“Table: What, How, and Why”
Shaping the sensory perception of food at the table for sustainable food system vision
Tableware serves as a connection between the food and the eater, which has an impact on sensory perception of food and eating behaviour. Expression reflected in the shape of tableware items both contributes to the sensory perception of food and creates space for learning – it coordinates eating behaviour in order to enhance mindful eating and focus on food choices and quantity. This experience during the eating process concerns not only the pleasures of eating, but also looking for broader implications of eating, which is a part of a sustainable food system vision that starts with the table and the choice of ‘what, how, and why’ we are eating.
The series of design objects aimed to create the sensory perception of food consists of seven different types of tableware accessories – serving dishes for water, berries, vegetables, eggs, seafood, meat and desserts.
Water
The concept of these dishes conveys the organic human movements of scooping water by hand from a natural water source. This dish set includes a bowl with a bottom relief that imitates water ripples and personal mugs that reproduce the shape of cupped human palms and recreate the sense of drinking from the palms.
Berries
Berry picking involves the picking and tasting of berries with fingers. The sense of touch is essential to this process. When the berries reach the table having already been picked, it is, unfortunately, lost. With the aim to recall this experience, this berry bowl was given sprouts that suggest fingers and the picking process. In addition, these shape fragments prevent the berries from collapsing due to the reduced risk of their friction.
VegetablesLife in the city provides for fewer opportunities to enjoy vegetables straight from their bed. To recreate this experience, this dish intimates the soil for crops. Its relief accommodates the vegetables according to their shape, thus creating an experience of removing the vegetables from the ground.
Eggs
Chicken eggs reach the table in cardboard boxes and it is likely that we forget the experience of collecting eggs. This egg dish evokes the sense of eating straight from the nest – a soft, warm, and naturally formed chicken den. The egg is bedded in this bowl that also has a place for the shells.
Chicken eggs reach the table in cardboard boxes and it is likely that we forget the experience of collecting eggs. This egg dish evokes the sense of eating straight from the nest – a soft, warm, and naturally formed chicken den. The egg is bedded in this bowl that also has a place for the shells.
Seafood
The seafood dish plays with water motifs – the current and the wave. The latter functions to hide the food scraps, whereby the fish bones and other waste are tucked away under the wave.
The seafood dish plays with water motifs – the current and the wave. The latter functions to hide the food scraps, whereby the fish bones and other waste are tucked away under the wave.
Meat
The contemporary eating culture continues to exhibit an excessive consumption of meat. In order to emphasise the importance of meat moderation, this dish encourages the eater to indulge in a small piece of meat as though it were a dessert. The experience of eating is enhanced by the texture of the dish that alludes to meat fibres, thus unearthing the metaphor of life by letting the meat juices flow between the folds of the dish.
The contemporary eating culture continues to exhibit an excessive consumption of meat. In order to emphasise the importance of meat moderation, this dish encourages the eater to indulge in a small piece of meat as though it were a dessert. The experience of eating is enhanced by the texture of the dish that alludes to meat fibres, thus unearthing the metaphor of life by letting the meat juices flow between the folds of the dish.
Dessert
This dish employs the sense of touch to try and evoke the sensation of a sweetie melting in between the fingers. This experience also suggests a further feeling of intertwining one’s fingers with those of someone else.
Awards:
GERAS DIZAINAS 2021 1st place
YOUNG DESIGNER PRIZE 2021