Innovative Food Design

Innovative

Food Design

Voratida Vitayathanagorn 0629389 MA Design and Branding Strategy Dissertation 2007

“The discover of a new dish does more for the state of human happiness than the discover of a new star.�

Brillat-Savarin, (1755-1862) French lawyer and politician who esteemed as crucial founder of gastronomy subject

Acknowledgement This year is a highly progressive year of learning for me. I have to say, at the start of the research I did not have much idea what I am heading for.

But the project is finally complete, hopefully with some useful results, and these definitely would not have happened without many helping hands.

My researches developed with great help from my supervisor Brigitte Borja de Mozota, who led me through these spectacular investigations.

She provided caution together with advice, encouragment and comfort.

Though most of the time I did not make the most of her intellectual suggestions due to my lack of vision, but through the process of the investigating I always found the answer which I tried to seek lying under those hints she had given me, and this mademe realise, how special she is and how fortunate I am to have her as my academic guidance.

Therefore, my first thanks are Dr. Brigitte Borja de Mozota for all of her virtues as an excellent teacher.

More thanks to all the tutors at Brunel Design and Branding Strategy course: Chris Holt, John Boult and Dr. Ray Holland for real inspiration, useful suggestions and feedback throughout the research projects.

Paolo Ulian in Viareggio, Italy, who created design pieces that put a smile on my face and who has already become my favourite designer, with a generous heart and who never refused to participate even through he is very busy and language is our communication problem.

Luki Huber and FACES staff in Barcelona, Spain, for great willingness to help through distance calls and for offering opportunities to access insightful sources.

Marc Bretillot and his students, staff at Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design in Reims, France, for inspiring projects and a good pack of practical information.

Marije Vogelzang and Proef Studio staff in Amsterdam, Netherlands, for utilizable suggestions.

Pierre Gagnaire and Sketch Restaurant in London, for the unforgettable and best field observation I ever had.

And all other interviewees from different places who contributed to this wonderful research journey and learning experience for me.

Also, my friends at Brunel for sharing opinions, comments, inspiration and always encouragement.

Finally, to all the ‘Great Foods’ and ‘Good Designs’ that exist, for motivating my inspirations.

Grateful thanks to everyone.

Voratida Vitayathanagorn Brunel University, West London September 2007

Contents Executive Summary………………………………………1 Abstract................................................................. 2 Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………….. 3 Motivation Research Area

4 5

Chapter 2: Aim and Objectives……………………….9 Chapter 3: Methodology………………………………. 10 Chapter 4: Findings…………………………...…………16 The Trends The Pioneers The Consumers

16 23 29

Chapter 5: Discussion………………………………….. 40 Definition of Innovative Food Design Food Design Professions Values of Food Food Sensory Design Innovative Food Design adoption in the market

40 41 45 46 50

Chapter 6: Recommendations………………………...55 Design Strategy for Innovative Food Products Criteria of Innovative Food Design

55 57

Bibliography……………………………………………… 58 Appendices……………………………………………….. 62 Consumer Survey Summary – Sketch Restaurant Visual Cards Investigation – Interview Records

62 66

Executive Summary Today, design plays an important role in our lives. It influences everything and is present everywhere. As well as this, innovation is at the heart of most industry. Many business sectors are starting to become aware of the necessity of design and innovation. The food industry, at the top level of the most valuable and the largest industry, is also influenced by the essential presence of design and innovation.

There are a lot of interesting innovative movements in the field of food design which have been emerging recently. These revolutionary changes unveil a new track, new terms, and expose new approaches and solutions. Food design innovations, since then, have been inspiringly interesting and challenging to the food industry.

This research on the topic of ‘Innovative Food Design’ then intends to explore specifically the importance of design and innovation to the western food industry, discover the current situation and innovative movements, define the area of the subject, the relationship between related fields and professions of food and design, evaluate and analyse the potential of the discipline, and solutions or approaches used by innovators, in order to suggest to the food industry a pragmatic design strategy to create innovative food products successfully.

Executive Summary | 1

Abstract During the past few years, the issue of ‘good eating’ has phenomenally regained focus, especially in Western countries. This global trend is collectively supported by many concepts that have emerged recently; well-being and health concern, appreciation for indulgence products, globalization and cultural exchange. Food, which has been in people’s interest, is consequently developed by innovators in various fields of food and design. The food industry is starting to become aware about the progress and importance of design and innovation.

This report on the topic of ‘Innovative Food Design’ is my dissertation project which will research the issue. The research is motivated by a personal passion on the subject of, and the aim is to offer the food industry applicable guidelines for creating successful innovative food products. The area of the research covers only the Western food industry. The regional area of investigation is focused on some European countries which have significant movement on the issue.

The research findings consist of three main sections; The Trends – to display an overview of the current situation and notable movements on the issue, The Pioneers – to identify significant pioneers in the field and to illustrate their various viewpoints on Food Design. The Consumers – to display insightful results concerning ‘Innovative Food Design’ from field investigations with actual consumers.

The discussion concentrates on five key issues: Definition – to define the scope of ‘Innovative Food Design’; Professions – to discuss the relationship between professions in the field of Food Design, and to evaluate the potential of Food Design as a new discipline; Values – to explore and analyse all the aspects needed to be concerned with in food products Sensory Design – to classify the tools that are used to deliver food values; Innovation Adoption – to discuss and analyse the process of ‘Innovative Food Design’ adoption in the market.

The recommendation outcomes will be suggested to the food industry as a Design Strategy for creating innovative food products, and a set of Design Criteria to be applied.

Abstract | 2

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Chapter 1: Introduction “Human beings do not merely wish to eat, but to eat decoratively”, said Jonathan Glancey, architect and design editor of The Guardian, is fast becoming my favourite quote. This sentence reflects the natural state of humans, who are always looking for ways to improve their quality of life in all situations.

As food is the very first fundamental requirement of life, it has become firmly merged with our lives since human originally created the very first cultures. In general, food, as an entity, was one of natural driving forcess on human cultural development. However, taking a closer look, food culture itself was created within the main culture too. Consequently, the more complex humankind becomes, the more complex food culture is going to be.

Given today’s intricate global communities, food has developed with innumerable meanings – diffusion in the variations of cultures, interaction throughout the course of time, creation of connections with various fields of sciences. Food, which was basically the only source of energy for life, is now integrated with many additional values, not only serving the physicals needs anymore, but the psychological needs as well, which are closely related to the many facets of humanity. It is undeniable that people have not developed food solely on their functional properties, but for pleasure as well.

Food Industry The food industry, one of the largest and most valuable industries, is the collective of diverse businesses that together supply food for consumers.

Since food culture is getting more complicated, the industry structure is growing and branches out into complex and delicate categories. Even though the food industry consists of various types of business, the whole industry shares some basic principles and characteristics of food consumption behaviour. This is the question which arises. Which part of the food industry is going to be the basis of this study?

Innovation The title of the research defines ‘Innovation’ as the heart of the investigation. Everyone knows that the importance of innovation is to explore new areas and this can also be called ‘creativity’. However, it is hard to calculate the benefits given the fact that innovation never leads to a specific precognitive direction. As when we are stepping into an unknown territory, we never know what we will get as the following result.

So there might be an argument which asks if innovation is really necessary in this matured industry. Imagine that the process of food culture development is a grand caravan wending its way through periods of time. Innovation could be considered as the front line of the troops, as the locomotive pulling the whole procession behind it. If there is no forefront to pave the way into fuzzy front ends, the whole process stays at the same place. The improvement will be dead.

The phrase, “Innovate to survive” should be considered to be our world’s motto (Borja de Mozota, 2003). This clearly shows the importance of innovation to industry and the necessary reason to understand thoroughly about it – to capture the natural essence of the progress, to know the drives and the factors, and to illustrate the effective methods which create innovation within the food industry.

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Motivation My love of food

Food is always my personal passion, and also the connected rituals around them. I am always looking for some fine, good food, whether in my daily life or while I am travelling. Even though I prefer to be a diner rather than a cook, I love to know more and understand deeper about them. Because food is simply enjoyable to everyone and relates to so many things. I am interested by the development of its cultures; in different regions, through different periods, oriental or western cuisine, from fresh to processed food, simple household cooking to elaborate restaurant menus, recipes with traditional cultures or by modern ways of cooking, everything dramatically fascinated me.

My background

About myself: I graduated with a degree as an interior architect in Bangkok. Basically, when I started to work in the real market, it appeared that I was practically trained and practised as a multidisciplined designer.

This made me realise the notable changes of the design profession today.

Consequently, it turns into personal motivation, to discover the connection possibilities of ‘Design’ beyond its usual boundaries and all its well-known disciplines.

My investigation

When it comes to the design research projects, the subject of ‘Food’ interested me to investigate further about its connection with ‘Design’. I believe in ‘good eat’ as well as in ‘creativity’. Thus my personal design approach is to understand, connect, create and communicate. I considered that there are some interesting potential within the subject to develop something new.

However, the definition of ‘Design’ may vary from person to person.

When I was in the architecture school, our course was mostly based on functionalism theories. Our lecturers kept telling us, “Design is problem solving”. This statement, however becomes a conflict with my understanding of ‘Design’ at that time. Personally, I strongly believe in the artistic values and importance of aesthetic, which not only comes from appropriate use of functional properties. In this case, pleasure is not clearly identified within the statement. In fact, there are immense numbers that meanings of design could be. By simply working on these design research projects about food shows me the broader and deeper territories of design.

At the beginning of the design research projects in February 2007, I was keen to find out the relationships between Food and Design and all other links with the related fields. I wished to indicate where the ‘Design’ has been put in the industry.

Although the information from initial research was very fascinating, apparently, the area of the subject was still too broad. The problems at this stage of the research (DR1) partially originates from the fact that I was starting from scratch, not from a specific emerging problem. This made the research difficult to be resolve. The lack of basic knowledge on western food cultural context also made me spend a great deal of time, trying to point out the exceptional cases from the ordinary ones. With little clear direction on the investigation in this broad subject, although there was a lot of potential and many inspiring issues, the research did not produce a worthwhile result.

Therefore, the urgent task on the next stage (DR2) was to redefine and restructure the subject to be more specific, in order to gain more focus and concentrate only on the potential movements and players in the field of Food Design to summarise some useful results for the industry.

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Research Area Review of the topic scope From the results of the previous stages (DR1 and DR2), the specific studied scope has been established. To proceed on the dissertation stage, the valuable findings from the latest stage and additional field investigations carried out during the dissertation period will be analysed and evaluated together by using design and marketing theories. The applicable design strategy is expected to be generated for proposing to the food industry.

Definitions Design One of the general definitions of design which I considered as having good coverage is, “Process of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, or component … used for both the final (solution) plan or the result of implementing that plan (e.g. object produced) …

Designing normally requires a designer considering aesthetic, functional, and many other aspects of an object or process.” (Wikipedia, 2007) In this statement, design has versatile meanings; design may refer to the outcome, process as well as the purpose itself. Design, thus, is applicable from the tangible object to the intangible subject. Also, design includes many related facets to be concerned about.

Food Design What comes to mind when you first hear the words “Food Design”? The answers may be surprisingly diverse, based on your background and personal conceptual extent. For example, to a food scientist, Food Design may refer to new flavours or shapes of extruded breakfast cereal. To the restaurateur, it may remind him of a beautiful arrangement of exotic Sushi or Dim-sum. While the product designer may conceive it as a welldesigned piece of tableware.

Experts said

From some experts point of views, “Food Design is an artistic gesture that accompanies the pleasure of the palate. Today, it is no more sufficient to satisfy only the taste and the sight of who eats it.” Paolo Ulian, Italian industrial designer, gave his view point in an interview (May 2007).

Masayuki Tajima, Japanese food culture specialist/landscape architect based in Netherlands, showed another concurrent opinion from consumer’s scenery in ‘The Future of Food Design’ conference (November 2006) as "Food is food and design is design – the consumer generally tends to keep these subjects as distant and separated entities.

The only occasions where they appear as a unity is in nicely decorated and presented meals at restaurant, new looking bottles or a cucumber curved out in the shape of a flower. The consumer's vision of the design consists of a directly aesthetic and artistic nature and hardly goes beyond imaginative food and products.”

Some might mention another interesting perspective; the cooking process is the design process by itself. ”A good design must have a sound concept, fine ingredients, be well made. It should be functional and it should… be pleasant to look at. Similarly, good cooking must also have excellent ingredients and preparation and should follow a reliable

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recipe.” said Stephen Bayley, British writer/design and cultural critic (Gardoni, 2002).

In fact, most kinds of ingredient need to be processed in some way before they are able to be consumed as a food, in order to accomplish a specific purpose, for example; increase the flavour and aroma, improve the appearance, nutrition properties, digestibility, or hygienic properties to be preserved. In this case, ‘Food’ is considered as an ‘outcome’ which has been designed with planned ‘process’ and ‘purpose’. When comparing the definitions of design, the paragraph explains very well about ‘why food needs to be designed’.

Boundaries of Food Design By the fact that, the field of Food Design connects with many related subjects such as culinary art, food science, cultural study, and is placed adjacent to various disciplines of design; industrial design, graphic design, environmental design, interior design, furniture design, event design, exhibition design, fashion and textile design.

What should be included or where is the exact boundary of Food Design should be defined and be questioned. To make the clarification on the definition of the word ‘Food Design’ that will be mentioned throughout the research, the type of design outcome is used as a criterion. Referring to the previous research (DR1), all ‘Design’ which was associated with ‘Food’ was classified by the level of relevancy. I have proposed the classification diagram in a 3-tiered chart.

[Diagram: Food Design Classification] Food Design – the designs that directly applied on ‘food’ itself Design for Food – the designs of any ‘other objects’ which purposed to use or involve in food consumption and food preparation Food Design Integration – the terms used for designs of ‘objects or concept’ that are intangibly related with food consumption activities From the diagram, there are numbers of design disciplines related to Food Design which has been placed on the diagram as examples.

From now on, Food Design mentioned in this research refers to the core of the diagram, which is, ‘designs that directly apply on food’. However, by the context, all layers are closely related to each other. Occasionally, the design samples will be the integration across the fields. But the research will focus only on exceptional and innovative cases or issues.

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Regional Scope of the Research There are currently many emerging trends about food in western food culture. The investigation has been taking place in some European countries, basically by the reasons of ease in collecting information. Five countries which have significant pioneers, concepts and movements about Food Design are: Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. The basic knowledge about each nation’s culture has been studied in order to understand better from the background to the development process of concept ideas and approaches later on.

British From the temperate climate, island geography, and vigorous history of the nation, British food culture roots were established with the British unique characteristic of boldness, straightforwardness, and practicality.

While traditional British style of food nowadays still remains unchanged over-time, despite the variety of foreign cultures which brought in by massively immigrants from European and other countries around the world. By the reason, a thousand numbers of dynamic styles of food have been appreciated but are regarded as foreign food. Britain today is more interested in food than ever before. “Gastropubs” (Gastronomy + British style Public house) is a good example of development into more specialties in high-quality food a step above the more basic British pub’s style food.

French French is known as “A nation of cuisine”, one of the most refined and elegant styles of cooking in the world. Social and political history advocates the role of the chef to be a highly esteemed profession. The establishment and the abolition of culinary guild system in the past dramatically developed and expanded the moral standard of French kitchen work, which latterly influenced the luxury restaurant practice all over the world. (Santiwanont, 2005) Numbers of restaurants throughout Europe that are listed in “Guide Michelin” are reputably acknowledged as the best. (Tanapornpan, 2006) Visual display is highly prized, not only for food, but also many kinds of French style artefact.

Italian “Italian Design”, has reflected their characteristics on most industries, especially on product design. It depicts the idea of simple yet effective, high skills of mechanism usage, which make the outcome of products simply and adaptable. As Italians are innately aware of their capabilities in food culture with simple design, this makes Italian cuisine look appealing by their identical food display on the plates. Defining the word of Italian style of food is no longer doubtful. Like the famous food products from Italy, “Italian Coffee” and “Pasta” are the best examples which demonstrate how they create very unique production methods later spread throughout the world.

Spanish Spain comprises a diversity of population in their past history and geography which provides benefits to the variety of ingredients. The migration of Jews, Moors and Christians to Spain have all had an effect on the food culture of Spain. The Spanish spirit of living reflects their intense liveliness, yet compromise on the difference within their community. This combination of cultures with an advantage of the diverse materials contributes a great variety on Spanish dishes. “Tapas” for instance, one of the most well-known Spanish dishes, becomes symbolic as a traditional food of Spain.

