Art and food mixed at a dinner last Thursday at Engine 43, a private residence and social club in San Francisco’s Excelsior neighborhood, in the form of bricks served on a bed of hay.

Using small hammers, a group of about 40 diners smashed the bricks until the clay fell away to reveal a pouch of steamed hen-of-the-wood mushrooms. The dish, intended “to spark erotic dreams,” emanated earthy smells that were enhanced by a handcrafted perfume that had been placed on each person’s wrist.

The course was only one of many served up by Max La Rivière-Hedrick and Julio César Morales as part of “The Alchemy of Dreams,” an evening-length food performance that immersed the audience in the world of Remedios Varo, the surrealist artist who died in 1963 and was known for her playfulness, wit and intense engagement with dreams, science and the occult.

The piece was commissioned by the Frey Norris Contemporary and Modern gallery in San Francisco, where Varo’s work is on view through Feb. 25. The two artists have pulled off a handful of other special dinners, each with a different theme.

This invitation-only event, for an international mix of art lovers, collectors and Varo experts, took inspiration from the dinners that Varo and Leonora Carrington, her friend and fellow artist, held in Mexico City in the ’40s and ’50s. They were part of a circle of surrealist artists who emigrated to Mexico from Europe. She and Carrington entertained guests by serving fake caviar — tapioca colored with squid ink — to Russian diplomats, or inviting guests randomly from the phone book.

“They took nothing and made something out of it and it was fun,” said La Rivière-Hedrick, who lives at Engine 43.

The guests at Thursday night’s dinner entered a large, candle-lit dining room. They sat down to six courses of beautifully presented food paired with perfume, spell-imbued waters, music and conversation.

Each table featured a large candle with fruit arranged around it in a spiral pattern, a reference to Varo’s painting, “Still Life Reviving.” The menu appeared blank until “magical powders” were rubbed on it, revealing the text in a font designed especially for the event.

“They designed a whole experience,” said Tom Gruber, co-founder and head of design for Siri, the digital assistant integrated into the latest iPhone.

“The dinner was unexpected and out of normal waking narrative from the beginning to the end,” said Fariba Bogzaran, the founder of the dream-studies program at John F. Kennedy University.

Smashing the brick to get to the surprise of mushrooms gave diners a chance to experience a key theme of surrealism: breaching barriers.

“It’s not only an artistic style,” said Tere Arcq, an art historian and Varo expert. “Surrealism is a philosophy of life that has to do with freedom and breaking rules.”

 This article also appears in the Bay Area edition of The New York Times.