Palette to Palate started the weekend with a night of relaxing with cocktails and sampling colorful art.
Thursday’s event at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel blended visual and culinary arts by pairing local chefs and painters to interpret each other’s work for a show that provided insight into both art worlds.
Palette to Palate was hosted by Devoured Phoenix, an organization that produces a weeklong annual culinary celebration in Phoenix with the goal of showcasing culinary talent, creative drink producers and food purveyors of the region.
Guests of this year’s Palette to Palate enjoyed the view of the sparkling lights of downtown Phoenix from the balcony while sampling the tastes of the valley. The evening carefully paired award-winning chefs with artists who share a similar style.
Among the pairings is Bob Tam — executive chef of Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour – and painter Randy Slack – a self-taught native artist and owner of downtown Phoenix’s Legend City Studios workshop. The pair brought a little taste of the East, with hand-made truffle potstickers served with the backdrop of Slack’s painting of a panda.
“I think Randy did an excellent job in not only interpreting my dish, but my personality as well,” Tam said. “It really brought my food to life.”
Another symbiotic pair that really focused on the food was Judson Branch – executive chef at the hosting hotel and a finalist on the Food Network show “Chopped” – and his partner-in-art Jesse Perry, a master of pop art. They were the only pair of the night to use the same medium: beets.
“This entire canvas is only blended charcoal and roasted beet juice,” Perry said. “So I’m actually painting using the exact ingredients that chef Branch used to create the dish in order to create the artwork.”
Of course, enjoying the arts only gets better when garnished with a nice cocktail. This is where bartenders like Tim Anderson of The Gladly came in with new and innovative drinks.
“I made this drink especially for this event,” Anderson said. “It’s definitely a unique spin on the traditional whisky and sour.”
The attendants of the event not only consisted of die-hard foodies. Newbies to the Phoenix art and culinary scene, like Jennifer Meyer, who moved to Phoenix from Boston only a few years ago, were also in attendance.
“I try to frequent as many restaurants in downtown Phoenix as I can, but there’s so many,” Meyer said. “I’ve been meaning to get to Bitter & Twisted, so I’m really excited to try them out after the event.”
Contact the reporter at hzhan138@asu.edu.
