Venue: The Historic Alfred I. DuPont Building, Miami
Partners: Thierry Isambert Culinary & Event Design, Roxanne Bellamy & Co., Petal Productions
When Miami’s event community gathers to open the season, expectations run high. For The Veil of Light, hosted inside the former bank’s storied halls, the goal was clear: craft a showcase that felt like a museum opening. Our team at Thierry Isambert Culinary and Event Design, recognized among the best catering companies in Miami, designed and produced an immersive evening that moved guests, literally and emotionally, through a curated narrative of cuisine, design, and performance.
A Two-Part Experience
Part I: The Vault Dinner (50 VIPs)
Guests were escorted into the building’s original bank vault for a private, 50-person experiential dinner. The setting was deliberately intimate and a touch subversive, history and modernity sharing the same table. Transparent chargers, deep merlot linens, and mirrored surfaces amplified a golden lightscape, while glass cloches dotted the table like mini vitrines.
Part II: Reception & Live Kitchen
The doors then opened to a larger reception where passed hors d’oeuvres circled the room, a live kitchen station offered a behind-the-scenes view of plating and technique, and a museum-style dessert display invited guests to “tour” sweet compositions as if they were objets d’art. Mixologists layered the theme into the cocktail program with sculptural garnishes and jewel-tone pours. A custom stage and dance floor, etched with an all-seeing eye motif, pulled the evening toward performance and play.
Design Language: From Cabinets of Curiosity to Objet Trouvé
The creative direction, led by Aline Isambert, Director of Sales & Design at Thierry Isambert Culinary and Event Design, drew on the early “cabinet of curiosities,” Renaissance-era collections that mixed natural specimens with crafted objects, blurring the lines between science, art, and wonder. That spirit of structured chaos informed the table studies: glass domes displaying feathers, shells, butterflies, and small figurines; branches and botanicals punctuating the line; and playful stone-and-vegetable stacks that felt both organic and intentionally composed.
From there, the narrative flowed toward Surrealism’s “ready mades” and Marcel Duchamp’s “objet trouvé” with everyday items reframed as art through placement and context. Culinary pieces echoed that idea with textures and shapes elevated, plated on pedestal dishes and pure white risers to invite closer looking. The fashion-inflected edge, think Schiaparelli’s bold surrealist vocabulary of eyes, gold, and illusions, appeared in the gilded “eye” iconography across the LED, staging, and the mirrored dance floor. For those who know, the references were unmistakable.
A Story Told in Courses
We designed the menu as an exhibition in three acts, reflecting the artistry that defines luxury catering in Miami:
Act I: Discovery
Bite-size compositions arrived on pedestal plates - crisp, matte, glossy, and aerated. Contrasts meant to be seen before they were tasted. Ingredients remained intentionally minimal on the page (and in this post), our signature approach that preserves surprise while letting craftsmanship speak.
Act II: Process Revealed
At the live station, chefs worked in full view: piping, torching, dusting, and finishing. Guests watched components transform, another nod to the museum back-of-house, where conservation and creation live side by side.
Act III: The Sweet Gallery
Desserts were displayed like artefacts: geometric jellies with translucent layers, delicate tarts with precise glazes, and a sculptural cake installation that became a photo magnet and a finale.
Program Highlights
Story-driven mixology with salt-gold rims, aromatic mists, and glassware chosen for silhouette.
Chef activation featuring in-view plating moments and dialogue with guests.
Cake installation conceived as a temporary artwork: high impact, ephemeral by design.
Music and movement on a custom eye-pattern dance floor, framed by LED visuals that extended the surrealist tableau.
Costumed performance that threaded the evening’s symbolism through choreography and couture-like styling.
Why It Worked
A Singular Concept: Executed end-to-end. From invitation language to the last plated bite, every touchpoint carried the same visual and narrative DNA.
Curatorial Restraint: The “cabinet” references could have gone maximalist; instead, we kept the edit tight and purposeful.
Participation Over Spectatorship: Guests didn’t just look at the experience, they entered it, walking the artwork, opening cloches with servers, watching chefs compose in real time.
Collaboration: This night was the product of true collaboration between Thierry Isambert Culinary and Event Design, The Historic Alfred I. DuPont Building, Roxanne Bellamy & Co., and Petal Productions, each partner bringing precision and imagination. As a collective, we transformed one of the top Miami event venues into a living gallery of food, fashion, and light. The evening was an unforgettable example of Miami event design and production.
Thierry Isambert’s Contributions
Storytelling culinary production
Mixology cocktail experience
Cake installation design & execution
Chef activation and live kitchen
Table set design and prop curation
Creative / art consulting
Staff coordination and registration management
Result: A full-house showcase that sparked conversation, inspired future briefs, and, most importantly, reminded our industry why Miami luxury catering remains one of the most powerful storytelling mediums. The Veil of Light illuminated the season ahead and reinforced Thierry Isambert’s place as a leader in catering for corporate events in Miami and luxury private events across South Florida.
