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The lines between gastronomy, fashion and contemporary art are blurred within this 360º culinary creative studio that designs ephemeral experiences, erects installations and creates emotional connections between brands and their audiences.
Experiences can revolve around brand narrative, solo works, as well as collaborative acts that seek to explore innovative ways of creating culinary events: from strategy and concept, to design and production.
Luca Pronzato, a Parisian of Italian origin, is the ideologist behind this nomadic movement that opened its doors to the world in 2019. A concept that could belong more to the future than to the present to which a whole wave and/or group of chefs, producers and sommeliers united by creativity and fantasy around gastronomy belong.
Pronzato started working in bars at the age of 16, as a solid foundation in the restaurant business that led him to become interested in the world of wine, to study it and immerse himself in its production process, until he put this knowledge into practice in real life and became a global cult sommelier.
Collective projects
The We Are Ona project was originally intended to provide a platform for young talent in the sector, with the aim of developing a new generation of revolutionary or subversive chefs. From this initial idea, the collective has been distilling the inner world that unites them through the creation of temporary restaurants or culinary pop ups set up in unusual places.
Significant and unexpected settings, including a romantic evening that will go down in the history of fashion. At the Palace of Versailles, the collective served a vegan dinner for Jacquemus accompanied by succulent dishes such as a vegetable carpaccio or a celeriac and almond praline that created aesthetic still lifes among bunches of grapes, candles and classical sculptures.
In addition to having worked for brands in the fashion industry such as Sacai, Givenchy, Y-3, Saint Laurent and Hermès, We Are Ona also took part in the recent Milano Design Week to collaborate in the presentation of Cristina Celestino’s creations at the Tennis Club Milano Bo, offering an exquisite menu by French chef Marine Hervouet accompanied by sommeliers Iris Godec and Luca Pronzato.
The project also moved to New York during NY Art Week from 12 to 17 May, where Pronzato and his entourage served a pop-up restaurant at the WSA, an industrial-looking cultural centre at 161 Water St.
The set-up was assigned to architect and designer Harry Nuriev, who reimagined the space to present an exclusive experience in which Michelin-starred chef Mory Sacko showcased his gastronomic offerings on silver and stainless steel tableware at a long table for 60 guests.
The latest installation
For their latest collaboration, We Are Ona once again enlisted Harry Nuriev to create a gastronomic experience in which the invisible scenes of a restaurant became the protagonists.
Nuriev created a design to occupy the sixth and seventh floors of an old building in Paris, on which he deployed a large-scale fountain, with a tower of sinks in the middle of a large pool of water. Around the installation, diners and other tables were placed throughout the spaces.
The new pop-up shows the back of the kitchen, which moves towards the centre of attention, visible and accessible, as a field of artistic experimentation open to all,’ We Are Ona explains. The kitchen is revealed through a minimalist installation that synchronises off-screen and real-life experiences, where elegance meets the primal’.
The food was prepared by Michelin-starred chef Dalad Kambhu, who offered a contemporary interpretation of traditional Thai cuisine that connected perfectly with We Are Ona’s disruptive DNA.
