All photos by Caitlin Abrams
a dining table full of people in a museum
It's one of those kid dreams, to be sneaking through the museum after hours once everyone has left. There are entire books and movies about that actually. But, as an adult, your dreaming gets bumped up a notch. Not only do you have private access to the dark rooms without the thronging crowds, you are served an exquisite multi-course meal with wine in the middle of the galleries, as Titian-esque warriors and saints look down on you. This dream is real.
Last night Mia held the first of what will hopefully become a long tradition. Kaiseki, a Story of Van Gogh and Japan in 1880 is a dinner experience you won't soon forget. Held after hours, when the museum is closed to the public, the dinner includes a private guided tour of two exhibits before a meal prepared by chef Shigeyuki Furukawa, of Kaiseki Furukawa, James Beard Award-nominated chef Jamie Malone, and acclaimed sommelier Bill Summerville. The tickets are $375 per person, and I think this event is worth every cent.
cocktails being handed out to guests
We started out in the darkened lobby with Bill Summerville handing us a drink while we met our fellow diners and the curators who would be guiding us through the evening. I met two women from out of town, one from Finland and the other from Texas, who were meeting in Minneapolis for this dinner. Katie Luber, museum director and president, prepped us on what to expect of the night, and up to the galleries we went.
We first strolled through the exhibit Dressed by Nature: Textiles of Japan, with curator Andreas Marks leading the way. Talking through the art of the kimono and beautiful ancient cloth which had been woven with everything from bananas to fish scales was enlightening. Sure, you can read all the placards and get the same information, but having the curator spin the tales for you is a treat. There were even some light competitive zingers aimed at other museums.
kimono in the mia exhibit
Walking through, and knowing you are headed toward a meal which an acclaimed Japanese chef has created, lends a bit more import to the traditions you are learning about.
von gogh paintings on a wall
Next, we toured through Van Gogh and the Olive Groves. It's fascinating to learn from art-world insiders about the flow of masterpieces between museums, and what it takes to put on an exhibition of this caliber. Not something you may glean from a stroll through on your own.
Even if you've seen our famous Van Gogh painting before, viewing it and thinking about it in this current contextual setting feels new. But maybe you were a kid the last time you saw it, and now you're bringing older eyes to the frame.
Finally, it was time for dinner.
guests sitting down to a long table
The long table was set among the paintings, there were about 40 people dining. The setting was simple and whimsical with branches and bells. At your seat was placed a ribbon-tied scroll introducing you to the story of the meal to come. To dine Kaiseki-style means the meal has been prepared to tell a certain story. This meal in the Mia gallery is meant to examine the story of Van Gogh's interest in Japanese woodblock prints while he was in Paris. But it also wants to pose a question: What if Van Gogh chose Japan instead of Paris to become an artist? How would that have changed his art? The meal starts in the cafés of Paris but ends in a Tokyo Kissaten.
a bell on a note
Before each course comes a note, describing the food but also posing questions: perhaps about opulence vs. simplicity or asking you to imagine what Van Gogh would have eaten in Japan.
small bites of cured fish
Then each course is an artful presentation itself, from a simple seasonal snapshot of Japanese bites in harmony with nature, to excessively manipulated Haute Cuisine in the form of foie gras with black summer truffle. You will enjoy both, but you're compelled to wonder why.
a black bowl filled with gelee
Think on how "color" matters in art, as you eat the Suimono Gawari, an amber dashi gelee with uni and blue prawns.
salmon in a green sauce in a bowl
Consider "nature and resourcefulness" as you cut into a perfectly soft Salmon Mi Cuit which has been cured in kombu and served on a bright green sauce of bones and sorrel. Topped with a little piece of puffed salmon skin, it's nearly impossible not to recall some of the kimono you saw earlier. This dish alone, for me, is worth the price.
diners enjoying themselves
I don't want to give you everything here, because this is a night you really can't read unless you are in the moment with the food, the art, the wine, and the room. At the end of the evening, Luber thanked us all for being the guinea pigs for this, their first dinner. She noted that we were breaking so many of the museum rules with wine and food being so close to the paintings. But isn't that so Van Gogh? Doesn't that make some of the best art?
Questions for another time. The series runs every other Wednesday until September 7th, the next meal is July 20th, tickets are available. There's a chance that they'll do a dinner series again for the Botticelli exhibit coming next. I might already be dreaming of robust pastas and thick wine in a dark museum.
