Art Farm at West Dry Creek
“Chickpeas for Thought”
Immersive Dining Experience and Site-Specific chickpea-based works of Artist-in-Residence, Jessy Slim
with Guest Chef, Cristina Topham
Saturday, March 14, 5-9pm
321 West Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg
RSVP BELOW!
This special dinner will begin with a Mezze style course while guests experience and learn about the chickpea-based sculptures of Lebanese-American Artist-in-Residence, Jessy Slim, followed by a meal with chickpea-forward dishes prepared by Culinary Director, Liza Hinman, in collaboration with Guest Chef, Cristina Topham of Spread Kitchen, Sonoma.
Jessy’s work is a deep musing on the power of an ingredient emblematic of Levantine cuisine to hold cultural memory, stories, and history - and how food and art can transport and transform our understanding of self and community, especially in troubling times such as these.
"Utilizing chickpeas, as an ingredient emblematic of the Middle East, and Lebanon - I intend to represent an expression of the fragmentation of cultural and political identities in both the physical and cognitive place. The temporality of each sculpture’s state is in flux and indefinite. Highlighting chickpeas, a material that is commodified, ethnically appropriated, borrowed and forgotten, I intend to preserve its values and amplify it. The sculptures encapsulate a material memory of trauma, and of transformation." - Jessy Slim
To further our Art Farm sense of community - please email us any wonderful, meaningful, delicious recipes you have involving chickpeas! And be sure to include a story or description of what this recipe means to you.
Evening schedule:
5-6pm: Arrivals, Mezze course, and Art Viewing (5-5:30pm is ideal light for viewing the sculptures)
6-9pm: Dinner
About Jessy Slim
I create work about a space in between, a place that deconstructs, re-frames, re-examines our surroundings, systems in place and their implications. Utilizing architecture, installation, sculpture and photography, intuition and memory drives my research-making based practice. These projects find means of critiquing power, authority and synthesize a way to understand and question the innate nature of things around us. Through my own grappling of displacement, my work encompasses and embraces my personal history through the lens of a Lebanese immigrant.
About Cristina topham
Cristina’s professional culinary journey began in 1999 when she graduated from The French Culinary Institute in New York City, quit her Wall Street tech job, and cut her teeth behind the line with stints at Les Olivades in Paris, The Savoy in New York City, and Julia’s Kitchen in Napa.
Along the way, she started a boutique catering company in Brooklyn, NY, where she quickly became the premier caterer for Morrell Wines.
In 2006, she left New York City to become a chef in the superyacht industry. After a decade on the water, Cristina returned to her home of Northern California and settled in Sonoma. In 2016, Cristina started Spread Catering as a homage to her Lebanese roots, love of travel and the bounty of Sonoma & Napa Valleys. In 2022, Spread Catering became Spread Kitchen when she opened her first brick and mortar. Cristina’s style is described as inspired Lebanese cooking with a California touch.
We Can’t wait to welcome you!
