Would You Like Chicken ... or Chicken?

It started with four half-naked women solemnly bearing jellied timbales and ended eight hours later with a party reminiscent of a high school dance. In between, there were 23 courses, a shrine to the Virgin Mary adorned with forks, a bit of avant-garde Butoh dance, and, for those guests up on their Buñuel, the fear that they had stepped into a live version of The Exterminating Angel. But mostly there was chicken — lots and lots of it. Because for all the pointed questions it raised about food and art and creativity and chefs, Gelinaz was also a...