Art Dish Chef's Statements: Jason Chesky

Having been working in the culinary arts and food service industry since age 17, Executive Chef Jason Chesky of Harry and Izzy’s couldn’t see himself living any other life. He has been enthralled by the creation of cuisine for decades now, and it has embraced him in a warm and delicate way that only something as a life dedicated to food might see one so sustained and nourished.

He hopes to show that life now. Unbridled from the influence of any sort of fixed menu or specific set of tastes, he’s making his return to Art Dish in a display of true creativity. It is this which he finds most treasured about cooking, calling his coworkers “fringe elements” and noting that, truthfully, he cooks mostly for them; he cooks to create. 

This month, the Harrison Center is pleased to announce that on May 13th, Chef Chesky and the accomplished en plein air artist Justin Vining will be doing just that, creating and teaming up to give your tastebuds and your eyes an exceedingly exciting treat! 

Vining, who sets up easels all about the state, renders moments as he sees them, creating with each work an experiential time capsule of a particular part of the Hoosier state. This month, within the Harrison Gallery, he has displayed a great deal of both new and old works that encapsulate both the speed and serenity of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. Fireworks perpetually fly into pieces within the sky, and cars consistently turn around the curves of the first bend in the track as Vining maintains these memories within his powerful pieces. 

Chef Chesky hopes to showcase the speed and spirit of the Indy 500 as well, with what he described as being, at times, a shocking homage to the Hoosier state and its festivities. Specifically speaking, he finds there be a lot of parameters at play when one is cooking professionally, noting that chefs “have to stay local, have to stay seasonal, and have to stay relevant.” Yet, much like Vining, Chesky finds that there ought to be a space for the immediate experience of the world around oneself, that one ought to be able to pull from all forms of immersion without fear of consequence. Thus, as all laps of the 500 are different, Chesky has decided to make his dishes just as unique. Specifically speaking, he says that “there will be some intense dishes and some dishes that make guests scratch their head and think, ‘I can’t believe he put that on a plate’.” Coming back to Art Dish for the second time, this is one of the things he finds most exciting, stating, “I think that’s what’s going to be really fun, how simple you can make something but how elegant you can make it feel.”

Their encapsulation of the race is not the only similarity held between the two artisans, with Chesky stating that the art forms are “very similar, just a different medium”. In giving a breakdown of how he sees such similarities in the creative processes of himself and Vining, Chesky calls himself a big music person yet notes that he doesn’t like songs, he likes albums. This is akin to how he cooks and regards these dinners, creating not simply numerous dishes but a progression of palates that culminate in a meal. To truly appreciate this, he says that one needs context, that the meal fundamentally changes by the addition or removal of a specific course, and that “the dinner is not six or eight different courses, it’s one dinner”. Such is comparable to that of Justin Vining’s 106th series, featured above. Laid upon the wall in descending order of increasing time, these works depict the same spot at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway throughout a multitude of moments. Separated from one another, the pieces in these series simply show one view, yet as a collective put forth a complete hour and cultivate the right perspective whereby the viewer can appreciate the grandeur and effort behind Vining’s pieces. So, too, is such context important to Chesky, with him describing being a chef as an evolving process like that of Vining’s art, elaborating upon the start of their respective pieces by saying, “you pick an ingredient and you build off that, you pick a location and you pick an angle; it is very similar, but different.”

This combination of creatives is certainly not to be missed, as both are putting on a spectacular show that will work to serenade all the senses. As Chef Chesky puts it, this has been the highlight of his career, the most fun dinner he’s ever had, and he can’t wait to do it again.