Cook-and-Eat Social Events

What started in 2007 as brainstorming meals on Sundays while playing bocce ball at McCarren Park in Brooklyn has turned into a dream night for haute cuisine, modern cooking and getting your hands dirty in the kitchen.

A Razor, A Shiny Knife—hosted by co-founder Michael J. Cirino, a performer and cook; chef Daniel Castaño, owner of award-winning restaurant Emilia Romagna in Bogotá, Colombia; and Jonny Cigar, a mixologist and wine specialist—is a seven-hour event in a nontraditional space (i.e., not a restaurant) at which guests help prepare and serve a 6- to 15-course meal while taking in such varied demonstrations as knife skills, the proper use of liquid nitrogen and how to sous-vide.

Knife skills, the most commonplace of these demonstrations, are held at each event, supporting the troupe’s belief that every person who wants to cook well needs to tackle the basic techniques.

“We wanted to differentiate ourselves from a traditional restaurant,” explains Cirino. “While restaurants are good at what they do, our goal was to set up a different type of interactive experience with food.” It’s the combination of education and a warm social experience that encourages guests to try new things—like making butter or pasta, or trying sous vide. “They see they can do it—participate in the cooking process and just be more comfortable in the kitchen.” Dishes from past events have included shattered triple crème cheese frozen with liquid nitrogen next to fresh berries and baked bread, and 48-hour rare short ribs with glazed carrots and a bordelaise sauce, matched with artisanal wine and spirits.

While food is the main draw, it’s the social aspect that sets these events apart. “People can talk about it as it’s being made. The setup provides an open social dynamic not possible in other places,” says Cirino. The common thread is the love of food and curiosity for experimentation. A typical event will bring about 25 to 50 for a sit-down dinner, while wine and cocktail events can attract closer to 70. “We think people should invite people over to cook and then eat, rather than just inviting them over just to eat,” he explains. “It creates a completely different dynamic. Makes people want to go home and share what they learned with their friends.”

The upcoming events this fall focus on corn and its many variations, from fresh, frozen, dried and grounded to powdered, fermented, hydro-plasticized and syruped. “Corn is our national product but overly genetically modified,” Cirino says. “But it’s still wildly delicious. We’ll turn the refined corn products, like sorbitol or cornstarch, into the highest level of haute cuisine.” When it comes to picking their focus, Cirino notes, “We’re like a rock band. We write a record, tour with it. Then return home to write another record to take on the road.” Join their mailing list to find out when the next event is planned in your area. Get involved on A Razor, A Shiny Knife’s Facebook page: facebook.com/arazorashinyknife  –Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.

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