Creative Mornings KC

CreativeMornings Kansas City exists to foster a community that sees and values creativity in all of life. Their free monthly gatherings welcome a variety of people from different disciplines to celebrate the creative work being done in our community. Creativity in Kansas City has a great history and an encouraging future that should inspire and challenge us toward better things.

About the Speaker: 

Amante Domingo is the restless force behind Kansas City favorites The Russell, the Japanese “farmhouse” concept Noka, and the soon-to-debut champagne bistro Le Champion. Before wielding a chef’s knife, he honed a filmmaker’s eye as a commercial photographer, a background that now informs the dramatic, wood-fire theatrics of his open kitchens.

Raised on a 150-acre organic farm near St. Joseph, Missouri—harvesting produce and scrubbing dishes in his parents’ vegan café—Domingo learned to respect ingredients long before mastering technique. That origin story fuels the three-and-a-half-ton Argentine grill he welded for The Russell and the koshihikari rice he mills fresh each morning at Noka, letting Midwestern harvests collide with global craft.

For CreativeMornings KC and its global theme “PUNK,” Amante will unpack how ripping out drywall with his own hands, forging custom hearths, and championing “ugly” local produce amount to a culinary act of rebellion—proof that DIY grit and seasonal reverence can upend the fine-dining playbook as boldly as any power chord.