Fashion Food

Images Courtesy De Culinaire Werkplaats | Thanks to Nicole Marnati.

Seas of Dutch, The City, spoons full of honesty, Surprise! Surprise, Red, are not titles of movies but some of the themes coming delleEating Inspirations, dinners-performance restaurant in Amsterdam Culinaire De Werkplaats, managed by the minds and hands diMarjolein Winjes, textile artist, designer and action researcher and designer Eric Meursing 3D and chefs. These days have opened their showroom where you could visit their collections edible, projects and buy delicatessen plant.

What led you to your current research?
De Culinaire Werkplaats is a mix between a design studio, a contemporary restaurant, a novel about food and design of the intersection between art and food to eat .. here are a few ingredients.
We specialize in dishes of the future where the component of meat and fish have little space. Vegetables, fruits and vegetables are our real stars. DCW has recently opened its doors to the public but the idea of the project is a bit before.

Going out to dinner, had become a frustrating experience, few vegetables and little fruit on the plates and little sensory experience. We want to change their lifestyle and make a research and experimentation on food that could satisfy our bodies and our curiosity. So we began to explore textures, colors, history and taste of food, chemistry, political and cultural aspects and techniques of cooking. Attualmente lavoriamo su tre pattern:

– The Black
– The edible paper
– The motto The food is equal to fashion what we eat / wear reveals our identity

Marjolein, said that “We’re shaking up the way people think about food.” It ‘a revolutionary intent? Or do you simply want to widen your client-type for a few hours his horizons about food and how it is used to feed?
Revolutionary is a very broad one. Our ambition is to inspire people enough to actually get them to change their habits about food: it is much more than “expand their horizons on food.”
We do not want to tell people how to live but to offer a personal experience presented in one of our dinners.
We like to touch people emotionally with our dishes. What we do is create new atmospheres and production of food compared to food design.

From the standpoint of the food and hospitality services branch of the De Culinaire Werkplaats is something quite revolutionary, in fact, we contacted a lot of companies who want our advice or support for new perspectives on how to eat ..

You could say, without wanting to not speak of a “trend” that the designers of the food in the Netherlands are all more focused on the act that food on a food processing as raw material. Do you think you qualify for this type of design philosophy? If so, think that this has to do somehow with your nationality?
We do not feel very similar to other Dutch food designer. We got in this field with a specific goal, and create food concepts and inspire people to eat more fruits and vegetables.
Take inspirational concepts as ’emotions’, ‘black’, ‘water’. We use these concepts to guide our creative approach, to find new flavors, shapes, textures, structures, and sometimes even new ways of eating. We use the restaurant to create a new food, so each month working on a new theme, which results in a so-called inspiration eat (5 dishes including 1 cocktail, 2 2 savory and sweet dishes).
Each month we start a new project, a new eat inspiration always starts from the dialogue with our guests. Who wants to stay to see how we work and what is the process of work.

Returning to the Dutch food design I would say that we feel more akin to Scandinavian design: less = more. While on the subject of food design, some designers claim that it is possible to design the food, which is already designed perfectly natural, but there can only eat like the design of the action. This is correct but if you define the concept in a very limited food. The rest of the food is a concept that includes the meal, more often than not, is a creation from the mind.

In recent years food has become one of the great protagonists of the design and culture in general. However, talk of “designer foods” still confuses many people, especially those not in the industry. More often than not, is mistaken for the manner in which a food is plated, which equates to conceive this discipline as a mere aesthetic act. Your work, which is to be much more radical and profound, is understood by the public who attended your workshop / studio / restaurant? Do you ever get frustrated?

We agree that ‘food design’ is a term that creates confusion. It ‘a fuzzy concept because a lot of disciplines are brought into play by pointing to different results (the design with the food, the design for the food, interior design for the space food, etc.). It does not matter if non-professionals do not understand the concept of food design, a lot of people ask me questions, and try to understand what we do. I never creates frustration, even if we are not even understood the questions and comments are always helpful to me. Sure, I get pretty sad when we meet people who consider a plate of meat a civil law and fail to open up to eat a different meal.

We are amazed about research “obsessive” (positively) by Marjolein on vegetable fibers. Many exhibitions have presented tissues, even clothes made from fibers of some edible plants, by obtaining results really innovative and interesting. How food and fashion are related? You have the ambition to bring these unique items in a market fashion elite, or are just pieces of art?

Our motto is: “Food Is Fashion”, what you eat and what you wear reveals our identity. It showcases who you are or who you want to be. Live, eat and cover are three basic needs of life of peoples. It is no longer survival, these three needs have changed due to the economic well-being but it is understanding who you are. These three elements have become a communication tool. Every bite and every piece of clothing says a lot about yourself. Food & Fashion have much in common. Marjolein is also a textile artist and it was natural to translate the dietary fiber in fashion and vice versa. We used our projects of paper plant to create real texture and fashion projects in which food, fashion and sustainability meet.

At this time we are able to do some tissue paper plant made with the sewing machine, maybe they are pieces of art that tell a story about food but it would be a good idea to create an outfit for Lady Gaga.