Hello, art... meet food

London designer and Houston furniture maker help Mary Ellen Carroll unlock theart of dining

Mary Ellen Carroll with furniture design Helmut Ehrmann at master craftsman'sHouston studio.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
The table-chair units can be combined into a large semi-circle or a singlesinewy line
Photo by CYB Furniture
Open Outcry furniture study models by Simon Dance Design
Photos by Richard Davies
Open Outcry, architectural study models by Simon Dance Design of its intendedsite at the Chicago Board of Trade Building
Photos by Richard Davies
Carroll, center, at an Itinerant Gastronomy piece on the elevated railway thatwould become New York's Highline park.
Formica donated its unique ColorCore laminate as black surfacing material forthe project
Photo by Tyler Rudick
Working drawing from knot theory specialist Philip Ording,
Mary Ellen Carroll beneath 2010's prototype 180, in which the artist turned aSharpstown residence 180 degrees.
Dining on the Goethals Bridge between Staten Island and New Jersey

''Haven't you noticed that food all by itself is really boring to read about?'' famed restaurant critic Ruth Reichl wrote in 2001. ''It's everything around the food that makes it interesting."

Mary Ellen Carroll, the artist and Rice University architecture lecturer who famously turned a Sharpstown home 180 degrees in 2010, likes to use this quote to explain the basic idea behind "Itinerant Gastronomy," her series of culinary-based performance pieces that each resemble a sort of guerrilla dinner party.

Since the mid 1990s, Carroll has taken the "it's everything around the food" mantra to heart, launching events in some of the most awkward settings one could imagine — a busy New Jersey bridge, an abandoned elevated railway, a museum construction site, a technology start-up.

Carroll's guest lists are as unexpected as her locations, ranging from construction workers and school teachers to post-colonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha and actor John Malkovitch.

"It's about the notion of bringing people and food together at a particular location," she told CultureMap in a recent interview about her latest Itinerant Gastronomy piece, Open Outcry, which will be staged on Monday at the CME Group, formerly know as the Chicago Merchantile Exchange.

As with any dinner, each performance comes alive in the encounters between the food, the setting and, of course, the guests themselves.

"I'm never an invited guest myself," Carroll said. "I do the inviting." Typically, the guest lists are as unexpected as her locations, ranging from construction workers and school teachers to post-colonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha and actor John Malkovitch. For Open Outcry, invited guests include Michelle Obama and Ruth Reichl as well as former and current Chicago mayors Richard Daley and Rahm Emanuel.

In the past year, Carroll teamed up with London designer Simon Dance to create a unique sculptural dining set for the upcoming Chicago event. In a recent email, Dance listed a variety of inspirations — the boardrooms of the Paris Peace Talks, knot theory, an ancient Greek theater, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove — that led to the design set of 12 arced table-chair units that can be combined into a large semi-circle or a single sinewy line.

Since December, Carroll and Dance have worked with Houston furniture fabricator Helmut Ehrmann, whose work can be found at Jenni's Noodle House near the Galleria, to realize the seating arrangement, the first specifically designed as a part of an Itinerant Gastronomy piece.

After Tuesday's meal, the dining arrangement will be sent to the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago for an exhibit entitled Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art, running Feb. 16 to June 10, 2012. The exhibtion will travel to the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston in fall 2013, with tentative dates from Sept. 15 to Jan. 5, 2014.

So, for all those wondering... What's on the menu?

"The food itself will mirror what's traded at the commodity exchange," Carroll said. "We'll have five courses, starting with items made from butter and eggs before moving onto dishes featuring soy and pork. Dessert will probably be based on coffee, but we're still finalizing the menu." All food will be sourced from local purveyors.

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on the trail

Celebrate spring's arrival at these 2 Houston garden tours

Courtesy of Bayou Bend

The tour includes Bayou Bend's impressive gardens.

