KMRA’s Forrest Wright on Roots, Storytelling Menus & Reclaiming Taste

In an era when dining trends chase virality and algorithms dictate what’s “hot,” Chef Forrest Wright’s KMRA Tasting Club stands apart. What began as private dinners among friends in Kansas City has evolved into a bi-coastal, story-driven collective staging immersive multi-course experiences in New York and beyond. Limited seats, rotating venues, thematic menus, and a focus on community over content define the project. Wright recently shared the personal and philosophical foundations of KMRA ahead of its next season.

The name “KMRA” draws directly from the Chimera of Greek mythology—the hybrid creature of disparate parts fused into one powerful whole. “It came from Chimera… it’s like two halves made into a whole,” Wright explained. “And that’s always represented me—like being from two different worlds, so to speak. Both influence how I work and create.” That duality—memory and invention, roots and experimentation, intimacy and theatricality—runs through every plate and pairing.

Wright insists KMRA is never just dinner. It is storytelling, community, and culture built course by course. Inspiration arrives organically: “It’ll come from some random inspiration, whatever story I feel I need to tell.” Past menus have explored identity and history. The recurring Lengua / Lenguaje series, for instance, delves into roots and decolonization. The forthcoming Death of Taste centers on reclaiming uniqueness and individuality through expression. “I find the best way to express those ideas is through food and drink, because that’s my love language,” he said.

The room itself becomes part of the narrative. Strangers gather around a shared theme, lower their guards, and often leave as friends. “The whole stage is set to being strangers together over a common theme, break bread, make friends—and it’s always magic. People really make this happen.” Guests experience eight to ten courses with pairings, artful plating that can evoke abstract expressionism, and interactive elements that turn the meal into a collective performance

Wright has framed the upcoming season as “a thesis.” Its central argument confronts the fatigue many artists feel in an over-produced, social-media-saturated industry. “I’ve had a lot of conversations about how all of us artists are tired of being slaves to the algorithm,” he said. “What I hope to explore in this next season’s thesis is reclaiming what it is that we do and why. Making room for uniqueness, for special niches, for everything we love and enjoy—not what’s on trend and popular.”

That thesis opens with Death of Taste on September 19: an eight-course experience with pairings that prioritizes curation over algorithms, discernment over consumption, and craft over mass production. Subsequent events continue the inquiry—Noir in October (an all-female collaboration with couture, chrome, film-noir, and Afropunk energy, debuting in New York), Ugli in November (celebrating brutalism, asymmetry, the handmade, and the imperfect), and a December closer steeped in grandiosity, mythology, and maximalism.

Why lead with this particular idea? “I feel it’s a message that needs to be said,” Wright noted. “And as I have conversations with others around it, I definitely feel it resonates.”

In a landscape crowded with polished, algorithm-friendly content, KMRA offers something rarer: food as personal language, dinners as temporary communities, and menus that refuse to flatten individuality.

Follow @kmra.tasting.club on Instagram for catalog drops, early booking windows, and the next chance to take a seat at the table. Limited seats move quickly exactly as intended. Contact: booking@kmratastingclub.com