Where are secrets stored, both for their beauty and for their terror?
You are invited into our Secret Garden: a dinner crafted from locally grown ingredients, inspired by the cuisines of our motherlands, Iran, the American Midwest, and Chile.
As you follow us there, you will be guided through the cloistered places of our families and our lives.
A celebration of personal reality, performance, artisan magic, struggle, and freedom created by THE HEIRLOOM CHEF in collaboration with Chef Marisa Manriquez to commemorate the launch of KLOZAR DESIGN by artist & co-director Shaghayegh Cyrous
The Secret Garden
Appetizer: A Welcome to Our Garden
Samira Davarfara
Fresh Herb Kuku & Bacon Deviled Eggs
1st Course: A Visit with the Ancestors
Maggie Lawson
Alberta Dorn
Mexican Chopped Salad: Pan Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, French’s Chilio Spiced Winter Squash, Cotija Cheese, Pickled Onions, Chopped Romaine , Adobo Ranch Dressing
Entrée: A Portal to Somewhere New
Shaghayegh Cyrous
Baghala Polo ba Mahiche Basmati Rice, Heirloom Broad Beans
Lamb Shank, Fresh Herbs
Dessert: A Grandma Wisdom
Marisa Manriquez
Rose Merengue
Pomegranate Seed
Pistachio
Fresh Whipped Cream
excerpt from performance:
So much of who I’ve become has meant asking hard questions about my life. Why does talking about money create such a deep sense of shame within me? Why did no one in my house know how to talk to me about sex? Why were these things that were so prevalent in my world kept as secrets? I guess I look for answers within her life. A life I can only imagine, a life I can only tell stories about, I can only ask my aunts to tell me those stories. I can only imagine what it would feel like to have my grandma’s physical presence in the kitchen with me… I don’t want to recreate my grandma’s life or her cooking in my life but I do want to feel her presence. I don’t want to forget that I come from somewhere and that the shame and weight that I carry around sex and money didn’t begin with me. It didn’t begin with her either. When so many women are earning at the poverty level, overwhelmingly women of color, like those we are also calling into this space with this launch party, and the artisanal designs what is our response to inequality? How do we value the women in our lives? How do we value ourselves?
Maggie Lawson 