ARCHIVE: February 2010

When Food becomes Experience

February 21, 2010, 4.45 p.m.

From the book Eat Love

Seeing, smelling, tasting, and consciously experiencing all this – that’s what Eating Design is meant to be about, according to Volgenzang. Becoming conscious is an important term. With every project a deeper meaning or poetic story can be discerned, packaged inn a sober aesthetic and placed in a ritual that matches the story. It is this approach to food that distinguishes her from the culinary chefs who are usually only concern with the creating gastronomical tours the force that are then presented on lavishly decorated plates and tables. “Cooking is very popular, it’s unbelievable how many new cookery books are being published and you see famous cooks working every day on television. I hardly ever watch these programs since I’m not a cook and it’s not my aim to be even more culinary than, say, Delia Smith”. (Pag 57)

While the difference from both chefs and the regular catering circuit is clear, there is also an important difference from Food Designers. “I was not the first designer to de involved with food. But I soon noticed that most designers were almost exclusively concentrating on the presentation, the styling of the food. The aesthetic aspect is very important, I think – as far as that goes I’m a real designer. But it has to do more than that. You can see that in the photographs which in the end are the only themes that remain of all these short-lived projects. The photographs show that I design not only the food but also the experience that goes with it, the action.
Eating is a more active concept, a verb. You could say I am concerned with everything that plays an active role when it comes to food. Growing, harvesting, washing, cutting, preparing, tempting, serving, eating… the profession was in its infancy when I began and this gave me a lot of freedom to develop my idea”.  Ilse Crawford, English magazine editor and design consultant: “Food inevitably affects the taste buds. But Marije’s food projects affect your hole being, even on a subliminal level. She creates total experiences. What’s more, she is a great person to work with and that’s visible in the end result.” (Pag 73)

Vogelzang, M. (2008.) Eat Love. Amsterdam: Bis Publishers.