His name is Nikoalan Nselurfueymardcora and he’s the most famous chef you’ve never heard of.
In a playful, somewhat pseudo-intellectual theme, this year’s edition of Le Grand Fooding in New York will host a 52-hour pop-up restaurant in which a roster of celebrity chefs from the US, the UK, France, Italy, Belgium and Slovenia — together known as Nikoalan Nselurfueymardcora — build a new menu every four hours, each taking an ingredient from the previous chef’s meal.
Inspired by a French surrealist technique in which painters collaborated on a tableau by adding their own element to create an “exquisite corpse,” chefs from some of the hottest restaurants around the world will contribute their addition to a simple broth starter.
For instance, Kobe Desramaults of Belgium’s In De Wulf starts the food pyramid with a simple appetizer of live “ears” grilled in broth. By the time it’s been reinterpreted by 11 more chefs ending with Massimo Bottura from Italy, the dish becomes a monster of a tongue-twister and a bit of a fearsome dish: Jellied green apple fennel ravioli-filled live potato ears in toasted tomato-trout broth with cilantro-soured herring.
The New York edition of Le Grand Fooding — a spin-off of the French gastronomy group — takes place September 23-25 and will feature appearances by chefs like Corey Lee of Benu, Sat Bains of Sat Bains in the UK and Armand Arnal of La Chassagnette in France.
Le Grand Fooding will also host a Campfire Session at the Elizabeth Street Garden September 17, aiming to explore the relationship between music and food.
A beef and chive salad by Basque chef Inaki Aizpitarte of Le Chateaubriand in Paris, for instance, is paired with DJ James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.
Exquisite Corpse, meanwhile, takes place in Chelsea.
Tickets for the Campfire session are $50 and tickets for Exquisite Corpse are $100. For more info, visit http://www.legrandfooding.com/new-york/.