Alex Braden doesn’t just want to cook you an excellent dish; he wants to create an immersive, memorable dining experience that plays on all your senses. The sound artist, musician and chef debuted his pop-up, Nothing Sacred, in 2023, and the fledgling concept has become one of the most innovative, boundary-pushing culinary experiences in the city.
The intersection of food and art has been a throughline for most of Braden’s adult life. While working as a sound artist in Washington, D.C., he gained experience in the restaurant industry and developed his culinary skills. Braden’s love for hospitality followed him when he moved to St. Louis to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree at Washington University in St. Louis. Whenever his artist friends opened shows or galleries, Braden provided the catering. “We were trying to do super high-end stuff for free,” he says. “The gallery would pay me, but I liked the idea of suspending the barrier to entry – that anybody could show up and eat what I consider to be pretty good food and not have to pay for it.”
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Over time, those catering experiences morphed into Nothing Sacred, a pop-up that hosts events that blend food and music. One of Braden’s all-time favorite events was a fundraising dinner at The Luminary. “We had a seven-course meal that I cooked on-site in a back alley of Cherokee Street,” Braden says. “Every course was paired with its own sound experience. I had installed speakers beneath the table and then speakers in the rafters.” Every time a new course came out, the sound began at the table and then shifted up above by its conclusion. Braden sourced almost all the ingredients from within the St. Louis area and nearby farms, which is also where he recorded material for the dinner’s sound art component. “I went out there and recorded all sorts of ambiance and other sounds and used that to create this semi-musical sound accompaniment,” he says.
As an auditory artist in a field dominated by visual mediums, Braden says he identifies with cooking because it requires the use of senses beyond sight. “In a sight-dominated world, it is important … to take time to focus on the other parts of our bodies that receive information and that interact with the world,” he says. Just as Braden’s artistic work encourages us to focus on hearing, his culinary work invites us to put aside the barrage of constant visuals and focus on smell, taste and touch.
Braden embraces cooking methods and event spaces that go beyond the classic restaurant setting. Rather than offering dishes à la carte, he prefers ticketed, all-inclusive events where he’s the conductor. “When I’m putting together an evening, I don’t just want to play a song, I want to put on a performance,” he says. Braden has come to embrace the potential for adaptation that comes with working in spaces like art galleries. “More often than not, I’m in the back alley by myself, roasting something over a basin of coals I brought with me,” he says. “I really enjoy the improvisation and the performance and the mania that come with these nontraditional spaces and ways of presenting.”
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The name Nothing Sacred comes from Braden’s willingness to question authority and norms. “I want to treat food, traditions and communities with as much respect as possible,” Braden says. “At the same time, I grew up in a super sheltered religious environment where I felt there was undue respect paid to certain traditions. Recovering from that, I have an attitude that’s fun-seeking and irreverent. I do really enjoy having a script that I can flip a bit.” Last year, for example, he held a pop-up at ‘ssippi the day before Thanksgiving that used all of the holiday’s classic ingredients (sweet potatoes, turkey, cranberries, etc.) prepared in unconventional ways. The menu included dishes like confit turkey, pickled stuffing vegetables, and cranberry-masa tartlets.
Braden says he aims to honor different cultures by collaborating with local chefs and artists. “I don’t have any sort of hubris about being able to teach myself how to cook the way that other people cook,” he says. For an event at The Royale, he worked with Sam Slone and Stan Chisholm (aka 18andCounting) to serve a kamayan, a traditional Filipino feast. He walks a line between acknowledging traditions while also refusing to see any culinary rule as etched in stone. “I can’t cook like people in other parts of the world, but I can research and be inspired by recipes and expose myself to processes and ingredients that I haven’t used before as a way of seeing what I can do,” Braden says.
Braden’s next goals include expanding the reach of Nothing Sacred. “I’m actually working on a couple of grants to try to expand this work,” Braden says. “Accessibility is important to me. I grew up pretty poor. The grants would give me a little bit of wiggle room so that I can make sure I get in front of people who might not necessarily be able to afford some of the more expensive spots in St. Louis.” Other plans include collaborating with friend, chef and fellow musician Daniel Gleason from the restaurant Sumac in Virginia. “I want to focus on really quality, unique, memorable, unprecedented ways of eating and being together.”
For updates, follow Braden on Instagram.
Nothing Sacred, alexanderbraden.com