Bahrain's Food Is Culture event takes flavours from palate to palette

Chefs and artists are paired up for this experience to create food as art

Creations by chef Junior Gomez from Mirai, who was paired with handbag designer Noof Yusuf AlShekar of NS by Noof.

Creations by chef Junior Gomez.

Noof Yusuf AlShekar's creation for the project.

Bags by Noof Yusuf AlShekar on display as part of the event.

Work produced in the partnership between Abdullah Alnoaimi, founder of Greek restaurant Agora, and multimedia artist Mariam Haji X Meri Helmi.

Abdullah Alnoaimi's handiwork.

Mariam Haji X Meri Helmi's work.

Chef Manal AlSaleh created a colourful work of art, feeding off the inspiration from her partner, Mohamed Taqi.

The work of abstract creative Mohamed Taqi, who was teamed with chef Manal AlSaleh.

Food by chef Manal AlSaleh.

For the seventh year, Bahrain’s Food Is Culture event took place this Saturday, pairing chefs with artists to produce unique creations that take self expression off the palate and onto the palette, so to speak.

The event originated seven years ago as a complement to the Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition, and due to popular demand has since grown to stand on its own as one of the most hotly anticipated dates on the island’s cultural calendar.

While in past years the programme has spanned several days, this year it was a one-off event, organised by the Bahrain Authority of Culture and Antiquities (Baca), that took place in the verdant courtyards of the new Al Liwan community development in Hamala.

Scroll through the gallery below to see more from the event:

The experimental project, the brainchild of Sheikha Hala bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, Director General of Arts and Culture at BACA, teams locally renowned chefs with established artists, challenging them to inspire one another and discover themes of mutual interest, ultimately producing delicious food and objets d’art.

For the creative professionals, this carves out a space for the cross pollination of ideas, driving innovation. For those who attend year after year, the results are a feast for the eyes as well as the tastebuds.

“We at the Bahrain Authority of Culture and Antiquities have to always think of innovative ideas to bring in new people and audiences and share new stories,” said Sheikha Hala at the event. “I believe that Food Is Culture is becoming a pillar of our cultural seasons every year, and it’s exciting to hear how these collaborations start, and also discover the end results.

“This is a wonderful platform where a lot of creative people come together and share and produce work in relation to food and art. I’m extremely proud of the collaborations we see every year.

“I think there’s a very beautiful connection between food and people, and also culture, nations and histories, so I believe that all these key words really create the mood for this event.”

The event began with a panel discussion featuring the three pairs of exhibiting chefs and artists and moderated by one of Bahrain’s most prominent food bloggers, Hind Al Rumaihi, from @thecravelist.bh on Instagram.

Back for his second year was Junior Gomez, executive chef of Mirai, which was recently named No 31 on the Middle East and North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants list. He was teamed with sustainable fashion designer and founder of bejewelled bag brand NS by Noof, Noof Yusuf AlShekar. The pair discovered they were both trying to enhance sustainability within their work, and this concept began to crystallise when AlShekar introduced Gomez to orange peel leather.

Abstract creative Mohamed Taqi and chef Manal AlSaleh, who manages the foodie Instagram account @tablefor.5, each felt compelled to produce joyful and vibrant creations full of colour, as an antidote to the gloom and doom of the pandemic. Despite coming from very different backgrounds, they were surprised to find a shared approach and ethos between their creative processes. This was spectacularly demonstrated as the pair did a live demonstration for the audience, working swiftly and seamlessly together as if they had been collaborating for years and not merely weeks.

Multimedia artist Mariam Haji X Meri Helmi and Abdullah Alnoaimi, founder of Greek restaurant Agora, shared an expansive dialogue that consisted more of intuition, body language and giggles than actual words. Their thought process linked the islands of Bahrain and Greece through the quality of light and pace of life, the common flora, and also through the rich history of the Tylos era.

Rather incredibly, each of the three pairs successfully translated nebulous concepts into tangible artefacts capable of being imbibed by all the senses.

The Food Is Culture project is as much about the whole process behind divergent talents meeting and collaborating as it is about the resulting food and art.

“We actually do pair strangers together a lot of the time, and and we never know what’s going to happen,” said Farah Mattar, Director of Arts and Culture at BACA. “So the fun part is it’s an experiment every single time where we put two elements together, and they change each other, and we get to come witness this collaboration in fruition; the results always exceed expectations.

“We want to bring food and art together to show you that there is magic in both, as well as demonstrate how they actually do build the relationship. I think it changes them going forward in everything that they continue to do, so I think that’s why it’s a favourite with people.”