On an evening in Paris, guests invited to preview Ganni’s new store admired the terrazzo-effect cash till made of recycled plastic and perused the Copenhagen brand’s youthful dresses. But it was the profiterole tower that created whoops and cheers when it was wheeled in.
Created by Zélikha Dinga, a Paris-based cook, the “croquembouche” cone of assembled choux pastry balls measured just shy of a metre high, sprinkled with edible nasturtium flowers and three sparklers.
The days of fashion events comprising a staid (low-calorie) steamed-fish-and-vegetables dinner are over; sculptural, playful and hearty set-piece feasts are in. For Ditte Reffstrup, creative director of Ganni, the focus is on fun: “It’s important that our guests have a proper meal before hitting the dance floor!” she enthuses. Surrealist food installations by chef-cum-artist Laila Gohar for brands including Dover Street Market and Simone Rocha have wowed on Instagram, and a new breed of “food creatives” are creating visually dynamic spreads at meals hosted by luxury brands.
And rather than being stuck in a sweaty back kitchen, the new culinary crowd are co-hosting stylishly, interacting with guests and lending brands their cultural cachet in the process.
Zélikha Dinga, founder of Caro Diario
Zélikha Dinga’s speciality is sweet treats that look as intriguing as they taste. “Food is an icebreaker,” she says. “You see this strange thing, and you think, can I eat that? And you start talking.” Partly motivated by a childhood where sugar was banned, in 2017 the 33-year-old Paris native abandoned a publishing career to attend cooking school, work in restaurants and bake cakes.
Now her focus is on whipping up imaginative spreads with her company Caro Diario, founded in 2019. Highlights include mini mousse-and-jelly bites for Nina Ricci, biscotti lunch boxes for Gucci and baby-pink-glazed doughnuts for a breakfast celebrating a collaboration between sneaker brand Véja and accessories label Mansur Gavriel.
She thinks food has dovetailed with fashion’s move towards inclusivity. “I’m a black woman, maybe 15 years ago I wouldn’t have been asked to appear as a chef at fashion events. And I’m not tall and skinny, or model size!” Her greatest joy is watching people enjoy her creations. “If it’s like an art installation that nobody touches, then that’s a waste. It’s got to be something both visual and delicious.”
Marie Méon, founder of Manger Manger
Marie Méon knows luxury aesthetics better than most: she spent almost a decade designing store interiors for Chanel and Dior. Having grown up in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and French father, the forty-something credits Japanese culture with fostering her obsession with food, which she describes as “like a religion”. However cooking was always just a weekend hobby until in 2010, she began throwing pop-up dinners in her Haussmannian apartment in Paris with two friends.
Today she describes herself as a “food creative”, operating under the name Manger Manger with clients including Hermès, Cartier and Paco Rabanne, and has her own line of kitchen ingredients and Murano glassware.
“I used to think: space, colours and finishes in my previous work. Today, my tools are ingredients — that’s the only difference,” she says. “All these fashion decision makers see that food is maybe the greatest method of communication. Nothing is more powerful than putting people together and having them share a polysensorial moment.”
Imogen Kwok
Hyphens come in handy for Imogen Kwok, 31, who describes herself as a “chef-artist”. “For some jobs, I don’t even do the cooking myself,” she elaborates. “I design the concept, creating a menu, but then that can extend to doing the tableware, supervising flowers. Then, my role switches over when people arrive, and I’m hosting.”
For a recent feast for jewellery brand Alighieri, Kwok presided over a dramatic tablescape of couscous lozenges garlanded with tomatoes, herbs and scallops, welcoming guests with coupes of champagne while wearing a jewellery-adorned top from the brand. She loves getting dressed up to host: “In a way, it makes total sense to me. A relationship with your body and sense of touch are common to both food and fashion.”
Born in Sydney to a Korean mother and Chinese father, Kwok creates conceptual food for fashion houses and workshops for brands including Loewe, for whom she staged an interactive culinary tasting evening to allow guests to “taste” the brand’s autumn 2021 collection. “Fashion and food is seamless to me,” she says.
Tara Thomas, co-founder of Breaking Bread NYC
“I don’t like to say I cater,” explains Tara Thomas, 24, who has made vegan food for Sephora events and Glossier videos. “I’m co-hosting — I want to have creative ability. I am showing up as myself, I’m not going to be in the back in the kitchen, I’m gonna be there at the front.”
The dinner she curated for former J Crew creative director Jenna Lyons to celebrate furniture designer Sarah Ellison was a case in point: at Lyons’ New York apartment, Thomas co-directed a rum-based cocktail menu and curated a wine list, cooked and served guests masala carpaccio, spring crudités, and hazelnut stuffed dates with pickled mango, and got to know guests.
“If food is the main attraction, I want it to be a full experience. I want everyone to feel fed and build relationships,” says Thomas. She is also the co-founder of Breaking Bread NYC, a non-profit that serves food boxes and meals to communities facing food insecurity, signed to a talent agency and has modelled for Roland Mouret and Vogue Italia.
Alice Moireau
“I know nothing about fashion, really,” giggles Alice Moireau. “I like to dress well and wear fun outfits, but I’m not following fashion weeks, I don’t know who is cool right now!” Scouted as a teenager, 26-year-old Moireau has modelled for Mango, Fendi and the French it-girl label Rouje, but food is her thing. She spent her childhood accompanying her father to the market and helping him cook well-loved French recipes for her family.
When lockdown hit, she hunkered down in her family home in Olivet, a picturesque town two hours south of Paris, cooked pots of comfort food and posted her recipes on Instagram. Soon she had a book deal.
Today she plans events for lifestyle brands, models occasionally (for a recent Rouje campaign, she cooked a photogenic Christmas banquet then starred in the accompany imagery with her friends), and runs her tableware brand Table. She turns down jobs where brands prioritise visuals over taste. “Often these dinners look good but they don’t taste so good.” The exception? Her homemade strawberry tarts.
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