Food is Art

We asked a variety of local culinary artists (eight chefs and a mixologist) about artistic expression in food and what inspires them, from ingredients and trends to landscapes and travel. They gladly shared their creative process and how they use their talents to make a dish that’s not only delicious but also visually appealing, through color, texture, shape and balance.

Gabrielle Moes

Owner/Chef, Seasons Catering

For Gabrielle Moes, creating a menu starts with the client’s flavor profile. “Our events are about the complete guest experience and we want everything to be beautiful and inviting, but each dish of the menu is customized for the client and the food is never compromised,” she says.

The kitchen team at Seasons Catering is driven by what’s in season and has great color. “We are always looking for the next best vegetable dish because it’s the easiest way to make a rainbow on the table,” she says. Though classically trained, Moes prefers the food to be minimally handled, with a very simple, clean approach that allows the dynamic flavors and visual appeal of the food to show through. “Sometimes the play on texture and shape, not just color, is what makes the dish stand out,” she says.

IG: @seasonscateringca

Jess Starwood

Wild Food Chef, Herbalist, Forager

This “sea urchin of the land” is vegan and uses all wild foods, including the wild cucumber husk it’s presented in and chopsticks alongside made from the mule fat plant. The dish features sous vide and fermented lobster mushroom, nettle sauce, pickled black mustard seed and wild watercress.

Inspired by the beauty of a traditional sea urchin dish, Jess Starwood, herbalist, forager, apothecary, chef and long-time vegan, wondered if she could vegan-ize a sea urchin. “I figured it would either go over people’s heads or someone would think it’s cool,” she says.

With her artistic eye and keen knowledge of wild foods, Starwood challenges people’s thinking and taste buds. She creates unexpected flavors with whole-food, plant-based ingredients, particularly from those considered invasive, and then elevates the aesthetics to spark curiosity.

Her Instagram photos are opening conversations about where our food comes from, she says, and her classes, where students can discover the wild plants in their environment and enjoy multi-course tastings and beverages created with those items, sell out six months ahead.

IG @jess.starwood

_{Whiskey sour made with Old Bardstown bourbon, clarified lemon juice, gomme Arabic syrup and local egg white foam}

Paul Jones

Mixologist, Oak & Iron Artisan Cocktails

Creativity at Oak & Iron comes out of pushing what’s possible and making every ingredient shine. Paul Jones, bartender and mixologist, insists on fresh ingredients and making everything from scratch: bitters, syrups, infused spirits, even hand-carved ice cubes. “We do it because it’s hard and nothing good was ever easy,” says Jones.

Often starting with vintage recipes, they innovate by clarifying citrus juices with a centrifuge or extracting flavors with sous vide. They hunt down unusual ingredients such as yuzu lemons or kefir limes. Some signature garnishes come from the small bar garden they grow in pots behind the shop.

IG: @oakandironto

Ivan Medina

Executive Chef, Sheila’s Wine Bar

Executive Chef Ivan Medina’s favorite part of working at his parents’ restaurant is having the autonomy of his own kitchen, ordering whatever he needs to express his passion for serving his community creatively through food. “Through my purveyors, I can get different wild mushrooms and berries that are only foraged and can’t be cultivated,” he says.

For Medina, his artistic touch on each plate is intended to enhance the dining experience. “If it’s visually appealing and looks as if there was a thought process behind it, the customer is already anticipating that the dish is going to be delicious,” he says. “If it tastes better than it looks, then I know I did my job correctly.”

At home, he loves to dive into a particular cuisine, taking the time to perfect dishes such as Korean short ribs or Japanese pork ramen. He also likes to make foods his family remembers, such as his grandmother’s mole or his grandfather’s carnitas, keeping them familiar, but adding a few new ingredients to make them different.

IG: @ivanmedina_

_{Braised oxtail with Okinawa potato puree, housemade peanut sauce, chili foam, grilled bok choi, microgreens and wonton crisp}

Alex Montoya

Executive Chef, Waterside and Water’s Edge

Alex Montoya sees himself as chef for the people, bringing home the Filipino and French training of his mentors with his own Spanish/Mexican heritage to add a fusion flair that he believes embodies what the customers are looking for. “By using modern techniques with really great local produce, I want to show my community that we are worthy of the wow factor,” he says.

A new menu is a chance for him to play with flavors and textures—starting with an umami flavor checklist, then mixing in textures like froth, foam, chip, jelly and pearlification.

