As part of the two-week exhibition Eat Drink Man Woman, two dinners are done in collaboration with Shanghai Supper Club. Paying homage to the Chinese family dining table as a space of cultural memory and identity, the dinners feature an 8-course sharing menu of classic Shanghainese cooking.
Central to the exhibition is the showcase of the diversity and complexity of the meaning of “Chinese”. Chinese food in particular, is a giant conglomerate of numerous regional styles, techniques, ingredients, and traditions over thousands of years of history. Overseas, ‘Chinese food’ is an important space of diasporic identity and community, and as a symbol of cultural preservation and assimilation. Unfortunately, through this assimilation, what is often known is only a reduced version of sweet, greasy, and cheap.
Shanghainese Cuisine, or ‘Hu Cuisine’, originates from the East Coast of China in regions such as Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. Shanghainese cooking has a heavy focus on seasonality, and preservation of ingredient’s natural tastes. The frequent use of soy sauce and sugar gives a lot of its dishes their signature red shine. Dishes shown here include: ba bao ya (8-treasure duck), drunken chicken, su ji (tofu chicken), cong you mian (scallion oil noodles), lion head (braised pork meatballs)…
The Family Banquet combines familiar home-cooking and formal banquet techniques, continuing Shanghai-born chef Lilian Luk's focus on cooking with seasonal ingredients and recipes from her childhood in China. Taking place amongst of the exhibiting artworks and on tableware by Eagle & Hodges, the Family Banquets continue the exhibition's look at self-expression and communication through food and social ritual, challenging the notion of "authentic" Chinese food.
Contact info for chef Lilian Luk at Shanghai Supper Club
