Exquise Collaboration — Nomi Toirkens

↗ Social designer, food enthusiast, bitter reclaimer and researcher working at the intersection of food, ecology, and social practices. My work explores how sensory experiences (especially taste) can reconnect us to what has been bred out, forgotten, or overlooked. Through foraging, craft and collaboration I create tools, tastings and narratives to invite new ways of relating to food, the natural world and lost knowledge.

Exquise Collaboration

Apr 25 2024

Around this table...
we copy taste

In this culinary design project, participants engaged in a collaborative process that transcends conventional recipefollowing. We took inspiration from the concept of ‘cadavre exquis’ that fuses individual gestures into unexpected outcomes. Participants became the ingredients, leaving their personal marks and identity on the culinary collage. Together they contribute to the creation of a unique dish by imagining one single step of its conception and stepping away from the guidance of the recipe.

How do we respond to a collaborative cooking method that differs from the efficient recipe model that achieves a predetermined culinary result? How can we make food personal again? And how to regain the connection with what we eat?

A taste of these collaborative dishes was proposed throughout the event, which are also documented in the format of recipes, showcasing the combination of individuals rather than the ingredients.

In collaboration with Elna Aurand and Violeta Perez and as part of the Social Design Symposium ‘Around This Table...’ in Koelhuis, Eindhoven.

collaborative cooking, food design, conceptual cooking, community building

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