By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri Krasov
Held at the Colonial Ballroom of the historic Westin St. Francis, SF Chefs 2010 Spice Party was presented by Frontier Natural Products Co-op (Ellen Bouchard, brand manager) on the eve of the Opening Night.
Some of the best chefs of the city faced a challenge of using similar spices in ethnic dishes, originated in far removed from each other countries and cultures.
Mourad Lahlou (Aziza) created a curious combination of humble corn, fancy tomatoes, and exclusive salmon caviar, spiced with vadouvan (curry mix), chili, cumin, and caraway. His other presentation was of an egg filled with potato foam and charmoula (herbs, lemon and garlic mix), harissa, chili, cumin, and caraway.
Martin Castillo (Limon) used Peruvian leche de tigre (citrus-based chili sauce) to marinate lobster, shrimp and fish for his Limon shooter. He also used aji Amarillo for his crab-staffed potato causas.
Anjan Mitra managed to pack cumin, red chili, coriander, cloves, black cardamom, green cardamom, bay leaves, and fennel into his flavorful lamb and potato croquettes.
Ranjan Dey (and daughter Sarah, New Delhi Restaurant) came up with mini samosas dipped in tamarind chutney.
Hoss Zare (Zare at Fly Trap) made his delicious crostini with 7-spice braised lamb shank, added turmeric and roasted garlic butter, and topped it with watercress. His yogurt soup contained rose petals, cumin, dill, raisins, radishes, cucumbers, and saffron oil.
Laurence Jossel (Nopa, Nopalito) made an olive oil poached spiced albacore with cumin, coriander, fennel, red chili, and black pepper. He also served a watermelon cocktail with mescal sangrita.
Gerald Hirigoyen (Piperade) got some help from his two young sons, and wowed the crowd lining up his marinated sardines with coriander and tomato concasse; Piperade tartlets with Serrano crisp and piment d’espelette, and 5-spice oxtail salad with herbed vinaigrette, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, Sichuan pepper, and fennel seeds.
To wash this festival of spices down, David Nepove mixed up A New Frontier with (ri)1 whiskey.
Steven McCormick was squeezing limes for Don Roberto margaritas.
Reza Esmaili concocted aromatic aperitifs.
Duggan McDonnell used Campo de Encanto Pisco for his pisco sours.
Lodi Winegrape Commission (Mark Chandler, executive director) poured some Deadly Zins.
DJ Daniel J. Louie covered it all with the sounds of music.
For the opening of “Yuri Shiller: Infinite Impromptu” exhibition, Mishin Fine Arts gallery in the heart of San Francisco dedicated its space not only to the artist’s canvases, but also to his improvisational performances. 
Since Shiller and wife Svetlana own and operate Picky Fashion, for which they design wearable art, there were plenty of avant-guard dresses, hats, and body suits to put up a mini fashion show on a makeshift stage. With a background in fashion photography and stage design, Shiller has a definite eye for a female figure (his solitary subject matter), its sinuous lines, smooth curves, and accentuated poses. 
The artist refers to some of his paintings as “delicious,” and in one of his interviews given at previous openings elsewhere he was quoted comparing a woman to a tasty dish on the menu of life. Not surprisingly, his decorative figures depicted in saturated colors and bright artificial environments seem to come to existence for ornamental purposes only, not unlike the runway models trained to display as little personality and as much coolness and abstracted desirability as possible. Some portraits go deeper in attempts to probe the psychological level of a sitter, and invariably the expressed prevailing emotions are those of desperation, sexual frustration, and hopeful discontent. Born and raised in Leningrad (the former Soviet Union), Shiller started his artistic career in the land historically deprived of healthy and/or numerous male population. As a result of wars, military service, risky behaviors, alcoholism, and heavy smoking among other environmental factors, males have always been grossly outnumbered by females in Mother Russia. This trend, enhanced with perpetual economic hardship and political instability in recent decades, contributed to the massive and most successful mail-order bridesdom in recent history. Entire generations of young Russian women grew up with an understanding that success and sometimes survival was only guaranteed by physical attractiveness, their only true asset, and that their only marketable possession under the circumstances was sex. Shiller’s body of work, however modern, i.e. removed from any particular time and space (and ethnic identity, for that matter) seems to reflect a particular national characteristic of beautiful Russian women whose availability became their virtue. 
Elongated figures with outstretched hands and bubbly behinds; perfectly oval faces with magnetic eyes and scarlet lips, and overtly sexual body language of his subjects also convey endless fascination with femininity and bring to mind some compulsory adolescent behaviors. 
Besides the impromptu photo shoot, and a slide show of Shiller’s creative photography, another live performance preceded the unveiling of the arguably risque painting displayed in a niche behind a resulting torn curtain. The show is currently on display at Mishin Fine Arts, 445A Sutter St., San Francisco. For more information, call 415-391-6100 or visit www.mishingallery.com
