On March 24, the team from Kiko collaborates with Lester Walker and Jon Gray to preview Gray’s forthcoming restaurant, Gourmega. The dinner explores Afro-Asiatic foodways and diasporic connections, bringing together Chang’s globally informed cooking and Walker’s framework of cultural exchange. It’s both a restaurant preview and a conversation about migration, memory, and flavor.
The following night, Houston’s TRUTH BBQ pairs with Bludorn for a cross-genre collaboration that brings Central Texas barbecue into conversation with French-influenced New American cooking. Pitmaster Leonard Botello IV’s meticulous live-fire approach meets Aaron Bludorn’s Gulf Coast sensibility, creating a menu that balances smoke, precision, and restraint.
On March 26, chef Nico López of Txula Steak joins Ryan Bartlow of Bartolo and Ernesto’s for a dinner rooted in Basque and asador traditions. Drawing on years spent cooking and studying in Spain, the chefs will build a menu shaped by aged beef, seafood, and live fire, paired with Spanish wines including Txakoli.
March 27 features an Eid al-Fitr celebration of Somali cuisine from chef Ifrah F. Ahmed and Top Chef Season 21 winner Danny Garcia. Timed to mark the end of Ramadan, the dinner centers on renewal, generosity, and communal dining. Ahmed, author of Soomaaliya: Food, Memory, and Migration, brings a deeply personal lens to Somali foodways, while Garcia contributes a contemporary perspective shaped by his own culinary trajectory in New York.
Concluding the March lineup is a one-night-only Vietnamese collaboration on March 31, pairing New York’s celebrated Mắm and Bánh Anh Em with Bánh by Lauren, a bakery semifinalist known for its pandan honeycomb cake. The chefs will progress from savory to sweet in a menu that reflects the balance of salty, sweet, sour, and spice at the heart of Vietnamese cooking.
Taken together, the March lineup reflects the way Platform has positioned itself within New York’s dining landscape: not as a traditional restaurant, but as a stage for collaboration and cultural exchange. By pairing chefs across regions, backgrounds, and styles, the series turns the show kitchen into a meeting ground—one where emerging restaurants are previewed, traditions are revisited, and new audiences are invited to the table.
All tickets are on sale at jamesbeard.org/platform
