Chef's Special
About the piece
Chef's Special (2002) by Berend Strik frames the creation and presentation of food — the restaurant's daily special — as a subject worthy of artistic attention and transformation.
The restaurant kitchen is a space of transformation: raw ingredients become cooked dishes, anonymous commodities become meals with names and stories. This process mirrors Strik's own stitching practice, which transforms fixed photographs into something different from what they started as.
The "chef's special" speaks to the ephemeral nature of food, the transience of meals, and the expertise required to create them. Strik's textile interventions freeze this ephemerality, making the special permanent — a fitting metaphor for an artist concerned with preserving and transforming the fleeting moment captured in photography.
Sources: Galerie Fons Welters
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