For all the variability there may be among the many eating places of the world, the expertise stays, at its core, virtually all the time the identical: eat in a single area, with meals dictated by one chef and a menu that, even when it rotates, adheres to a selected model. So Luca Pronzato’s artistic culinary studio We Are Ona has been captivatingly conspicuous for its providing of a brand new various to this mannequin.
Present time: We Are Ona
For the We Are Ona x Brutalisten pop-up in Paris final October, throughout Artwork Basel Paris 2024, cooks Coen Dieleman and Stefan Eriksson conceived a tasting menu, photographed by Pierre Björk, that included buzz buttons (prime left), Brutalisten signature dish ‘dairy cow’ (center proper) and hen île flottante (backside left)
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
‘The concept was to type a artistic culinary studio the place we are able to collect a neighborhood of high-quality eating and restaurant skills: cooks, sommeliers, baristas and waiters, in fact, but additionally a variety of completely different creatives,’ says the Paris-based Pronzato. ‘Inside stylists, floral designers, artists, we need to let all of them specific themselves by the artwork of meals.’
Since 2019, Pronzato and his group have rolled out pop-up eating places worldwide, from the Turkish seaside to Manhattan skyscrapers. At every occasion, they work with a unique chef, a unique group of artistic administrators, a unique set of native suppliers, and a unique group of visitors across the desk. Emphasis is positioned on recruiting Michelin-starred cooks alongside rising stars which have generated important buzz however haven’t fairly reached stardom – but.
The We Are Ona x Brutalisten area was kitted out in a monochrome palette with solely the meals and drinks offering color
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
(Picture credit score: Images by Benoit Florençon. Courtesy of We Are Ona)
We Are Ona alumni embrace Adeline Grattard, head chef of the Michelin-starred Yam’Tcha in Paris; Atsushi Tanaka, identified for his strikingly minimalist tackle Japanese delicacies; and Mory Sacko, who fuses French, African and Japanese influences. The artistic skills that the group decides to collaborate with are there so as to add the visible elements of the night, whether or not that’s having artist Paul Créange create a collection of sunshine sculptures or Harry Nuriev, of Crosby Studios, designing a set of plates.
On the subject of location, Pronzato is all the time serious about find out how to reintroduce visitors to the place they name house. Attendees at We Are Ona occasions are typically writers, designers and artists – typically the individuals who make a metropolis a cultural hub. Pronzato goals to shock even these most acquainted with their hometown by inviting them to sudden venues, corresponding to an previous secure in Arles or an unknown tennis membership in Milan.
We Are Ona x Marc Leschelier pop-up, held within the WSA constructing in Manhattan’s monetary district
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
For the pop-up, sculptor and architect Marc Leschelier created a constructing inside a constructing, the place visitors ate on a collection of brutalist buildings
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
Operating a restaurant is notoriously troublesome, and working a number of eating places, every extra complicated than the subsequent, is exponentially so. However fortunately for Pronzato and the groups he assembles, the problem is a part of the joys.
The yr 2024 proved to be significantly difficult. At Artwork Basel Paris 2024, We Are Ona teamed up with Carsten Höller’s Stockholm restaurant Brutalisten to create a singular eating expertise that adhered to its strict meals preparation classification scale. The menu, which featured dishes categorised as ‘semi-brutalist’ (a couple of elements), ‘brutalist’ (one ingredient plus salt and water), and ‘orthodox brutalist’ (only one ingredient), aimed to spotlight the pure flavours of the produce, both by serving it uncooked, rapidly heating it or making use of intricate cooking strategies. The black and white interiors of the previous prepare station the place the occasion was held matched the brutalist influences of the meals.
