Christo and Jeanne-Claude didn't have a formal dining room: they had a moving sofra, that low, convivial table from the Balkans where you nibble several small dishes at once, transposed into a New York loft and nourished by their intertwined roots. Here you'll find a warm pastry to share (Bulgarian hot meze), a cold soup served in a bowl for summer days (the Balkan refresher), a hand-rolled sweetness for special occasions (Jeanne-Claude's Moroccan festive pastry), and the corner-counter drink from their Manhattan neighborhood. No starter-main-dessert: an assemblage, like an installation, where each piece dialogues with the others.

Lactobacillus bulgaricus, the emblematic ferment of Christo's native Bulgaria, runs through the entire table: it acidifies the yogurt in the cold soup, and salts and ages the sirene (brined sheep's milk cheese) in the pastry. It's the tangy, fermented note that connects the boy from Gabrovo to the artist in New York.