Culinary meets Art Tour: Art & Cuisine in Innsbruck

Anyone who knows celebrity chef Sandra Scheidl is definitely no friend of bad cuisine. But anyone who knows pop artist Luis Morales de la Cruz is also a connoisseur of fine arts. That the two exceptional talents then got to know each other in Vienna must have been a twist of fate. Because in the coming weeks, the gourmet woman will be touring the country with her extravagant Culinary meets Art Tour - and together with de la Cruz, she will also be serving us a multi-layered spectacle for all the senses in Innsbruck on March 24 and 25.

Andy Warhol slapped a can of tomatoes onto canvas and, to the thunderous applause of art critics, brushed a white strand from his forehead(Campbell's Soup Cans, 1962). A good 60 years later, the phenomenon of Pop Art is already an appropriately put-on hat: the consumer object is torn out of its context, and the trivial motif thus advances to icon status. With her intermedial pop-up sessions of the Culinary meets Art Tour at selected locations throughout Austria, star chef Scheidl is now preparing a completely new stage for this almost Kafkaesque transformation: Here, art itself steps in front of the curtain - the kitchen becomes a studio and the viewer a voyeur. Tabula rasa: what for one is his blank canvas, is for the other her white plate. The beginning of a narrative whose forms, colors and feelings create a total work of art at the end that you can not only see and taste, but directly experience yourself.

In 2020, the "Junge Wilde" was the very first woman to win the prestigious Rolling Pin cooking competition and subsequently worked her way through Europe's best restaurants - the triple-Michelin Maaemo in Oslo or the Tyrolean restaurant Taxacher with five Gault Millau toques. It all started in Mom's kitchen, by the way. She has been cooking the four-course Christmas menu for the Scheidl family since she was 13. However, she is particularly fond of the upscale cuisine of gourmets and connoisseurs, and the kitchen artist gives free rein to her creativity, especially when it comes to serving. In other respects, her creations concentrate on the essentials: two to three components, which come together on the plate, however, in adventurous techniques and textures in a completely new way.

How she actually came up with the idea of her culinary tour of Austria? "Artists and chefs can express their personalities and emotions through creativity. One stands at the plate, one at the canvas - in the end there's a joint process, but two works of art." Now, you could say "Fusion Kitchen" - but then the whole work is much more than the sum of its parts. And wherever words are not enough, you should just leave it to the senses, says Sandra.

The young Luis Morales de la Cruz was born in Lima, a melting pot of cultures. In his art, a good 30 years later, the Peruvian indigenous influences of his homeland meet the Japanese, Chinese and American motifs of the globalized present. The artist incorporates his love of music, extravagant record covers and the gaudy pop art of his youth into his works. They are colorful large formats that seek completely new interpretations somewhere between pop art and graffiti art. Life imitates art or art imitates life? "I got to know the world through art," says de la Cruz - today, therefore, you can also get to know the world a bit through his art. Perhaps in a similar way to celebrity chef Sandra Scheidl? Exactly, grins the cosmopolitan from Vienna knowingly. Two art worlds without any canned food - instead, everything is simply real.

The pop-up phenomenon is already old hat: for a short time, places and concepts come together that are hardly compatible in everyday life. The choice of location for the Innsbruck premiere of Culinary meets Art is enough to amaze: mg interior? Exactly: Here, without further ado, a complete interior designer is put at the service of art - and you're already sitting in the shop window and enjoying life in the catalog. Only the art here is completely naked and without empty phrases. Before the eyes of the guests, the artistic double lets its shells fall, shows itself completely intimately, lets itself look over the shoulder, touch and try everything. With the senses in the middle of it instead of just being there - whoever remains seated here really has only himself to blame. Seven courses Sandra, a work of art by Luis and two evenings without equal: Remaining seats are available here.

Photos: The impressive pictures in this article were provided to us by Matthias Pristach.