The art of cooking
Food is not just sustenance, but an important part of a nation’s culture, and chefs put a lot of thought and energy into both sourcing their ingredients and producing interesting, creative meals. We spoke to Professor Nicolaj van der Meulen about his work in exploring the aesthetic aspects of cooking and eating. A nation’s cuisine
is an important element of its culture, and chefs across the world devote a lot of energy to not only cooking interesting and tasty food, but also presenting it in an attractive way. Food in this sense is more than just sustenance, but a cultural and sensory experience, in other words a language without words. “One of the first ways in which we experience another culture is through its food. What do people eat there? Where can I get cook books to try and make these recipes myself, to enter into the world of another culture?” says Professor Nicolaj van der Meulen, co-director of the Institute of Aesthetic Practice and Theory at FHNW in Basel. These questions are at the heart of Professor van der Meulen’s work as Principal
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Investigator of a research project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation looking at cooking and eating as aesthetic practices. “We see that on the one hand a lot of artists and designers are interested in the field of cooking, and on the other hand a lot of chefs are adopting this attitude of seeing their profession as being artistic,” he outlines. “The project investigates new concepts of food and dining at the interface of art and cookery.”
Chefs and artists This manifests itself in different ways, including both a preoccupation among chefs with the appearance and presentation of food, and also an awareness of wider social and political concerns related to food. While
on one level food is of course essential to our daily lives, Professor van der Meulen says that the question of what we cook and how we cook it is also related to wider social issues. “Within our project we have observed that a lot of prominent topics, in politics, culture, and identity, are related to the topic of food,” he explains. Migrants to a new country tend to bring their own cuisine with them for example, and often fuse them with elements of the local cooking to develop new recipes, introducing new ideas into the food culture. “People come from other cultures to new countries and bring their food with them, This is often how we understand newcomers to our own country,” points out Professor van der Meulen.
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Image by Fiona Rahn Glühwein-Wurst
Cooking and Eating as aesthetic Practice One of the first ways in which we
experience another culture is through its food. What do people eat there? Where can I get cook books to try and make these recipes myself, to enter into the
world of another culture?
Cooking and Eating as aesthetic Practice. An explorative survey
Project Objectives
The food crisis which is being observed by social and cultural sciences coincides with a dissatisfaction that is found of consumers in Switzerland with their own diet and life choice and offering. At the same time cooking, nutrition and eating find a high media attention, since here significant questions of health, sustainability, leisure and social coexistence are being discussed. The project deals with the current points of contacts of art and cooking. It analyzes first, the relevant discourses and practices in terms of sustainability, pleasure and host culture. Secondly there will be an investigation on how chefs in Switzerland develop their knowledge and use of aesthetic practices of transformation, communication and scenography to reposition their field. In a bundling of these research fields there is going to be, thirdly, artistic-culinary models being developed as an alternative eating culture for exemplary areas.
Project Funding Many European cities have a vibrant restaurant scene, offering a wide variety of cuisine from across the world. Chefs like Rene Redzepi in Copenhagen and the Swiss chef Stefan Wiesner are well-known for their willingness to experiment with innovative cooking techniques and work with uncoventional ingredients, and their restaurants or locations are extremely popular. “People want to get a deeper experience of what the world is by tasting it,” stresses Professor van der Meulen. These chefs can be thought of in a way as artists, people who are concerned with aesthetic sensibilities and the world around them, something Professor van der Meulen and his colleagues in the project are exploring. “We want to understand the aesthetic and artistic aspects of their procedures and their method of cooking. We’re also looking at it the other way round – when artists begin to cook, how do they use food to express themselves? What do they want to express? What alternative ways of cooking, eating and food do they develop” he outlines. “Refering to regional historical food, for example, is the result of broader cultural development, driven not only by chefs or restaurant owners, but also by people who have a strong interest in cultural history and art and design practices.” The job of a chef is first and foremost to cook and plate interesting and tasty food, yet many chefs nowadays do not wish to be understood solely in these terms, but also as people who have a message beyond their craft, be it social, culinary, aesthetic or
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something else entirely. Some chefs for example are keen to address concerns around sustainability in their cooking, while at the same time giving diners an interesting and luxurious experience. “The idea of cooking meat from nose-to-tail, or cooking vegetables from root-to-leaf, is increasingly prominent. Many chefs are also keen to cook with ingredients from their own region,” points out Professor van der Meulen. What does seasonal and regional cooking exactly mean? Researchers in the project are collaborating with farmers, restaurants and chefs, including the famous Swiss chef Stefan Wiesner, who is known for his willingness to experiment. “Stefan has an archive containing a lot of tastes, spices, herbs and different woods. He
