During the pandemic, more chefs experimented with cooking beyond the traditional kitchen. With more people roaming, more host venues appeared. The pop-up went mainstream. For ambitious cooks, a hype-generating circuit emerged, stretching from Chenin in Bangkok to Ivresse in Marseille. But gradually, these partnerships began to erode, with chefs accepting terrible financial deals for exposure, while venues “shuffled [them] like songs on a playlist”, to quote food writer Jenny Lau.