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Netherlands Dutch food culture is shaped by their agricultural community and a high consumption of fresh natural food such as dairy products, vegetables and fruits. Dutch people are likely to value the food for their wholesomeness.

Based on this simple condition, it tends to limit the development of complex recipes within their food culture, and also, healthy food is highly prized. Since then, the majority of youths and young designers with the free spirit in Netherlands today are interested in the issue of developing the community and food is become the regular topic of discussion.

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Chapter 2: Aim and Objectives Following on from the previous research (DR1 and DR2), I have been exploring some innovative trends in the field of Food Design. The approach of the research was to define ‘Food Design’ as an advanced design trend or design forecast, and make suggestions to the food industry. The outcomes consisted of inspiring and stimulating issues.

‘Innovation in Food Design’, since then, has been regarded as a scope of the study. In the dissertation stage, the research will progress with a more analytical prospective of the existing concepts, ideas, approaches and solutions by the pioneers in the field, in order to evaluate, assess and deliver a useful outcome for the mainstream industry. Therefore, the aim for the research is:

Aim Define and analyse Innovation in Food Design to suggest a Design Strategy for the food industry In order to achieve the aim, there are steps of objectives to be accomplished:

Objectives 1

Define the area of Innovative Food Design

2

Identify and analyse innovative trends and development in the current western food industry

3

Discuss the relationship of roles and cooperation within food- and design-related professions

4

Analyse, evaluate and then assess the solutions used by innovators

5

Recommend how to apply Innovative Food Design in the mainstream food industry

Earlier findings from previous research demonstrated innovative examples of creative design-thinking usage on food products. The findings come along with the question of how to proceed with those highly innovative approaches on to the actual or mass market effectively?

Which way will create successful innovation in the field of food design?

Therefore, the main key issue which needed to be discovered at this stage of research is to understand the effect of innovation on the market, and the reaction of the consumer to the innovation in food products. This becomes the core key question.

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Core Key Question In what ways does innovation in food design influence and serve the food industry?

Due to the objectives that have been assigned, there are some key issues which should be studied, furthermore. These issues will bring about the answer to the core key question of this research, to gain the results of the aim “Define and analyse Innovation in Food Design to suggest a design strategy for the food industry”. The key research issues which will be investigated in the research are:

Key Research Issues •

Innovative Food Design definitions

•

Current trends related to the field of Food Design

•

Pioneers in the field of Food Design

•

Food Design as a new design discipline

•

Various aspects about food to be concerned

•

The effects of perception towards food consumption

•

Process of Innovative Food Design adoption in the market

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Chapter 3: Methodology The methodologies used throughout the research are a collective process from the beginning of Design Research stage 1 (DR1) in February 2007 to Design Research stage 2 (DR2) and Dissertation stage in sequence.

Design Research Stage 1 In DR1, the research was to explore an overview of the subject.

Therefore, the methodologies mainly emphasized: 1 Literature Reviews Books Journals Online journals • Definitions • History and current issues overview 2 Pioneer Case Studies • Focused on current movements 3 General Observations Restaurants Speciality shops Supermarkets Exhibitions • Present situation • Consumer behaviour

Design Research Stage 2 In DR2, the subject has been defined more specifically. The focus on the field of Food Design was now clearer and better structured. The research approached Food Design as an advanced design.

Therefore, the fundamental data collection method aimed for some opinions from experts. The research also contributed with information from frequently-updated and interactive publications. The methodologies used in this stage were: 1 Questionnaire/Interview/Discussion • Opinions on the subject from experts in the field The request was send out to: 2 innovative chefs 3 designers in the field of food and related areas 1 design firm and 1 consultant 4 food journalists 2 supermarket brands and 1 speciality food brand 2 Literature Reviews Books Newspapers Design magazines Pioneers’ personal websites: chefs, designers, journalists Corporate websites: restaurants, design firms, food product companies • Illustrate overview • Generate interview questions Methodology | 11

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3 Case Studies • Innovative restaurants • Well-designed food products company • Pioneer designers in the field of Food Design

Dissertation Stage After completion of DR2, the topic had been well defined as “Innovative Food Design”. The research is now going to investigate further the process of innovation in the actual market of the food industry.

Therefore, the methodologies used at this stage have been reoriented, four main methods have been used to accomplish all key research issues, contributed by previous research findings, additional field investigations, and the design or marketing theories from literature reviews.

1 Consumer Survey The field investigation on actual consumers has taken place as the main method, to understand how innovation in Food Design is actually perceived in the market.

Questionnaire The survey was firstly conducted by using a short paper questionnaire accompanied by a mood board. The result of this method was not satisfactory. Participants could not orient their opinions to the specific topic scope. Therefore, a new customized method was designed to collect the information.

Visual Cards Investigation In order to find out the opinions about innovative design solutions or approaches used by Food Design pioneers, ‘Visual Cards’ were produced to use as the investigation medium. The main purpose of this “Visual Cards Investigation” is to: • Explore the attributes and latent needs of the consumers towards food products • Understand the process of ‘new ideas’ or innovation adoptions at the individual level This customized investigation method is more similar to the consumer interview. However, the consumers will participate together as a group if they are companions. As a result, not only are the opinions collected as individuals, but also sometimes interacting with each other like the contributions in a focus group method.

The Medium

Ideally, the prototype testing is the best method of investigation due to the purposes. However, by the factor of cost and availability of ‘Innovative Food’ prototype examples, it is not possible for this to be prepared under the circumstances. Therefore, the visual images have been used as a substitute for the real food product prototypes.

A selection of innovative examples is introduced in each card: some are paired or mixed with their conventional counterparts, and some with captions. The set of visual cards will be used in sequence order, and each card will start with the photograph selection of innovative food product examples.

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The Plan

The participants are encouraged to give opinions about the visual images as much as possible. They will be asked with open questions to explore their personal perspectives. Then, more visual information will be revealed or the concept idea about the example will be told. Then participants are observed again in the same process, if they are able to relate to the examples, how their responses are developed, and how they will behave or make a decision.

The Location

Choosing the location in which to carry out the investigation is also important. It was suggested I should focus on the consumers who are interested in the subject to gain useful results. Thereby, I selected a few locations to be my investigation sites. The place must attract potential consumers and support the ambiance of discussion. The locations of investigation were settled in London: Borough Market, Whole Food Market (Supermarket), and Harrods Food Hall.

Borough Market is a weekend food market located near London Bridge, famous for its premium quality food products. The market offers vast ranges from fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, to processed food like cheeses and homemade spreads, bakery, and fresh fruit juices as well as a lot of ready-to-eat food stalls and cafĂŠs.

The market attracts broad types of people: London resident gourmets, tourists from many countries in Europe, mostly adults but some teenagers and elderly people visit the market too.

Most of the results are taken from this location. Due to the nature of activity in the place, visitors are likely to spare several hours to stroll around and come along with companions, usually in a large group. The location also provides many relaxing open space areas for the visitors to have a break. These conditions made the place suitable for inviting the visitors to participate. Moreover, various types of visitor made the results diversely interesting.

[Borough Market]

Total numbers of participants in Borough Market: Counted as groups: 8 Counted as individuals: 22 Duration of investigation on each session: from 3 to 15 minutes Whole Food Market is a U.S. based franchise of a premium food supermarket, which recently opened a new store on High Street, Kensington in London. The brand is distinguished by the concept of selling only pure whole food and organic food products. The store mostly attracts local consumers who are concerned about health and quality of food products with decent to high income, and occasionally attracts infrequent visitors.

The place has the potential for useful results, due to the comfortable ambience of the store and the product displays which help to stimulate the participant to give opinions. However, the visitors here tend to give opinions only to certain extents, due to the specific type of supermarket which automatically classifies its customers.

Total numbers of participants in Whole Food Market: Counted as groups: 6 Counted as individuals: 11 Duration of investigation on each session: from 5 to 10 minutes

[Whole Food Market]

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Harrods Food Hall is a section in London’s well-known department store, Harrods. The Food Hall combines several halls of the department store. Most halls combine both grocery and speciality displays with types of food services such as cafés, restaurants, parlours, food bars (sushi, grills, and soup bar). Each hall displays a specific category of food products, such as: teas and chocolates, ethnic food, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry, and seafood.

The place attracts two different groups of visitor: Local residents who concern about the premium quality of food products – this group has high income to afford the price of products available here and has potential for useful results, as they are actual target consumers. Visitors to Harrods department store – various types of visitor, mostly tourists from many countries around the world, likely to be looking around and interested in buying certain types of speciality food products as souvenirs, such as, tea, confectionary, chocolates and some snacks to take away.

Although the Food Hall obviously has potential for interesting results, it appeared very hard to get results due to the dynamic atmosphere of the department store. Most visitors are in a hurry and many of them are uncomfortable with English and consequently refused to participate.

However, the longest session was collected here, during an informal meal in the Food Hall.

Total numbers of participants in Harrods Food Hall: Counted as groups: 2 Counted as individuals: 2 Duration of investigation on each session: 5 and 30 minutes Total numbers of participants from all sites: Counted as groups: 16 Counted as individuals: 35 Duration of investigation on each session: from 3 to 30 minutes [Harrods Food Hall] 2 Innovative Restaurant Observations Another field investigation method to evaluate innovation in Food Design at the dissertation stage is to make observations at an innovative restaurant. There is no better way to prove things than actually to try the things out. I was actually visiting the restaurant as a customer, observing the other customers in the place, as well as comparing my findings with public ranking forms on online restaurant review websites.

The target of observation is Sketch Restaurant on Regent Street, London (see the full details of the restaurant in chapter 4), which is the best possible site to visit in terms of distant, time and availability.

In addition, I have visited some exhibitions and food trade fairs around the UK to collect and keep up to date the information about the topic issue during the dissertation period.

3 Expert Interviews Carried out from previous research (DR2), more requests have been sent to experts in the field, including some experts previously contacted during DR2 and additional new contacts.

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The repeat requests have been made to previous contacts: 1 innovative chef 2 designers in the field of food and related areas 1 food journalist 1 supermarket brand The additional requests have been send out to new contacts: 1 innovative chef 2 designers in the field of food and related areas 1 design firm Trying to engage the leading people is very difficult. Many experts in the requested contacts are also European and not comfortable communicating in English. Finally, I engaged two designers to have the discussion. The interviews were firstly conducted by sending the set of questions via email, and via distant telephone calls. Moreover, some of the contacts who had previously refused to discuss the subject sent me some useful information related to the subject instead.

4 Literature Reviews Along with the other primary research investigations during the dissertation period, I have read more literature reviews. This method is the quickest way to gain a fundamental overview, collect the essential information and examples, clarify the definitions, give the answer to the research issues, inspiring and making the relations between the issues.

Moreover, the frequently updated media are useful for capturing the trends or current issues. The literature reviews have been done with: Publications Books: general knowledge and theories about food and cooking, design and marketing theories, food design project collections Journals: newspapers, food and design magazines Online media Pioneers’ personal websites: chefs, designers, food critics and jounalists Food corporate websites: restaurants, food products companies, supermarkets, food design and food service firms Other websites: food organisations, food online community, online journals and articles, personal observation archives, public reviews

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Chapter 4: Findings This chapter will present all the facts and information about innovations in the field of Food Design which have been investigated and collected by research methods from the beginning of the research in February 2007.

This chapter is the largest and most important chapter for this research, as it will help to illustrate the overall picture of the topic, Innovative Food Design. The findings will be presented in three main sections.

The Trends – Exploration of notable trends about innovation in the food industry in the current situation The Pioneers – Case studies of innovators who are currently pioneers in the field of Food Design The Consumers – Summaries of the findings investigated from actual consumers in the market

The Trends The trends which are presented here are selections of the significant movements that influence the overall concept of Food Design at the present. These trends are important because they reflect the overview picture of the industry; illustrate the emerging issues, the consumer needs, the available solutions and the new explorations. These trends include different types of movements from various perspectives and from general to specific issues.

Organic Food Organic food is a big consumer trend today. Starting in the 1950s, awareness of organic production arose and became increasingly concerned with an elaborate approach to environmental concerns during the 1970-80s, which continues to the present.

Organic foods must be produced according to certain production standards, without the use of sewer-sludge or synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, genetic engineering, growth hormones, irradiation and antibiotics. A variety of agricultural products can be produced organically, including grains, meat, dairy produce, eggs and processed food products.

The Market of Organic Products According to the Soil Association, organic food sales in the UK increased by 30% to £1.6bn in 2006, and the world market for certified organic foods was estimated to be worth US $23–25 billion in 2003 and is growing by approximately 19% every year, making these products the fastest-growing sector of the global food industry.

On the other hand, there is also an argument that organic food products, which are more expensive than conventional food, are too highly priced to be affordable by persons on a lower income. Organic products typically cost 10 to 40% more than similar conventionally produced products.

As stated on the website of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), certified organic products are generally more expensive than their conventional counterparts because the organic food Findings | 16

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supply is limited as compared to demand. The production costs for organic foods are typically higher because of greater labour input and organic products must be processed separately and transported, as well as the distribution chain for organic products being relatively inefficient due to small production volumes.

Values and Benefits to the Consumers “Organic” is no equal to “natural”; however, the food industry always uses the term “natural” to indicate that a food has been minimally processed and is preservative-free (Parnes,2007), adding value to the products, while the actual benefits for consumers are still subject to argument.

There can be found no proof that organic food offers more consumer safety, greater nutritional value or any distinguishable difference in taste, from past studies on the subject (Williams, 2002).

Organic food is also often linked with the ‘Fairtrade’ movement, based on the principle that social and environmental sustainability are inextricably interdependent.

Slowfood For the past few decades, global developed countries have been beginning to worry about the poor quality of the food supply and depreciated food culture due to the invasion of fast food and compulsion of the modern lifestyle. There are great numbers of organisations involved in this movement.

Slowfood is one of those, a well-known international non-profit organisation founded in 1989, based in Italy. Most member countries are in the European continent. The organisation works to support and promote local food traditions, defend biodiversity of the food supply, and improve people’s dwindling interest in foods; how they taste, where they come from and how food choices affect the rest of the world, for instance.

The organisation operates by arranging local, national and international events, and also established the “University of Gastronomic Sciences” to offer an academic degree-level programme in the science and culture of food. (Slowfood, 2007) Nanotechnology Nanotechnology may play the role of supporter in the field of Food Design. It is described as “precision engineering of substances at molecular and atomic level”. At nanoscale, physical or chemical changes and substances behave differently. Nanotech is actually all around already in clothing, electronics, manufacturing, and increasingly in cosmetics and food.

Food Corporations and Nanotechnology Every major food corporation is investing in nanofood and packaging, because food industry analysts have forecast that by 2010 it will be worth $20 billion annually. One product that Kraft is working on is a colourless, tasteless drink that consumers will able to design after they have bought it with their preferred colour, flavour and nutrients. The product works on the ‘choose which elements to activate’ basis by putting the product in a correctly-tuned microwave transmitter.

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Nanotechnology Ideation Self-preserving food with nano-film prolongs shelf life and greatly affects the fat and salt content in food; self-cleansing cutlery works at the atomic level by allowing substances to break down and drop off.

Nano-encapsulation helps dissolves as much oil into water without changing the appearance or giving any taste, and turns red wine into white wine by removing only the colour and leaving all the flavour.

Nano-encapsulation also lets chefs choose exactly how strong the taste, smell and texture should be or when they should be delivered, certain seconds after chewing or when the diner sips their wine. The capsule consists of a range of substances from starches, proteins and fats, and can be tailored to break down and release its contents to order.

Another usage is to make stable molecules tie down volatile ones, such as the fast-fading taste of dill, in the same way the perfume industry already uses to make scents perform longer. Chefs are then able to perform their dishes just like a composer who chooses the notes that an orchestra plays.

Risks and Benefits On the brighter side, this technology offers so much, such as healthier food, fewer chemicals, smarter and less packaging, and also extends the possibilities of Food Design in many ways. It allows chefs and designers to work better on both functional and emotional parts to serve the consumer.

However, like any only partially explored and tested technology, it is still potentially dangerous. Some metals will kill bacteria at nanoscale, hence its usefulness for food packaging. However, there is a risk if the substance is leaked into the consumer’s body. “Matter has different behaviour at nano-scales. That means different risks are associated with it. We don't know what the risks are and the current regulations (on the introduction of new food processes) don't take that into account.” said Dr Kees Eijkel from the Dutch Twente University. (The Guardian, 2006) Molecular Gastronomy Molecular gastronomy is a current phenomena impact in the gastronomic world, explained as “The application of science to culinary practice”. The concept of molecular gastronomy is now widely adopted by innovative professional chefs around the world.

