During the gray Cleveland winter, art lovers can find solace inside the Cleveland Museum of Art, feasting their eyes on an exhibit of stained-glass lamps shining a light on Louis Comfort Tiffany’s iconic gift of bringing nature’s color into the home. And the feast of the senses doesn’t end there; guests can complete the experience with a Tiffany-inspired menu at Bon Appetit-managed museum cafe Provenance, where well-known local chef and restaurateur Doug Katz has been leading the culinary team for most of the past decade.
Art-inspired fixed-price menus are the norm at the café, and the museum has lots of inspiration on its walls and in its halls for chefs to draw on for both the special menus and for fun kickoff events introducing different exhibits. The inspiration can come from the art itself, or even related artifacts. Katz once found an ancient grocery list belonging to Michelangelo to create a menu full of Renaissance intrigue.
For the Tiffany exhibit, Katz made plays on the art in terms of flavor, texture and presentation. “With the fennel and the salsify, the way those ingredients lighten the dish and change the dish by adding that aromatic flavor to the profile, it’s almost the same way the light comes through the Tiffany glass,” Katz says.
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