I can think of a way to make Dali’s museum earn profit while employing MooHak’s impressive restaurateur’s skills. This drama has been hinting at it since Episode 1.
In Episode 1, MooHak lambasted the chef who wanted to serve haute cuisine. The first-class gamjatang would have been priced at 180,000won which MooHak deemed absurd considering the price of a regular gamjatang.
In Episode 4, Moohak discovered that the museum restaurant was underutilized. To me, he can start catering to the museum, but he needs to diversify his menu.
By taking over the management of the restaurant at the museum, he’ll accomplish two goals at the same time. On one hand, he’ll provide the needed food service to the visitors, and make their visit to the museum more enjoyable. Visitors won’t be in a rush to leave the place if they have a café to hang around in. And if the food and service are enough, some visitors may even make the museum a destination place or a venue for intimate dinners — just like Moohak said in Episode 1.
On the other hand, he can also grow his demographics, i.e., the uber-rich and art patrons, and expand his restaurants’ customer base by venturing into haute cuisine. The museum has the right ambiance to serve gourmet food. If done well, he can see an increase in profit margins for his food business and an increase in museum endowment and funding.
Which brings to this important fact…
The general public is unaware that most museums do NOT get the bulk of their revenue from admission fees. The operating expenses of museums are largely paid for by…well…the rich. It’s a fact seldom brought up that the money needed to run a museum comes from fundraising (i.e., galas and balls), endowment income, annual membership, individual contribution, corporate sponsorship and philanthropic donations.
Not from the entrance tickets, parking tickets, and gift shop sales.
To me, Dali’s father’s major mistake was that he didn’t reach out to wealthy donors. It seemed to me that he isolated himself from other rich people when the most important part of his job as director of the museum was to fundraise.
Moohak can correct this oversight by recreating the museum restaurant to cater to these wealthy people. These potential benefactors are exactly the type to enjoy haute cuisine since they can afford a 180,000won entrée without batting an eye. They’ll gush over an artist-inspired menus, support the farm-to-table movement, and fight for exclusive tickets to attend a museum gala. They’ll flock to these Instagram-worthy affairs. These foodie events can entice the donors to part ways with their money and support the arts, i.e., Dali’s museum.
Of course, the museum café will still serve affordable food (like the ubiquitous chicken nuggets and pizza) to the visitors but the café chef can also feature food that will intrigue the taste buds of foodies.
With Dali’s help, MooHak can design a menu that will extend the art exhibit and art education beyond the walls of the gallery, and to the food served in the dining hall. The food items can be geared to attract both the wealthy and common people, and enhance their museum visit.
Off the top of my head, I can name, at least, five food-and-art connections.
1. Dali and Chupa Chups logo. Spanish artist Salvador Dali designed the logo. While candy isn’t exactly food, Moohak and Dali can have dessert-themed party for their museum gala, and serve Dali-inspired desserts in the café for the regular visitors.
2. Monet and salad. Lol. Aside from his waterlilies, French painter Claude Monet was famous for his garden at Givenchy. Moohak and Dali can design a menu with vegetables and herbs that Monet would have grown in his garden. Salads are inexpensive, but Moohak’s chef can serve it with foie gras, escargot, truffles, and French wine for the fundraiser.
3. Renoir and the luncheon. Renoir had a “Luncheon of the Boating Party.” Dali and Moohak can recreate the scene and have a wine-and-cheese tasting for their museum patrons with a mini-art appreciation class on a couple of Renoir’s masterpieces.
source: The Phillips Collection
4. Jackson Pollock and pizza. Patrons can make their own pizza and throw anything (ala-Pollock, lol) on the pizza dough to be cooked in an open-air brick oven.
source: Albright Knox Museum
5. Gauguin and fish. Paul Gauguin went off to live in Tahiti because he wanted to live on fruits and fish. Like this one.
source: wikipedia
Once, the French painter hosted a banquet and illustrated the menu for the banquet. Dali and Moohak can recreate this banquet since fish is readily available.
In 1900 Gauguin hosted a banquet in Tahiti and created a series of illustrated menus for it, which were recently sold at various art auctions. The drawings feature menus that appear to combine both French and Tahitian fare. Among the main courses are wild pig cooked island style, chicken in a “sauce coco,” and roast beef. Of course there was wine and each meal was finished with dessert.
