5468796 Architecture's Prix de Rome project 'Table for 12' made a stop in Rotterdam in October 2013. (5468796 Architecture)
The location and menu are top secret.
But this is what we know: On Saturday May 31 at 7 p.m., 1,200 guests will come together for an outdoor dinner in downtown Winnipeg. They will sit at one, 365-metre-long table, believed to be the world's largest.
Guests will find out the location just one hour before dinner.
Chefs Ben Kramer and Mandel Hitzer of Diversity Foods and Deer + Almond, respectively, will feed the masses.
The food will be fantastic and the conversation sparkling.
This mammoth meal, the first of its kind in Winnipeg, is the work of locally owned firms 5468796 Architecture and Storefront MB. The dinner party deluxe is the culmination of a series of 12-guest parties held in the world's 'architectural epicentres' as part of Canada's Prix de Rome 2013. 5468796 Architecture won $50,000 for their innovative idea to bring designers, architects and others big thinkers in that orbit together to discuss 'architectural culture in each city. They visited Lisbon, Rotterdam, Tokyo, Sydney, Mexico City, New York City and Copenhagen.
The project wraps up on May 31 in Winnipeg with the secret, pop-up dinner.
Both Ben Kramer and Mandel Hitzer, two of Winnipeg's top chefs, are already well versed at pulling off spectacular events in challenging and unexpected settings.
Kramer, who heads up the team at University of Winnipeg's Diversity Foods, has collaborated with the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba for the past two years for Grazing in the Field. This fresh-air dinner party for about 125 is hosted on a different dairy farm every fall. The multi-course meal is a love-letter to Manitoba regional cuisine with generous helpings of artisanal cheeses and other dairy delicacies. (For a taste, click here.) Starting this year, Kramer will also take over food services for performers, staff and volunteers at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. His crew will also have a food kiosk on site for the public.
Hitzer and his friend Joe Kalturnyk are the brains, brawn and heart behind RAW: Almond, Winnipeg's annual outdoor restaurant on ice. The three-week long pop up restaurant is built at the confluence of the frozen Red and Assiniboine Rivers in late January. A roster of the city's top chefs take turns helming the kitchen for nightly seatings of five-course dinners. This year, celebuchef Vikrim Vij from The Food Network, took a turn cooking for 10 in the 'tapas bar.' (For a taste of RAW:Almond, click here.) Every other day of the year, find Hitzer at his Exchange District hotspot Deer + Almond.
Table for 1,200 is sold out. Given its success we expect many more innovative food, arts and culture projects to spring forth from Winnipeg streets.
Storefront has been spearheading a series of events intended to spark discussion about the City and its Design. Pictured here is part of the "Frontlines - Reimagining Winnipeg" series held in 2013 at the Free Press Cafe. (Photo Leif Norman)
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