Dishing out designs

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The idea of ‘dressing up’ food has been in vogue for quite sometime. But how about ‘eating design’? If you are wondering what that could be, surely you haven’t checked out the works of Dutch designer Marije Vogelzang.
Trained as an industrial product designer in late 90s, Marije chose to work with food as her raw material and the kitchen became her workshop. “I found out that food is a fantastic material for me to work with, and the emotional importance of food wasn’t at that point being explored by designers,” Vogelzang says. She was in the city to innovate and design at The Park hotel.
Marije’s designs focus around the verb ‘to eat’ and she is inspired by the origin of food, preparation, etiquette, history and culture around it. “Food goes to the stomach, but it can also activate the brain and can arouse strong memories and emotions,” she puts forth. As a student of design, she started experimenting with food and her first innovation was a whole white funeral dinner made with naturally white food items like cheese, papad, rice, cauliflower and other such food items.
In Vogelzang’s hands, food becomes something avant-garde and strange, but also deeply intimate and familiar. She stages workshops, eating experiences and interactive performances.
So how does she work on the designs? “I’m not a chef. So basically I am more of an idea-maker. I like the idea that food is ephemeral and will disintegrate shortly after producing it,” she explains.
Vogelzang has often worked with marginalised populations, like gypsy women, trying to bring dignity to their food experiences. A few years ago, she revived a group of recipes from World War II and fed them to people who had survived difficult winter in 1940s Rotterdam. “In this case, it had to be authentic, so that the dish stimulated their memories of situations, of their mother or siblings from more than 60 years ago.”
On being asked about whether her designs are meant to be eaten, she responds, “My design would not be finished if it wasn’t eaten in the end. And the person eating it is part of the experience.”
She also does unconventional food packaging, such as creating imaginary animals as part of a development of vegan products with the texture of meat.
She adds taste is equally important for her. “No one will eat if it doesn’t taste good. People put my designs into their body. I want to see what it does to them,” she winks.