title: "Restaurant Spotlight: The Art of Food, Southampton" date: "2026-03-15" category: "Restaurant Spotlights" excerpt: "Chef Mariana Vasquez has been quietly building one of the most exciting menus on the East End. We sat down with her to understand why Art of Food is one of our most requested Artist partners." coverImage: "https://imagedelivery.net/XPllrAzJ5bizblUFm9XlCw/4cd0d145-91c3-4a5e-6331-1dc042635900/public" featured: false author: "The Canvas Team" slug: "restaurant-spotlight-art-of-food" readTime: "7 min read"
A Kitchen That Travels Well
Most restaurants are built for their room — the acoustics, the light, the corner table with the view. Chef Mariana Vasquez built Art of Food for portability.
"When I opened, I knew I wanted the food to be the destination, not the room," she told us. "If the food holds up on-site at a private estate in Water Mill, it holds up anywhere."
That philosophy has made Art of Food one of the most consistently requested Artist partners on the Caterer's Canvas platform — and one of the rare restaurants where off-premise execution actually elevates the menu rather than compromising it.
The Menu Philosophy
Art of Food's menu is best described as contemporary coastal American with Venezuelan inflection. Vasquez grew up in Caracas, trained in Paris, and opened in Southampton eight years ago with a 28-seat dining room that earned a New York Times two-star review within its first year.
Her off-premise menu is structured around three formats:
- The Shoreline — A seafood-forward tasting menu for 6–20 guests
- The Inland Table — A land-based menu built around whole roasted proteins and seasonal vegetables, ideal for 12–50 guests
- The Grand Canvas — A fully bespoke event menu for corporate and major private events, designed in consultation with the host
What Makes Her an Exceptional Artist Partner
Beyond the food, Vasquez's team operates with an efficiency that is rare in the off-premise world. When we asked her how she ensures quality consistency at private events, her answer was characteristically precise:
"We don't change our mise en place approach off-site. We just move our kitchen. Everything is prepped at the restaurant with the same standards. Temperature, timing, presentation — the guests at a private dinner get exactly what the guests in our dining room get."
This is not how most catering operations work. It is, however, how Caterer's Canvas vets its Artist partners.
Favorite Dishes to Request
For those booking Art of Food through Caterer's Canvas, dishes worth requesting:
- Yellowfin crudo, tiger's milk, crispy quinoa — A Peruvian-influenced course that photographs as beautifully as it tastes
- Whole-roasted Berkshire pork shoulder, chimichurri verde — A show-stopping centerpiece for The Inland Table
- Venezuelan corn cake, black bean purée, smoked crema — A passed appetizer that reliably becomes the talking point of the evening
Flagship Event This Season
Art of Food is executing a 75-person corporate dinner for a financial services firm in East Hampton this June — one of the larger Artist bookings on the platform this season. Vasquez and her team will be running two simultaneous plating stations supported by a full Caterer's Canvas Curator and Expediter team.
We will be documenting the event. Stay tuned.
Book Art of Food
Art of Food is available for private and corporate bookings exclusively through Caterer's Canvas. Request availability for your upcoming event below.