According to Julia Sherman, cooking is a lot like painting: “ It’s a composition, it’s layering of materials… it works best when there’s contrasting flavors and textures and colors.”
The artist, author, and chef is bringing this philosophy to her latest venture as executive chef of the new restaurant at New York’s New Museum, opening this fall. On this episode of The Artsy Podcast, Sherman joins Artsy’s managing editor Olivia Horn for a conversation about how artists eat, why art institutions are leaning into dining, and what the art and food worlds can learn from each other.
Plus, Artsy editors Casey Lesser and Arun Kakar recap recent art fairs in Seoul and New York and discuss the artists who are on their radar this fall. Listen now, and read an edited excerpt of the conversation with Sherman below.
This episode was produced by Olivia Horn and edited by Grant Irving.
Olivia Horn: I’ve noticed that it seems like both museums and commercial galleries are really leaning into hospitality experiences. I’m thinking of Frenchette at the Whitney now, Locatelli at the National Gallery in London, and then Hauser & Wirth has a restaurant called Manuela. What do you think is behind this trend?
Julia Sherman: When the market is down, that’s when we all remember that this isn’t just a commodity; this is actually a lifestyle. This is a way of being with other people. It’s important that we actually get together in the same room and that we connect. I want to hope that it’s people recommitting to the face-to-face, human side of the art world, because it’s so exciting.
And artists throw great parties. We’re really good at it. Openings suck, but when you go to an artist’s home for a party or their studio or whatever, it’s great.
O.H.: It sounds like you think that the art industry could stand to learn from the restaurant industry in terms of community and celebration. Do you think that the food industry could stand to learn anything from artists?
J.S.: Yeah, for sure. The thing that comes up for me over and over again and that I need to have a mantra for is that it’s okay to do things differently. In the past, the food industry has been such a standardized, institutionalized industry. You went to culinary school, you learned the brigade system, you stage, you worked your way up. And those are all incredible experiences, and I am in awe of all of my friends who have done all of those things. But sometimes, I’ll be working alongside chefs who are assisting me or helping me with an event. And they’re incredible chefs in their own right, and they’ll look at me, at the way I am doing something, and they’ll be like, “That’s just wrong. You can’t do that.” And sometimes I listen to them, because I get scared. And then I always regret it.
Or, vice versa, I do it my way, and they’re like, “I really advise against that.” And everyone’s like, “That was the best thing.” There’s a human side to that and there’s something that’s transmitted that’s ineffable, that is my genuine excitement and my way of doing things. And all this other right and wrong and judgment and training and whatever can sometimes dull the taste.
I have to remember that a lot of the people—the Alice Waters, who started Chez Panisse, and all of these people that we mythologize—we mythologize them because they didn’t do it the institutional way. We mythologize them because they broke the rules.
Julia Sherman is a chef, artist, and author of two cookbooks—Arty Parties and Salad for President. Sherman is the executive chef and director of artists’ partnerships for the restaurant opening in the expanded New Museum in the late fall of 2025.
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