Food Design & Culture

a blog for the Food Design & Culture class at TUDelft (with A. van Boeijen)

Food Design and Society 2011 is on the launchpad...

The course starts next week, but I can already tease your appetite with these delicious mici from Romania

 

 

(people who describe them as small skinless sausages don't quite get the poetic value of a hot mic with bread, mustard and a cold beer) and one interesting new link for thinking about food.

It is Seasoned Advice, an online community where cooks and chefs discuss techniques. It is also interesting as a good model of a community website with understandable voting and reputation management.

See you next week!

--Walter and Annemiek

 

National flag dishes

For the promotion of the 2009 Sydney International Food Festival, they prepared several dishes of national flags with the ingredients that are known to come from those countries. I tried looking for some more information about the dishes but information is scarce, but I believe the majority of the ingredients are self-explanatory for those with some basic food knowledge. So have fun with the visuals!

Enjoy,
Robert!

 

Italy:

 South Korea:

Spain:

 

Japan:

Lebanon:

 

Greece:

India:

Australia:

France:

Brazil:

Switzerland:

Vietnam:

Yz - The new agar agar Ice Cubes

In this third assignment we were asked to design a new product with the material 'agar agar'. Experiencing its characteristics we needed to come up with a product that fitted the material.

As an inspiration we used the fact that the material is transparent and related to other transparant products, in our case ice cubes. Since ice cubes have an aesthetic value as well as a functional one we wanted to implement both, except for the fact ice cubes melt and the aesthetic value is not visible any more. 

Our inspiration:

 
During the process we wanted to use the agar agar as ice cubes and implement different other components to see what could be turned into this special agar agar ice cube and what not. In the process we discovered not everything could be turned into agar agar, it was a process of creativity, waiting, laughing, waiting some more and checking the results after they had been put in the fridge for a while. 
 
The artists at work:
 
After developing some knowledge about the material and experiencing with it we came up with the final product: Yz! The new ice cubes that give aesthetic value to your drink and do not melt away when you enjoy your drink. 
 

 
The mint leaves in the agar agar give a fresh sense to your drink and this remains that way because the cubes don't melt like normal ice cubes would! The new special exclusive look for your drink.
 
 
Next to mint leaves we also tried to use lemon parts in the agar agar to be able to represent some aspects in a mojito, however the agar agar did not stick to the skin of the lemon, so only the flesh was embedded in the agar agar, showing a different sight. 
 
 
From now on everybody can enjoy their Yz in their drink without spoiling it with a watery flavour and remain the aesthetic value of the ice cubes.
 
Enjoy! 
Robert, Jie, Nick, David, Nelline & Xeï
 


 

You lazy, cheap, unhealthy students!

We are students, always in a rush, worse than "real" workers.

Bike from Tu to the central station delft, train to rotterdam central, grab your bike, cycle to veelzigt, lock your bike, open the door, climb typical dutch stairs, get into the kitchen, open the fridge....

NOTHING..

Problem that probably in Italy I would have solved with a Pizza from "Pizzeria la golosa", a few minutes, good tasting, no stress..

It doesn't work so well here, maybe I'm too picky, but my stomach cannot afford a Domino's pizza..

Then again, bike, Albert Hein, lock, and then a lot of creativity..

Walking around the shelves in the supermarket, bio, non bio, euroshopper, pasta, meat, vegetables....in the end just confusion..

We need rules..a sort of credo, deciding to be picky, reading labels for hours, produced here, there, E119, colorants..

" Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food." 

that's what Michael Pollan suggests in his book Food Rules .

A book full of irony, that I suggest to everybody who sometimes, like me, thinks that being picky on food is good for body and brain.

Of course the rules proposed are a lot "dedicated" to Americans, with their problems with glucose and fats, but it is still a good example to take in consideration.

"Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure" 

 ciao ciao

 Stefano 

The transformation of the gravy spoon

During assignment 2, tools, our team explored several tools which are used in kitchens in different cultures.

Since we had teammembers from Taiwan, Italy and Holland we looked in to that three cultures, with the following results:

 
 
 
After discussing the different tools we decided to develop the gravy spoon, for it is a really funny way to play with your food, managing the water in Dutch culture matches the managing of the gravy on your plate. We wanted to place this tool and the purpose of it into another context and therefore decided to use it in the Italian culture where people like to mix their coffee and ice cream into a delicious 'Affogato'
 
 
In order to change the Dutch gravy spoon into the new design we researched the Dutch cultural dimensions and symbols to get into the aspects of the gravy spoon, why and how it is used and shaped the way it is. 
 
 
 
To complete this we compared the Dutch and Italian cultural dimensions to become aware of differences and similarities, so we would know how to develop the concept. 
 
 
 
We decided to change the big and rough gravy spoon into a delicate and gentile one since this fits the Italian culture the best. 
 
The outcome of the project is developed in a prototype which shows in a few pictures how are new concept would work, so everybody can enjoy their coffee and ice cream together in a delicate way form now on.
 
Kind regards, Yaya (Yin-Chih), Palma, Sasha and Xeï
 
 

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