And yet, there is unquestionably something unique – mythic, even – about Wolvesden nights. Their reputation for creativity and fun, the epic 10-plus courses, the lack of menus (Craig and his team prefer to improvise) only add to the legend. “The thing I like about supperclubs is that everything’s exposed,” Craig says. “I like the intensity and intimacy of the way it just happens in that moment. People come in with their guards down: they have no idea what they’re going to be eating, or who they’re going to be meeting.” Inspired by the multiculturalism and gastronomic creativity that thrives in today’s City of Angels, Craig is also surrounded by a barrage of talented chefs, citing contemporaries like Gary Menes, Michael Voltaggio, Jordan Kahn among his influences. “People,” as he puts it, “who are really good at what they do, have a good time doing it, and are helping to make L.A. a major food scene through the U.S. and the world.” While colour and impact are clearly vital for the young food creative, there’s also something more subtle going on beneath the Pollock-esque sprays of blood. On the one hand, there’s his dark sense of humour (“I did a dish that was built off my idea of Hollywood with little fake boobs in it, gold, botox lips, rose diamonds”). But then he also uses some of his dishes as a form of edible political commentary (‘Fuck B.P.’, with its seafood covered beneath a fake oil spill of squid ink doshi, is a great example). But whilst he is arguably an artist, a commentator and occasional social foil, at his root Craig remains a chef. “Granted I want my dishes to look good,” he admits. “But my focus is textures and flavours.” In the face of his intense aesthetic, it would be easy to presume a starkly modern, artificial approach to cooking. If anything, the opposite is in fact far truer. By sourcing their produce locally and seasonally through known producers, the Wolvesmouth team are touching on a more hyper-local movement too. “A lot of the stuff that we’re using, we go and pick it ourselves from the farm,” he agrees. “It connects you in a whole different way.”

I did a dish that was built off my idea of Hollywood with little fake boobs in it, gold and botox lips.

Plates sprayed in blood red jus, clumps of savagely torn cauliflower flesh scattered upon fields of edible snow – Craig Thornton has earned a kind of playful notoriety for his dark, playful dishes. For the chef and creator of the Wolvesden supperclub in L.A., cooking has always been a prominent aspect of his life. And part of that on-going fascination seems to be its value as a creative form. “To me,” he says, “food, music, painting – it all goes together. It all starts as a craft. You hone your skill and then after you’ve done that you’re able to elevate it to a level of art.” Look at (or indeed eat) some of Craig’s stunning dishes and ‘art’ would seem to be pretty much on the mark. Playing restaurant from an early age at his grandmother’s (“my moral compass,” as he calls her), something clicked 10 years ago and Craig decided to make the leap to professional cooking. He walked into a restaurant in Portland, Oregon in the middle of busy Friday night and offered to work for free. Needless to say he got the job (clearly), and went on to spend the next decade working his way through a slew of leading restaurants, learning, tasting and experiencing everything possible along the way (a well-travelled stint as personal chef for Nicolas Cage no doubt helped). And now, set-up in his L.A. apartment, the accumulation of all that knowledge is his supperclub, Wolvesden. There is a popular myth surrounding the Wolvesmouth and Wolvesden projects, of how, in a dream one night, Craig watched as his own body was torn apart by a pack of hungry wolves. It is here, the myth decrees, that the name of Wolvesmouth was borne. Craig is less sure… “I’ve heard so many different stories of how I came up with it,” he laughs. “But at the end of the day it was a case of thinking up something that rolled off the tongue, was grammatically incorrect, and I was just really into wolves at the time. I wanted something that sounded like a metal band. No dreams.” http://www.wolvesmouth.com