What happens when food and contemporary art meet? reNOWn x Isabel Reyes Santos is the first edition of reNOWn, Now Now Canteen’s cultural incubation and artist residency program. This program is dedicated to exploring how gastronomy and contemporary art can come together.
Running from May 21 to 30, the event features a 7-course meal inspired by Isabel Reyes Santos’ artwork. It transforms the Now Now Canteen into a space where dining becomes an immersive art experience.
From Pop Culture Fragments to the Dinner Table
Santos is known for her works that deconstruct vintage advertising, Old Hollywood imagery, and mid-century comics—cultural references often dismissed as lowbrow. Her practice involves blurring, rearranging, and obscuring familiar images to evoke both nostalgia and discomfort. The result is a tension between glamor and mundanity, recognition and distortion.
That same tension finds form in the tasting menu, created by resident chef Kelvin Pundavela, under the guidance of Executive Chef Mateusz Luczaj and Executive Pastry Chef Lisane Luczaj. The courses echo Santos’ approach: playful yet precise, layered with reference and reinterpretation.
Happy Tummy, Happy Mind
The menu opens with Puffed Pasta (pasta pillow, mushroom taro cream, FTD cucumber, pickled shimeji) and Capesanto Sando (FTD corn shokupan, katsu scallop, garlic and dill aioli, lumpfish caviar, dill). A composed dish of Octopus Heads, Shrimp, Smoked Peppers, Pave completes the antipasto.
The Pear Salad follows with oakleaf, mizuna, ginger ponzu, lotus chips, pear, and hibiscus pickle. Then comes Swordfish Crudo, a delicate plate of shoyu swordfish, cucumber, ponkan gel, PRSVD lemons, and dashi crystal bread.
The Halibut course features miso butter, edamame, ikura, amazake caper sauce, and root beer leaf. A cleanser of mushroom tofu, wakame, and tomato dashi transitions into the main dish: Gyutan Lasagna, composed of patchwork sheets, beef tongue, curry sauce, black garlic cheese, nori pesto, and papaya chutney.
Dessert arrives as Strawberry Hiyayakko, made with house sweet silken tofu, kombucha strawberry, beetroot molasses, sumac togarashi, and crisps.
Behind the Plate and the Canvas
Isabel Reyes Santos has been a practicing artist since 2014, with seven solo exhibitions and multiple international group shows and residencies. Her winning entry in the 15th Uniqlo UT Grand Prix—A Fortune in Jewels Kept in Your Safe—was selected from over 10,000 global submissions, in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
This project, curated by Patrick de Veyra with Now Now co-founders Bryan Kong (Director of Fermentation) and Maxine Kong (Director of Brand and Culture), and systems designer Chino Recto, marks a shift in how culinary and visual practices can intersect. It’s an exploration of art outside traditional spaces, placing it in front of the diner, one course at a time.
reNOWn x Isabel Reyes Santos Public Dates:
May 21, 22, 23
May 28, 29, 30
To book a seat, visit nownow.ph.
For further inquiries, email reserve@nownow.ph or contact +63 917 164 6747
