They’re dishes of mass consumption.
An Upper East Side restaurant last night dished up some edible art — serving it on glitzy, gold-painted plates looted from the palaces of Saddam Hussein.
The bizarre taste treat — venison topped with a date syrup — is appropriately titled “Spoils.”
Kevin Lasko, the chef for the Park Avenue Autumn restaurant — whose quirky name changes with the seasons — teamed up with New York-born and Chicago-based artist Michael Rakowitz, who has an Iraqi-Jewish background, to make the dish.
The restaurant said in a statement that it also uses rare pieces of Wedgewood china once owned by King Faisal II.
“As symbols of the past, they represent the rich and complicated history of a place long misunderstood by its invaders,” the restaurant said.
“With over 627 varieties of dates grown in the country, the date is to Iraq as a cigar is to Cuba, or champagne to France.”
It’s not the first bonkers dish to debut on a menu known for its Cheetos-topped broccoli.
Over the past few months, the eatery has been doing a series of artist-chef collaborations, curated by Creative Time, who worked to bring the artists on board.
In January, it served up a baked Alaska with an audio component from the performance artist Marina Abramovic.
In the spring, the dish of the-month was a beet-pickled egg designed by artist Paul Ramirez.
During the summer, the kitchen did a hamachi with beauty products from Janine Antoni.
The restaurant said the dictator’s dishes are totally legal.
“Following the fall of Hussein’s government in 2003, Iraqis have taken ownership of the symbols of his regime,” it said.
“Many of the opulent artifacts found in his fallen palaces are now sold openly in the markets alongside monuments and state buildings.
“This project, like the date itself, links the history of the United States and Iraq through the timeless experience of food, rather than the more recent link of conflict,” the statement said
Rakowitz’s grandparents were exiled from Iraq to New York in the ’40s, and he uses his cultural roots in many of his projects.
In 2004, he worked with his mom to present Baghdad recipes to students, using cooking to talk about war and its impact on both Iraq and the United States.
He also ran a mobile food truck in Chicago that featured a different Iraqi chef each week and that was staffed by US veterans of the war in Iraq.