At the Table: Studio ATAO with Chef Jenny Dorsey

At this virtual At the Table event, chef Jenny Dorsey and mixologist Matt Dorsey demonstrate recipes that ask larger questions about worth and power. Fancy Because It’s French is a multilayered dessert, a faux red-bean mooncake, that poses the question: What does it mean to be “valuable”? To make this dish, Jenny Dorsey, founder of Studio ATAO, applies many of the fancy French techniques she was taught in culinary school as substitutes for the laborious process of making a traditional Chinese mooncake. Does combining the classic mooncake flavor profiles of red bean, salted duck egg, and oolong tea with the methods of haute cuisine “improve” or “elevate” this recipe?

Mixologist Matt Dorsey, author of “Healthy Cocktails,” shows us how to make Revisionist History, a beautiful end-of-night cocktail featuring Batavia Arrack, a spirit hailing from Indonesia with a complicated history that intersects with colonialism, trade wars, capitalism, and religion. He will give us a thorough explanation on the background, inspiration, and story behind the cocktail. 

Studio ATAO is a nonprofit community think tank that creates content and live experiences at the intersection of food, art, technology, and social impact. Its mission is to inspire socially conscious individuals toward action through empathetic, vulnerable conversations and community-building. The dessert and cocktail being showcased tonight are on the menu for Asian in America, Studio ATAO’s virtual reality dinner experience and interactive art installation exploring the trials and tribulations of Asian American identity. 

About the Presenters

Jenny Dorsey is a professional chef, writer, and founder of Studio ATAO with a special focus on experimental culinary content. Her background is in fine dining; she spent time in Michelin-starred restaurants in both New York and San Francisco before launching her own consulting business and finding her niche on the axis of food, vulnerability, and identity. Jenny and her work have been profiled on Food Network, Oxygen TV, and NowTHIS and in Food & Wine, Eater, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. www.jennydorsey.co.

Matt is an executive finance professional and self-taught mixologist. He currently works at a real estate startup during the day while moonlighting as the CFO of Studio ATAO. He was the former finance partner of the Museum of Food and Drink (MoFAD) and an independent CFO consultant. He has won multiple cocktail competitions, including StarChefs and Edible Manhattan, and his cocktails have been featured in outlets such as UrbanDaddy, Forbes and Business Insider. His first book, “Healthy Cocktails,” was published in 2019.