In his restaurant on Rue Ramey, chef Léo Giorgis welcomes painter, sculptor, and weaver Demian Majcen for a residency entitled "The Chemistry of the Soul." An encounter where ceramics respond to cuisine, and where alchemical symbols become a way of interpreting the dish.
©Elisa Reddet
There are some establishments that refuse to choose between visual appeal and culinary delight. L'Almanach Montmartre, opened in June 2024 by Léo Giorgis in the heart of the 18th arrondissement, belongs to this rare breed. Since its inception, the restaurant has combined creative cuisine with artist residencies, the latter showcasing the artists' work for several months at a time on its white and green tiled walls. Each exhibition is accompanied by a menu designed to resonate with the artworks, as if the dining room and the kitchen were engaged in a shared dialogue. The latest exhibition features Demian Majcen.
Trained at the Villa Arson in Nice and then at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, the artist works in painting, sculpture, and weaving, drawing on a rich heritage of ancient traditions: medieval alchemy, Byzantine iconography, and textile folklore. His suspended ceramics, terracotta discs in deep reds and glazed blacks, appear less as objects than as states of matter captured in the midst of transformation. It is precisely this tipping point that interests him, and which gives the exhibition its title: the moment when one substance becomes another.
The connection to cooking is self-evident. The earth that bakes and hardens, the grain that becomes bread and puff pastry, the grape that patiently waits until it becomes wine: gastronomy itself is nothing but a long series of metamorphoses. By placing his works at the center of the table, Majcen is not decorating a dining room; he is revealing its secret workings. The maturation of a mind and that of a dish obey the same patient calculation.
Léo Giorgis captured this connection by creating a map reflecting the artist's origins. It takes us on a journey through Central Europe and the Balkans, using Mediterranean flavors as our guide. A puff pastry with sheep's cheese, nigella seeds, and honey; vine leaves stuffed with fresh herbs, preserved lemon, and Greek yogurt; lamb slow-cooked for ten hours with sautéed radicchio, feta cheese, pomegranate molasses, and piquillo pepper sauce. For dessert, traditional baklava is deconstructed with roasted walnuts, light honey cream, a crispy pastry, and orange blossom.
This way of bringing the artist's hand and the chef's hand together stems from Giorgis's own journey. A latecomer to cooking, he worked in the kitchens of Apicius and L'Arcane, before taking the helm at Silencio des Prés, where he met Mory Sacko and Nadia Sammut during their residencies and learned the art of reinventing himself daily. His cuisine, which he aims to be both bold and comforting, playfully revisits French classics: pressed poultry with truffle, Armagnac and foie gras, lemon meringue tart enhanced with Timut pepper.
What is at stake with Demian Majcen goes beyond a simple exhibition. By inviting art to sit at its table, the Almanach Montmartre questions our way of receiving the unknown and sharing a meal, in a creative and gourmet exchange where the artwork and the recipe end up responding to each other, course after course.
“The Chemistry of the Soul”, Demian Majcen’s residency at the Almanach Montmartre.
