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Sydney brunch favourite Cornersmith has set up at the Museum of Contemporary Art, serving a new vegetarian menu at the gallery’s onsite cafe – but the move is temporary.
The Cornersmith team has rustled up eight new dishes in response to the MCA’s current exhibition Janet Laurence: After Nature, a mid-career survey of the Australian artist’s works which explore the environment, plants and nature. Cornersmith will be in residency throughout the exhibition’s showing until early June.
Cornersmith’s founder Alex Elliott-Howery describes the cafe’s pop-up appearance as a perfect fit. “I know Janet’s work and have always admired her exploration of natural beauty, and the way she draws attention to the devastating environmental challenges occurring in the world.”
Janet Laurence, installation view, Janet Laurence: After Nature, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2019, image courtesy the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia © the artist. (Photograph: Jacquie Manning)
Although working in different industries, the pair connected through a shared ethos on sustainability, waste and foraged foods. “We talked a lot about fermenting, foraging fennel… and eating moss!” she says.
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Fans of Cornersmith in Marrickville and Annandale will recognise the “closed-loop” menu on offer, with vegetable and fruit scraps destined for the bin instead repurposed.
The pineapple and coconut loaf, for example, is served with syrup made from pineapple skins; while the brown rice bibimbap is topped with “kitchen scrap” kimchi – “something all cafes and households should know how to make,” says Elliott-Howery – and a stock made from leftover corn cobs and husks. The dish name “top-to-tail beets” says it all: the sliced beetroot bulb is paired with a pickle made from beetroot stems, with salsa verde and labne on rye bread.
(Photo: Anna Kucera)
One notable influence on Cornersmith’s menu was Desire (Elixir Lab), a Laurence installation featuring an apothecary lined with vials and beakers of leaves and plants immersed in soju. It inspired their healing tea, a combination of mint bay leaves and rosemary (to aid with digestion) and lemon myrtle (for its anti-inflammatory properties). “There is something hopeful about plants healing us,” says Elliott-Howery.
Plants, art and good food. That’s a combination we can get behind.
Cornersmith’s menu will feature at the MCA Cafe from 1 March until 10 June 2019. The regular MCA Cafe menu will still be available for visitors.
MCA Cafe, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Level 4, 140 George St, The Rocks, NSW. Open 10am–4pm, Mon–Sun (until 9pm on Wednesdays). mca.com.au
Janet Laurence, Desire (Elixir Lab), 2018–19, installation view, Janet Laurence: After Nature, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2019, image courtesy the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia © the artist. (Photograph: Jacquie Manning)
