Artist-cum-chef LAILA GOHAR invents wildly creative worlds with food and design. TY GASKINS pulls up a seat at Gohar’s ever-evolving, mind-blowing table.
Long braids of mozzarella cut with steel gardening shears, candelabras studded with caviar-filled eggs, a swan made of artichoke leaves, a potato tattooed with a rose, sculptures built with bread and butter—welcome to Gohar’s gorgeously stylish gastronomic galaxy.
The 36-year-old Egyptian-born, New York-based Gohar is an artist who reimagines, contorts, and twists the boundaries between food, design, and art. Gohar, who lives on the Upper West Side with her partner, Ignacio Mattos (the chef behind red-hot eateries Estela, Altro Paradiso, and Lodi), and baby son, Paz, translates culinary narratives into visually arresting, often-edible masterpieces. The rap star Drake dubbed her “the Björk of food.” She has collaborated with brands like Prada, Gucci (she did a capsule collection with Gucci Vault), Hermès, Simone Rocha, Sotheby’s, and Perrier-Jouët, to name a handful. At the launch of Gohar World—a surrealistic tableware line founded in 2022 with her sister, Nadia—white doves were released into the sky above Rockefeller Center for guests like photographer Gray Sorrenti, artist Chloe Wise, and DJs Mark Ronson and Mia Moretti.
“The rap star Drake dubbed her the Björk of food”
That same year, Gohar’s sculptural food fixation led to collaborations with the Danish design company Hay and the fragrance brand Byredo. Gohar also writes a regular column, “How to Host It,” for the Financial Times. Her Instagram account “lailacooks” has almost 300,000 followers. A downtown style icon, she was cast in a campaign for Tiffany & Co. “I always love people who are artists and don’t fit in boxes,” says Kim Hastreiter, the author and cofounder of Paper magazine, who met Gohar years ago and began cohosting dinner parties with her. “My favorite thing she ever did was transport a thousand-pound mortadella from Italy to Paris for a fancy party at Galeries Lafayette. It was so big she made them hire a crane to get in the building. Bologna for the rich!”
For her latest project, Gohar has teamed up with the Luxury Collection for a series of candles and cakes that reflect the essence of destinations like Kyoto, Seville, and Istanbul. “Laila’s innovative take on culinary art and ability to transform everyday objects into statement-making pieces makes her the ideal embodiment of the Global Explorer program,” says Philipp Weghmann of the Luxury Collection. “The latest iteration of our long-term partnership with Laila not only highlights her creative talents but also underscores our commitment to thoughtful epicurean experiences.”
“My favorite thing she ever did was transport a thousand-pound mortadella from Italy to Paris for a fancy party at Galeries Lafayette. It was so big she made them hire a crane to get in the building. Bologna for the rich!” – Kim Hastreiter
“Food has always been at the center of my practice,” Gohar tells Avenue. “But with this collection, I wanted to explore what it means to preserve a memory or a flavor through a different medium.” The collection features candles that mimic the shape of layered cakes, each inspired by the local textures, flavors, and cultural histories of Luxury Collection properties. Accompanying these are desserts—actual cakes—crafted in collaboration with the pastry chefs of the hotels, translating Gohar’s designs into edible works of art. Marie Antoinette and Willy Wonka would be in heaven.
A constant globe-trotter, Gohar is well-versed in adapting her vision to the nuances of varied locales.“Several of the cities I knew very well, but for others, I spoke to the properties themselves,” she explains. “Rather than just focusing on my own experience, I wanted to understand what ingredients, flavors, architecture, and landmarks resonated with them. This provided me with a strong starting point for creating the overall collection.”
The resulting candles are sculptural tributes to their destinations. Istanbul, a city Gohar has a special connection with, is captured through the opulence of its Ottoman-era desserts, with candle molds echoing the architecture of the 500-year-old Zeyrek Çinili Hamam.
“My mom is half Turkish and lives in Istanbul, so the city is very close to my heart,” Gohar says. “Istanbul is a hub of creative energy and stunning architecture, and Sanasaryan Han, a Luxury Collection hotel in Istanbul, is no different. The property is in one of the oldest parts of the city that is culturally rich and inspiring.”
While the candles offer a visual and olfactory representation of each city, the cakes are tactile and edible embodiments of Gohar’s designs. Collaborating with pastry chefs was pivotal. “Getting the input of the pastry teams was my first step,” Gohar notes. “They know their cities best and could speak to local ingredients and flavors. The cakes needed to be inviting in both taste and design whilst also telling a story.”
“Traveling to different places is amazing, as it can bring you into contact with local traditions and truly be able to collaborate with the manufacturers. Honoring the past, but by creating something new.” – Laila Gohar
One of Gohar’s defining traits as an artist is her ability to honor tradition while creating something entirely fresh. Her work with Gohar World often involves collaborations with artisans to spotlight generational craftsmanship. “With Gohar World, we work with a network of artisanal manufacturers, helping to shine a light on practices that have often been developed over the course of generations,” she explains. “Traveling to different places is amazing, as it can bring you into contact with local traditions and truly be able to collaborate with the manufacturers. Honoring the past, but by creating something new.”
The interplay between Gohar’s personal history and her creative work lends an authenticity to her projects. Born and raised in Cairo, she credits her upbringing for a deep appreciation of craft and ritual. “I grew up in Cairo watching my grandmother design and sew,” Gohar recalls. “It’s where my appreciation for craftsmanship started. Food was a ritual too. We always ate as a group, and my dad would experiment with flavors and colors, so the foundations were there from quite an early age.”
This background informs her global projects, where she carefully navigates the balance between personal vision and cultural sensitivity. “By truly exploring, trying new foods, and going to places that feel more authentic to the kind of places that the local population would go to, you can achieve authenticity,” Gohar says.
The cakes and candles are more than mere objects; they are invitations to explore the wild world of Gohar. “There is no deep message,” she confesses with characteristic modesty. “The project was a fun way to showcase the individuality of each property, but to do it in cake form, because who doesn’t like cake?”
And yet, the collection does deliver a message—albeit subtly. It highlights the interconnectedness of art, food, and travel, encouraging guests to savor the essence of a place through multiple senses.
The boundaries between culinary artistry and design continue to blur and Gohar sees a bright future for her unique, interdisciplinary approach. “Food is universal, as is the positive experience of eating or experiencing something together,” she says. “I imagine it’ll continue to grow.”
And grow it will, as Gohar hints at upcoming projects. “We’re always in discussion for what comes next, but on my personal list, I’d like to head East: Thailand, Cambodia, or Vietnam would be amazing destinations to explore.”
For now, her collaboration with the Luxury Collection stands as a testament to her ability to merge global narratives with functional (and delicious) art. Whether through the flicker of a candle or the taste of a cake, Gohar invites us to see—and savor—the world anew.
