Crochet beignets and seafood gumbo? Not as tempting to the taste buds as the real McCoy, but a tickle to the senses, nonetheless.
Food artist Clare Crespo laid out a Mardi Gras feast of King cake, ham, soft shell crab, purl'd, ehem, oysters, cafe au lait, and more, all carefully crocheted and served up on Heath dinnerware, apropos given most comforting of food celebrations is now on view at the Heath Los Angeles flagship.
A white ceramic bowl is topped off with a red looped round of "cocktail sauce" and a handful of knitted large shrimp dangle off the rim. Even the Tabasco bottle next to the catfish po' boy sandwich has been reimagined in yarn.
The Louisiana Clare called the installation "Laissez le bon crochet Rouler," which is a play on the saying "Laissez les bons temps rouler," or let the good times roll.

And rolling the good times with food is what Clare's all about. It's her mission to energize creativity and fun in the kitchen, and she's doing it through kiddie workshops and these more sophisticated flourishes with the art of cuisine. (It was her grandma who taught her how to wield the needles.) Clare's authored "The Sercret Life of Food" and "Hey, Cupcake!," and her DVDs "The Yummy Fun Kooking Series" have become a bit of a cult hit among even friends of mine without children. Her Yummy Fun site is lip-smacking good fun.

Andy was smitten by it all after attending the opening night at Heath a couple of weeks ago, and managed to trump my story about the Belons I'd just enjoyed at an old Paris brasserie with his description of Clare's cockles. He was right, too. So happy I made a stop there this morning since the blanket is being pulled on this picnic Feb. 21. That's this weekend, folks.

I also enjoyed visiting with our pal Adam Silverman, inhouse studio director at Heath. He just returned this weekend from Tokyo, where an exhibition of his pottery opened Friday night at Play Mountain. It runs thorugh Feb. 24, so hit it if you're in T-Town.

Photos Courtesy of Coco Iverson at Heath