Mise en Place: Laura Comer conducts an approachable symphony of flavors for Kauffman Center

Photo Courtesy of Laura Comer

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is known far and wide for its structural iconography and world-class music performances. However, the restaurant and catering services inside can feel like an exclusive secret in their own right.

Executive Chef Laura Comer has an approachable menu of appetizers, mains, desserts, and cocktails for pre-show dining or a standalone dinner. You don’t have to have a ticket to a show to dine at the Kauffman Center Founders’ Lounge, but it is only open on show nights.

Another not-so-secret, but fabulous fact, is that Comer has music chops of her own…

The Pitch: Tell us about yourself.

Comer: My first degree was in music from the UMKC Conservatory, specifically as a voice major. Then, I went to Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Los Angeles because—just being honest with myself—I didn’t know that I could live a life without a steady paycheck.
The thing I loved doing the most was decorating cakes, which I taught myself to do when I was 16 at Dairy Queen. And I thought, I want to do this. So I went to culinary school with really no professional cooking background at all.

Photo Courtesy of Laura Comer

In what ways does your music background impact your work as a chef?

I think it helps in collaboration with a lot of the artists and event menus because sometimes we’ll theme our menu. Like with the Lyric Opera, the symphony, or ballet, it’s fun to give diners or donors in suites little nods to the show. I think having some knowledge, understanding, and also a lot of appreciation for that makes a difference.

What inspires your menu?

I lean super local and seasonal. That almost seems trite these days, because everybody’s saying that, but I think it’s important. I support that because we just know the food is better. Responsible purchasing is one thing, but also, we’re a big Kansas City landmark, so I think it’s important to feed Kansas City with Kansas City.

What can diners look forward to for the rest of 2024?

We kind of run like a school year, so we close in July and Aug. and start back in Sept. We reopen with the symphony and our late summer/fall menu through Nov.

When the holidays start, we will become a pop-up because those are so much fun. I love Christmas. We transform this place. We have a hot chocolate train for the kids—we’re one of the pop-ups that are very kid-friendly because of The Nutcracker.

Do you cook specialty meals for performers?

Photo Courtesy of Laura Comer

Yes, we do food and drink for all the artists, and then they always have riders. But whatever they want, we’ll get them. There’s rarely something completely insane, but we did have one that comes to mind.

For one person, they requested seven different meals at once. So I was running all over town—I had to get Thai food and Chinese food, and then we made a ton, like salmon and sweet potatoes. Nothing went together. Nothing made sense at all.

Tell us about your perfect day dining out and about in Kansas City.

I’m gonna go all local, because I think it’s important to shout out our people, right?

So a coffee at Hammerhand. And then for breakfast, The Farmhouse in River Market. For lunch—Well this may be shocking to hear from a chef, but I can’t eat three meals a day. So I have to go with a snack. Andres has beautiful stuff. Enchante is amazing too. For dinner, it would probably be Acre. I am just blown away by every dish that they make.

The Kauffman Center for Performing Arts Founders’ Lounge is located at 1601 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64108.