Hungry for Design: Shaping Creativity
What happens when you bring gastronomy and design together? Introducing a chef to a fashion designer or furniture maker can lead to interesting results. The video series Hungry for Design pairs top chefs with designers, which causes them to challenge each other to expose their working methods and to combine those methods into a surprising dish.
Self-proclaimed farmers Marina Toeters and Sabine Feron are soul sisters, but in a completely different profession. Marina is co-founder of Fashion Tech Farm and Sabine runs Phood Kitchen & Phood Farm: the world’s first aquaponic farm restaurant on the former Campina industrial site.
Marina designs clothes with heartbeat sensors and that correct your posture. Sabine pays attention to how her dishes can be consumed as freshly as possible, so that they make a maximum contribution to the consumer’s health. Both Marina and Sabine focus on ingredients. The origin of what they work with is important, they aim for minimal waste flows. The result of teaming up is a dish that is simple and applicable, like Marina’s fashion. But, like her clothing, it has a deeper layer and contributes to a better body. Sabine immediately knows what it should be: a bone broth with fermented, unripe grapes that taste like soup balls. Broth is easily digestible and one of the oldest foods we have.
Social designer Rocco Verdult holds an empty plate at eye level and turns it over carefully. He asks if you could present a dish as if it were a scale model, so that you can look at it from all sides. Chef Casimir Evens is immediately enthusiastic and responds affirmative. Broccoli can be a tree and all kinds of natural earthy structures can be imitated with mushrooms.
Casimir cooks at a great height in restaurant and sky bar VANE, on the top floor of the Groene Toren in Eindhoven. He sees the world from a considerable height every day. Rocco designs the gathering of people in everyday life: from a company event to a social project that connects neighbourhood residents.
Together, they design an edible landscape. They make asparagus beds from asparagus shoots and baba ganoush. They mimic the Dommel river with cream of purple winter carrots with black garlic. On the other side of the river, they make a forest with leek powder, young rocket shoots, porcini mushrooms, nameko mushrooms, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, slightly dried mushrooms and a crumble of hemp seeds and nettle.
Chef Adrian Zarzo Habraken’s restaurant – Zarzo – is a household name in Eindhoven with a Michelin star. His penchant for presentation makes him instantly triggered by the Spanish designer and compatriot Nacho Carbonell, who is known for his surrealistic works that help you escape reality. Both agree that food is about sharing: their Spanish backgrounds mean they are used to tapas and big pans of paella.
In the kitchen of Zarzo, the gentlemen get to work on a salty prawn cracker based on a cream of tapioca and chicken skin. Together they develop a plate on which the product hangs and can be shared with table companions.
Far beyond the standard
Debic loves to inspire professional hands. The mastery hands of food professionals to be exact. Our products are the tools they need to truly focus on what they do best: create amazing dishes. Implementing innovative techniques is something we strongly applaud and encourage. That’s why a project such as Hungry for Design gets us excited about food beyond the norm, the familiar. Debic celebrates and supports professional hands.