Source: https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/paul-gauguin-tahiti-recipe/
Bon appetit! Jal mokkessumnida!
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
Do you see that? I think this is the direction the drama is going: to have MooHak and Dali bring their expertise and skill to the table and make the museum accessible to all kinds of people, both rich and poor.
@Packmule3, I regret having read this post on an empty stomach. My tummy flute is now playing.
I’m waiting for the cloud omelettes on the children’s menu as well as posh gamjatang. I love the idea of painting-themed meals and I hope it, or something like it, happens. Many thanks.
Art and food are a great combination!!! Wonderful ideas you have there @PM3!
I love your Pollock & Pizza and Monet & Salad combos!
Now I’m thinking of other artist and food themes…
– Warhol & soups – from simple to fancy, the best for fall
– Still life charcuterie – cheese and grapes and olives and stuff
– surrealism & spirits – cocktails inspired by surrealist artists
– Cookies & Scream 😱
Oops, my comment is awaiting moderation @PM3. I may have misspelled something in my email. I was too excited to think about food and art combos. Thanks for checking!
Thanks @packmule for all these great fundraising ideas! I’ve been thinking similarly, but your ideas are more creative than mine. I would definitely eat a Jackson Pollock pizza! (I’m wondering if there are already any IRL art galleries or museums that are doing similarly themed art menus?)
Also–I’m wondering, in order to get patrons to come back to the museum, if they can try to frame the incident(s) of the screaming, tattooed men as a performance art piece? Those roughneck cooks might come back and offer regular performances (or art tours, once Da Li teaches them about art)!
@PM3, this is brilliant ⭐
this show along with “her private life” allows you to see what’s behind the offices and what it takes to run a museum.
Dali’s museum definitely need a Moohak and together, they will shine. and i love your food and art connection ideas. @janey, your ideas were great too.
never heard of chupa chups before. haha. good to know she was named after Salvador dali. gotta check his works.
interestingly enough, i’ve never really enjoyed dining at a cafe while visiting a museum. i’ve seen a cafe on the roof of The Met in NYC and that looked fun… more fun if we chose to actually chill in the cafe and enjoy whatever they offered. it had a view of the Central park 💚
next time, i’ll try to visit one of these museum cafes. i was not a fan before this show. hmmmm.
Spot on, I feel @pkml3! A meeting of minds and tastebuds/tummies (I should not mention appetites?)
😍Chupa Chups,I’m a kid again! I have very fond memories of that candy.😋
Regarding the combo food & art, @Packmule3, @Janey love your menus. They also can recreate some famous still life, after all, a great number of them are about food.
On the other hand, gastronomy has become an art on itself, and the fake thugs seemed fond of Dali. I’m with you,@Fern, no better place for that omelette!!
@Packmule3, @Janey, love your menus
Last but no least, museums nowadays are also use as concerts halls.
Modern museum…moderm performaces as said @BethB. How about a flashmob?
@HK_Lady, Dali was a prolific artist (paintings, pictures, even cinema!!…you may know the drunken elephants in Dumbo)
Thank you, @Ori. Your parting words sent me on an internet adventure and gave me a lesson in film history. This is what I love about Bitches over Dramas. I can’t share all the gems I discovered in this small space, so I encourage Bitches to do some of their own web surfing, searching for phrases such as:
–Disney Dumbo Dali
–Dali Disney (you’ll get different results)
–Disney surreal
–Dali Hitchcock
Have fun!
@packmule3 I love your menu!!!! Had I followed my second career idea I would have stayed in museums. Maybe in my next life.
I never comment cause I feel I never have anything else to contribute. I get here and there are always lots of comments and I seem to forget all mine after reading lol.
Anywho, I would like to share that my neck of the woods does have a few museums with lovely restaurants and great food. However, the menus are boring and not as exiting as the one mentioned here. Most of the ones I go are kid oriented (kiddos are 5 and 9 now), but pre covid you could find us in the many kid friendly and non friendly museums around Los Angeles County.
