M. Cirino of A Razor, A Shiny Knife

The day after a theatrical dinner party for 30 people, hosted by A Razor, A Shiny Knife, I am with Michael Cirino, the gentleman who heads this lunatic group of performance-loving chefs. I am watching him clean up while simultaneously fielding requests for extra-thick bacon and roasted garlic. There was an article about his culinary venture in the Times a few weeks ago and now he’s hosting parties nearly every week. The previous evening had been an amalgam of performance theatre and performance cooking, which is exactly what he is going for. Cirino’s concept is to throw parties in which social, educational, and theatrical elements are all represented. Cooking is his art of choice and he invites guests into the kitchen to help him create it.

He grew up in a large Italian family where there was as much action in the kitchen as while gathering around the table. With Cirino’s dinner parties, he recreates this feeling of merriment and celebration, but his cooking adds a new layer of allure. After taking a class taught by Harold McGee, Cirino naturally fell into the cooking=science thought camp. FerranAdriá-esque cooking experiments ensued.

The result is dishes like mole papardelle with duck ragu. Instead of braising the duck in mole sauce, Cirino prefers to make the pasta from the sauce and serve the duck ragu dry atop it. Looking through his website, www.arazorashinyknife.com, there are all kinds of culinary inventions like this. There is mushroom bread pudding and raisin granita; there is a long list of inventive pasta infusions (beef broth? Pheasant egg? Check. Check).

At each event, his friends and helpers include celeb-chef minions and full-blown culinary intelligentsia in their own right. He strives to push himself to learn new techniques and also to teach his skills to the attendees. He wants everyone to have a vested interest in the food they cook, pointing out that it adds to the shared experience.

For the time being, the price of an evening is just enough to cover grocery costs, usually ranging between $60-100 per person. He still has a “legal-type day job” to pay the bills and doesn’t know exactly what the goal of his operation is; however, the passion and drive are there and he seems to have a pretty good nose to follow.