A Plan For Eating

One pear, five stages, one table drawn as an architectural plan. A guided tasting for six people at a time.

Description:

A long standing table, drawn as a 1:1 architectural plan. A single ingredient, pear, travels across it from fresh to preserved.

In small groups of six, visitors move along the table through the different zones. Each is a place and a moment in the pear's life:

Threshold · Before: nashi pear, cucumber and celery, crisp and fresh

Promenade I · Becoming: fresh pear, shiso and cultured cream

Promenade II · Becoming: jasmine-poached pear with sunflower seed miso

Pause · Best: ripe pear, jasmine cream and osmanthus, the pear at its peak

Beyond: roasted pear, fermented pear and aged cheese

Courtyard · Gathering: sourdough and pear, broken and shared around the table

Departure · After: pear pâte de fruit with warm Pu'er tea

The table starts out pristine. Over time it fills with traces of hands, crumbs and conversation. A best-before date marks when food should start to decline. This table works the other way: it looks most perfect before anyone touches it, but it isn't finished until it's been used.

Entry: Free entry to the exhibition. Tickets are for tasting only.
Ticket: £38 for a guided tasting session of seven canapés. Tickets may also be available on the door via QR code, subject to availability.

When: Tuesday 20 October, sessions from 6 - 8:30pm
Where: 157 Regent's Park Road, Chalk Farm, London NW1 8BB

Ingredients: Nashi pear, pear, cucumber, celery, filo and brick pastry, sourdough, crème fraîche, cultured butter, aged cheese, sunflower seed miso, toasted oats, jasmine, osmanthus, shiso, herbs, edible flowers, lemon, pear mustard, pear vinegar, dried pear, sugar, pectin, Pu'er tea.

Allergens: Contains gluten (wheat), milk, egg, soya, celery, mustard and sulphur dioxide (sulphites). Prepared in a kitchen where other allergens may be present. 

About the artist: Tony Li is the founder of Moonlight Collective, a creative studio exploring food, craft and experience through intimate dinners, reflective writing and carefully made pet treats. His practice sits between architecture and food. Architecture taught him to think about scale, circulation and how bodies move through space, and cooking taught him timing, transformation and hospitality.

Part of Best Before, presented by WhiteShepherd Gallery and D Contemporary, 19–21 October.