigs until they get their big break. A community forms between these individuals. Collaborations and long term artistic relationships are birthed behind the counter of a bar rush. Ideas are bounced off one another as floors are mopped. Self tape auditions are filmed in the broom closets of breaks. Pitch meetings are held when a celebrity waltzes through the doors of the establishment to satisfy the one thing that every decent artist has in common: hunger. Working the graveyard shift, smog-filled, dead-end line cook gig instills a sense of dedication and drive to “make it” as an artist. Nobody wants to smell like sweat and grease. Nobody gets laid with aioli and sharpie marks on their arms. To achieve your wildest dreams, you have to make something good enough to get out of the dead end. The light at the end of the tunnel. The classic trope of the actor working the shitty job until they get their big break. It is romanticized. The artists romanticize it themselves.
Then we have camp two: The well renowned, high-status chef who has been in the finest kitchens of New York, Paris and London who “accidentally” fell into stardom and created some of the best artistic work in human culture. The late Anthony Bourdain comes to mind, a figure that generation after generation of artists idolize to this day for his boldness, introspectivity, grit and swagger. He had a phenomenal career as a chef in New York before catapulting his career as an author and television personality. The rest was history. Best selling novels; Kitchen Confidential, A Cook’s Tour, Appetites. Phenomenal television programs; No Reservations, Parts Unknown, even a cameo in the 2015 film, The Big Short.
Anthony Bourdain; Sourced through Pinterest
It would be unethical to write an article about chefs turned artists and leave out the name, Action Bronson. The people’s King of Queens. After a long career as a cook in New York, Bronson became one of the most unique and well respected musicians in Hip Hop. Bronson’s raw sampling techniques and eccentric, boujee one-liners reflect his past and current love for food. His 2019 collaboration with legendary producer, The Alchemist opens with the beautiful tune of a Xylophone that sounds straight out the streets of France on the track “Dmtri.” The name of the Album? Lamb Over Rice.
Artists’ obsession with the kitchen has sept into the mainstream time after time. Previously mentioned, FX’s The Bear and Pixar’s Ratatouille, Films such as Burnt, where Bradley Cooper played a chef for the second time, the first being a canceled sitcom adaption of Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. 2022’s The Menu, 2014’s Chef, novel and film, Eat, Pray, Love. The list goes on because the kitchen is the perfect place for an artist’s story. The roaring, vibrant colors of the ingredients contrasted by the bright white walls and cloth. The romantic whimsy and comradery between families of chefs snapping in an instant at the drop of a glass. The ability to work your way up the system from dishwasher to line cook to Sous Chef to Head Chef to Superstar. The idea of creating the food, or the fuel for the people in the heart of the best cities in the world. The kitchen is a place that has a built in artistic integrity, waiting to be seen. The kitchen is heaven for an artist’s paintbrush.
Still from Burnt
Artists and chefs will always have the hoots for each other. Chefs will become superstars. Matty Matheson seems to be the latest and peopl couldn’t be happier. The next brilliant actor of the generation is probably face down in a dish pit right now, sneezing as Cajun seasoning sneaks into their nose. If there are chefs, we will have artists. If there are artists, we will have chefs.
