Experience delicious food and Japanese art at Pipit Restaurant’s new cooking class
Is food art? This is a question chefs, artists and curators have debated for years. While the idea of a canape being equal to a canvas may confuse some, the creative culinary crew at Potsville’s Pipit Restaurant are here to open our eyes. When Pipit is finished service, it transforms into a part-time gyotaku art studio. In a brand-new cooking class, owner and executive chef Ben Devlin will show you the historical Japanese art form of gyotaku while he demonstrates various cooking techniques, bringing together the magic of Art & Food.
Like many of us who used the Covid lockdown as a time to take up a new hobby or expand on a current interest, Pipit’s executive chef Ben Devlin’s curiosity for printmaking art, more specifically gyotaku blossomed during the lockdown. A historic Japanese art-form traditionally used by fishmongers to record and display the fish they sold, gyotaku is an art method using fish or other ingredients as ink printing plates. In this same spirit, Ben uses gyotaku as a way to showcase the seasonality of produce that inspires his menus at Pipit Restaurant.
While Pipit Restaurant shares its ethos of local produce through its menus, the gyotaku art prints are another way to spark a wider conversation about how chefs, restaurants and diners can connect with their ingredients and natural environments. In this brand new series of classes, Pipit brings together art printing and cooking demonstrations to showcase how we can make the most of a single ingredient, maximise flavour and reduce food waste. “A print shop from a fine-dining restaurant might seem unconventional at first, but the prints remain deeply connected to our dining,” says Pipit co-owner Yen Trinh. “Each links a local farm supplier and a related menu dish. It’s another way we have more conversations about food and local produce – and it also adds something beautiful and interesting to the walls too.”
The three classes, taking place on November 28, December 5 and December 12 will focus on squid, fish and vegetable. In each class you will receive a demonstration of the print process of an ingredient (gyotaku) and four to six ways that same ingredient can be used in cooking, through techniques such as preserving, fermenting, curing and woodfire cooking, all the while nibbling on some tastebud-tantalising treats. You will even have the opportunity to purchase some of Pipit’s existing collection of prints.
So whether you’re a home cook, chef or small team looking for something different to do, this class is perfect for you. Head to the Pipit Restaurant website for more information on price and times or to make a booking.
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