KITCHEN DISH AS AN EXPERIMENT

11 dishes and several types of beverages in the underground menu, all multiplied by 36 guests. It
makes hundreds of dishes and cutlery. Each of them is unique and refined to the last detail.
Making them is time­consuming. In the Food Think Tank two teams are working on them. One,
dealing with ceramics, Karina Marusińska and her students from the II Studio of Functional
Ceramics Design of Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw: Ewelina Birut, Katarzyna Mazurek,
Aleksandera Osowska, Patrycja Śliwińska. The second team, which deals with wood, “Be Wood”
– duo Karolina Zagrodnik and Bartosz Pelc ­ the first “child” of the FTT, which takes independent
steps in the gastronomy market.
Since mid­January, the few people work in duos with chefs responsible for each dish from the
final menu. Cooks want to show their best and express themselves through their dishes as much
as possible. Each of them imagines how to serve the food perfectly. Michał Czekajło, main chef in
the “Earth and Water,” says: “From now on, my ideas are not limited by some catalogue. I don’t
create, as it is usually done in restaurants, the menu to a ready plate. Now I can choose the best
ingredients and even emphasize their value by co­designing a plate, which will enhance their
qualities. This makes the whole picture where the taste is not tied to only one sense, it’s created
by a lot more stimuli. ”
We are trying in the actions of the Food Think Tank to free the co­design mentioned by Michał,
from the pressure of the imagination of our chefs. We assumed that the proportion of involvement
in the construction of the concept is 70 percent on the artist’s side. The process basis is their
knowledge of technology, experience and ability to predict the results of the solutions. And for the
value arising in the process of education, which is the primary goal FTT, should be considered:
the ability to ask questions, to understand the mindset of chefs and ease to present them the
opportunity of ceramics and wood.
At this point of our project activities, the traditional concept of taste, was put on the side. In the
language of the ceramics team and Be Wood it has a completely different meaning. The taste
here is determined by features such as dish size, color, texture, and above all the “manual” or the
conditions, when it is still in the kitchen, what happens to it on the way to the table and how it
should look like in front of the guests. Karina Marusińska says, translating process to her
language: “By using design tools, we try our best to meet the needs of chefs. On the other hand,
the nature of the activities of the FTT allows us to think of the dish as an experiment, something
phenomenal and functional for only a few hours, during one dinner. “.
Text: Agnieszka Szydziak; Picture: Agnieszka Szydziak, Jędrzej Stelmaszek (Grappastudio),
Krzysztof Orlowski (Studio 91)