EASY BAKE CHEF
The heart of this concept was simply to encourage play: supply 5 chefs (and 1 bartender) with childhood cooking toys from the 1960s to the 2000s.
More info:gerardbelevender.com
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1992 Easy Bake Oven
1992 Easy Bake Oven – Lena Sareini
Almond Sponge Cake Petit Fours with raspberry jam and lemon curd
Chef Lena Sareini, a James Beard recognized pastry chef, recalls how she had this exact model, a 1992 Easy Bake Oven, before her mother threw it away. She nostalgically recounts trips to Target with her sister, grabbing every mix-in they could get their hands on. “And we would make a mess all the time. My mom would get so annoyed that we wouldn’t clean up after ourselves, so she ended up throwing it away without telling us.” She admits these early experiences with the toy influenced her career path. Lena’s creations are the tiny, fully decorated, dreamy cakes that every kid believed would emerge from that oven, rather than the semi-baked attempts of our collective childhoods.
1994 Doctor Dreadful Food Lab
1994 Doctor Dreadful Food Lab – Mike Finsilver
Malfatti Monster Skin (Italian spinach ricotta dumplings)Shaved Purple Carrot Dirt with Squash WormRed Wine Vinegar Pickled Cauliflower Brains with Basil FoamPetri Dish Tomatoes preserved in olive oil with smoked paprika spheres
2002 Queasy Bake Cookerator
2002 Queasy Bake Cookerator – Rece Hogerheide
Chicken Galantine with chanterelles and summer trufflesChianti reduction “blood”Fava beansFoie gras mousse “dog bone”
The Easy Bake Oven, deemed not ‘masculine’ enough for little boys of the early aughts, evolved into the 2002 Queasy Bake Cookerator. Instead of cupcakes, it made “mud cakes with gravel” (chocolate cake with pop rocks) and dog bone cookies with drool frosting. Most people I talked to didn’t remember this one, but Chef Rece Hogerheide’s face lit up when he heard the name and was immediately taken back to his childhood. He wanted to be a chef his whole life, owned the Queasy Bake, and vividly remembered opening the little packets and their smell. His dish is the adult version of gross-out kid culture we grew up with, referencing Silence of the Lambs, not shying away from the dark humor of it.
1966 Suzy Homemaker Grill
1966 Suzy Homemaker Grill – John Yelinek
Stuffed squab with grilled bird bone jus, served with foraged mushrooms and a touch of sumac
1994 Doctor Dreadful Drink Lab
1994 Doctor Dreadful Drink Lab – Chris Allen
– Mystic Morph Tequila infused with butterfly pea flowers + ube simple syrup with lime, topped with Prosecco– Eerie Inked Elixir Rum, lemon, honey, squid ink and edible glitter
When bartender Chris Allen was a kid, he would sneak into his sister’s room to play with her Barbie pink Easy Bake Oven, something his parents wouldn’t give him. Originally aspiring to be a pastry chef, he stumbled into bartending and found that there were a lot of similarities between the two. Upon meeting Chris, there was an undeniable joy to his demeanor – we knew he was perfect for this project. We handed over a 1994 Doctor Dreadful Drink Lab, asking him to build a cocktail using another toy his parents wouldn’t have bought for him.
1969 Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven
1969 Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven – Gerard + Belevender
Although we lost a chef along the way due to the demands of running a restaurant, our 1969 Betty Crocker Easy Bake was too precious to ignore so we jumped in.
Although we’re not chefs, we love that our work offers us the chance to playfully experiment with food, taking us back to the days of themed cakes, artsy crafts, and the creativity of our childhood.
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