Feature: Cooking is Theatre: MSMT Benefit Combines Culinary and Performance Art

"Cooking is theatre," says MUMBAI TO MAINE culinary celebrity Cherie Scott. "Creative cooking is like doing live improv - engaging, exciting, something that keeps you on the tips of your toes. The common goal of the actor and the cook is to take the audience on an unpredictable journey with a rewarding outcome a delicious meal with diverse flavors and a dynamic, nuanced performance to talk about for days."

Scott, together with Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, recently served up this heady, delightful combination of culinary prowess and theatrical performance in an online benefit for Maine State Music Theatre, as the organization continues to battle the challenges of being shuttered by the pandemic. Scott, raised in Mumbai India, has created a very successful business, MUMBAI TO MAINE, with her blog, website, cooking classes, and delectable line of products for home cooking.

Clark says the idea for the fundraiser came from Scott. "It was a pretty special offer on her part. She donated her talents to create this show, and all the proceeds from the sold out event have gone to benefit MSMT's Lifeline Fund."

Scott calls MSMT "my extended family." Her thirteen-year-old daughter Sophia has appeared in several mainstage productions, most recently in 2019's WIZARD OF OZ. "I was excited to dive right in and join the Board of Trustees because I knew it was important to give back to an organization that has brought so much joy into my child's life. And I was also eager to bring my diversity background and voice to the conversation, goals and mission of MSMT and help the theatre thrive and bring the best of musical theatre to our community."

Clark waxes eloquent about Scott: "Cherie's combination of personality and her ingenuity in the kitchen are pretty special. She's bright, bubbly, vivacious, positive, and forward thinking. She takes an existing recipe and puts her own spin on it and ends up with something creative and exceptional."

Scott returns the compliment. She says that she and Clark, who, by his own admission, does not cook at all, "share a common bond" in love for both the arts and creative cuisine. " Curt knows fine food and wine, and I love to watch theatre and know a great performance from an average one."

The dynamic collaboration resulted in a ninety-minute video demonstration featuring Scott's cooking a three-course meal that combined the subtle exotic flavors of her Indian heritage with Maine sourced ingredients like local lobster, produce, and artisan chocolate. The three cooking segments were interspersed with commentary and chat with Clark and Scott as hosts. Donors later received the full video as a follow up gift.

Filmed and photographed by Jared Morneau, with production preparation by Carol Marquis and Amanda Choate, Scott proves a vibrant on-camera presence. She is intelligent, articulate, funny, and a miracle worker in the kitchen! By the time she has served up warm roasted curried chickpea salad, Madras curried cream lobster pasta, and Maine masala chai chocolate pots de crème - whether you have been cooking along or just savoring the pure vicarious pleasure - this proves an exhilarating experience. Warm, witty, and charming on stage or camera, Clark is one of those presences that makes any event a celebration. Together, the duo have created what may be the first in a series of other similar fundraisers that bring light and joy in uniquely unusual and creative ways during this pandemic.

Returning to the question of what cooking creatively and theatre do have in common, Clark sums it up with a smile: "Well, I will tell you this: things get very messy and then end up very beautiful!"

Photos courtesy of MSMT, Jared Morneau, photographer

For more information visit www.msmt.org and mumbaitomaine.com

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