The Iconoclast Dinner Experience (IDE) is not some old-fashioned supper club. It’s a series of events — either ticketed or by invitation — started by Lezli Levene Harvell in 2015. IDE events unite culinary professionals and enthusiasts in New York, Chicago, and beyond with a shared mission: to celebrate the contributions of people of color in food and beverage.
Welcome to the Iconoclast Dinner Experience, the coolest drinking and dining scene in the game right now.
Ashtin Berry holds court at Taste of the Iconoclast Dinner, a reception prior to a 2019 dinner in NYC.
Different chefs prepare each course of the annual Iconoclast Dinner. In 2019, it was held at the James Beard House in NYC.
Proceeds from IDE events benefit scholarships to Spelman College, a historically black college for women and Levene Harvell’s alma mater.
The intentionally intimate scale of the Iconoclast Dinner “encourages interaction,” Levene Harvell says.
Karl Franz Williams shakes things up at Impolite Conversations, IDE’s invitation-only event where professionals in food, film, fashion, and other industries have frank, open discussions.
Levene Harvell, center, says Impolite Conversation examines “food as it relates to the broader cultural landscape.”
In 2019, IDE debuted an event in Martha’s Vineyard dedicated to female chefs of color. It was the first of its kind — but certainly not the last from IDE.
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