As the sun climbs up toward the windows of chef Dennis Foy’s Lawrenceville art studio, it fills the space with a honeyed light. Brush in hand, the chef mixes colors and then turns his attention to the line between land and sky. When he is not at d’floret, the 24-seat Lambertville restaurant he owns with wife and business partner Estella Quiñones-Foy, you can often find him here. Writers like to draw neat lines between every aspect of a chef ’s life and the kitchen. Foy resists such easy characterizations. “People get caught up in the dichotomy between cooking and painting,” he says, pausing to showcase a study for an oil painting. “For me, cooking and painting have the same sensibility of expression, but cooking is collaborative. With painting, it’s very singular.”
Image by Zoe Schaeffer
Jenn Hall 