The Origin The term was actually coined in 1969, by French scientist Hervé This and Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti. Originally, it was the thesis of Hervé This for his Ph.D. The fundamental objectives of molecular gastronomy were defined there as: • Investigating culinary and gastronomical proverbs, sayings, and old wives' tales • Exploring existing recipes • Introducing new tools, ingredients and methods into the kitchen • Inventing new dishes • Using molecular gastronomy to help the general public understand the contribution of science to society (Wikipedia, 2007) Molecular Gastronomy and the Chefs Even the concept involves many avant-garde professional chefs all over Europe and America, such as Ferran Adrià and Heston Blumenthal, Pierre Gagnaire and Homaro Cantu. (see their full details in next section) The Findings | 18

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dishes of these innovative chefs differently express their creator’s characteristics. While some chefs are extremely concerned about the mixture of artistic appearance or pleasant harmony of the dishes, others may explore the experimentation of the diner’s perception of taste scientifically.

On the other hand, this results in great variations in cooking approaches developed by each chef and it may be claimed that molecular gastronomy is not the conformation of the chefs but the similar solution that many innovative chefs are concurrently discovering.

The Image of Molecular Gastronomy In general, the molecular gastronomy concept is to create a new way of cooking by using scientific methods to gain better cooking results. It can be claimed that molecular gastronomy is basically to solve problems, which is similar to the design thinking approach.

However, molecular gastronomy cuisine today is perceived as dishes of fashionable appearance, prepared by modern cooking appliances, which lose their original meaning and also obscure the value which chefs are trying to communicate. The linkage of the terms to the cookery style of those chefs might happen by chance, as the preparation approach of their cutting edge dishes matches the scientific sound of the terms.

Furthermore, most of the chefs mentioned above might not consider their cuisine to be of this category. “Molecular makes it sound complicated…

And gastronomy makes it sound elitist… It was dreamt up in 1992 by a physicist called Nicholas Kurti who needed a fancy name for the science of cooking so he could get a research institute to pay attention to his work” claimed Heston Blumenthal. “We may use modern thickeners, sugar substitutes, enzymes, liquid nitrogen, sous vide, dehydration and other non-traditional means but these do not define our cooking. They are a few of the many tools that we are fortunate to have available as we strive to make delicious and stimulating dishes” he added. (The Guardian, 2006) New Concept Restaurants Recently, there have been many new concept restaurants established all over the world. Unlike the contemporary style, these places provide innovative design on both physical and systematical levels. They offer their customers a sensory experience influenced by the molecular gastronomy concept.

Mostly, for this type of restaurant, the main characteristic will be dominated by the head chef, who creates a series of designated fixedcourses signature menu. Some of these restaurants accompany their guests with instructions on how to enjoy each course to experience the planned scene of sensory performance.

Most places provide their guests with the only single ‘tasting menu’ choice throughout the year or the season, with minor adjustments or replacement of a course on the menu as requested by the guest in some cases. Some restaurants may offer more customized courses adapted from their designated tasting menu available options for each guest. The menu may change or be adjusted regularly due to seasonal ingredients which are available.

This type of restaurant normally concentrates on innovative dishes with an efficiency of service. The price for this innovation cannot be despised, too. At elBulli, one of these innovative restaurants, the number of table Findings | 19

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service staff in charge is even more than the number of guest seats available.

Here are some examples of restaurant in this category: Head Chef

Restaurant

Location City

Ferran AdriĂ Heston Blumenthal Pierre Gagnaire

elBulli The Fat Duck Sketch Pierre Gagnaire

Roses, Spain Berkshire, UK London, UK Paris, France Tokyo, Japan Hongkong, China Chicago, US Chicago, US New York, US

Homaro Cantu Grant Achatz Wylie Dufresne

Pierre moto Alinea wd~50

[El Bulli Menus: Des_sert /Air Baguette / Cherries in Px / After-eight Marshmallo]

[Sketch Restaurant]

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[moto Menus]

[Alinea Menus and Restaurant] Designers and Food Products Counting back to 1987, famous French designer Philippe Starck was invited to design a new pasta shape for French pasta company, Panzani.

This was the very first milestone when a designer directly devised a food product. Today, it is not only chefs who are interested in well-devised food. Designers (at least) all over Europe are starting to take part in this new area. A lot of designers, especially product or industrial designers, are already in the play. In many cases, designers are in cooperation, drawing up the conceptual ideas, or even handling the whole responsibility of the design process of ‘Food’.

Designers Approaching Food What interests designers to step into this new area? On the tangible side, food is a sort of product, so it can be developed by the design process.

On the other hand, food is a subject which has its own charms. The intangible rituals of food are also a perfect tool for designers to communicate with life and culture. Countless meanings of food make them look at food from various perspectives. From one aspect, some may find, food is another kind of material like any other, while another may be interested in the way it is consumed, or its psychological relation with the people.

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Designers have been working with the design objects associated with food consumption for a long time. It is plausible for designers to make a crossover from designing tableware to the design of food and all related rituals. An ability to make connected creations across the different fields of the designer is an advantage. They may not only create the menu but also design the equipment and eating space under the united concept.

Nowadays, when the impact of design is far-reaching into every field, this may be one reason that many designers are invited to design food products.

Designers in Food Design Projects Camper, a casual footwear brand, decided to open a casual restaurant under Camper’s name in Barcelona in 2004. The whole project from the concept, the food, the menu, down to the restaurant space was designed

by Martí Guixé, Spanish designer. The signature menu of Camper “FoodBALL” is choices of round-shaped rice balls prepared by hand.

Another branch opened afterwards, in 2006, in Berlin. (Guixé, 2007) [Camper FoodBALL]

In the Netherlands, food has also long been a major preoccupation of Dutch design guru Li Edelkoort, and regularly features in her trend forecasts. In fact, she has just opened a restaurant in Paris, “Laurier”, specialising in Mediterranean flat bread.

Moreover, Droog, a design organisation based in Amsterdam, celebrated their ‘droog@home’ exhibition openings by inviting the featured designers to host a dinner party. These activities provide a new vehicle for designers to explore their creativity and these are few samples of food project that created by designer.

Design Process versus Cooking Process Are there any real differences between the type of creativity involved in food and product design? London-based Italian designer, Martino Gamper, believes the two are closely related. “First you have to figure out what it is you want to cook or design. Then you’ll have to think about the ingredients or materials you will need. While designing, one always wants to create something new, so at the end of the day the two are quite similar.” (icon, 2006).

Culinary Design Schools Besides individual designers working on food design projects, recently there have been a number of design schools encouraging their students to work on their individual projects and arranging workshops about food design, too. With the close relationships of food to many living contexts, it is a good subject for the design students to explore and learn the design thinking process.

On the other hand, this is the sign for some notable points, the broader territory of design disciplines, and the interest in food issues in the community. Here are examples of design schools which have been involved in Food Design. École Superieure d'Art et de Design The school of fine arts was founded in 1748 in Reims, France. In 1992, the French Ministry of Culture and the town of Reims made the school into a school of fine arts and design, named Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design de Reims (ESAD).

The Culinary Design course at ESAD was originally started as a workshop in 1999 by Marc Brétillot with the support of Gervais Jassaud (director of Findings | 22

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ESAD until 2005). “There were the adventures of student projects, the judging panels at parties. Today, the workshop is seen as reference and morel in culinary design research. Together, the director, the participant teachers, the students, and the partners drew a road map. It began with the range of informal propositions from the vast world of food. At the time, we focused our research on certain subjects: on chocolate or on set themes, the concept of cake, for example” (Brétillot, 2006) (see “Neo Fruits” an example of a student project in a Culinary Design course at ESAD in “The Consumers” section) Design Academy Eindhoven The academy is based in the quiet centre of Eindhoven, in the south-east of the Netherlands, and was established in 1947 as an art school, but since the 1980s it has taught purely design to its bachelor’s and master’s students. The academy recently began to focus more on industrial design.

Eight undergraduate departments have wilfully unspecific names, such as Man and Communication (graphic design), Man and Living (furniture design) and Man and Mobility (transport design), so that while they are themed according to a general discipline, the students’ horizons are broad. (Wiltshire, 2006) Food also crops up regularly in student projects at Design Academy Eindhoven. Lately, Marcia Nolte, a third-year student, has done some experiments with bread. Nolte tied string around the uncooked dough, as the bread rose, and the result was extraordinary forms of bread (icon, 2006). Marije Vogelzang, a famous pioneer in the field, a founder of “Proef” food design studio in Rotterdam, also graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven (see the full details in next section).

The Pioneers Currently, there are numbers of significant pioneers in action in the field of Food Design. These pioneers come from different professional backgrounds from food- and design-related areas. In this section, the findings will present the individual approach to ‘Food’ and ‘Food Design’ of each pioneer, their design or research methods, and their examples of projects which are interesting innovations in the field of Food Design.

The actors in this section include four food designers and four innovative chefs from five leading countries in the field of Food Design in Europe.

Ferran Adrià, Chef, Spanish In the Headlines Time magazine includes him in their list of “The 100 most influential people in the world”, and guarantees his superior innovative thinking in gastronomy science. Le Monde newspaper gave him an appellation, “The alchemist that revolutionizes culinary art” (Faces, 2007).

Unique Creativity The identity of Ferran Adrià’s cookery style is the harmony and contrast in using the transformation of visual, taste, texture and temperature. The meal will be served in a series of morsels in precise amounts with an eating instruction on each course, in order to let the diner reach the utmost sensation of the food (Faces, 2007), as he explained, “The presentation of each dish is a direct result of the way in which it needs to be eaten.”

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The creation of his new dishes explored by three methods: adaptation, association, and inspiration (Adrià, 2002), which is the result of his great creative thought with great attempts to search for the original concept in cookery.

For example, one of the methods, adaptation, demonstrates the attributes of design thinking, by recreating classical recipes as his new version of dishes using the term ‘deconstruction’ which is well known in certain areas of arts, such as literature and architecture.

“A deconstructed dish will keep the ‘gene’ and will maintain (or even increase) the intensity of flavour of each ingredients, but will nonetheless present a completely transformed combination of final texture. The result is food that we instinctively relate back to the classical version of the same dish, thanks to our taste memories, although initially we may not pick up on the links.” (Adrià, 2002) Here are some examples of the classical recipes and their ‘deconstructed’ counterparts: Thyme Soup: Classical - Water, egg, thyme, stock or consommé, bread [hot] Deconstructed - Raw egg yolk, Parmesan vinaigrette, geléed consommé, thyme ice-cream, fried bread [cold] Melon with Cured Ham: Classical - Raw melon, shavings of Iberian cured ham [cold] Deconstructed - Melon soup, Iberian ham stock, shavings of Iberian cured ham [cold] Duck with Pears: Classical – Duck portions, quartered or halved pears, duck juices, aromatic herbs, aged dry white wine [hot] Deconstructed – Minced duck breasts roasted but rare, chicken juices, pear soup, herb gelée, aged dry white wine reduction, caramelized pear, julienne of sautéed chicory [room temperature] Research Style Cookery Now, he is running ‘elBulli’ restaurant in Costa Brava, with three Michelin stars awarded from 1997 (elBulli, 2007) as a head chef and creative director. He also formed a team consisting of chefs, biochemist, and designer, to collaborate the research annually in ‘elBulli Taller’, a laboratory workshop near Barcelona. They dedicates six months a year to serve their guests in the restaurant and another six to develop their new concepts for the next year (Bourdain, 2004).

Versatile Projects Ferran Adrià, besides being head chef at elBulli, is involved in many commercial and industrial design projects in the related area, for example: FastGood – Collaborating with NH Hotels, the purpose is to offer a quality fast food service to satisfy the demands of modern clients with little time to eat but who are not willing to compromise with their health or the quality of the food. The menu includes gourmet hamburgers, French fries (with olive oil), paninis, and gourmet restaurant style desserts. Those are served in semi-self-service with a well-zoned dining space for diners in a rush and diners who have a bit more time (FastGood, 2006). FastGood is simply an interesting counter solution of the ‘Slowfood’ trend, which is also an anti-trend concept of fast food.

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FACES – A collection of products for the kitchen and table developed by a team of designers directed by Ferran Adrià (Faces, 2007).

Ferran Adrià by ARMAND BASI – Cooperation with Juste de Nin, textile expert and creative director of Armand Basi, for the collection of homeuse cooking textile products.

Texturas – A range of products to help preparing ingredients in style for restaurants and home cooking such as gelifiers, emulsifiers, sphereificators, thickener, and dehydrator.

Heston Blumenthal, Chef, British In Media The chef gave birth and looked after his restaurant ‘The Fat Duck’ in Berkshire to be the “Best Restaurant in the World” awarded by Restaurant Magazine, at the Worlds 50 Best Restaurant Awards 2005 (The Fat Duck, 2007).

Blumenthal wrote the consecutive articles “The appliance of science” in The Weekend Guardian in 2002 and other articles afterwards in the Sunday Times Style magazine. As well as a television documentary series for the Discovery Channel “Kitchen Chemistry” in early 2001, he made the BBC series “In Search of Perfection” in autumn 2006, and produced a book of the same title in November 2006.

The Expert of Perception Esteemed as one of the pioneer chefs in the ‘Molecular Gastronomy’ science, his original and scientific approach to the food has teamed him with his fellow chefs, scientists and psychologists throughout the world.

Although Blumenthal might cook with similar tools to many other innovative chefs, such as liquid nitrogen, he shows unique interest in and specializes particularly on the human perception process while eating.

Considering both the food itself and the surrounding contexts, physiological and psychological factors, all senses involved, his dishes are the pure result of scientific experiments: bacon and egg ice-cream, for example.

“The idea with this dessert was not to create a dessert that was based on breakfast but to play with the whole concept of encapsulation.” He explained the original idea along with the experimental process.

“Proteins in eggs coiled up when subject to heat and turns into encapsulated form which tends to make the ice cream taste of egg by supplying bursts of egg flavour. Although a study in the science of ice cream making and flavour encapsulation, this ice cream had created the emotion of an English breakfast!” (The Fat Duck, 2007).

Pierre Gagnaire, Chef, French At a Glance Gagnaire is an iconoclastic chef who was at the forefront of the fusion movement and may be the most innovative French chef at the moment.

Differing from other innovative chefs in this section, Gagnaire works alternately in a number of restaurants around the world. The original ‘Pierre Gagnaire’ restaurant is at 6 rue Balzac in Paris and another is in Tokyo, ‘Sketch’, a super-stylish concept restaurant is in London, and ‘Gaya’ is a casual restaurant in Paris. ‘Pierre’ recently opened at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong and a few more eponymous sites are about to opened, such as in Dubai and Seoul.

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Arts and Science of Cuisine Nevertheless, his creativity still flows most fluently, the kitchen throwing out the sort of combinations that seem insane on paper but look like works of art on the plate and feel like them on the palate. Gagnaire personifies the romantic idea of ‘The Chef as Artist’ better than anyone in France today. He tore at the conventions of classic French cooking by introducing jarring juxtapositions of flavours, tastes, textures and ingredients. At the same time, he collaborates with a friend, the famous French chemist Hervé This, who is the co-founder of the ‘Molecular Gastronomy’ science.

This is a scientist who searches for new kernels of culinary wisdom. He shares the results of his experiments with Gagnaire, periodically issuing informal challenges for the chef to create gastronomic works of art based on his scientific raw material.

“Pierre does not belong to the scientific world,” says This. “There was some shyness there at first, the reluctance of a chef. But then he decided to come into science, in a way. Now, we have a very close collaboration.” Among their many innovations are eggless mayonnaise, demi-glace made only from vegetables, and whipped creams created not from cream but from the fats in chocolate, butter, and foie gras.

“Herve didn’t revolutionize my cuisine,” says Gagnaire. “But he brings me new ideas, new directions. It’s a sort of intellectual game we play.

I’m open, really, to anything that can bring light to my work.”

Davide Scabin, Chef, Italian The Plays on the Plate Davide Scabin is owner and top toque at Combal.Zero, Michelin-starred restaurant adjacent to the Castello di Rivoli. His philosophy is ‘Concept Cuisine’ – the restaurant as theatre – playing with food ingredients and presentation.

