food and wine

When they were young, the jewellery and accessories designer Rolly Robínson moved with their family to the tree-dense outskirts of Sevierville, Tenn., a small city with a bronze statue of Dolly Parton at its centre. There, they spent their summers outside, playing make-believe in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. “Living semi-off the grid among bugs and reptiles and wild animals,” Robínson said recently, “it unlocked this whole other part of my brain, this untapped place.” They held on to this love of fantasy and the outdoors when they undertook another transformative move, to New York City, in 2011.

On a Tuesday afternoon in early June, Robínson invited seven friends to a lunch celebrating both their 13th year living in the New York area and the launch of their 13th collection from their jewelry line, Isshī. “This is my 13 going on 13 event,” Robínson said with a laugh. The venue was the Chinatown showroom of the lighting design company Blue Green Works, co-founded by Robínson’s friend Peter B. Staples. Each place setting had a banana-leaf mat, and hanging over the table was a flared green glass pendant lamp that called to mind a palm tree; together, the details made the space feel like a jungle oasis. It was a fitting place to see Isshī’s resort 2025 collection, in whose press materials Robínson likened the experience of heartbreak to a plane crashing into the rainforest: Modular leather-cord necklaces, crystal-embellished bracelets and hand-felted lamb’s-wool corsages all resembled carnivorous plants.

Guests were invited to touch and try on the pieces, which were displayed on tables and plates throughout the space. Around 1:30 p.m., a delivery driver arrived carrying bags of dim sum, and while Staples doled out the food, Robínson offered their guests a brief toast: “Everyone here today has been a rock for me at some point,” they said, reflecting on the highs and lows of their life in the city, from becoming a regular presence in the Manhattan nightlife circuit to ending a nine-year relationship. After dessert, the group climbed one by one onto the building’s fire escape, balancing coffee mugs that sloshed with wine. And as they talked, the disco music emanating from the studio’s speakers melded with the frenetic honking of traffic down below.

The attendees:

Robínson, 36, invited friends and collaborators who’ve been important to the development of Isshī, including Staples, 39, and Robínson’s former partner and current housemate Jeauni Cassanova, 30, with whom they started the brand in 2019. Cassanova, a vintage clothing collector and TikTok creator, was the first guest to arrive, ambling up the stairs to the studio in a pair of eggshell-blue ostrich-leather pumps. The photographer Oscar Ouk, 35, arrived next, followed by the fashion designer Claire Sullivan, 30, and Sabrina Reales, 35, the founder of Sel Aer Studio, an agency that represents fashion and accessory lines including Isshī. Robínson greeted each new arrival with a “Hi, queen!” and a kiss on both cheeks.

The table:

To prepare for the event, Robínson and Staples picked up several sets of chopsticks, simple white plates and plastic tip trays from a nearby kitchen supply store and arranged them on a long wooden table. The centrepiece was a bouquet by the florist Audrey Hilfiger filled with white-edged purple orchids.

The food:

The drinks:

Guests brought their own beverages to share with the table. A bottle of orange wine from the Spanish label Gulp/Hablo — an easy-drinking mixture of verdejo and sauvignon blanc varietals — was passed around and poured into ceramic diner–style coffee mugs.

The music:

“Kind of summer island, beachy, tits out” is the atmosphere Robínson said they wanted to conjure with their playlist, which included the Canadian studio project Vera’s underground disco anthem “Take Me to the Bridge” and “Love in C Minor – Outro” by the French producer Cerrone. When the Italo-disco artist La Bellini’s gooey 1978 track “Satan in Love” came on, Robínson began to wiggle in their seat at the head of the table, moved by the sludgy bass line.

The conversation:

An entertaining tip:

Robínson is careful to ensure that every detail of a party is aligned — especially their outfit. For this lunch, they paired a striped Christopher John Rogers dress with a plush chartreuse hat to which they affixed a dumpling-shaped pin, a playful nod to the meal they’d be serving. “My aunt told me years and years ago growing up that presentation is everything,” they said. “And I don’t miss a detail, ever.”

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Total Alchemy kicks off on Saturday May 18 with a collaboration between Julian Hills from Navi in Yarraville and Doot Doot Doot’s Wickham. The menu has been carefully crafted to showcase local and native ingredients, with a fusion of foraging expertise.

“Navi’s dedication to local and native ingredients resonates with Doot Doot Doot’s ethos, albeit with our own unique Asian twist,” says Wickham.