The Azalea Trail, one of Houston’s most enduring seasonal traditions, returns this weekend. Once an annual event, the now biennial tour is a do-not-miss affair offering the opportunity for Houstonians to experience some of the best gardens and architecture the city has to offer — all before the Bayou City gets too balmy. Additionally, the newly opened Ismaili Center will offer complimentary tours of their nine acres of gardens in conjunction with the Azalea Trail.

Now in its 88th year, the River Oaks Garden Club’s Azalea Trail has long served as something of Houston’s unofficial kickoff to spring — that moment when azaleas, camellias, dogwoods, and early bulbs begin peaking across the city and residents head outdoors again. The event blends horticulture, history, architecture, and philanthropy into a weekend experience that consistently draws both dedicated gardeners and design-minded visitors from around the city and the region.

“Throughout the 88-year history of the Azalea Trail, select homeowners have generously offered an intimate look at their beautifully-curated private home gardens. In 2026, Azalea Trail goers will be able to tour four private home gardens featuring unique, breathtaking designs,” Emily Bolin and Hilary Purcel, chairs of this year’s River Oaks Garden Club Azalea Trail, tell CultureMap.

“Each location, which also includes Bayou Bend, Rienzi and the River Oaks Garden Club’s Forum, will offer an abundance of inspiration, including enticing planting combinations, creative concepts, emerging trends, and stunning floral displays. We hope to see everyone this weekend as we kick off the spring season in Houston.”

This year’s Trail runs March 6-8 and includes access to seven gardens for $35, spanning four private residential landscapes in the Tanglewood and close-in Memorial areas plus the aforementioned established cultural sites including Bayou Bend, Rienzi and the River Oaks Garden Club’s own Forum of Civics garden.

The private gardens — always a highlight — offer rare behind-the-gates access to curated residential landscapes showcasing planting combinations, emerging design ideas and seasonal floral displays that often influence Houston gardening trends. Meanwhile, the institutional stops provide historical context:

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens: a 1926 River Oaks estate, now stewarded by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and surrounded by formal gardens and natural woodland landscapes, including azaleas, camellias, redbuds, and seasonal bulb displays planted by Garden Club members. Also, it is their 60th anniversary this year (opened to the public on March 5, 1966).

Rienzi: a former River Oaks residence turned MFAH house museum, where formal European-inspired gardens meet native Texas plantings.

Forum of Civics: the Garden Club’s historic River Oaks area headquarters, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Importantly, Trail proceeds directly fund local beautification, conservation, and horticultural education efforts, including historic garden preservation and environmental programming across Houston.

Tour the Ismaili Center

Just minutes away, the newly opened Ismaili Center, Houston — already earning international architectural attention — will offer complimentary public tours on March 7 and 8 from 8 am to 4 pm. The Center’s landscape makes it a compelling add-on to an Azalea Trail itinerary.

Designed by Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects — also responsible for recent projects at Rice University, Rothko Chapel, and Memorial Park — the more than nine acres of gardens reinterpret historic Islamic garden traditions through a contemporary Texas lens.

The design incorporates terraced lawns, shaded promenades, water features, and resilient plantings arranged as a symbolic ecological “transect of Texas,” moving from desert species to prairie and Gulf Coast plant communities. The landscape also doubles as environmental infrastructure, engineered to withstand major storm events while creating a calm, civic sanctuary overlooking Buffalo Bayou Park. Visitors that weekend can choose:

Full architectural/property tours
Focused garden introductions
Self-guided QR-enabled exploration

Together, the Azalea Trail and the Ismaili Center present a compelling narrative about Houston’s garden culture — where historic private landscapes and philanthropic garden traditions intersect with a globally-influenced new civic landscape designed for reflection, dialogue and public access.

The Azalea Trail will offer a free shuttle service between Rienzi and Bayou Bend. The locations of the four private homes on the tour will be sent via email with ticket purchase confirmations — street parking is available at all private home locations. The event will take place rain or shine, so keep an umbrella handy this weekend.

Courtesy of Bayou Bend

The tour includes Bayou Bend's impressive gardens.