Combal.Zero creative food is firmly grounded in the Piemontese tradition. ”Zuppizza” is a liquid pizza reconstructed from the bottom up, featuring mozzarella soup supporting a dollop of tomato and miniature basil leaves, with a scatter of toasted bread chips floating over everything, and “Hambook” surprises their guests with pages made of prosciutto ham and melon. The primal “Cyberegg” comes in the form of a plastic bumper-wrapping ball. The guest will be instructed to pierce its shell with a xacto knife and squeeze the primal ooze into their mouths as soon as possible. An explosion of surprising culinary magnitude then occurs, unannounced by any previous confirmations of smell, familiar form or texture. Each carefully-timed course was planned by Scabin, sitting down at the table, so that he sees the scene exactly as guests do.

Chef as a Designer “The figure of the Chef is a similar to the one of the Designer”, said Scabin, during a course in Industrial, Graphic and Visual Design to which he was invited by Professor Luigi Bistagnino of Turin’s Technical University. “From the taste and its characteristics of ergonomics and functionality, it is chosen in that way to arrange the elements of a plate, which is like planning it.” Scabin always insists that the chef‘s creation must also be able to be reproduced in series, to interact with the industry.

He creates a new chef profession viewpoint conversely to the field of handicraft food but for the industrial sector.

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Marc Brétillot, Designer, French Between Cuisine and Design He is at the forefront of the new profession ‘Design Culinaire’, using his design skills to complement chefs, food companies and caterers. “I've always had a passion for cooking. It was almost by chance that I became a designer, rather than a chef,” said Brétillot (Design Week, 2006).

Originally, he was highly passionate about cuisine and was teaching a material course at ESAD. Afterwards, he started to bring food ingredients into the class to show their properties as raw materials – mayonnaise changes composition and hardens like a resin, meat and wood both have to be cut with the grain, then matters had begun. In 1999, it became a ‘Culinary Design’ course in its own right.

What makes Marc different from other existing designers or chefs in the field is – while most chefs concentrate on the recipe and most professional designers stay around recognized areas: tableware, restaurant interior, packaging – he treats all rituals, symbolism, properties and association of food, and this make his approach innovate and special.

“Cuisine is an illustration of how society functions” he claimed. “It's not just stylism, but a question of classic design issues, such as historical context, image and function, researching the history and origins of a product, and questioning existing codes.”

Ritualism Food Projects For examples of his work, some projects are redesigning food products.

Once he collaborated with pastry chefs to redesign classic French millefeuille for upmarket food hall, Le Bon Marché, and the outcome is vertical rather than horizontal, which is easier to cut. (See the details in next section) Recently, he was invited by the Chambre des Métiers of the Limousin region to help local charcutiers update the image of the traditional Pâte en Croûte (pork pie). His solution was to create a distinctive pattern on the crust, using a stencil of greaseproof paper during the baking.

At another event, he devised a wooden theme menu for a buffet arranged by a wood veneer supplier of the Accor hotel group: ranging from woodsmoked salmon, woodland blackberries and cinnamon bark to the oaky tannins of Cognac.

Martí Guixé, Designer, Spanish Designer Who Can’t Cook Self-proclaimed “ex-Designer”, Martí Guixé recently published his website “Food-Designing” with a headline “A food designer is somebody working with food, with no idea of cooking”.

His approach to Food Design is totally different from others – edible designed product, which negates any reference to cooking, tradition and gastronomy. “I consider food a mass consumption product,” he affirms. “I like the fact that it’s a product that disappears – by ingestion – and is transformed into energy. In my food projects, the products are based on developing food that fits a contemporary way of life. They have to meet the demands of a more complex lifestyle and are de-territorialised.”

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Systemic Food Projects His food design projects are characterized as ‘ergonomic, functional, communicative, interactive and visionary, but radically contemporary’.

The food projects ranged from food products, packaging, tools, restaurant, events, performance and publication.

The very first example in 1997 was for the SPAMT project, Flavoured Stamps – food images on postage stamps with their flavour on the back when licked. He also produced the Hands-free Lollipop – a lollipop with tripod (2000), Fish Snack System – grilled fish placed in a scooped and trimmed lemon wedge to eat with one hand (2001) and Wine Label – label design with a tear-off tag to remember the wine name the next day (2005).

Moreover, not only the “Camper FoodBALL” previously described, Guixé also worked on another restaurant category project called “Food Facility” in Amsterdam. He explained that the project is a prototype for the business model commissioned by ‘Mediamatic’, and the idea is to create a food-related project in the context of new media. Food Facility is then a platform, which mainly mixes outsourcing, search engines and networking to improve as much as possible the infrastructure of any conventional restaurant in economical terms, and reflecting the way we perceive reality and all-day in the new media and internet era.

Paolo Ulian, Designer, Italian Food as Communication Paolo Ulian, an industrial designer based in Viareggio, is famed for his simple yet ironic designed products. He works on a range of industrial products without the classification boundaries, but on ‘objects for everyday life’ – from slippers in the form of a bathmat, that allowing comfortable walking without slipping on dirty or wet floors, or beach flipflops with inscribed text on their soles, leaving the message “who loves me follows me” stamped on the sand. Other projects included versatile ranges from furniture and lighting, earthenware and kitchen tools or even food products.

Paolo Ulian claimed, for him, “Food means Communication” – as Food is the meaningful expression and message linked between the person who cooks it and the person who eats it. Food is the means to describe how they are, he explained.

A Bit of Fun Projects Paolo Ulian created “Golosimetro” or ‘The Greediness Measure’ – chocolate bars in the form of a ruler – for a themed exhibition ‘Papillan’ in 2003. This was followed by “Biscotto da Dito” or ‘Finger Biscuit’ in 2005 – the cone-shaped snack for dipping spreads like Nutella, inspired by the fact that somebody may love to sink their fingers into the jar of chocolate. Another recent project is a series of postcards sealing edible products inside – Food Card, Bread Card, Water Card for example, expressing his idea which looks at food as ‘Communication’.

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Marije Vogelzang, Designer, Dutch Food Oriented Design A graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven, Vogelzang started her food design projects since she was studying. She discovered that food could be used as a material for design. She explained that, while most designer are pre-occupied with the human being, food is another step closer to human – a design that can be put inside and becomes part of the body. She is the founder of “Proef” (means ‘taste’ and ‘test’) – food design studio and experiment restaurant in Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

“I am a good taster but I am not a cook. A cook is a craftsman, the translator of my ideas”, she claimed. After years of working on food design, she have been developed ‘seven ways’ that designers can approach or inspired by food, which are; Senses, Chemical reaction, Culture or rituals, Technique or materials, Grow, Presentation, and Action.

Meaningful Projects The famous project of Vogelzang is ‘White funeral dinner’ – a special all-white meal inspired by the concept of a ‘funeral ceremony’ as in many cultures white is the colour of mourning. White food such as peeled radishes and poppadums, was served on white plates by whitegarbed waiters. “I designed the ceramics as well as the clothes and the music, but most of all, the food, all naturally white ingredients.”

‘Droog design Christmas dinner’ was inspired by the Christmas concept of sharing and connecting. Tablecloth hangs up instead of down. Guests put their heads and arms through the cloth. They become connected and equal in the same space without seeing each other's clothes. The dishes designed for sharing such as ham and melon served separately on each side of the table. The guests will share them to obtain the complete meal.

These are inspiring overview of innovative approach from the pioneers in the field of Food Design. In the next section, I am going to present the finding result from the consumers’ viewpoints in the next section.

The Consumers These field investigations were conducted in order to understand how innovation in Food Design is actually perceived by consumers, and to observe the response of consumers to innovative design solutions and approaches introduced by Food Design pioneers.

The Consumers section consists of two main parts: The Findings from the Visual Cards Investigation The Findings from the Innovative Restaurant Observation Visual Cards Investigation This visual observation aimed to explore unrestrained perception in selected examples of consumers. A complete series of 8 visual cards were produced. Each card was designed to investigate different issues, with a content of photographs and verbal phrases in English and was used as a tool to inform the participants by visual means.

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The cards were designed to be able to reveal the relevant visual information incrementally so as to observe the response of participants – concerning, their impressions, perceptions, embedded beliefs, latent feelings and thoughts – but only with regard to each specific issue without being influenced or distracted by other information from the start.

The advantages of using visual means consist in clearly demonstrating how the visual sense affects other aspects of decision making. However, investigations carried out only by visual means have imparity of interaction and information with other senses, as well as the effect of deficient output quality on communication.

This process was designed to collect raw data from participants in these main points, • Their level of knowledge and interest in food.

• The values that the participants give to food, and the reasons for their preferences.

• Their opinions and agreement on the outcomes offered.

The Assumptions Before the investigation took place, I had made some assumptions about the investigation issues. These assumptions are based on my knowledge, together with information I have obtained during the research in selecting the choices of Innovative Design examples used in the cards.

1) People will not wish to eat food that they don’t recognise or are unfamiliar with.

2) If enough information about a new food product is provided, people will get involved with it.

3) Visual impact of the food is the important factor from which the impression or judgment is derived.

Results of the Investigation The investigation was carried out on a qualitative basis. However, in order to depict an overall result, the summaries were also assessed as quantitative on some points. In this case, the summary will present the information by percentage and by ranking.

Total numbers of participants: 35 Duration of investigation in each session: from 3 to 30 minutes (See full interview records in Appendices.)

Card A

Investigation issues: Colour / Flavour / Brand Image 1: Fauchon’s signature éclairs (Tahitian Vanilla – Mint, Raspberry – Violette, Passionfruit – Rose) Image 2: Fauchon’s traditional style éclairs (Coffee, Chocolate, Hazelnut) Original concept of Fauchon’s signature éclairs: Fauchon, a Parisian brand of fine specialty food, was re-branded using a business model based on those deployed at fashion and luxury goods companies such as Christian Dior or Louis Vuitton. And just as Hermès recognised with its Kelly bag, or Chanel and its tweed suit, Fauchon specifies the éclair as a signature item.

Chefs’ design briefing results turned out as innovative flavours, such as those examples with a fashionable look of sharp-bright candy colours Findings | 30

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beside those of traditional white, beige or dark brown. (International Herald Tribune, 2004) Participants’ Feedback on Card A: Background information: 41% don’t recognise éclair 59% recognise éclair • 71% (of participants who recognise éclair) don’t recognise image 1 as éclairs.

• 29% (of participants who recognise éclair) recognise image 1 as éclairs.

11% recognise the Fauchon Brand • None recognise the examples as Fauchon products.

Impressions of the examples: Image 1 – Fauchon’s signature éclairs • Colours and Form symbolise: 1 Doughnuts, 2 Éclairs, 3 Cookies, 4 Sweets • Feelings with the Colours: 1 Sweet (-), 2 Artificial (-), 3 Colourful (+), 4 Vivid (-), 5 Sweet (+), 6 Beautiful (+), 7 Toxic (-), 8 Plastic (-) • Around half of participants associate the Colours with the taste “Sweet” • None of the participant tried to imagine or were able to associate the Colour to its Flavour • 30% feel positive with the Colours 70% feel negative with the Colours Image 2 – Fauchon’s traditional style éclair • 98% of participants were able to associate the Colour with to its Flavour.

• Many participants mentioned ‘Chocolate’.

Some of them mentioned ‘Coffee’.

Preferences: For participants who don’t recognise éclairs: • 28% like the new example 72% like the traditional example For participant who recognise éclairs: • 12% like the new example 88% like the traditional example The reasons for preference towards the new example: • The reasons are diverse, but all are based on Colour.

• The famous name of the brand may not affect the preference for the new product.

The reasons for preference towards the traditional example is mainly due to its ‘Chocolate Flavour’: 1 Participants particularly like Chocolate.

2 Participants are more familiar with the conventional flavours.

Summaries: Colourful design of the example éclairs attracts attention, but is not appealing. Additionally, it does not communicate its concept, and it irritates consumers’ expectation of health.

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Note: - Colours in the photographs do not precisely represent the actual colour of the product.

Card B

Investigation issues: Shape / Function / National identity / Concept idea Image 1: “Mandala” Pasta designed by Philippe Starck Image 2: Traditional shape pasta “Penne” Original concept of Mandala Pasta: This pasta, named “Mandala”, was designed in 1987 for Panzani, a French pasta brand. Philippe Starck explained his design concept for this shape, “When do we love pasta?

We love pasta when we are children, when we are sick, when we are stoned - ah! - or when we are old - in other words, when we are a bit regressed. But sometimes when you eat pasta you become fat. Perhaps the thing I can do is to give the same pleasure, with a good mouthful of pasta, but without making people fat. How I can make a pasta that will be ten percent pasta and ninety percent air? If you make a tube, you have ninety percent air, but when it's cooked, it collapses."

He thought of a spring that makes the pasta stay open. And because American and French people always overcook pasta, he made two wings that have a double thickness, so that when people overcook it, eighty percent of the pasta is still al dente. He asked a doctor, "What is in pasta?" and the doctor said, "It's a perfectly well-balanced food." "Wellbalanced: yin-yang! Perfect, that can be the spring!" (Starck, 1997) Participants’ Feedback on Card B: Background information: 15% don’t recognise image 1 as pasta 85% recognise image 1 as pasta 27% are not concerned at all about the shape of pasta 73% are concerned about the shape of pasta Impressions of the examples: Image 1 – Pasta designed by Philippe Starck, “Mandala” • Shape symbolises: 1 Pasta, 2 Sweets, 3 Seafood • Feelings with the shape: 1 Holds more sauce (+), 2 Yin-yang (+), Nice (+), Interesting (+), Complicated (-) Image 2 – Traditional shaped pasta, “Penne” • All participants recognised the traditional shaped pasta, “Penne”.

Preferences: 37% prefer new shape 63% prefer traditional shape After giving information about the design concept to participants who prefer the traditional shape: • 38% were attracted by the idea.

62% were not attracted by the idea.

The reasons for preference towards the new shape are: 1 Emotional impressions about the shape in terms of: the Aesthetic or Symbolic.

2 The function of the new shape: Misleading attributes or accurate attributes (but with need for additional information being explained).

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The reasons for preference towards the traditional shape are: 1 Familiarity of the traditional shape.

2 Particularly like the “Penne” shape.

3 The thickness of the traditional shape is more appealing.

The reasons for disagreeing with the new shape design concept: 1 Participants not having certain problems referred to in the design concept: Overcooked pasta, eating pasta will cause people to get fat.

2 Participants don’t think that the design solution will solve the problem: The new lighter individual unit will not reduce overall consumption quantity.

3 Participants persist in believing that the traditional shape provides a better design solution, proven over time.

4 Participants could not accept the design for reasons of national respect.

Summaries: The example of a new design shape of pasta is attractive, but does not communicates its attributes correctly. It also irritates consumers’ cultural value.

Note: - The error of consumers’ interpretations of shape as ‘Sweet’ and “Seafood’ are influenced by previous cards and the environment of investigation.

- The new shape design was targeted for the French market, but the investigation participants are not in particular French, and this may cause irritation due to the influence of cultural value.

- Misleading attributes may occur as the basis of values change over time; e.g., from ‘Low calories’ in the 1990’s (original design benefit) to ‘Good taste’ today (holds more sauce).

Card C

Investigation issues: Visual / Taste and Flavour / Concept idea Image 1: Culinary Design, student project; “Neo Fruits” Image 2: Natural Fruits Original concept of Neo Fruits: Fresh fruit production is subject to a very strict norm; it requires many controls in order to reach the standard of size, weight, form, and colour. New, reshaped jelly fruits allow mass production of perfect and identical items. New form, texture, and colour are inspired by natural fruits but are radically different from real ones.

Playing with visual perception, the new fruits are designed to be eaten whole from peel-to-pip. (Dubeaux, L. & Rothahhn J., 2006) Participants’ Feedback on Card C: Impressions of the examples: Image 1 – Culinary Design, student project; “Neo Fruits” • 28% not attracted by the visual 72% attracted by the visual o 22% (of participants who were attracted) requested for confirmation that the example is edible • Participant’s first expressions: 1 Unimpressed, 2 Curious, 3 Interesting, 4 Scared, 5 Frightened, 6 Terrified • After given information about design concept, participants mentioned: 1 Not natural, Manmade, GMO (-) 2 Acceptable, OK 3 Not appealing, Dirty, Rotten (-) 4 New (+) 5 Colours: Mould (-), Black skin (-) Findings | 33

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6 Taste: Less sugar (+), Too sweet (-) 7 Flavours • Many participants requested confirmation that the the example is edible.

