Flash Talk: Chef Jamie Cantor

Nayland Blake’s Feeder 2 consists of a human-scale gingerbread house made from edible gingerbread bricks and held upright with steel supports. Blake has mounted Feeder 2 several times since its initial realization in 1998 and for this incarnation the Hammer Museum relied on collaboration with Chef Jamie Cantor of platine bakery. Located directly inside the Hammer Lobby, Feeder 2 fully immerses visitors entering the museum with its pungent ginger scent and teases the taste buds with its cloying sweetness. For this talk, Chef Cantor will attempt to satiate our desire to indulge by offering visitors a special tasting of her gingerbread confections while at the same time giving us a glimpse of what it was like to work with Blake and with the curators to realize the installation.

Jamie Cantor of platine is an award winning chef and specialist in baking and pastry arts. Cantor trained at Emory University as well as the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Thanks to a prestigious Women Chefs and Restauranteurs Scholarship, Cantor continued her education at the CIA campus in Napa Valley, CA, where, upon graduating, she had the opportunity to work alongside James Beard Award recipient chef Thomas Keller, and Pastry Chef of the Year award recipient Stephen Durfee at the renowned French Laundry. Choosing to follow her love of cookies, Cantor eventually moved to Los Angeles to start her own bakery and sweet shop, platine, in Culver City.