Imagine an evening where the food you eat is part of an art performance. An evening packed with colours, fairytales and random acts of love. Welcome to the world of Nathalie Stiphout. Welcome to the Art of Sushi.

Based in Amsterdam, artist Nathalie has developed her unique performances into an experience for your taste-buds and your soul. ‘The Art of Purification’ is the name of her current performance (all in English) and Nathalie has traveled all over the Netherlands and even Denmark, arranging one-off nights for a wide variety of customers. ‘It’s really very mixed, very different. It could be 50 ladies from Den Haag all dressed in Chanel but then the next week a mixed group from an ad agency’ (She recently put on a performance for Amsterdam’s KesselsKramer).

The evening is based around a fairytale story written by Nathalie and the search for the elixir of life. It also features a menu of exquisite sushi. ‘Sushi was the obvious choice because it is so beautiful. It’s small colourful objects containing incredible detail. Plus it is something I trained in so I feel comfortable in preparing high-quality sushi (Nathalie used to run the sushi stall at the cult Amsterdam venue The Winston).

A typical evening can last up to 3 hours with the performance taking about 60 minutes and the rest filled with the food and sometimes a DJ to continue the mood. The performance itself is very sensual and expressive. Apart from the narrator, Nathalie is the only performer and she not only acts out the fairytale storyline but also interacts with each individual guest. Her amazing costumes are made by Thu Xuan To and Amsterdam artist/fashion designer Aico Dinkla.