• All participant showed confusion in classifying and interpreting the visual example in terms of its taste and flavour.

• All participants made their decisions immediately.

• Male participants tended to accept the new product or idea more easily than females.

Preferences: After revealing image 2 and giving information about design: • 86% had no willingness to eat or taste.

14% accepted the design, or wished to taste.

Summaries: - The essential value of fruit, which is the ‘Natural’, has been lost.

- The visual example is not appealing, and it does not communicate the benefits.

- The visual impression is a great influence on the decision making, especially in terms of the colours.

- People need enough information concerning food they are about to eat.

Note: - Considering that the project objective is for a design student to experiment with food, it may therefore not yet be developed under the real market situation.

- Deficiency of colour, detailed quality, and size of printed image is also a factor that makes the product look unappealing.

Card D

Investigation issues: Presentation / National Identity Image 1: Re-designed version of a classic Italian dish, the Ham and Melon “Hambook”.

Image 2: Traditional version of the Italian dish, Ham and Melon.

Original concept of Hambook: This is a transparent polypropylene book containing gelatin of Melon and Prosciutto Parma Ham, accompanied by a typical colourful ice cream spoon and a wooden pick. The inspiration came from the disguise of food in the Baroque period. The concept of presentation is flexibly applied in many uses; e.g., furnishing with the food pack, to surprise the guest with an appetizer from a book shelf, convenience for picnics, and the cover can be replaced for serving at a special event.

Participants’ Feedback on Card D: Background information: 15% don’t recognise the Ham and Melon dish.

85% recognise the Ham and Melon dish.

• 82% (of participants who recognise Ham and Melon) don’t recognise image 1 as Ham and Melon.

• 18% (of participants who recognise Ham and Melon) recognise image 1 as Ham and Melon.

Impressions of the examples: Image 1 – Re-designed version of Ham and Melon, the “Hambook” Findings | 34

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• Participant’s first expressions: 1 Interesting, 2 Doubtful, 3 Confused, 4 Amused, 5 Delighted, 6 Offended After being given brief information about the example and being shown image 2, participants mentioned: • Image 1: 1 Interesting, 2 Looks cheap, 3 Disgusting (Melon jelly) • Image 2: 1 Fresh, 2 Easier, 3 Chunks (Melon) Preferences: Throughout the investigation: • 14% are obviously attracted by the idea.

• 29% obviously strongly prefer the traditional presentation.

Summaries: - Preconceptions of Form and Presentation highly influence consumers’ minds.

- As the design example was aimed to produce surprise or unusual delightful emotions, the design may be considered successfully delivered, but the design does not completely communicate the idea and is not very appealing.

Note: - Due to the design concept of the example, it should be presented in real circumstances in order to gain an authentic response.

Card E

Investigation issues: Shape / Function / Presentation / Differentiation Image 1: Traditional rectangular slice of Millefeuille with icing Image 2: Traditional rectangular slice of Millefeuille Image 3: Traditional rectangular slice of Millefeuille with decorations Image 4: Re-designed version of Millefeuille: Ergonomics Millefeuille Original concept of Ergonomics Millefeuille: Millefeuille, or ‘Thousand leaves’, is a classic French pastry. This ergonomically redesigned version, “Le Grand Millefeuille” (in its French name) is the result of collaboration between Marc Brétillot, a French designer, with pastry chefs Philippe Muze and Olivier Cheron, bounded with nougat and chocolate for easier slicing than the traditional version. (Brétillot, 2007) Participants’ Feedback on Card E: Background information: 18% don’t recognise that all images are the same kind of pastry.

85% recognise that all images are a kind of pastry.

• 83% (of participants who recognise the pastry) don’t know its name.

• 17% (of participants who recognise the pastry) know its name.

Impression of the examples: All images: Participants mentioned: 1 Dry, 2 Texture Image 4: Participants mentioned: 1 Expensive, 2 Novel Preferences: Before being given information about the design concept: • 9% are attracted by image 1 The reasons for preference are: 1 Appeal, 2 Custard filling • None are attracted by image 2 23% are attracted by image 3 • The reason for preference is: 1 Strawberries

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• 36% are attracted by image 4 The reasons for preference are: 1 Presentation, 2 Better, 3 More beautiful, 4 Chocolate, 5 Interesting vertical shape • 32% don’t have a particular preference After being given information about the design concept: 40% agreed with the design solution 60% disagreed with the design solution The reason for agreement is misled as: 1 Can be picked up and eaten by hand The reasons for disagreement are: 1 Participants could not understand how to eat the new design example.

2 Participant assumed that the custard filling may flow down to the bottom.

Summaries: Consumers are mostly able to perceived the aesthetic value of the new design example.

The ingredients and characteristics that attract or appeal to consumers vary according to their individual preferences.

The new design does not communicate its attributes, and does not indicate how to use it.

Card F

Investigation issues: Recognition and knowledge about Innovative Chefs and Restaurants Image 1: Photograph of Ferran Adrià Caption 1: “Ferran Adrià, el Bulli restaurant, Spain” Image 2: Photograph of Heston Blumenthal Caption 2: “Heston Blumenthal, The Fat Duck, Berkshire” Participants’ Feedback on Card F: Background information: Ferran Adrià • None of the participants recognised him.

El Bulli Restaurant • 1 participant knows the restaurant (and has been a diner there.)

Heston Blumenthal • 7 participants recognise him as an “Innovative Chef”.

The Fat Duck Restaurant • 5 participants recognise the restaurant as; 1 Innovative Restaurant, 2 Famous Luxury Restaurant.

[Out of 28 participants who were involved with this card] Impressions of the examples: El Bulli Restaurant: 1 Impressed (+), 2 Weird, 3 Nice (+) Heston Blumenthal: 1 Impressed (+), 2 Unimpressed (-), 3 Thoughtful (+), 4 Surprise (+), 5 Freak (-), 6 Scientific, 7 Experiment The Fat Duck Restaurant: 1 Wish to go (+), 2 Hard to make a reservation, 3 Expensive (neutral), 4 Expensive (-) 5 Not affordable (-) Summaries: - The consumers who recognise the pioneer and the restaurant may not be able to link them together.

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- Insufficient information leads to consumer preconceptions that relate only to the existing knowledge of consumers, which is not always correct for the innovative approach.

Cards G and H

Investigation issues: Opinions on innovative dishes (considered conjointly with Card F) Card G Image: Photograph of The Fat Duck innovative dish Card G Caption: “Bacon and egg ice cream with caramelised brioche” Card H Image: Photograph of The Fat Duck innovative dish Card H Caption: “Snail Porridge” Participants’ Feedback on Cards G and H: Background information: Participants who know The Fat Duck restaurant: • 40% recognised that the dishes are from that restaurant.

• 60% did not recognise that the dishes are from that restaurant.

Impressions of the examples: Before revealing the image caption: • Participant’s first impression: Nice, Beautiful, or appealing (+), Expensive (0), Expensive (-) • Most participants in the Borough Market started from trying to classify the example.

Most participants in the Whole Food Market wished to taste the dish.

• Participants tried to classify by: 1 Type of the dish, 2 Ingredients, 3 Price.

• Participants mentioned ingredients by name and classified types of the dishes as: o Card G: 1 Cream (left), 2 Egg (left), 3 Meat (underneath), 4 Fish (right), 5 Sponge (right) o Card H: 1 Onion (white strip), 2 Vegetable (the dish), 3 Beetroot (red strip), 4 Asian Food (the dish) • Many participants want to ascertain whether there is any particular ingredient that they don’t like or cannot eat. o Some participants insisted that they cannot make any comment until they know what the example is.

After revealing the image caption: • Participants who know the restaurant will react as follows: o If the participants recognise that the dish is from the restaurant – they immediately become willing to try the dishes. o If the participants don’t recognise that the dish is from the restaurant – they mostly appear willing to try the dishes at first but refuse immediately after the names of the dishes are revealed.

• Participants who don’t know the restaurant may react differently: o Mostly they find it difficult to classify the dishes and didn’t show any willingness to try them – After revealing the name of the dishes, the participants then reacted diversely and without significant meaning: e.g., Getting more interesting, Love to have the dish, Curious to taste, Surprise, Disappointment, Disgusting, or avoiding giving more opinions. o Some wished to try the dishes constantly, both before and after the names of the dishes were revealed.

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Preferences: Reasons given by participants who did not prefer the examples: Card G – Bacon and egg ice cream with caramelised brioche: 1 Mostly because of conflicts within the dish type (savory or dessert), or its ingredients and flavour combination.

2 Some don’t like particular ingredients.

Card H – Snail Porridge: 1 Some perceive the main ingredient (snail) as disgusting.

2 A few don’t like the particular ingredient.

Most of participants mentioned that the Card H example is more acceptable than the Card G example, for these reasons: 1 Snail is perceived as an edible foreign food ingredient.

2 The way the dish is presented is appealing enough to counterbalance the undesirable factors.

Summaries: - The consumers who recognise the pioneer and the restaurant may not be able to link them together, and may have different levels of knowledge about their cooking concept.

- Insufficient information leads to consumer preconceptions that relate only to the existing knowledge of consumers, and this is not always correct for an innovative approach.

- The first necessary reaction of consumers to the product is by classifying them in their mind.

- If the product is considered classifiable, then they will continue evaluating.

- The process of acceptance is a summation of evaluations relating all of the factors together.

Besides of investigating directly by visual mean on targeted consumers, I have been constantly observed the response of actual guest at Innovative Restaurants through public reviews, and compare the comments with my own perspective from initial research and my on-site visits. Therefore, this section is going to present the findings from one of those innovative restaurants.

Innovative Restaurant Observation Most of the consumer’s public reviews are restaurant ranking guide websites, which provide spaces for restaurant’s guest to put their rating and comments after the place have actually been visited. The findings are somehow very interesting yet confusing. So rather than being an observer, ‘reading’ and ‘asking’ about their place, their food, I have been manage to ‘being’ there, ‘eating’ there to validate the apparent truth.

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Sketch Restaurant

The innovative restaurant I have been observed in comparative methods is Sketch Restaurant in London. Sketch by Chef Pierre Gagnaire, is opened in partnership with London restaurateur Mourad Mazouz. Sketch is the super-stylish complex of 7 dining area in 5 different formats situated together on one site. The place situated on Conduit Street, formerly was the headquarters RIBA and Christian Dior. The space benefits by ‘extravaganza’ interior design of first-class designers Noe Duchaufour Lawrance, Gabhan O’Keeffe and Mehbs Yaqub. The restaurant is compound by dinning spaces.

[Images form INTERNI magazine: The Lecture Room / The Gallery / The West Bar / Lavatory] The Parlour – An eclectic and elegant looks all-day Dining room in patisserie & tearoom style, with light meal menu on served The Glade – A casual dining room, serving simply lunch and light bites with high quality ingredients The Gallery – The main multi-purpose area of Sketch, presenting art exhibition or video projection programs in daytime and turn into a massive dining area for dinner time The East and West Bar – The exclusive bars décor in style for Sketch guest and members The Lecture Room and Library – The luxury style dining areas, serving full course lunch and dinner with most of the dish created by Chef Pierre Gagnaire The part of restaurant that have been visited and compared is The Lecture Room. (See the examples of Public Review and On-site Observation Journal in Appendices)

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Chapter 5: Discussion Following from the Findings, in this chapter I am going to discuss all the main key issues of the research. The results gained from previous chapters will be defined, evaluated and analysed, by using design and marketing theories as the tools, and there will be an assessment of essential outcomes as a goal. The chapter consists of five main sections: Definition of Innovative Food Design – Define the term “Innovative Food Design” Food Design Professions – Discuss the roles and cooperation between the related professions and evaluate the potential of the subject to become a new design discipline Values of Food – Analyse the essential needs of consumers to be concerned Food Sensory Design – Discuss the design elements and processes which are suitable for delivering the values of food Innovative Food Design adoption in the market – Evaluate, discuss and analyse the process of innovative food products adoption

Definition of Innovative Food Design There are plenty of new and interesting designs of food product examples around us at the moment, but what makes them considered as ‘innovative design’? In this section, I would like to propose the definition of “Innovative Food Design” by classifying the developments, based on concerns of needs and the values that people give to food.

All Food Design approaches can be developed in three dimensions.

The “Innovative Design” appears when it creates a new solution or approach, either in terms of Taste, Function or Meaning of food products.

[Development dimensions of Innovative Food Design] Taste – in this statement, refers to all kinds of sensations produced by consuming a food product.

The developments in taste are mostly dominated by the chef, as they need highly practiced cooking skills with specific supporting technology to create the new sensation pleasure.

Function – in this statement, means the purpose of the product generated by its design attribute.

Function in food products are normally governed by the designer or product designer, as it needs the appropriate skills of using the design process and design principles.

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Meaning – in this statement, is any other kind of message content or subject matter which needs to be communicated by consuming the food product, for example, to resemble or remind about something.

Meaningful food products can be created either by designer or chef depending on the product type and rely on conceptual thinking and communication skills.

This chart presents the rough rating for each innovative dimension that the pioneers are concerned with, to give the concept idea of this section.

The higher rates mean the dimension is emphasized more by the innovators than the lower rates.

Ferran Adrià Taste Function Meaning

Heston Blumenthal

Pierre Gagnaire

Davide Scabin

Marc Brétillot

Martí Guixé

Paolo Ulian

Marije Vogelzang

[Compare Food Design pioneers developments dimensions]

Food Design Professions Professions that are capable of creating the design of food at the present time are those of either chef or designer. Nevertheless, they approach food design from different standpoints and with different professional characteristics.

Chefs are most skillful and knowledgeable about professional food production in terms of creating pleasure. At the present, most chefs still strictly relate to the manner and norms of culinary art. Innovative chefs may perform as good creativity driven models. Their approaches stem from existing food culture and they show that new perspectives are acceptable within their field, and so they demonstrate that culinary norms can be changed.

In terms of food design, a chef may be considered to be an ‘in-depth’ developer. However, there are a handful of innovative chefs with high skills who have realized the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork.

Designers are honoured for creativity and design process ability. They may be considered as ‘broaden’ developers who use design thinking to create a relationship between the product and other connected issues.

However, there are no specific design fields clearly established in the food industry at the moment.

However, the boundaries between the professions have begun to be dissolved by food design innovators from different countries. By looking at food through a design perspective, food is the integration of Art, Technology and Social Behavior. (Borja de Mozota, 2007) Therefore, on a similar model, these innovators in the field of Food Design can be placed.

[Food Design integration] Discussion | 41

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[Food Design Pioneers’ Approach balance] The diagram demonstrates which facets each innovator is concerned about and how they approach Food Design. The results are classified by region. Each plotted dot indicates the balance of their approach.

Innovators are taken from the previous case study and initial research, and they include individual chefs and designers (see details in chapter 4), innovative design firms or design groups, and some food companies. If the approaches in a region are balanced into some kind of a unity, the large dot will indicate a general approach.

Roles and Cooperation between Food Design Professions During the previous research (DR2), significant outcomes were found.

Innovative Food Design may be classified into 2 main sectors – Handicraft food, and Industrial processed food. Both sectors are influenced on each other.

[Relationships of Food Deign professions] At the moment, chefs are performing the main role in restaurants. Food as Handicraft dishes has its own criteria in which only a chef can be fully justified, and the process is based on experienced practice. Designers in this sector acts as ‘Design for Food’ designers (as explained in chapter 1).

However, from case studies it appears to be the case that there is a trend of collaboration emerging. Designers are now being added into the team, and innovative chefs are likely to show a capability for design thinking.

In another way, within the industrial food sector designers now already considered as necessary team members, and this sector is expanding.

Relatively, the demand for designers to work in the field of Food Design will increase and more knowledge about food must be applied into their work.

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In many cases, designers co-operate in drawing up the conceptual ideas, or even handle the whole responsibility for the design process of ‘Food’.

Consider for example the Martí Guixé ‘FoodBALL’ project for Camper.

[Camper FoodBALL] Another interesting example is Fauchon, a specialty food brand. Fauchon created an in-house design studio for handling everything from corporate identity to the taste of pastries. "We have some 200 chefs in our kitchens in the south of Paris. We brief them like creative director would do at an advertising agency or a designer in a fashion house," said Isabelle Capron, managing director of Fauchon. (International Herald Tribune, 2004)

[Fauchon Specility Shops] Designers, as well, can be working in collaboration with chefs to innovate a new approach to food products. Luki Huber, an industrial designer, worked in the research team of elBulli’s chef, Ferren Adrià. The team consisted of chefs, biochemists, and the designer working together to collaborate on the new concept ideas of elBulli cuisine in their specially designed laboratory (see the observation archived in the appendices).

