THE ARCHITECTURE OF TASTE: FIFTH EDITION
Written by Mariam Abou-Kathir Photos by Aziz
On August 16th, 2026, the fifth edition of the ‘Architecture of Taste’ unfolded at My Ōtel North Coast in a multi-sensory Summer Gala, celebrating the launch of its flagship North Coast location.
The WHEN WE EAT concept turned this time to My Ōtel’s distinctive art and design language, exploring how a hotel’s objects, colours, surfaces, and sculptural forms could move beyond the visual and find another expression through taste.
THE HOTEL AS INSPIRATION
At My Ōtel, that conversation became more playful. Rather than presenting a seated progression of courses, the evening unfolded throughout the hotel’s outdoor terrace as a sculptural landscape of bites, botanical installations, and live culinary moments. Guests moved between artworks and food, discovering visual references that had been translated through colour, shape, texture and ingredient.
FROM ARTWORK TO BITE
Chef Omar Semary of Blak by O, working in collaboration with My Ōtel chef Andrew Smith, developed a series of canapés responding directly to the hotel’s art collection. A black soft-shell crab bao bun with saffron vanilla emulsion borrowed its monochromatic appearance from one of the artworks within the hotel, transforming its visual language into an edible form. Elsewhere, blueberry-cured salmon with an orange and lemongrass tuile appeared as small green circular forms, echoing My Ōtel’s green circle artwork.
The menu continued with lobster roulade and lemon verbena gel; shrimp tostadas with togarashi Japanese mayonnaise; and ostrich tataki paired with sun-dried tomato pesto and grape molasses. Rather than illustrating the art literally, each bite became a loose interpretation of what surrounded it—sometimes through colour or geometry, elsewhere through contrast, composition and unexpected combinations.
FOOD AS SCULPTURE
Food also moved beyond the plate and into the architecture of the evening itself. Sculptural tablescapes by FR Studio’s The Table created stages for the culinary experience, positioning the bites amongst forms and materials that extended the visual world of My Ōtel. Guests encountered the dishes as part of lively compositions in which object, artwork, food and space continually overlapped.
DESSERT AS PERFORMANCE
The evening culminated in a live dessert table painted and assembled by Chef Omar Semary in front of guests. At its centre sat an oversized cherry cake composed around strawberry, basil and aerated sponge, accompanied by the Blak flower and smaller edible elements artfully arranged across the surface. The act of finishing the table became part of the experience itself: dessert shifting from something presented as complete into something constructed, layered and altered in real time.
Throughout the evening, Hummingbird extended the same conversation into mixology, developing drinks in response to the hotel’s artistic language and allowing the dialogue between design and taste to move across both food and cocktail.
WHEN THE HOTEL BECOMES THE MENU
For its fifth edition, the ‘Architecture of Taste’ asked a slightly different question. What happens when the entire hotel becomes inspiration for the edible sculpture tables? When a painting determines the colour of a bao bun, a sculpture becomes the geometry of a canapé, or an oversized cherry becomes both artwork and dessert?
WHEN WE EAT, WE EXPLORE
WHEN WE EAT, we explore what happens when gastronomy becomes another way of looking — and when what we see becomes something we can taste.