do they explore new ideas?” he says. To some extent this is a process of trial-and-error, but chefs like Stefan Wiesner also use their own intuition and knowledge, which often extends beyond their own profession. “Stefan Wiesner builds on the knowledge of the farming community and artists for example, then he looks to bring it all together,” continues Professor van der Meulen. “Notebooks - or sketches - play a very important role in that context. Before recipes are published, they are created by sketches, similar to an artist’s design process.” The quality of the food is clearly a major priority for restaurants, yet it’s not the only influence on an establishment’s popularity and commercial prospects, so researchers are
The idea of cooking
meat from nose-to-tail, or cooking vegetables from root-to-leaf, is increasingly prominent. Many chefs are also keen to cook with ingredients from their own region. also looks in the local area for new ingredients that he could cook,” says Professor van der Meulen. This openness is an important part of Stefan Wiesner’s appeal as a chef, yet he also has a great depth of knowledge about cooking and which flavours will work well together in a dish, which he brings to bear in his work. Professor van der Meulen and his colleagues in the project are exploring the approach chefs take to developing new recipes. “What kind of knowledge do these chefs have? How
also considering other angles. One strand of the project involves looking at the specific topics that chefs, owners and artists are addressing in order to provide a welcoming environment in restaurants. “The analysis of this is based on more than 80 non-standardized interviews, the phd-student, artist and food specialist Anneli Käsmayr has done, partially in cooperation with the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL (Robert Home, Bernadette Oehen). We are building on the idea that you can touch somebody with a
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good restaurant environment, and with a well-arranged plate,” says Professor van der Meulen. There are many different elements to consider here, beyond the visual appearance of the food itself. “We don’t normally think about the effect of temperature on a sensory experience for example - how do we experience the temperature of a room? How do we arrange the furniture to make a guest feel comfortable? Do we need to change the colours, the plates, or the images in the restaurant?” outlines Professor van der Meulen. A restaurant may choose to consider the likely reaction of customers when making these decisions, yet at the same time they need a degree of confidence in their own vision, taste and judgment, and the same kind of idea extends to food. As a chef, Stefan Wiesner backs his own judgment, with the idea of acting as a host and providing both a convivial atmosphere and good food. “He wants people to feel good in the restaurant, so everything has to be perfect,” stresses Professor van der Meulen. The aim in this research is to probe the relationship between food and art, and to look at how chefs are using artistic ideas to modify and refine their own practices. “What kinds of restaurants and chefs are coming closer to the artistic field? What topics do they address in this? Is it topics like regionality, communication, social life, mindfulness?” explains Professor van der Meulen. “We want to identify these topics and to understand who are the actors in that field.”
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Food sustainability This research is very much exploratory in nature, yet there are also aspects of the project that touch on more immediate issues, such as food sustainability. Researchers in the project are collaborating with FiBL to investigate topics around the relationship between farmers and restaurants. “How can we build stronger connections between restaurants and surrounding farms? How might guests experience food differently if the links between the farmers in the area and the restaurant are directly addressed?” asks Professor van der Meulen. This is just one of the topics that is being explored, while Professor van der Meulen says the project’s work has also opened up potential new avenues of research. “There are a lot of possibilities to extend the research project. The philosophical and theoretical knowledge of what food really is – nutrition, medium or language – is in my view still unclear. One question I’m interested in is how areas of a city can be transformed and developed by addressing food?” he outlines. Many cities are experiencing high levels of demand for allotments for example, while urban farms are also a common feature in some parts of Europe, just some of the ways in which food can play a role in transforming urban culture. This is a topic of great interest to Professor van der Meulen. “What factors affect the success of a transformation process? What is the role of food in that context?” he outlines. First Results of the project can already be seen in: van der Meulen/Wiesel: Culinary Turn (2017).
The research project is funded by the SNF – Swiss National Science Foundation.
Project Participants
Co-applicant, Jörg Wiesel PhD candidate, Anneli Käsmayr • Please visit the website for full project participant information
Contact Details
Project Coordinator, Prof. Dr. Nicolaj van der Meulen Institute Aesthetic Practice and Theory University of Applied Sciences and Arts | FHNW Academy of Arts and Design | HGK T: +41 61 228 41 15 E: nicolaj.vandermeulen@fhnw.ch W: https://web.fhnw.ch/hgk/projekte/iaep/ ceaep/category/about/ Fiona Rahn: Conceputal Cooking at Stefan Wiesner: Glogg Sausage in Knit Coat, 2019. Vaidehi Hofer: Conceptaul Cooking at Stefan Wiesner: Sun Sausage, 2019.
Prof. Dr. Nicolaj van der Meulen
Since 2013 Nicolaj van Meulen has co-headed the Institute of Aesthetic Practice and Theory at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW in Basel. He studied Art History and Philosophy and did his Habilitation Thesis in 2014 at the University of Hildesheim on space and movement in late baroque churches.
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