Höst: On Food and High Art

Image from http://cofoco.dk/da/le-marche/

In the time since Brian O’Doherty’s classic essay “Inside the White Cube,” the art world has, in some ways, begun to look like an assembly line for ideas on how to break out of the constraints of a gallery space. The essay’s criticisms piercingly questioned the value of a museum in relation to the art it exhibits, and helped open the world of art beyond stretched canvases and delicately guarded sculptures.

However, as it is with any sort of movement, not all resulting growth is exactly desirable, and with the growth of art beyond “the white cube,” the assembly line sometimes seems to push out ideas that are clunky or even vapid. The new concept of “food as art” – freshly arrived on the conveyer belt – has led many to question its significance and even authenticity as an art form, with many concluding that food simply “is not art.” Copenhagen’s Höst, a young new restaurant flaunting “New Nordic” cuisine, is one that epitomizes this dialogue and offers a valuable lesson on what constitutes art, and even pushes beyond the walls of the white cube a little bit further.

No matter its artistic or cultural merit, Höst is most certainly one thing: trendy. It has several international design awards under its belt, and on its own website proudly lists its “raw wooden furniture” and “custom frame from New Norm Dinnerware.” Furthermore, it’s currently riding on the coattails of Copenhagen’s more famous Noma, a two Michelin star restaurant that created the world of New Nordic cuisine and held the title of best restaurant in the world for four years straight. If you came here for a yelp review, here it is: Höst is gorgeous, delicious, and an experience well worth the money.

Höst offers fixed three-course menus in standard and signature versions, a short à la carte menu, and an extensive selection of wines. The most strongly recommended option is the three course fixed menus, which include amuse-bouches (small appetizers free from the chef) before each course. After the first surprise amuse-bouche, there was a palpable atmosphere of excitement surrounding my dining group that remained for the rest of our 3-hour dinner. A quick peek through online Yelp reviews proves that this eager anticipation is far from rare, and most likely to be expected.

Each course is delicately arranged with careful consideration to color and space. The same can be said about its flavors – each ingredient is selected from in-season availability to ensure freshness, and they compliment each other in texture and consistency. True to New Nordic cuisine, no one course was predicable in its ingredients, with highlights of diversity including chicken feet, squid ink tortilla chips, and sorbet coated in “pop rocks” – a crunchy candy most common to the world of young children that literally pops and tingles on your tongue. However, the most exemplifying moment of the experience was when our first course was served on a flaming plate. As the fire burned out, our server kindly walked us through each ingredient. Her last statement? “The lemongrass that was on fire – that is not to be eaten. It is to look good.”

As the waiter left, the question that immediately sprung to my mind and lasted there for days after was “Why does art belong in food?” The question fermented for quite a while, until I eventually returned to the world pointed to by O’Doherty’s “Inside the White Cube”. I remembered the limitations of art strictly bound to blank walls, and the ways that art has improved by migration outside of those walls. I thought back to Höst, and how each small piece of the experience, from food arrangement to lighting, was designed to create a wonderful experience, and thought back to the flaming lemongrass. And in the end, what I realized is that my question of art’s place in food is far less important than the premise I had unknowingly accepted: That art is in food. Höst succeeds in taking the basic concept of food and elevating it to an experience that teaches you lessons in diversity and visual design, and perhaps most importantly, maximizes your experience through sights and flavors for the time you’re there. Its place on the conveyer belt of new art is well earned, and those who agree with value of art beyond the white cube should be proud.