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During the interview, he explained the issue in analogue that, “It is like a ping-pong play.” Huber claimed that, although chef Adrià did not research for the new concept of using design process, he created his own process, and adjusted it regularly so as to share and develop the ideas within the team, “Which is works”, he added.

Cooking is a ‘craftsmanship’ skill. In order to create the preferred result, it needs knowledge, experience, and practice. Knowledge is useful to broaden and capture the overall concept about food, but at the moment, designers are not expected to be ‘able to cook’, rather they are expected to perform a different duty, which, as Martí Guixé has proclaimed on his website, is to provide design skill. However, since the contexts of the food industry have been changing over time, there might in the future be a need for a new design profession specialising in designing food. [“Pipette” designed by Luki Huber]

Potential for Food Design as a new discipline On the one hand, the field has been established long before many other design disciplines, such as in the 1950s, or product design in the 1980s.

(Ulian, 2007) However, the fact is, just like many other design disciplines which were previously dominated by ‘craftsman’, Food Design was not dominated by designers but was definitely dominated by chefs.

Nevertheless, there are the opportunities for this design discipline.

By considering ‘Food’ as a type of product, it should be possible for its production to be carried out by through a design process.

Firstly, the emerging trends in the establishment of food design courses or approaches in many leading design school throughout Europe supports this idea. “Food design already plant today it’s an important truth, in the design schools the course in which to teach this new matter is being multiplied”, said Paolo Ulian. Take ESAD de Reims in France, or Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands as examples.

Secondly, there is the demand from the industrial sector for the specialist design of food products, such as the ‘Camper FoodBALLl’ project, or the series of three traditional cake redesigns for Le Bon Marché by Marc Brétillot.

Paolo Ulian gave an opinion “I think that food design will become a discipline that will have one own autonomy. To the new professionals of the Food design will be demanded abilities much similar to those of the product designer. and in the next few years, I think will be one exponential development of demand for these new professional specialists in several alimentary fields, from the catering, to the restaurants, the small to large production scale.”

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Values of Food “Successful innovations often satisfy existing, dormant needs in new and attractive ways.” (Evers, 2007) Therefore, to produce good products, designers or the industry must understand first about “needs”. At the core of the statement above is the assumption that human beings, and thus consumers, don’t change that much. However the solution ‘served’ to them changes, their deep ‘needs’ remain the same. (Evers, 2007) Array of Food Values Referring to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943), ‘Food’ is there classified at the lowest level of all needs, which obviously can be argue on this point. The present circumstance is that food culture affects the way in which food is consumed, and this has changed greatly over time, as I have explained in chapter 1.

If applied into Maslow’s Hierarchy model, ‘Food’ today may appear at all levels of needs. For example, “Food hygiene” or “Health issues” are classified at the ‘Safety’ needs level. “National identity” or “Cultural values” (which have been discussed before in chapter 4, concerning the issue of Pasta design) may be classified in the ‘Belonging’ or ‘Esteem’ needs level. “Taste of food” or “Appeal” will be put at the very top of [Original Hierarchy of Needs pyramid] pyramid at the ‘Aesthetic’ needs level.

Moreover, needs also can be combined between different levels, where “Wholesomeness” or “Freshness” may occur under ‘Safety’ together with ‘Aesthetic’ needs. “Convenience” may involved under ‘Safety’ and ‘Cognitive’ needs for example.

Consequently, the “Values” that people give to food are arrayed from the very basic to elaborated needs – functional to emotional – rigid to sensitive.

This does not mean that values at the top are better than some at the bottom. All values are all important and can be developed by the design process. We could have ‘more healthy’ ‘more convenient’ or ‘more fresh’ food, as well as ‘better taste’ food. However, it is a fact that some values are more emphasized than others by consumers. This depends on factors at the market trends level as well as on the level of the individual.

Values and Preferences Following from ‘Experiential Marketing’ theory, Schmitt suggest that “Today, consumers take functional features and benefits, producer quality, and a positive brand image as a given. What they want is products, communications, and marketing campaigns the dazzle the sense, touch their hearts, and stimulate their minds.” (Schmitt, 1999) The issue that may bring confusion is that of differing values and preferences. Both of these are involved in satisfying consumers. While ‘Values’ are based on essential needs, and are not equally emphasized, ‘Preferences’ are a more complex phenomenon. The classical phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, gives the initial imagery very well.

Therefore, from Schmitt’s idea, it may be concluded that consumers today take the satisfaction of ‘functional needs’ for granted, and are more concerned about ‘emotional needs’. Emotion is, however, very sensitive, and this sensitivity is governed by consumers’ ‘Preference’. ”The consumer has aesthetic preferences that come from design principles, but vary according to the context and his or her experience with design.”

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They are both important to be concerned about. ‘Values’ are core needs that can be solved with rational thinking. But ‘Preferences’ are a subjective issue which we may be able to satisfy through the application of ‘good taste’ in design principles or through specific research on consumer groups.

Food Sensory Design In this section, I will discuss the way to deliver the values of food which have been explained in the last section.

According to ‘Sense Marketing’, Bernd H. Schmitt claimed that, “Sense can also provide unique values to customer… this requires an understanding of the type of sense that customers desire, i.e., an understanding of the consequences of sensory appeal.” (Schmitt, 1999) Food is the only sensual type of product that involves all of the five senses at the same time. This then points out the advantage of using sensory perception as the perfect medium to deliver values of food products.

First of all, I have explored all the sensations and design principle elements which are essential to Food Design to develop into a set of tools, which food designers or the food industry will be able to regard as a guideline, with some suggestions and examples about how to effectively apply these elements to innovative food products.

Food Sensory Elements The principle sensory elements that I found to be specifically linked with food are: Shape and Form, Colour, Texture, Taste, Flavour, Aroma, Temperature, and Sound. (Adapted from chef Heston Blumenthal and Bernd H. Schmitt’s conceptual ideas) Here are the ascriptions of all elements with some notable suggestions, especially the application of examples concerning visual elements.

Shape and Form

Shape and Form is a visual sense. In common meaning it refers to the exterior of a thing, external outline, appearance, or configuration of some thing – in contrast to the matter or content or substance of which it is composed - and it defines their edges. (Johansen, 2000) In precise design principles, Shape refers to two-dimensional outline, while Form refers to the three-dimensional. (However, in common understanding they are similar. In this research I will use both terms, but dependent on which term is chosen by the reference sources.)

There are a few main types of Form: Geometric form, Organic form, Random form, for example.

The role of Shape and Form in food is to: • Reflect the physical function; as the famous architect Louis Sullivan remarked, “Form follows function”.

• Embed the meaning, to resemble something or create the imagery in the consumer’s mind.

• Seduce aesthetic pleasure, this is nothing but to involve theconsumer’s emotion.

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Colour

Colour is the most powerful visual tool to evoke emotions, elicit feelings (Visocky, 2006), and to attract the attention. Colour is derived from different wavelength of lights.

There are three main properties in Colour theories: Hue – refers to the colour name itself, such as red yellow green blue.

Value – refers to the lightness or darkness of the hue. Adding white to a hue produces a high-value colour, called a tint. Adding black produces a low-value color, called a shade.

Intensity – also called Saturation, refers to the brightness of a color. A colour is at full intensity when not mixed with black or white – a pure hue. Adding grey or a complementary colour will make a colour duller or more neutral.

[Hue-Value-Intensity]

The combination of Colours, called Colour Scheme: Monochromatic, Analogous, Complementary, Triadic Scheme, as examples.

In Food, different colors are assigned differently according to product categories (Marquardt, 1979). Therefore, Colour of food is also perceived differently from usual products. Colour of food was firstly based on natural colours in food ingredients, hot hues are found more than cold hues, and chemical reactions occur in preparing or cooking food. A blueish colour is naturally the rarest hue while brownish is the most found.

For example, roast beef; when beef is cooked at high temperature its cell walls break down, allowing the myoglobin to oxidize and causing the meat colour to change to brown.

These linkages between colour and food have been learnt. Foods that have unusual colour may automatically be interpreted as inedible, unsafe, or not appealling.

The role of Colour in food is to: • Reflect the quality of food ingredients and relate to the flavour or taste – vivid colours may refer to a sharp sweet taste for example.

• Embed the meaning, each colours may have hidden message which can be used in the design or need to be understand to avoid unfavorable meaning • Attracts the interest of the consumer; also appeals to and stimulates the consumer’s appetite Designers should consider with food products presentation in a combinative way, taking into account the colours of plates or packaging.

Lighting is also important, delicate colours presented on a bright supermarket shelf have a greatly different effect under candle light in a restaurant.

Texture

Texture is a special sensory element that occurs across two senses – the visual sense and the tactile sense. Texture refers to the quality of feeling on contact, or seeing an object or surface – smooth, rough, soft, crunchy, moist, crisp, etc.

Texture also appeals the same way as does Colour. Cakes are associated with moist texture, grills with crispy texture, mousse with silky smooth texture.

It is interesting that the visual sense and tactile sense do not approach the consumer at the same time. The Visual sense is active before consuming the product, but the tactile sense is active while consuming it. This fact can offer the linkage for creating interesting food products. Texture is Discussion | 47

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always considered with other food sensory elements to induce the perception of the food.

Taste

Taste, or gustatory sense, is the exclusive sensory element that is exclusive to food products. The four well-known tastes are sweet, salt, sour, and bitter. Recently, a fifth, called umami (Japanese word, means ‘savory’) was first theorised in 1908 and its existence was confirmed in 2000.

The term ‘Taste’ has four different meanings as used in this research. The first is only the ‘gustatory sense’ as stated before. Secondly, in chapter 4 during the consumer survey (Visual Card Investigation), participants usually use the term ‘Taste’ as a ‘small quantity of eating’ or ‘a test’.

Moreover, in a general context ‘Taste’ may refer to all the sensory elements occurring in the mouth during consuming, which includes Aroma and Texture; while under another aspectit is equal to Flavour. The last meaning, which will be referred to later on is, ‘Taste’ as ‘the ability to perceive what is aesthetically appropriate’.

Taste is of much more concern to consumers today, and this is induced by many factors such as the popularity of home cooking and celebrity chefs in the media. The trend has effects in the food industry direction; where for instance Sainsbury’s supermarket chain in the UK has launched a ready-meal and fresh premium ingredients product line in the name of ‘Taste the difference’. and which is explained on their website as; “Sainsbury’s Taste the difference range has always been about quality ingredients, authentic products and, most of all, fabulous taste.”

Flavour

Flavour is an exclusive term used for food. It is a combination of ‘Taste’ and ‘Smell’. Chef Heston Blumenthal explained that it is impossible to register Flavour without the olfactory sense being involved. “Squeeze your nostrils tightly enough to prevent breathing thorough them… Take a good bite of biscuit or fruit and start chomping, making sure that the nostrils remain clenched. You will notice that it is impossible to perceive the flavour or aroma of the food being eaten.”

While taste is limited to sweet, salt, sour, bitter, and savory, the smells of food are potentially limitless. Therefore, Flavour can be easily altered by only changing the smell while keeping the taste similar. An example is carbonated soft drinks and candies, which basically have the same taste, dramatically have dramatically different ‘Flavour’ due to their varieties of scent.

Flavour is also perceived relatively with other sensory perceptions, especially those of colour and texture. Take the case of Éclair’s visual card investigation for examples; the participants are able to tell that the image is ‘Chocolate flavour’ by considering the colour.

Another example is given by chef Blumenthal; “Few years ago at a Sommelier school in France, trainee wine waiters were put through a routine wine tasting until-unknown to them- a white wine that they had just tasted had been dyed red with a non flavoured food dye and brought back out to taste and evaluate. Something very interesting happened.

They all made notes on the assumption that the wine was what it looked like; red. In this case, the eyes totally influenced flavour perception.”

Aroma

Smell, scent, or as the olfactory sense for food is usually expressed as the term, Aroma. Smell is another chemical sense to that of than Taste. The different is that, while there are only a few types of Taste receptors, there Discussion | 48

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are hundreds of Smell receptors binding to particular molecular features and which interpret them in a combinative way.

Aroma is beneficial due to its ability to attract consumers at a distance, like sight. Therefore, this characteristic should be used and controlled by design in order to create an advantage.

Temperature

Temperature, or thermoception sense, is another sense that occurs through touch, as is the case with Texture. Temperature, besides creating the in itself the pleasure of consumption, affects also the status of ingredients and the perception of taste.

For example, in the case of fried dish that has been left to go cold, the oil or fat will change in state from liquid to solid and so creates a nonpreferable texture.

Or, sweet taste is perceived differently at different temperatures. The same fruit juice or jam will be taste sweeter when it reaches a temperature closer to that of the human body, less sweet if it is cooler or warmer. However, although it is important to hold the temperature at the preferable level, the techniques for this are difficult, as temperature is a dynamic property.

Sound

Sound, or auditory sense, is the least relevant sense. However it also influences the emotion of consuming food. The sounds of sizzling meat or the sounds that occurs while chewing crunchy food may contribute the seduction or percept as a part of a meaningful message.

Another often used method is the emotion induced by background music. Restaurants that wish the guests to be relaxed and spend hours there will play soft music, while fast food restaurants mostly use fast rhythm to stimulate the consuming speed of consumers.

The Application Whilst, to create all of the sensory elements may need skillful practice in cookery, all of this can be effectively planned and managed by a designer; and in particular the visual sensory elements can be handled with design skills.

Food designers can use some of sensory element as their tools, placing emphasis on some element individually or using them in mixed combinations. Specifically concerning the visual senses, they can be applied as tools not only for food products, but in many ways relating to food products presentation, such as in the photographing of food, in packaging, or used in themed concept styles.

Semiology of the Perception Process In order to utilise the sensory elements effectively, it is fundamental to understand the basic process of perception. Senses themselves are not only the format of physical input, but can be used as the effective medium to carry the values of food as given by consumers. The reason is that ‘messages’ or ‘information’ that will be interpreted by consumers are embedded into these sensory elements. The interpretation processes governed by cognitive psychology is called ‘Semiotics’ theory.

Semiotics appreciates the physical, or formal, aspects of artifacts as forms of communication without excluding their functionally. (Eco 1988; Goodsell, 1977 in Borja de Mozota, 2003) The meaning is considered Discussion | 49

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under the context of consumption, together with the memory or past experience of consumer.

Since the same products may be perceived by different consumers differently, especially by groups of consumers from different culture, personal preference factors need to be researched in relation to specific groups of consumers in order to identify hidden reasons for preference.

The cognitive aspect of design refers to the process of categorization. The process has been described as, “Every design-form is categorized. An individual’s mental imagery points the fact that there exists a stock of shapes or objects that act as referents or ‘prototypes’ for each individual.

Cognitive processing typecasts a shape to fit a product category and proceeds by making comparisons between the new shapes and preexisting knowledge of that category. This visual routine outlines the cognitive path of information processing.” Therefore, Visual processingparticularly mental imagery-is a strong facilitator of information acquisition. (Borja de Mazota, 2003) Many benefits of cognitive perception have been described, of which those related to food products are given here as examples: • Affects consumer’s beliefs about products and brands.

• Affects consumer’s evaluation of quality, durability, and money value, and their propensity to buy at a higher price.

• Affects consumer’s interpretation – both functional and aesthetic – of information. The design-form is “the first contact” through which the consumer experiences and values the product or idea. (Borja de Mazota, 2003) Although semiotics commonly refers to visual perceptions, the other sensory element are also embedded with the message, and all sensory elements are affected in relation to each other and need to be considered as a whole. And in that case they should be carefully considered in design as well.

Innovative Food Design adoption in the market This section directly refers to the last key issue and the core key question of the research. The section is separated into four issues – the discussion from the findings of the consumer survey, the case study of Innovative Food Design failure, the differentiation between consumer’s needs and expectations on food products, and the process of innovative penetration in the market.

The Discussion from Consumer Survey From the Visual Cards Investigation results in chapter 4, the assumption is going to be evaluated.

Assumption 1: People will not wish to eat food that they don’t recognise or are unfamiliar with.