“[Together], we’ll be celebrating the flavours of the region, while incorporating modern techniques.”

The multi-course affair starts with smaller dishes such as fermented garlic and salmon roe macarons as well as kangaroo with miso and finger lime. Mains include barbecued WA octopus with karaage mussel and black vinegar, and dry-aged duck. To finish up, there’s two desserts: a baked Fuji apple, pistachio and parsnip ice cream, and a salted wattleseed caramel and chocolate tart with desert lime.

Other notable chefs on the program include Victor Liong from Lee Ho Fook, Jason Jones from Entrecote, and Josh Moroney from Nomad who will be taking up residency at Rare Hare. Tipo OO’s Andreas Papadaksi also joins the line-up, collaborating with Wickham in the kitchen at Navi.

“Tipo OO’s reputation for outstanding food has earned it numerous accolades and a loyal following,” Wickham says.

“What makes this partnership especially exciting is the opportunity to work closely with head chef Andreas Papadakis. We’re creating an Italian-leaning menu that no one has yet experienced at Doot Doot Doot.”

After a highly successful run last year, Total Alchemy will also see the return of yum cha. On offer, is a selection of Cantonese classics and reimagined favourites, that can be enjoyed over a game of Mahjong (a traditional Chinese tile game) and a famed Flaggerdoot Gimlet.

Visitors and staying guests alike are invited to book Total Alchemy events. The latter can also explore the region with complimentary rides from Jackalope’s car partner, Lexus, to discover the area’s most sought after gems.

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The near lifelong friends Alexa Brazilian, Aaron Dickson Millhiser and Courtney Broadwater met in the late 1980s as children on Nantucket in Massachusetts, where their families would spend time each summer. They’d ride their bikes together and pass the days at Siasconset Beach, at the far eastern end of the island. In the years since, each has followed her own creative path: Brazilian, 43, is a writer, consultant and T contributing editor based in Little Compton, R.I.; Dickson Millhiser, 43, is a creative consultant, and a former head of men’s and children’s wear design at J. Crew, who lives in Manhattan; and Broadwater, 43, is an illustrator and artist based in Brooklyn. But the friends still keep in touch daily, often via a group text filled, alongside the usual news and jokes, with recommendations for things — from the best hot water bottle to an easy margarita recipe — that they love too much to keep to themselves.

Over the years, the trio talked occasionally about sharing these finds with a larger audience and, last summer, “we all had a window of opportunity where we were finally able to focus our energies and actually do it,” says Brazilian. The result is The Perfect, a monthly newsletter of items that range from the newly discovered to the generations old. Since the project’s debut last August, tips have included nostalgic patterned socks from the French hosiery brand Bonne Maison; buttery anchovy-and-scallion biscuits from the Brooklyn bakery The Rounds; and a shark-shaped brass comb by the Brooklyn-based company Siren Song that evokes the scrimshaw versions carved by 18th-century whalers. There’s also an emphasis, says Broadwater, on “stuff we loved when we were younger, in our teens and 20s.” After the friends reminisced one day about a cap with a long waterproof bill that their parents wore in the ’80s, Dickson Millhiser tracked down the original, from the heritage brand Quaker Marine Supply, and it earned a spot in the September edition.

The Perfect also has an online shop, offering small batches of vintage items, like worn-in tote bags and denim shirts, embroidered with the newsletter’s name. The pieces were available at a pop-up shop that Brazilian, Dickson Millhiser and Broadwater opened in Newport, R.I., last summer, and the friends plan to host more events. “We’ve known each other through all sorts of chapters of our lives. But professionally, we’ve never really worked together before,” says Dickson Millhiser. “It’s exciting to learn about your friends in a way you didn’t think you could.”

Last month, the three women decided it was time to finally celebrate their collaboration and landed on a meal that would hark back to their Nantucket childhood: an outdoor oyster roast. Though the sky was grey and threatening rain, this tradition of cooking oysters over a fire, one most commonly associated with the coastal Lowcountry region of the Southern United States, reminded the friends of summer clam bakes. Brazilian hosted at her home, a shingled 1820 Cape-style house, set amid fields and woodland just three miles from Little Compton’s South Shore Beach. When the small group of guests, a mix of family and old friends, arrived early in the morning to help set up — the day began with a trip to the shore to source table decorations — they were greeted by the smell of fires set for both cooking and keeping warm, and the nostalgic feel of summers gone by.

