At One of One Dinners Around the World, Art is On the Menu

What happens when the worlds of art and gastronomy converge at the highest level? A new kind of cultural experience emerges—one where creative expression is not simply observed but savoured.

Last October, Four Seasons, in collaboration with Art Basel, debuted One of One, a dinner series held in select international cities and created to champion craft in all its forms—be it artistic, culinary, or hospitality. The inaugural event at Le George restaurant inside Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris, brought together a few dozen of the globe’s most influential art lovers for a night of gastronomic and artistic exploration. With acclaimed artist Charlotte Colbert as muse, chefs from the hotel’s three Michelin-starred restaurants dreamed up a multisensory five-course menu to complement her surrealist, reality-bending works and challenge the palate. Watched over by one of Colbert’s sculptures, which features an eye with a blue iris atop a cascade of metallic tears (shown below), the evening was a chef d’oeuvre in every sense of the word, from the dramatic, blue-​shaded décor and bespoke light-and-sound design to the inventive plating.

The momentum has continued with two more extraordinary editions. This past March, invitees gathered at Caprice, the three-Michelin-starred French restaurant inside Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, to celebrate artist Wing Po So and her mesmerizing installation inspired by Chinese medicine. So drew on her upbringing as the daughter of an apothecary for her site-specific commission, a sinuous, tubular light installation that she painstakingly covered with the papery seeds of the Damocles tree (long used in medicinal teas). Seated beneath the colossal sculpture, guests enjoyed dishes that combined Eastern philosophy with French technique. The menu was the first collaboration between chef Guillaume Galliot of Caprice and chef Chan Yan Tak of the hotel’s two-Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant Lung King Heen.  

This past June, the choreographer, performer, and visual artist Maria Hassabi designed an evening to remember at Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens. Guests dined alfresco on a bespoke four-course Mediterranean meal by chef Luca Piscazzi of Michelin-starred Pelagos that reflected the artist’s practice at the interplay of stillness and motion. Photographic works by Hassabi—capturing dancers in motion reflected across golden surfaces—framed the dining space. Further elevating the experience, the staff presented each dish with a theatrical synchronicity that reflected the night’s theme of a lived choreographed performance.

This October, the One of One series returns to Art Basel Paris for another immersive night of fine dining meets fine art—where unparalleled craftsmanship and creativity will once again take centre stage.

Photography by Romain Reglade x Aisha Wiggins