TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — For the fourth consecutive year, Michelin Guide-recommended restaurant CEO 1950 is launching a summer menu that challenges the very definition of a meal.
Executive Chef Jackie Chang (張億興) has partnered with UOVO Food Design Studio to create “A Meal That Matches Its Name,” a nine-course dining experience blending art-world concepts with culinary craft. The menu draws inspiration from UOVO’s “Meals That Do Not Exist” exhibition and took six months to design, built around the theme of “inaccurate content.”
The restaurant’s two-floor layout complements the idea. Upstairs, an exhibition features inedible art; downstairs, guests are served a full meal. The deliberate mismatch is intended to shift diners’ perceptions of what food can be.
“A chef is a food designer,” Chang said, adding that imaginative art concepts must still be translated into dishes people can eat. One main course represents “lies,” presenting octopus with bubble-like garnishes and crispy shards to evoke shattered falsehoods, inspired by the notion that chewing gum is a “flavorful lie.”
The experience begins upstairs, where diners encounter the art installation. The exhibit guides guests through rituals such as cleansing hands with citrus-infused water and observing fermenting ingredients, setting the stage for the courses to follow.
A standout cold appetizer pairs guava with confit tuna and a “chicken roll” made from the tuna’s offcuts — a nod to Taiwan’s canned “sea chicken.” Infused with basil, the dish reinterprets the idea of fermentation as the way food “breathes.”
Main courses include Iberico pork, Japanese A4 Wagyu beef, or Lyonnaise head cheese, Chang’s favorite. The traditional French dish, made with beef cheek and tongue, is pan-seared for a crisp, non-greasy texture.
The meal ends with a playful take on inaccurate content: sparerib chicken noodles modeled after instant noodles. Chang’s version features a carefully prepared chicken stock, handmade egg noodles, and braised spareribs — a humorous counterpoint to the often-misleading packaging of the dish’s inspiration.
(Taiwan News, Lyla Liu video)
