What was it like to dine with Salvador Dalì?
by Richard Foss
Salvador Dalì led one of the most richly weird lives in the history of art and parlayed his extravagantly eccentric lifestyle into media celebrity. His parties included dinners that were famous for thought-provoking and even shocking presentations, which Dalì himself detailed in a cookbook called Les Diners du Gala, published in 1972. At these evenings, guests were invited to wear costumes, the tables were decorated with food sculptures, and the parade of courses was interrupted by surprising and offbeat performances.
Since Dali’s death there have been recreations of these evenings, but they are rare due to the intricate recipes and complexity of such events. On May 14, the VEFA Gallery hosted a Dalìesque dinner to complement an exhibition of Surrealist art, hosted and curated by a culinary historian with special knowledge of the topic. Carolyn Tillie is an expert on food in art and food as art. On the previous weekend, she presented two dining events at the Getty Museum about food and the French Impressionists.
On arrival guests were offered a brandy-based Casanova cocktail, and then welcomed to stroll the gallery while enjoying a Spanish guitar performance by Will Gerstein. Tray-passed appetizers of “Cytherean meatballs” with potato puffs and stuffed mushrooms, made from the recipes in Dalì’s book, started the evening. Dinner commenced with guests seated at tables adorned with edible decorations of colorful chopped vegetables and flowers, flanked by incongruous objects, including a painted goat’s skull – Dalì liked to juxtapose symbols of life and death. The first item served also emphasized this – it was crawfish soup, served with the crawfish appearing to climb out of the bowls.
Lobster tails with a sauce that included brandy, cream, spinach, and pistachios were next, followed by quails stuffed with chestnuts, a Champagne sorbet, and pork shank with black radishes.
Dessert was a coconut panna cotta topped with kiwi fruit and served over berry coulis. It looked like an eyeball – an homage to a scene in a film Dalì co-scripted called The Andalusian Dog, which will not be further described in this article to avoid upsetting delicate readers. The feast was catered by Meg Walker of Made By Meg, who brought a team that worked to keep the evening running smoothly. Appropriate wines and Champagne (the artist’s favorite beverage) were served with each course.
At a presentation after the meal, historian Tillie gave some context to Dalì’s relationship with food, which was based on the flavors of his home region in Catalonia, near the border with France. She noted his obsession with lobsters, which often featured in his art, including his famous image where he poses with one as if it were a telephone handset. Her presentation was lively and witty, and put Dalì in context as a man of his time and also a fearless visionary. At the end of the presentation Tillie handed out gift bags that included a thumb drive with recipes from the dinner.
A local collector exhibited prints and original art signed by Dalì. It added a representation of that famously odd individual at an event he would have greatly enjoyed, and at which he would have been, as always, the center of attention.
The VEFA Gallery is at 21825 Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance. Their next exhibition called “Monumental” features work by Scottish sculptor Andy Scott, and opens on September 1st. vefagallery.com ER
