[quote] Then came something I personally dubbed the “Fear Factor portion” of the evening, as guests were challenged to graze on a round of chicken feet, or “sweet and sour talons,” and an inexplicably edible, fully intact tempura-fried fish skeleton, followed by the welcome relief of a mushroom dumpling chaser served on a half-smashed Derian platter. A “noxious gazpacho” helped reset the palate before we were presented with our entrée—a “steamy trash bag” filled with “jockstraps, maggots, and grasshoppers.” In reality, it was a piece of skate, which Hetnarski explained is often referred to as a “trash fish,” garnished with cannellini beans standing in for the maggots. But while the version we ate arrived safely bundled in parchment paper, the chef also gave us a demonstration of how he originally intended the dish to be served—sliced straight out of a pig’s bladder. Thankfully, before serving it, he realized that the stench was simply too overpowering and swapped out the organ meat for some harmless paper instead. After attacking all five senses, Hetnarski then finished off the meal with a cup of broken glass, i.e., candied fruits bathed in a sweet digestif. Waters compared the meal’s final mise-en-scène to something straight out of La Grande Bouffe, “that great movie where people ate themselves to death,” he said.
[quote] The bizarre affair was Waters’s attempt at outdoing last year’s auction prize, a visit to the “Dick Dock,” Provincetown’s public sex hot spot. He’s always loved the frisson of a high-low combination, explaining over the phone that, “One time, at the Provincetown Film Festival, we had an evening with [Serial Mom star] Kathleen Turner and myself that was black tie, and at the drive-in concession stand we served Champagne. So it was similar to that idea.” Plus, he added, it “just sounded good” and “I love the idea of being elegant in the dump.”