[Design Indaba] Food, glorious food

A culinary feast is the only way to describe ’s presentation at Design Indaba yesterday.

Food or ‘eating-design’ as her design work is described in the official bio, is too simple a way to describe what she does. A food magician… a soothsayer… maybe. How she works with food to produce a culinary cornucopia of flavours, designs and food styles to address the senses of patrons at her Proef restaurant and specialist events, food installations, restaurant events and her own brand of ‘inspirator’ gatherings.

She studies food and how we consume it and treat it in various cultures. “The culinary definition of individuals is that we are all made from the same ingredients, made of the same material, but all came out of the oven differently!”

From adding to the ritual of funerals and food to allow people time to grieve, to matching food types and design to the star signs of patrons, and hosting dinner parties for strangers where food has to be bartered to make a meal, to where guests at a dinner party are striped of any pretense by seating them behind a floor to ceiling sheet with holes only for their heads to poke through.

She uses food to encourage socialisation, a celebration of life and a love of beauty. And she urges that we treat our food with respect, not the inhumane way we slaughter animals and treat our environment, harming our food sources.

It was a sumptuous presentation. Go to her blog for more of this unique approach to design, and of course, food… www.proefamsterdam.nl/proeflog/.