“Meals are extremely significant moments in forming a family’s values.”
Design also applies to packaging. And some dishes are actually set on the table in their packaging. Design also has its say in shaping kitchen utensils (a topic discussed at length by Morgane Bily in one of the chapters of her thesis). Design cannot go without studying gestures, atmospheres and lighting (candles, chandeliers etc.), for instance. We could even talk of acoustic design, as sound is crucial to the feel of a restaurant. The territories treaded upon by design are therefore infinite. Contemporary design agencies have adopted multidirectional and even multimodal and holistic approaches to creation that encompass all dimensions (political, social and so on). Though she did not explore all those dimensions, Morgane still managed to produce a cross-disciplinary project by creating unity between the objects – their function, gestures and spaces – and the overall meal-sharing scenario. Moreover, I appreciated the unity between style and content in her work. Her slides are, for the most part, colored with actual food colors such as pistachio, raspberry and cappuccino. Right from the first page, readers are plunged into the world of food. This student is blessed with a great sensitivity in designing form, color and words. After making food design into a central, isotopic theme she managed to handle an exhaustive range of styles and modes while creating a tasty and professional-looking project.
CADI: It is perhaps in this multimodal dimension of the experience that design and the art of eating really come together.
J.J.B: Absolutely. If Morgane had restricted herself to the mere material dimension – the objects – her scope of action would have been limited and quite elitist. Today design also lies in gestures. Morgane created a section called “amuse-bouche” (finger food), which takes readers right to the heart of the matter while echoing cultural conceptions related to the French aperitif tradition. Just look around and you’ll see that design is gradually invading the field of aperitif finger-food via new shapes – small snacks – but also by taking into consideration the notion of gesture. Today your food can be swallowed, pecked, licked, dipped, sucked, sucked up, and so on. There is a whole panel of rules governing body language which can be categorized into sensuous, functional or playful modes. The same kind of panel also prevails in the world of haute cuisine. You just have to look at the work of celebrity chefs to realize that everything that happens prior to the meal itself serves to arouse sensations which foreshadow those that guests should feel during the meal. Seen in this light, the aperitif is a wonderland of discovery in terms of new flavors and design trends, and everyone can do his/her own bit with what he/she has. Design does not just belong to the happy few.
CADI: How would you define the word “design”?
J.J.B: If I were to define design as applied to my field of activity I’d say it is the art of shaping the relationship between users, food-related symbols and space. When using the word “shaping” I am referring to the shape of objects, gestures, relationships and space, which echoes the multimodal and multidirectional dimension of design.
In my field, we increasingly refer to the “ecological approach”, which involves trying to put oneself in the mind of the consumer and taking every last detail into account (including sounds, shapes, gestures and objects). As soon as I step into an environment, I realize that everything has an impact upon the overall receptiveness to food-related symbolism. However, the real change lies in people’s growing receptiveness to all these signs. Indeed, the quest for meaning is now felt in all social layers whereas it used to be a privilege solely granted to the bourgeoisie. However the bourgeoisie soon got bogged down with rigid codes. Having taken gastronomy to new heights, the upper middle classes then closed in upon themselves, wrapping themselves up in a social and cultural straightjacket, with their own set of rules and codes. Today gastronomy seems to keep on reinventing itself. The food-related signs and the related panel of rules are now becoming freer, more emancipated and rich. Meals now range from pot-luck dinners to very normative and sophisticated gourmet meals with family roast dinners, brunches and toasted sandwiches coming somewhere in-between. Back in the days, upper middle classes did not have such a wide and eclectic range of choices, they would simply eat over and over the same traditional meals prepared for them by their maid.
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