The attendees:

Heading up the food was Gavin McLaughlin, 45, a chef and the owner of the catering and specialty foods company Portage Foods. His twin brother, Brazilian’s husband, Callum McLaughlin, 45, a co-owner of the Grey Lady oyster bar in New York, oversaw the drinks and played sous chef, and Brazilian’s mother, Suzanne Cavedon, 76, a Rhode Island native, shared stories of growing up in the Ocean State as each course emerged. Other guests included the interior designer Kate Marshall, 36, who is Gavin McLaughlin’s wife, and the Nantucket oyster farmer Terry Ruggiero, 38, who distress washes denim in oyster cages in the ocean for his clothing brand, Luna Salt.

The table:

The food:

McLaughlin stuck mostly to classic Rhode Island dishes and ingredients. Lunch began with johnny cakes, cornmeal-based flatbreads, from Kenyon’s Grist Mill in Usquepaugh, served with homemade crème fraîche, chives and Kaluga Grand Cru caviar from Portage Foods. Cove oysters from the Sakonnet River, which were poured ceremoniously onto the table for the second course, were accompanied by lobster rolls made with lobsters from the family-owned local supplier Sakonnet Lobster, as well as hot dogs from Rhode Island’s beloved Saugy brand, topped with shavings of French black truffle. A semihard cheese, named Peach Fizz and similar to raclette, from the Little Compton dairy farm Sweet and Salty was melted over roasted potatoes from the nearby Wishing Stone Farm. And dessert consisted of roasted apples served with wild blueberry ice cream from the scoop shop Gray’s in Tiverton.

The drinks:

The bar was set up in a stone structure once used as a milking shed. Alongside local beers, the hosts served a celery margarita inspired by the celery-infused Easy Wind cocktail at the restaurant Lowland in Charleston, S.C., which Brazilian discovered on a recent birthday trip and included in the March edition of the newsletter. Also in rotation was the Grey Lady Oyster Bloody Mary, made with briny oyster-distilled Ostreida vodka and now, after receiving rave reviews at the party, on the menu at the Grey Lady in New York. Adding colour to the bar were pink-and-white tulips and yellow daffodils from the local flower stand Little State Flower Co.

The music:

In lieu of a playlist, there was the cracking of oysters being shucked and laughter from the children, who ran laps around the fields and organised a race between two lobsters whom they named Fred and Sally.

The conversations:

In addition to the sharing of memories, talk centred on oyster-eating technique. Ruggiero, a onetime champion of the Grey Lady’s biannual oyster eating competition, told the group that the trick to winning is the bulk approach. “Put as many as you can fit in your mouth — then swallow,” he said. “I put in five at a time.”

Two entertaining tips:

Brazilian acknowledges that punch bowls are often considered old-fashioned but defends them as “vastly underrated.” For first-time buyers, she recommends this one, featured in the December edition of the newsletter. “You can put ice in it, a signature drink, whatever,” she said. “It’s like a more beautiful version of a cooler.” McLaughlin also shared some advice: If you’re buying lobsters for rolls, ask for ones with missing claws. They’re a cheaper option, he explained, for a dish “that doesn’t need the showmanship” of displaying the whole crustacean.

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A typical gathering — day or night — at Bianca Lee Vasquez’s home in Paris’s Second Arrondissement ends with dancing, usually to ’70s disco or to salsa by artists like Johnny Pacheco and Celia Cruz. Lee Vasquez, 40, who has Cuban-Ecuadorean heritage, trained in classical and contemporary dance in Miami and at the Alvin Ailey Theatre in New York before moving to Paris 20 years ago. But she’s now best known for her multidisciplinary art practice, which ranges from textile installations like “Webmaking Ritual II” (2017), for which she wove strips of fabric around the trees in Paris’s Palais Royal garden, to meditative performances like “Dirt Series” (2021), in which she explored the power of microbes, working soil between her fingers to activate its healing properties. And while she often incorporates movement and gesture into her work, it’s in her living room, among friends, that she tends to really let loose.

For the past few years, that room has served as an occasional extension of Sainte Anne Gallery, which Lee Vasquez founded with her friend Masha Novoselova, 39, a Russian-born model turned art director, in 2021. One of a new cohort of dynamic, independent Paris art spaces, the small contemporary gallery focuses on female artists who, like Lee Vasquez, are interested in our relationship with the natural world. “We want to give them a voice and a safe space,” she said recently. (The gallery’s current show, “Fruits of Labor,” is its first to exclusively feature work by men: the Guadeloupe-born French mixed-media artist Kenny Dunkan and the German sculptor Stefan Knauf.)

