TASTE of Manchester has to admire the quixotic talents of Mary-Ellen McTague. No sooner has the acclaimed chef helped wrap up £30,000 worth of crowdfunding for her new restaurant project, The Creameries, Chorlton than she’s preparing for a new artistic collaboration.
Not at Manchester Art Gallery, where she has revived the Gallery Cafe with an injection of seasonal, locally sourced produce (and some wicked toasties). Same direction, different venue, HOME, where artist Callum Cooper, brings his installation for the Russian Revolution related The Return of Memory to a conclusion in a tasty collaboration with Mary-Ellen.
Over the course of the exhibition HOME has been collaborating with students of horticulture and regional allotment owners in an attempt to grow vegetables, seed and grain selected from the vaults of The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, St Petersburg – home to the world’s largest collection of plant seeds.
The resulting crops will be harvested and combined with local seasonal produce to create a Christmas Borscht on the eve prior to Russian Christmas Day, celebrated on Sunday, January 7.
Ticket holders will be invited to sit down alongside many of those involved in the growing of the food, where over the course of the evening they will discuss the legacy and relevance of Vavilov’s ideas that were to cost him and others their lives.
Food will be informal and shared in bowls to hand around large tables seating up to 50 persons before a giant, Soviet-style mural backdrop by artist Victoria Lomasko.
HOME, 2, Tony Wilson Place, Manchester M15 4FN. Saturday, January 6, 7pm-10pm. £10. Get tickets here.