Industrial designers have been at it for years, churning out one evocative object after the other, made from dead materials. The turn has now come to objectify one of our primal needs for survival – namely food. In an attempt to find new aspects of traditional design – finished out of mostly dead materials – designers are turning to the beauty of naturally-shaped edibles to out-do each other as they incorporate an aesthetic dimension to what we eat. In a sense, the process reverses concrete and useful design into edible goods.
One of the most influential individuals of the concept of food design, Spaniard Martí Guixé quotes photographer Inga Knölke on what the concept is all about: “A food designer is somebody working with food, but with no idea of cooking.” Guixé understands food design as being a constitutive movement, as the opening-up of a field of action, displacing assumptions of gastronomy, such as eating together, as well as those of design. Who said food couldn’t be intellectual?
Marije Vogelzang, another food designer based in Amsterdam, takes a different stance on the subject as she calls herself an eating designer, finding inspiration in the origin of food and the preparation, etiquette, history and culture around it. British duo Bompas & Parr, the gastronomy world’s answer to Daft Punk, are another example of designers being extremely creative with what’s served on a plate, and they are just about to release their first book Tutti Frutti (pictured). Or why not check out the exhibition The Art of Food at Somerset House in London, where rock star chef Ferran Adrià gives a behind the scene of his lab/restaurant el Bulli (which closed in 2011).
In Sweden, the joint effort Atelier Food merges gastronomy with history, science, art and technical aspects, and as such forms a platform for experts within each field to come together to experiment their way to the future in food – new dishes and even new raw material. It is true that the latter is a somewhat scientific and archetypical Swedish way of approaching the subject of food design, but shows that even up here in the great north, food can be appreciated as something more than just a primal need. Created and funded by state-run Regeringskansliet, Kungliga Akademien and Tillväxtverket, Atelier Food arranges a series of so called “labs”, which are then “tested” on guests to the Atelier Food Servering at Konstakademien. We can’t wait to find out what a storm they are cooking up for us …
Words by Micha Van Dinther and Magnus Wittbjer
Photography: Nathan Pask