The assumption is apparently to be true. Most of the cases, if the participants are unable to gain enough information of the example by visuals, they will not proceed to the decision making. Many participants are insisted that they cannot gives opinion or make any judgment to food product example until they ‘know’ what it is. Moreover, many participants also choose the conventional counterpart of innovative Discussion | 50

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example immediately after it was revealed, as they are unable to evaluate the innovative food product examples.

The behavior can be explained by categorization process in previous section. The innovative examples may unable to link with the existing information of consumers. The support information have been quoted by Borja de Mozota as, The distinctiveness is clear enough to warrant further processing, yet the product can still be easily categorized. If the product is radically new, categorization can be difficult and frustrating (Cox&Locander, 1987). Consumers prefer goods that are only moderately different from existing products (Meyers, Levy,& Tybout,1989).

The above statements are proven to be true, especially in case of food products, as they have even more sensitive characteristic. Food product is one of the few kinds that consumed by eating, which is the very intimate activity and also effected by natural reaction of safety needs.

Even in the certain case of, trying the unknown food on traveling, the activity is the result of categorization, and the food is accepted as ‘foreign food’.

Assumption 2: If enough information about a new food product is provided, people will get involved with it.

The assumption is not always true. On one side, if the participant considered that they don’t know the examples (or cannot categorise it) they would be either make decision to reject immediately, or some may ask for more information.

Then, the only case of acceptance is, the consumers are enthusiastic enough to ask. Together with, the additional information given to the participants are match with their needs or expectations. Then they will accept the idea.

In case of innovative chefs, there were two of examples on investigation.

Ferran Adrià was not well known by participant. However, Heston Blumethal is quite famous in UK, as well as his restaurant, The Fat Duck.

The findings illustrate that, participants who know the chef have the different level of information about his concept of cooking. Since then, they react differently.

As well as, most participants who know the name of his famous restaurant not know that it is his restaurant. Some are even not know him. Therefore, even many participants know Chef Heston Blumenthal, but these recognisations do not effect on the reaction of his example dishes very much.

Assumption 3: Visual impact of the food is the important factor from which the impression or judgment is derived.

During the investigation, visuals have been proven as a distinct medium to inform and helps participant to categorise the examples. Visuals also play important role to seduce the participants to taste the examples. As well as communicate the functions of design examples. Mostly, the participants don’t have any problem to make the decision only by the photograph. Some of them are even immediately make the decision only by seeing the example images.

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The visual cards investigation helps to understand the process of innovative food products acceptance in the individual level. The steps of making decision are: 1 Categorise the innovative food products, ‘what it is?’

2 Figure the values of each attributed, that they considering in relation with the product’s type category.

3 Perceive the information about the examples properties through visuals.

4 Try to evaluate each attribute in step 2 by matching with information from step 3.

5 Make final judgment by weighting and balance all attributes together as a whole.

Innovative Food Design Failure Some interesting issues about ‘Pasta Design’ are found in the literature reviews and during the field investigation.

Pasta has been recognised as an Italian food artefact. With its distinct design features, a single form serves different functions, pasta is widespread into most regions around the world. Pasta has been developed into variations of shapes, to be suitable for various methods of cooking. However, only some of the common shapes are popular. Most of these shapes are simple, and were originally invented by Italians a long time ago.

During the visual cards investigation, ‘Mandala’ innovative pasta designed by Phillipe Starck gained a disappointing response from participants, compared to ‘Penne’, classic shape pasta, for two main reasons. Firstly, the design of Mandala did not correctly communicate its attributes. Secondly, the new design irritated the participant’s cultural values given to pasta.

The first failure reason can be described as that: •

The design was trying to solve the wrong problems – the problem of conventional design that designer was trying to solve was the ‘over cooked’ issue, without considering that the pasta has been designed to launch in the French market where that problem does not exist.

Many participants mentioned that they never over-cooked their pasta.

•

The design did not solve the intended problem – as the designer was trying to solve the problem of the perception that ‘pasta will make you get fat’, by virtue of its thinner shape. One of the participant exactly pointed out that the solution would not help Because the consumption portion will increase instead.

•

The design did not convey the correct attribute of pasta –relating to the fact that consumers today have expectations in terms of ‘good taste’. Therefore, the misled agreement have been found that the shape of ‘new pasta’ have been designed to ‘hold more sauce’ which is not the feature of the design.

•

The design did not express it’s intended features – although the ‘al dente issue that designer was concerned about is also related to taste, the visual design did not communicate this feature to the consumer.

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There is another the pasta design example which also faced failure. The industrial designer for Fiat and Alfa Romeo, Giorgetto Giugiaro, in 1983 designed a new pasta shape called ‘Marille’. This looked like an ocean wave. However it was not a success and was subsequently withdrawn from the market. (Lavattiata, 2002) Another design failure reason is the irritation of consumer’s cultural values. This reason might only occur particularly with some participants.

They mentioned values of pasta that are closely tied with the national identity of Italy. Even through the reasons is subjective, it reflects a sensitive issue which may lead to problems.

There was also ‘Dropple’ pasta shape made especially for an exhibition,

by Paul Priestman. This futuristic British design is based on functionality: ‘Dropple’ holds the sauce on each side. But as novelist Olivia Mannins remarked,”Who else but Italians would invest such passion and imagination in mere dough?” (Lavattiata, 2002) Consumer Needs versus Consumer Expectation That the principle of a good product is ‘to serve the need of the user or consumer’ is well known as a basic rule. When it comes to the issue of ‘rejected solution’ by the consumer, how can we know that the innovation is failing or not? The usual confusion appeared to me during conducting the consumer survey, because even if the innovation ideas make sense, consumers are likely to reject the new solutions rather than accept them. As Harvard eLearning Alert states, “70% of all business initiatives fail” and this seems to be a natural reaction. “Culture is like our immune system … its job is to kill intruders before they can harm the body. Culture can change but it is a slow process.” (Wycoff, 2004).

I have been trying to figure out the difference between this innate natural reaction and the real failure of innovative design solutions. The rejection may occur either because the new solution or approach is missing the essential values, or just because it ‘irritated’ the consumer’s expectation.

The “food values” are ‘needs’ but the “expectation” is not. If the values have been missed out, the innovation may immediately be considered a failure as it do not serve the consumer’s needs. However, if the expectation is not met, there will be further deliberation.

Process of Innovation Penetration This is the model of “Innovation Adoption Curve” (Roger, 2003), which classifies adopters of innovations into various categories based on the idea that certain individuals are inevitably more open to adaptation than others. It makes more sense in these circumstances to start with convincing early adopters first, than trying to quickly and massively convince the masses of a new idea. Percentages can be used as a first draft to estimate target groups for communication purposes.

[Roger’s Innovation Adoption Curve]

Early Adopters – Respectable people, try out new ideas but in a careful way.

Early Majority – Thoughtful people, careful but accepting change more quickly than average.

Late Majority – Sceptical people, will use new ideas or products only when the majority is using it.

Laggards – Traditional people, caring for the ‘old ways’ and critical towards new ideas, will only accept them if they have become mainstream or even tradition.

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Referring to the model, if the value is clearly not being missed out, then the consumer is probably being a laggard. During the field investigation, I have been confronted by every type of consumer, some very openminded and some very strict to norms. Furthermore, sometimes the rejection occurs for both reasons, as expectation doesn’t always means it is not a core value. Values base from needs but expectation is the sediment which may come from both value and preference or even something else.

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Chapter 6: Recommendations Innovative Food Design, then, has been visualized, defined, and discussed thoroughly in previous chapters. The final chapter is a suggestion of some useful and practical outcomes of the research – Design Strategy for Food Designers and Food Industry. The chapter is structured by two main sections: Design Strategy for Innovative Food Products – The strategic guideline for the industry to be considered in order to introduce the innovation of food products into the market Criteria of Innovative Food Design – A set of criterion to be used as a checklist for creating successful innovative food design

Design Strategy for Innovative Food Products Today, every industry wishes to create its own innovations. Food products, then, have been proven to have the potential to be utilized by innovative approaches. However, the food industry may need to be prudent and cautious, as innovation failure means more cost to waste.

The following steps will suggest how to create successful innovative food products.

1 Be aware of the risk of innovation “While it's probably impossible to compute the exact percentage of business initiatives that fail, it is widely acknowledged that most do.”

(Wycoff, 2004). It is a fact that innovation is a process which takes the risk of trial-and-error. However, innovation is reasonably important to the industry. The challenge to serve consumers in a new way is the compelling drive, which, for many Food Design pioneers, is called ‘Passion’.

The same old rule is to estimate the results into ‘money value’, which is possibly not the proper way to evaluate the real value of innovation, as I have explained before, in chapter 1. Then what should be considered when we talk about taking this risk?

Innovation needs resources. It takes time, energy and money to be accomplished. Therefore, the first step is to plan within these constraints.

Allocate the resources, clarify the amount of time and cost and manage it well. In some cases, the cost of innovative food products may be too high. Consequently, it is not affordable for the consumers.

Furthermore, from the research, another resource is technology. Many case studies emerged and rely on technology. Without technology they are not possible. “Technological strengths and synergy” are important to the successful innovation (Borja de Mozota, 2003). The industry should consider if there is any essential technological support needed.

2 Know your consumers The context of innovative food products is certainly about the consumers.

In order to create the food products which deliver their values, they must be thoroughly understood. In theory, design and marketing share the same mindset of developing an understanding of customer needs and the factors that influence those needs (Borja de Mozota, 2003).

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The things that need to be known are the consumers’ food values and preferences, which have been discussed in previous chapters. Consumer insight is the necessary information to draft the overall concept: an understanding of user needs, wants and preferences and a strong market orientation, with marketing inputs playing an important role in shaping the concept and design of the product (Borja de Mozota, 2003). This can be achieved both by professional expertise experience and through wellplanned research.

Watching the trends both in the regional and global area are useful to indicate what is of interest. Observing the most significant trends, the key trends may include other subjects rather than food, as they all influence each other. The trends change regularly, and the implementations are varied in different cultures.

3 Form the team Gaining an empathic insight into your consumer is not only to visualize the apparent knowledge but also helps to build a suitable team. At the moment, there is still no specialist profession of Food Designer. In order to create good innovative food products, teamwork is essential. Form a team that is suitable to the design project: a team with well-balanced skills. For example, if the project approaches health issues, nutritionists may be considered to add to the team.

This strategic plan has been proven by many innovative chefs who show that working with a new approach needs the skill to connect cross-field.

The ideal team members are suggested by Tim Brown, president of IDEO, as “T-shaped people”. The characteristic of T-shape people is described as follows – their principle skill, such as product designer or chemist, is the leg of the T. But they have the ability to branch out into other skills and do them well, and are able to explore from different perspectives. T-shape is the pattern that yields ideas.

A multidisciplinary team will help to reflect all facets’ requirements, contribute creativity, and evaluate the ideas. Conflict between the different team member disciplines and the business sector can be eliminated by having the same goal.

4 Create room for innovation “Ideas are the basis of innovation.” (Borja de Mozota, 2003). Innovations, therefore, started from ‘Idea’ – on the other hand, it may called ‘Creativity’. How to build the creativity is another important part of innovative food products. Creativity is not innate talent but can be practiced or developed. This is the essential benefit of designers and design thinking which can be used not only by designers.

Jacques Maximin, who was the head chef at Hotel Nagresco in Nice, once gave a lecture in Côte d’Azur. One of the attendants asked him, “What is creativity?” to which Maximin replied, “Creativity is not copying”. That was how the most innovative chef in the world, Ferran Adrià, was inspired. A good idea is a lot of ideas (Kelly, 2001, in Borja de Mozota, 2003). The ideas are hidden everywhere. An example of how to find one is ‘paradigm shift’ method. Changing the perspective on the issue helps to generate creativity in many cases.

Moreover, how to handle those ideas is also important. An idea becomes an innovation when it is integrated with success strategies (Borja de Mozota, 2003). Sort the idea that has the potential to be implemented Recommendations | 56

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with the project objectives, and structure it well within the designated set of criteria to avoid frustration.

There is an important fact to be aware of: food is a very sensitive product.

The classic phrase “You are what you eat” illustrates the spiritual concept of eating. The activity of eating is very personal, subjective and imbued with sediments of expectations. The suggestion is to innovate little by little. If the context is ‘restaurant’, the innovation applied to food may be balanced by good conventional standards of service. This is the tactic that helps to reduce the negative reactions that easily emerge within innovative approaches in food design.

Criteria of Innovative Food Design After all, the final section is a set of criterion to be used as a checklist, for creating a successful innovative food product. Sensory elements are an efficient medium for innovative food design. Out of all the senses, sight is the most vital tool to help progress the innovative outcome into the market. The keys to successful innovation of Food Design are formulated as, “Attract”, “Inform”, and “Communicate”.

Attract – The appeal is the very first property of food that concerns consumers. Food always needs to be pleasant to all senses: looking, smelling, and also with good taste. Sense can motivate customers to try products (Schmitt, 1999). Furthermore, creating the first impression is very important for making a judgment. As described in Edvard DeBono’s ‘Six thinking hats’ approach, although all facets (hats) have an effect on decision making, emotion (red hat) influences very much the final decision. Good food design must be attractive in order to catch the attention or ‘engage’ the consumer, and generate positive emotions by using all sensory elements.

Inform – The design has the potency to induce initial images in the consumer’s mind. In the case of innovative food products, design wills effects on categorizing. The proper use of design helps to adjust the expectation, and prevent unfavourable preconceptions. In other words, prepare and guide consumers to get ready with the new ideas.

For example, elBuilli uses customized design eatery-ware and the way the food is presented informs the guest that the dish they are about to eat is a radically new sensation. Prevent the guest from evaluating the dishes with traditional norms. The consumers that approach the innovative products with preconceived expectations are hardly to be conveyed.

Naming is one of the techniques which helps. Given a well-defined name for the innovative concept will make consumers perceive the idea more easily. The atmosphere or mood also informs the consumer: take Sketch restaurant’s interior design, for example.

Communicate – Consumers always want to know more about their food.

The design should express the actual values of the innovative products as well. If the product is supremely developed, but does not communicate its virtue, it is hardly to be adopted by the consumers anyway. Be aware that communication is important.

In some cases, it is difficult to convey the values from the products themselves. The use of additional promotional campaigns, media, or communication design can be considered, such as packaging or product presentation design.

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Fayard, J. Innovators - Ferran Adria (Accessed March 2007) http://www.time.com/time/innovators/culinary/profile_adria.html Havard University Graduate School of Design Starck Speaks Politics, Pleasure, and Play. (Accessed September 2007) http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/research/publications/prizes/design_arts_initiative/starcklecture.html Hendriks, Arne. Post-Google Food: Marti Guixe talks about Food Facility (Accessed March 2007) http://www.mediamatic.net/article-9883-nl.html Parnes, R. B. Howstuffworks - “How Organic Food Works” (Accessed June 2007) http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/organic-food.htm Possel, Jans. (October, 2005) ‘Event Food Facility’ http://www.mediamatic.net/artefact-298-nl.html Sperling H. and Blunt W. (February, 2007.) Heston Blumenthal Constructs Contextual Cheer http://www.starchefs.com/features/heston/html/index.shtml Williams, C. (2002). "Nutritional quality of organic food: shades of grey or shades of green?". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_food Wycoff, J. Innovation Network. Big ten innovation killers. (Accessed August 2007) http://www.thinksmart.com/library/BigTenInnovationKillers.htm A basic guide to Molecular Gastronomy (Accessed March 2007) http://inicon.net/contenido/cms/front_content.php?client=1&lang=1&idcat=26&idart=512&m=&s= Club of Amsterdam - Shaping Your Future in the Knowledge Society, the future of Food Design (Accessed February 2007) http://www.clubofamsterdam.com/event.asp?contentid=634 Club of Amsterdam - Shaping Your Future in the Knowledge Society, Synthesis of elBulli cuisine (Accessed February 2007) http://www.clubofamsterdam.com/press.asp?contentid=645 Culinary haute couture: the designing of 'concept' foods (Accessed March 2007) http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/08/rfood_ed3_.php Innovation adoption curve of Rogers (Accessed July 2007) http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_rogers_innovation_adoption_curve.html Mediamatic_net - Food Facility (Accessed May 2007) http://www.mediamatic.net/artefact-298-nl.html Mediamatic_net - Post-Google food (Accessed May 2007) http://www.mediamatic.net/article-9883-nl.html Noisy bread, anyone? (Accessed March 2007) http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/003434.php Synthesis of elBulli cuisine(Accessed March 2007) http://www.elbulli.com/sintesis/index.php?lang=en Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Design (March 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Gestalt psychology (July 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (Febuary 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Anthelme_Brillat-Savarin Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Maslow's hierarchy of needs (August 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Molecular gastronomy (March 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_Gastronomy Forum and Reviews: culiblog - FOOD CULTURE (Accessed March 2007) http://www.culiblog.org/ deliciousdays (Accessed August 2007) http://www.deliciousdays.com eG Forums - The Cabinet of Dr_ Adria (Accessed March 2007) http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=24647 eG Forums - Q&A with Heston Blumenthal (Accessed March 2007) http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showforum=64 milan design week 2005 salefino - new flavours from italian design (Accessed June 2007) http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/milano05/salefino.html Bibliography | 59

Innovative Food Design

Officina Creativa - A chiacchera con.. Paolo Ulian (Accessed August 2007) http://www.officina-creativa.net/blog/2007/05/28/a-chiacchera-con-paolo-ulian/ The S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants (Accessed September 2007) http://www.theworlds50best.com/2007_list.html tastingmenu_com - Fat Duck, Bray, England, tasted on June 2, 2004 (Accessed May 2007) http://www.tastingmenu.com/media/2004/20040602-fatduck/index.html trendwatching.com Consumer trends and insights from around the world (Accessed June 2007) http://www.trendwatching.com/ Official Websites: Camper FoodBall Barcelona – Berlin (Accessed June 2007) http://www.camper.com/web/en/foodball.asp Chef Design (Accessed June 2007) http://www.tajithechef.com combal.zero (Accessed June 2007) http://www.combal.org/index.htm Marti Guixe Concepts and Ideas for Commercial Purposes (Accessed June 2007) http://www.guixe.com/ .:elBulli:. (Accessed August 2007) http://www.elbulli.com/ ENIVRANCE (Accessed July 2007) http://www.enivrance.com/uk FACES - ferran Adria el Builli utensilios de cocina menaje del hogar (Accessed July 2007) http://www.facesdesign.com/indexf.html Fast Good - Servicio rapido de comida calidad Fast Good. Una iniciativa de Ferren Adris y NH-Hotels.