“‘People eat with their eyes first,’” quotes Montoya. He aims to create dishes that have a seasonal flair and are appealing to the eye. He planned from a young age to build houses for the Peace Corps, but switched gears when he realized that he could achieve the same goals to help people and create a legacy for his family by building unforgettable menus and connecting with his customers.

IG: @alex_montoya

"Rusty tools" made of chocolate

Massimiliano Carrara

Executive Pastry Chef and co-owner, Carrara Pastries

“I feel like a little kid playing with Play-Doh,” Massimiliano Carrara says about working with chocolate. His bakery and restaurant, Carrara Pastries, is known for its intricate chocolate eggs in spring and other traditional Italian desserts.

Carrara and his brother and partner, award-winning pastry chef Damiano Carrara, meet by phone to put together the flavors of new desserts. Then they taste. “I try it here, he tries it in Italy, and we compare,” says Carrara. The visual comes next. “People buy with their eyes, so we make sure everything looks beautiful too.” He prefers using fresh flowers and fruits for color over anything artificial.

“Creating for judges and winning awards is not interesting to me,” he says about his long days in the baking kitchen, where he oversees everything that is shipped out to the restaurant’s locations in Moorpark, Agoura and Pasadena. “I need to work every day, and I enjoying baking for customers, making them happy and bringing them something new,” he says.

IG: @carraramassimiliano

_{New Zealand Angus Pure coulotte, bleu cheese cauliflower puree, roasted crimini mushrooms, Glace de Veau.}

Gwithyen Thomas

Executive Chef for New Zealand–based Stock Shop Co. /pop-up chef

“Everything about food is important to me … from the way it tastes to the way it looks,” says Gwithyen Thomas. Out of respect for the food, and to give people the experience they expect, Thomas insists on extremely seasonal produce, seafood served just hours after being caught and the highest-quality meats prepared in the most flavorful way.

The main component of Thomas’s dishes stands center and everything else on the plate visually points towards it. “You should be able to eat and enjoy each component on its own, and together they are even better,” he says.

After his restaurant Aroha in Westlake Village was evacuated during last year’s fires, Thomas decided to close permanently.

“Having a restaurant is more of a passion project,” he says. He enjoys his current work as culinary advisor for two NZ-based food distributors and is hosting another pop-up dinner at one of his favorite local restaurants in late December.

IG: @gwithyenthomas

_{Criollo chocolate cylinder filled with chocolate buttermilk sponge, criollo ice cream, chocolate cremeux and Concord grape sauce, topped with Concord grape foam and liquid nitrogen frozen speculoos powder in a chocolate creme anglaise}

Patrick Fahy

Executive Pastry Chef, Four Seasons Westlake Village

Blending classic and modern styles is the secret to Patrick Fahy’s appealing desserts. “Clean and uniform elements such as a perfect scoop of ice cream or a perfect wedge of peach marry well with a scattered streusel, with no rhyme or reason—letting things fall where they may in a rustic, natural way,” he says.

Fahy’s approach to designing what he calls artwork on a plate begins with what’s in peak season locally. He also aims to capture the feeling and atmosphere of the local landscape, and please the community’s unique flavor profile.

“I have my mind trained to make sure a dish tastes good first, but sometimes you won’t get that taste if it doesn’t look good,” says Fahy. He regularly delights hotel guests with desserts that are both beautiful and delicious, such as his recent liquid nitrogen lollipops and cosmetics boxes complete with brushes and chocolate lipsticks.

Salvador Ramirez

Dining Services Director, The Gables of Ojai

“Food is completely an art,” says chef and sculptor Salvador Ramirez. “Some people really take time to enjoy every part of it, including how the plate looks, so it must be balanced in flavor, color and aroma.”

The beautiful carvings Ramirez creates to decorate the dining tables and wow residents at The Gables are an opportunity to express his lifelong love of art. “I always enjoyed painting, drawing and calligraphy as a kid in Mexico, but about eight years ago I noticed a large sculpture at a local food show and said to my wife, ‘I can do that!’” His wife was skeptical, but he soon started carving, and even made his own set of knives.

His late mentor Martha, a painter and resident at the retirement home, suggested that Ramirez try another medium so his carvings would last longer. He moved to soap, then wood, then marble and his sculptures were eventually displayed at The Gables, then the Ojai Art Center.