While there are many to recommended in this city (there’s even a knitting museum – actually it’s called Craft Contemporary and their exhibits may have expanded), check out the Petersen Automotive Museum https://www.petersen.org. The restaurant is great and the newly built museum (few years now) is beautiful.
PS: @packmule3 I wanted to thank you again for your blog!!! I try to keep a balanced life, but I was sick about a month ago and started binge watching Hotel del Luna. Your blog and the members made the watching so much more fun. While I was feeling bad your old posts kept me cheerful.
Thanks for sharing, @Carolina. That Petersen Automotive Museum made me drool. My girlfriends and I always joke that we’ll establish our shoe museum but I heard the former first lady of the Philippines, Mrs. Marcos, beat us to it.
Glad you liked our “Hotel del Luna” commentaries. We were fast and furious with our analyses of the drama back then. Hong sisters are fun to critique but they need to work on their happy endings. I don’t know why their last few dramas have been tearjerkers.
I hope you’re feeling better now.
Hi @Carolina, welcome and I’m glad our Hotel del (I prefer de la) Luna posts entertained you during your convalescence. I remember having a ball of a time trying to decipher the ‘symbols’ and the myths.
I find the museum restaurants in my part of the world serve mostly tea things, and being in the city, they are pricey. That would be fine if the food was all great 😉
Come along here any time to just chat. We do not necessarily stay on topic on BOD! 🙂
@GB,
I’ve been racking my brain for a painting that can be used for a street-food themed menu.
And yes, we don’t stay on topic. That’s fine.
Good one, @janey! I went a small museum devoted to soup tureens. The museum was called — what do you expect? — “The Campbell Soup Tureen Museum.”
I’m still looking for a painting with a pig motif.
I just realized that the name of Moohak’s porcine mascot is “Dondon”? or is that the name of their company?
@Packmule3, how about Michael Sowa’s “Kohler’s Pig”?
“Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper paired with a coffee menu.
@pkml3, I looked at a few prints. There are works like:
Street Chef, a water colour by Kris Parins
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/street-chef-kris-parins.html
Woman At A Street Fountain, a drawing by Amadeo Preziosi
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/woman-at-a-street-fountain-amadeo-preziosi.html
Orange Seller, a drawing by Carle Vernet
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/orange-seller-print-made-by-delpech-carle-vernet.html
From our time: below are not paintings but digital art.
Sketch Of Street Food Carts Cartoon and Sketch Car Street Food City Cartoon, pieces of digital artworks/art prints by Valeri Hadeev
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/sketch-of-street-food-carts-cartoon-valeri-hadeev.html
https://pixels.com/featured/sketch-car-street-food-city-cartoon-valeri-hadeev.html
@Janey I like your food themes! Especially Cookies and Scream! I imagine Van Gogh’s work of course but can’t fit the cookies in LOL.
@PM3 – soup tureens are so posh! And it comes in all forms and sizes. The vintage ones are probably very ornate. Too bad we don’t use it as much in our daily meal.
@GB, @Ori, thanks! I was thinking of what to serve with Van Gogh, too but nothing comes up. Most of the museums I’ve been to have limited food offerings and are more of cafes or serve tea and other drinks. Nothing creative on the menu.
@Carolina, welcome to the BoD community!!! My last visit to LA pre Covid was full on museum tour just because (Lacmat, Broad, Getty). Will keep in mind the Craft Contemporary and the automotive museum for next time. And don’t hesitate to pipe in anytime. I’m not even watching this drama but I always like exchanges in BoD, they are fun and informative.
@Welmaris, will do my research tomorrow and see what comes up!!!
@GB I love the two Hadeev works whose links you shared. Thanks for finding and posting those.
@Caroline, I’m delighted you piped in and made your introductions. I recall how nervous I was the first few times I posted on BoD. I’d never before contributed to an online forum. Everyone here made me feel so welcome that I mustered the courage to keep my conversation going.
I should mention, @Caroline, that I’m a hop, skip, and a jump from the Peterson Automotive Museum, yet I’ve never visited it. Maybe one day we can meet there.
@Carolina, I got both your handle wrong and the automotive museum wrong. It’s the Marconi I’m near. But still, I’m not far from Los Angeles.