Next week, French-Costa Rican cultural group Alliance Française will be mixing two messy arts: cooking and sculpture. Chefs and artists from both Costa Rica and France will create elaborate edible pieces of art for “Bon ArtPetit,” a fourday culinary event.
The food-art will be displayed in Alliance Française’s headquarters in San José’s historic Barrio Amón neighborhood, after which viewers can taste samples.
FrancisCanal, the chef at Hotel Grano de Oro in San José, is preparing a presentation entitled “Descubiértame” a play on the Spanish words for “discover me” (descúbrame) and “silverware” (cubierto). He says he plans on making many small lollipops of all kinds of flavors, colors and sizes – including chili-flavored – while the artist he is working with will arrange them on a display of Styrofoam forks.
“There are going to be a lot of surprises,” he said. Canal is from France originally, but has lived in Costa Rica for 20 years.
Several artists are traveling from France to participate in Bon ArtPetit.
The event kicks off Dec. 1 with a “Chef Parade,” in which chefs will share their cooking secrets and hold tastings in the Barrio Amón center. The same event will be repeated Dec. 3 in Alliance Française’s La Sabana branch.
The more elaborate food-art goes up Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Barrio Amón. This event is free and open to the public.
The event’s invitation-only finale will be held Dec. 3 in the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, next to the National Theater, where a “Floating Buffet” will be presented in collaboration with French artists Emmanuelle Becquemin and Stéphanie Sagot, pioneers of edible art installations. Food will be floating on helium balloons that guests will have to catch. This event is invitation-only.
For more information, contact Alliance Française at its Barrio Amón (Av. 7, Ca. 5, 2222-2283) or La Sabana (200 meters south of Universal store, 2290-2705) locations, or visit www.afsj.net.