‘From the minute you arrive on the venue to the ultimate chew, each element is rigorously thought-about to craft a timeless, immersive second’
Alix Randriana, We Are Ona’s chief of workers
Extra just lately, the group celebrated a collaboration between Pharrell and Evian by reworking a personal house in Bel Air for a dinner. And in Milan, the studio collaborated with scenographer Laura Flooring, photographer Mark Borthwick and Scottish-born, Marseille-based chef Megan Moore on a pop-up inside Fondazione Sozzani, the brand new artwork basis created by former Vogue Italia editor and 10 Corso Como founder Carla Sozzani.
In the meantime, in New York, the studio invited French sculptor and architect Marc Leschelier to create a constructing inside a constructing. It was held on the WSA constructing, the monetary district workplace tower that has been repurposed as a cultural hub (in-built 1983, all of it however sat empty throughout the pandemic, however now hosts tenants corresponding to vogue designers Luar and Bode and meals collective Ghetto Gastro, alongside A-lister events). Right here, visitors have been surrounded by and ate on a collection of brutalist architectural buildings that Leschelier had designed for the event, with meals by Dalad Kambhu, the Berlin-based head chef of the stylishly progressive Thai restaurant Kin Dee.
A concrete textile ice bucket and bar from the We Are Ona x Marc Leschelier pop-up in New York in Might 2024
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
‘These are large initiatives that deserve a variety of artistic vitality,’ says Pronzato. ‘We’re making a useful restaurant the place visitors eat seven to 10 programs every, and there may be all this manufacturing earlier than, after which it’s present time. I feel designers just like the train as a result of it asks them to create a dwelling piece – not simply an object you take a look at however one you dine with. That’s the artwork of meals – it creates these souvenirs you’ll be able to preserve in your reminiscence.’
‘The artwork of meals’ is a big idea for Pronzato as a result of he believes that the culinary world has all the time been seen as a separate artistic discipline, and that could be a notion he needs to vary. If we outline artwork as an act that evokes feelings from those that expertise it, then the cooks, designers and visitors at each We Are Ona occasion will be seen as artists. Everybody concerned, from these getting ready the meal to these having fun with it, is taking part in a collaborative alchemical occurring that’s far larger than the sum of its part components.
In April 2024 in Milan, We Are Ona collaborated with scenographer Laura Flooring, photographer Mark Borthwick and Scottish-born, Marseille-based chef Megan Moore
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
The pop-up came about inside Fondazione Sozzani, the brand new artwork basis created by former Vogue Italia editor and 10 Corso Como founder Carla Sozzani
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
‘What makes We Are Ona distinctive are the reminiscences you create with the individuals you share these moments with,’ says the studio’s chief of workers Alix Randriana. ‘It’s extra than simply the meals or the tablescape – it’s the whole expertise. From the minute you arrive on the venue to the ultimate chew, each element is rigorously thought-about to craft a timeless, immersive second. I’ve implausible souvenirs for every pop-up I’ve been to.’
We Are Ona gives a brand new blueprint for the way forward for high-quality eating. Earlier than launching the studio, Pronzato spent years at Noma in Copenhagen. Working on the restaurant that redefined high-quality eating gave him the expertise and community he wanted to launch his personal undertaking. And, as Noma now shutters its doorways after greater than 20 years, it looks like a precedent signal of the change that’s occurring within the business at massive. The mode of high-quality eating that Noma’s René Redzepi and his contemporaries pioneered is, as Redzepi himself has acknowledged, ‘financially and emotionally unsustainable’. The system wants to vary for each the individuals within the kitchen and the individuals within the eating room. ‘Tremendous eating now could be in regards to the expertise, about how one can create one thing you’ll bear in mind,’ says Pronzato.
We Are Ona x Fondazione Sozzani
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
We Are Ona x Fondazione Sozzani
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
We Are Ona x Fondazione Sozzani
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of We Are Ona)
‘In a digitalised world, at We Are Ona, we imagine in human moments – lengthy, shared tables the place individuals meet different individuals, the place they eat meals that’s actually considered. That’s high-quality eating to me: a human second that visitors will all the time bear in mind.’
weareona.co
TOPICS
Supply: Wallpaper