Set in a towering room filled with Dale Chihuly’s eclectic collections, the Collections Café in the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibition at Seattle Center draws inspiration for the menu from Chihuly’s vibrant glasswork and from local seasonal markets.
Serving such dishes grilled pacific octopus with potato fingerlings and Castlevetrano olives, goat cheese stuffed ravioli in a pistachio brown butter and snicker-brittle brownies, the café focuses on renewing creativity to keep fun and whimsical nature of the environment alive, said Jason Wilson, chef and owner of CRUSH restaurant in Madison Valley, who consulted on the menu.
Mixing art and food
Wilson said he collaborated with Collections Café chefs Ivan Szilak and Jeff Maxfield when they were brainstorming ideas for the café. The group spent about 12 hours one day in a room, writing on boards and creating pictures to connect Chihuly’s collections and artwork to the café’s atmosphere and menu, he said.
“The process for us was trying to find a very organic approach to this room, this space and obviously a little bit to what is happening in the exhibit and our place in the Northwest,” Wilson explained. “As a group, we came up with really embellishing on the Americana.”
As the group began to cook together, they used food elements familiar to the region and explored inventive nature of the café’s environment, Wilson said. The snicker-brittle brownie is an example of a menu item that includes elements familiar to American culture and is a classical twist on a standard dessert.
Dishes also include the roasted Yakima asparagus, which uses produce from the state, he said.
Szilak said the menu changes quite a bit to reflect the artwork, what is happening in the regional culture and whatever he and his sous chef are into. The prawns and salsa verde now on the menu show the bright colors and flavors the culinary staff tries to capture.
Keeping with seasonal trends, the chefs just finished using Walla Walla sweet onions and started using Yakima asparagus in their cooking, he said.
“The Collections Café chef position is more fun than past positions because I don’t have to be hoity-toity,” Szilak said. “It is a lot more laid-back food, and it’s what we like to cook, not what we have to cook.”
The deep-fried cheese curds and simpler food on the menu reflect the comfort-food style of cooking Chihuly prefers, Szilak said.
Having worked at high-end restaurants like the Sorrento Hotel’s Hunt Club and Daniel’s Broiler on Lake Union, he said this position allows him to play with the food with artistic freedom. As Chihuly uses his skills to mold the visual memories of his travels into glass masterpieces, Szilak uses the artwork and collections as inspiration for an ever-changing menu, he explained.
Billy O’Neill, vice president of operations at Chihuly Studio, said the café is visually based off of Chihuly’s studio on Lake Union. The collections of alarm clocks, chalk ware, pocketknives and juicers found in the café are all a part of what Chihuly has gathered over the years to inspire his artwork. He recently took in 100 milkshake shakers, he said.
“The amazing thing is, when Dale and Jeff [Maxfield] talked about the exhibition, they wanted to have an experience that was, from beginning to end, unforgettable,” O’Neill said. “Dale wanted this space and exhibition to be an incredible experience.”
Chihuly Garden and Glass executive director Michelle Bufano said, since its opening on May 21, the exhibition and café have seen a good response from the public. Visitors not only enjoy the artwork but also are excited over the food, she said.
The ‘dialogue’
Born in Tacoma, Wash., Chihuly grew up with his mother and developed an early interest in the electric colors and life found in the plants his mother kept in her garden. In his artwork now, he uses his travel experiences and collections to recreate images of culture and nature in his glasswork.
The museum includes an exhibition hall, a glasshouse and the garden, which showcase pieces from Chihuly’s international work, as well as new sculptures.
The Chihuly museum includes rooms like the Persian Ceiling room, the Glass Forest room and the Sealife Room. Inspired by the young boys picking up glass in the Venetian canals, Chihuly used Venetian boats to hold glass sculpture in one exhibit.
The “Pacific Sun” — the large yellow, red and orange sculpture in front of the glasshouse — represents the center of natural life in the garden. Just as Earth’s sun provides conditions for life, the “Pacific Sun” provides the focal point for the rest of the garden to complement.
Chihuly “has been a fan and has been inspired by glasshouses his whole life,” Bufano said. “In the garden, there is an incredible dialogue that happens between the glass and the plants.”
For more information about Chihuly Garden and Glass and its Collections Café, visit www.chihulygardenandglass.com.