Lee Vasquez’s home — a calm, loft-like duplex in a 17th-century apartment building — is just blocks from Sainte Anne, so opening-night parties tend to end there, and she often hosts meals for the gallery’s artists and extended community. On a rainy Sunday in February, she held one such gathering, a lunch for her friends and collaborators, in an effort to liven up a particularly somber Paris winter (there had been just 38 hours of sunlight in the previous 29 days). In contrast to the gloom outside, the apartment — which Lee Vasquez shares with her two sons, Vasco, 12, and Esteban, 11, and a pair of parakeets, Peggy and Pegasus — was lush with potted plants and flooded with light thanks to its 16-foot-tall windows. Lunch itself was laid-back, with a loose start time and a buffet format, so that guests could come and go, and help themselves to food, as they pleased. “A sit-down meal rarely happens as I have a problem limiting my guest list,” said Lee Vasquez. But the semi-improvised approach suits her well: “I like people to talk to whoever they like, to be free, to move around.”

The attendees:

The 20 guests included Dunkan, 36, and the curator Simon Gerard, 30, who worked on the current exhibition; Knauf, who’d been there for the show’s opening a week before, was back home in Berlin. There was a Latin American contingent consisting of the Uruguayan-born, Paris-based sculptor Katharina Kaminski, 30, who had an exhibition at Sainte Anne last month; the Cuban curator Dayneris Brito, 28; and the Peruvian architect Diego Delgado-Elias, 44. Other friends included the Serbian designer Ana Kraš, 39; the former Paris Opera dancer Emilie Fouilloux, 40; the Australian designer Kym Ellery, 40; and the Australian actress Melissa George, 47. The couple behind the up-and-coming Paris architecture studio Festen, Charlotte de Tonnac and Hugo Sauzay, both 37, who live in the neighborhood, also stopped by — as did the Italian fashion designer Giambattista Valli, 56, his partner Farid Rebbali, 45, and their son Adam, 11. “Bianca has an art for bringing people together; she connects people, and everyone is so different,” said Valli. “It doesn’t feel typical of Paris.”

The table:

The food:

Lee Vasquez asked the 26-year-old Estonian chef Monika Varšavskaja, who specialises in Eastern European-inspired, vegetable-centric food, to prepare the meal. She served two puff pastry pies — one filled with cabbage and another stuffed with chopped boiled eggs and dill — alongside a stack of flatbreads and dishes of pickles, olives and anchovies. Platters of blanched brussel sprouts and a rainbow-coloured radicchio salad added colour to the table. “It’s typical market food from my childhood, made from humble ingredients — so perfect for a Sunday lunch,” said Varšavskaja. For dessert, the British-Spanish chef Isabel Garcia, 29, brought two tres leches spongecakes, which sparked a playful debate about the origins of the beloved Latin American dessert, serving them alongside a platter of passion fruit and pawpaw.

The drinks:

Katkoot prosecco — a delicate, fragrant sparkling wine made in Treviso, Italy — flowed freely, followed later by Ecuadorean coffee from Lee Vasquez’s father’s farm in the country’s northern Cotacachi region.

The music:

Brito, who Lee Vasquez says often gets the dancing started, put together a soulful, eclectic playlist that included the crowd favourite, “Thinking of You” by Sister Sledge, as well as “Yeah!” by the American Latin jazz musician Tito Puente and “Mali Cuba” by the Malian-Cuban supergroup AfroCubism.

The conversations:

A mix of English, French and Spanish could be heard throughout the afternoon as small groups formed and dispersed in the living room. Lee Vasquez, Garcia and Fouilloux were hatching a plan for a food-inspired artist’s residency at Fouilloux’s family winery, Castello Di Cigognola, in Lombardy, Italy. And Kraš and Ellery discussed the new Paris design fair Matter and Shape, at which both were both planning to exhibit new object-led collections.

An entertaining idea:

Lee Vasquez likes to tailor her dress codes to individual guests — just to keep things interesting. “I got a message that said, ‘Dress like spring,’ so I chose all these florals. But then I met a woman coming in, and she said the dress code is neutral,” Kraš said, with a laugh. “But you look so good in color! I wanted you to pop,” Lee Vasquez explained. “I don’t like it when everyone comes looking the same, so I told Diego to wear brown, and I wanted Katharina to wear beige and match the décor.” Ellery and George, both eight months pregnant, decided to opt out: “I’m just happy I made it here,” said George.

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