by Brian Andrews
On the weekend of November 13 and 14, a cabal of chefs, scientists, artists, and aesthetes gathered to find connections between their disparate fields as their interests overlapped within the tidelands of the San FÂ rancisco Bay. The event was OPENwater, the most recent incarnation of OPENrestaurant, a collaboration of restaurant professionals Stacie Pierce, Jerome Waag, and Sam White, all of Chez Panisse. In collaboration with SFMOMA, the OPENresturant projects endeavor to bring cooking and its associated local environmental concerns into art spaces in order to invite a shift in the language and meanings surrounding their gustatory preparations.