(Accessed July 2007) http://www.fast-good.com/ The Fat Duck (Accessed September 2007) http://www.fatduck.co.uk/ Welcome to Fauchon (Accessed May 2007) http://www.fauchon.com Ferran Adria by Armand Basi (Accessed March 2007) http://www.ferranadriabyarmandbasi.com/ferranadria/FerranAdria.html Food Design (Accessed June2007) http://www.design101.it/fooddesign/index.htm Food Design Studio, Laboratorio di Architettura Alimentare (Accessed August 2007) http://www.fooddesign.it/index.htm food-designing (Accessed September 2007) http://www.food-designing.com/ :::Madrid Fusion::: (Accessed August 2007) http://www.madridfusion.net/ Marc Brétillot culinaire design _ _ _ _ et autres façons (Accessed June2007) http://www.marcbretillot.com m o t o | c u i s i n e : 2007 (Accessed May2007) http://www.motorestaurant.com Pierre Gagnaire, le restaurant (Accessed August 2007) http://www.pierre-gagnaire.com/ Proef (Accessed September 2007) http://www.proefrotterdam.nl/ sketch Restaurants (Accessed September 2007) http://www.sketch.uk.com Slowfood International (Accessed May 2007) http://www.slowfood.com/ Texturas - Albert y Ferran Adria (Accessed August 2007) http://www.texturaselbulli.com/ENG/index.html

Bibliography | 60

Innovative Food Design

Public Restaurant Reviews (Sketch Restaurant): (All Accessed August 2007) LondonEAT http://www.londoneats.com/search/allreviews.asp?RestaurantID=3476 London Eating http://www.london-eating.co.uk/2596.htm Restaurant-Guide http://www.restaurant-guide.com/sketch-gallery.htm toptable http://www.toptable.co.uk/venues/restaurants/?id=1907 Urbanpath http://www.urbanpath.com/london/modern-european/sketch-gallery.htm View London http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/restaurants/sketch-gallery-review-6983.html

Bibliography | 61

Innovative Food Design

Appendices Consumer Survey Summary Sketch Restaurant – The Lecture Room Summary of Findings from Public Reviews Websites Most public reviews websites allows their guest to post comments along with rating the restaurant by separate components: Food, Service, Atmosphere, and Value for money. Here are some comments examples from both positive and negative response, classified by each component.

Food: At Sketch Lecture Room, the ranking for Food is split into two obvious bands – Very high or Very low Around 30% give a very low band: 0 /10 – 3/10 Around 35% give full-marks: 10/10, and the rest still being in very high band: 7/10 – 9/10 The main reasons of low band comments are about ‘Taste Preference’, most of comments mentioned that the dishes are composed too much ingredients and flavour, and some are expecting for the conventional format from the restaurant.

“Cacophony of flavours were mixed together to create something completely inedible.”

“5 main courses, followed by 6 desserts? A looney menu choice.”

“No XO Cognac? No Laphroaig?”

However, there are some guests approaching their innovation thoughtfully and well educated about the concept idea.

“A weird combination of tastes. But then, that is exactly what I feel gives sketch its character – eclecticism, some jarring mixture of tastes yet some sort of unity. If you go to sketch with high hopes of a Carravagio or Monet, your expectations might be dashed by a full frontal exhibition of Dali or Hirst.”

“If one desires harmony, a Pret-a-manger BLT should do the trick. Sketch is more of fusion than French. If one needs a further analogy, metaphor, please do visit their rather user-unfriendly website.”

Furthermore, most of guests are enjoy with the innovative dishes and have positive attitude led by the restaurant staff.

“Chantilly of Foie Gras will raise a few eyebrows as it is unlike anything I’ve ever tried.”

“6 dishes in my tasting menu were described to me in excellent detail showing great knowledge and enthusiasm for the food, which in turn made me anticipate each dish.”

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Innovative Food Design

Service: Although service is not directly related to Food Design, but in case of restaurant, especially innovative restaurant, staffs are very important to the overall result of perception about Food Design Innovation.

In many negative response posts, Food’s mark and Service’s mark are rated at similar band.

“Service is so so. Not what I expect of a restaurant like this.”

“Food was a farce and the service a tragedy.”

As well as positive post, Food and Service frequently considered together.

“Prompt, attentive and unobtrusive service + dishes out on time + clean, warm and well-presented dishes.”

“Impressed by the high standard of service coupled with high quality, innovative, beautiful food.”

Atmosphere: It is obvious that the place is praised by the stylish interior design. Even on the negative marks on Atmosphere component, there is still a proclaim comment. Which may consider that, the Atmosphere marks refers to overall ambience, not only the design of interior.

“The décor I particularly appreciated, not too overdone but rather stylish.”

“Very small from the outside but seems to go on for miles once you step inside.”

Price: Consumers considered Price by: 1 Weight with other places that they considered are in the same category – often claimed by consumers with strong preconceived expectation. In the case of restaurant, misled category perception influenced by conventional mean of measurement, such as – ‘Luxury French restaurant must provide the range of French spirits in the drink list’ or ‘3 Michelin starts restaurant must served their guest by high experienced staff’.

2 Weight with quality of ingredients in used – is also claimed sometimes when consumers are not satisfied by food, especially if the item is very common, a bottle of sparkling water for example. If the consumers don’t know the item, this price estimate weight will not consider.

3 Weight with their needs – or ‘How much I prefer to pay for this’ the reason which most used in radically new type of innovation and consumers unable to categorise it. This always comes along when they do not satisfy with the food. Food’s mark in low band will drop the Value of money’s mark dramatically. In case of consumers who satisfy the quality of food but consider the price is too high, the Value of money’s mark will drop only a little.

“We paid around £300 a head. For that sort of money I would expect a lot more especially when you compare it to what else is out there.”

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Innovative Food Design

Overall rating: The succeed Innovative Restaurants always judge by overall impression of all components in restaurant, by the reason that it is not merely the food, but also the service, which combine into an experience.

“Definitely a place to go for a special occasion.”

“I went there to celebrate my father's 60s birthday. He probably had his best food experience in 60 years!”

“Forget what other people say about Sketch. This is unbelievably exquisite food topped with an unforgettable experience.”

My On-site Observation Journals I have ever been visited Sketch three times. For first two, it was ‘The Parlour’ afternoon tea and I walked around to observe the whole place. I was very impressed with the interior design decorations, but not very much on the space planning.

The time was come. I was successfully book the dinner for two (with my friend) in ‘The Lecture Room’ on 4th of September. The Lecture Room was only space I had never seen. We were greeted and brought to our table. There were around 10-12 tables for two to four in The Lecture Room space and more in ‘The Library’ conjunct space which cannot be seen from my table. (I was already excited by the atmosphere as I never had the full course dinner in restaurant since I have been stayed in London.) Mr. Ismet, our waiter, brought us the menus. We decided to have Panna still water and a glass of cocktail, from the menu of East Bar downstairs, in stead of wine. Being a good observer must not be drunk!

(Actually we were not affordable for a bottle.) However, without any alcohol, I was dizzy with the menu. And even more dazzling when I had a greeting at the table from Chef Gagnaire, who unexpectedly being in London that night.

I and my friend were then both choosing The Tasting Menu – 7 courses described as, Cod – Poached and Roasted cod, Glazed with a Honey and Lemon Olive Oil, Celeriac Cream and Black Olive Jelly Shellfish – Cockles, Shetland Mussels, Razor Clams Mariniere style, Christmarines and Leeks, Cuttlefish Stake with Green Pepper Morels – Turkish Morels with Vin Jaune from Jura, Caramelised King Scallops Fiesta Tomatoes – (no description, but appeared as Tomato Sherbets for cleaning the palate) Pigeon – Carpaccio of Roasted Anjou Pigeon Breast, Cherries and Red Pepper Marmalade in a Sauce of Foie Gras Cheese – Toasted Country Bread, Melted Camembert and Baby Spinach, French Bean Salad Pierre Gagnaire’s Grand Dessert – A Combination of Five Desserts Petits Fours

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Innovative Food Design

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take the photographs of the dishes. However, we were served, started with pretty aperitif, and three kinds of bread in a cozy bowl instead of bread plate. The tables were placed by nice metal tea light holder in a form of fallen-leaves autumn tree. The wine decanters shapes were different and very unique. Almost every dishes were fascinating to me. The plates came in and out with the perfect timing, neither too fast nor to slow. Mr. Ismet explained about each dish every time the next came.

Only first course was little bit too strange to my taste. Black Olive Jelly was not very appeal to me, both in visual and flavour. However, the later the plates, the better it was. I was really enjoyed that almost forgot to observe. The final was the festival parade of dessert. I was imagining for a decent plate with selections of desserts and pastries arranged on it, but I was totally wrong. The Grand Dessert was really grand. They were consisted by five decent plates of dessert! They were explained, how to be enjoyed, in sequence. I am the person who fond of dessert, so this course almost made me scream with joy.

7 courses, I was firstly wondering if it would be too much, but not at all. I was fed full, but not too full. And left the place with a blissful heart lasted for hours. Only few things that irritated me, the dishes made me thirsty afterwards, just like when we put too much glutamate. I did not feel this while eating. They were very delicious. Another thing is, the waiter replace the next bottle of still water from Panna to Evian, without asking us. It is just a very little point but quite made me feel something was wrong. As everything else was perfect, the motion of waiters and waitress are trained in good manner as if they were dancing in a rhythm.

Actually, it might be because I did not have any expectation for the place and the dinner. I do recognise form the meal that Sketch’s dishes are very special. But I do not know about perfect table manner, or how should I be treated by the staff, or even tell the different of modern French cuisine out of the conventional style. That may be the reasons that made me feeling more enjoy at the place.

About the price, 90£ is quite a big deal for me. But comparing to The Fat Duck by Chef Heston Blumenthal (minimum 150£ per person), this is a lot more affordable. As well as comparing with the pleasant experience I had, the price sounds reasonable. (But only for once in years or in a life time) If someone asks me to give the rating for the place, I would make it, 10 for Food, 9 for service, 10 for atmosphere, and 10 for value of money.

Appendices | 65

Recognise image1 are éclair Don’t interesting to taste at all Reveal image2 Show loving expression on chocolate Because they know how it taste like and just like it

Don’t know éclair Reveal image2 Show eager to try image1 Give opinion “it looks sweet”

Don’t know éclair Don’t give opinion - as she don’t eat sweets

Three British (two female and a male)

A Polish (female)

An American (female) and a British (scientist) (male)

Appendices | 66

Don’t recognise image1 are éclair Give a hints that they are éclairs Colours are too toxic / looks artificial Reveal image2 Give information about brand and new concept idea Response by showing impression and speak a lot about the long trustful brand Ask again Trust in Fauchon brand’s new created products quality but still prefer traditional style éclairs

Four French (two female and two male)

Borough Market

Card A

Section 1: Card A – Card E

Don’t concern about shapes But prefer image2

Recognise it is a pasta Reveal image2 Don’t show particular preference

Recognise it is a pasta Give impression “looks nice” Agree with designer’s idea Reveal image2 Ask for preference Wish to try new shape

Recognise it is a pasta Show interesting and try to find out if its is a kind with stuffing Give information about design concept and mention designer’s name Don’t know if it good idea Need to try the real one first Reveal image2 Ask for preference Prefer new shape [Group ask to leave]

Card B

Visual Cards Investigation – Interview Records

Terrified

Frightened Give opinion “looks dirty” Don’t want to taste

Give opinion “no idea what it is” Show un-impress expression Give information about concept idea Scared and don’t want to taste at all Give opinion “not natural”

Card C

Don’t give opinion – as she being vegetarian

Show interesting Reveal image2 Wish to try new form [Group ask to leave]

Don’t like the way it present Mention about “melon in chunky pieces” would be preferable Reveal image2 Immediately show agreement with traditional ham-melon image

Card D

Doesn’t show particular response

Attracted by image4 Give opinion “looks expensive” Cannot give the reason of impression feeling Give information about concept idea Agree that design solves problem but by “pick it up by hand and bite”

Card E

Appendices | 67

Show agreement with the word “sweet”

Don’t give opinion

Reveal both images Show preference in traditional “thick” shape Ask more over if she is not aware that thicker shape might make her more fat “No, I have to eat an equal portion anyway. If I have 10 of this (image2) it might be enough but I might need 20 of that. (image1)”

Don’t show particular interest as a food as she concern about health and figure very much

Three British (male)

Give opinion “it’s same, interesting but not as food” “shape is too complicate” Give information about concept idea The idea might be attract

Give opinion “vivid, looks plastic, not attract as a food” Reveal image2 “love to have chocolate one”

A Canadian (male) and a British (female)

Some mentioned “sweets?”

Some of them recognise it is a pasta Reveal image2 Some show interesting to try new shape Some don’t concern about shape Some prefer traditions shape

Some of them Recognise image1 are éclair “looks very sweet” Reveal image2 Most of them wish to have image2 because of “chocolate flavour”

Recognise it is a pasta Doesn’t show any impression Reveal image2 Show strong preferable to traditional shapes by giving opinion “they have shapes like this for 1000’s year” Give information about concept idea “Italian can’t be wrong and they will definitely not accept this new idea”

A British (female)

Recognise image1 are éclair No wish to taste image1 Love traditional éclair with coffee or chocolate filling Reveal image2 Colours is not the factor

Show a bit bad impression

Show the same expression

Mentioned “alien eggs?”

Show interesting very much Give information about concept idea Give opinion “definitely not”

Group mentioned “bacteria!” “rocks?” “is this edible?” with curiosity expression Give information about concept idea Abandon with opinion “no thanks”

Curious Give information about concept idea Give opinion “don’t believe in manmade food” and mentioned about “genetic modified (GM) food”

Don’t give opinion

Don’t give opinion – as she being vegetarian

Give opinion “just changing the package” “don’t understand why need to do so?”

[The page skipped]

Reply “Yes, I would go for it” But the expression seem to show the guilty, as he has been strongly reject on all previous offered alternative choices

More keen to give opinion than other previous card Show preference on image1 Mention “custard filling looks nice”

Show interesting on image4 Give opinion “it’s look better than others” Give information about concept idea Give uncertain comment “might helps, but I don’t know how to eat in this way”

Give opinion “I think I have this once before but can’t remember where it was” Recognise they are the same kind Don’t recognise the pastry name

[The page skipped]

Recognise it is a kind of French pastry Recognise they are the same kind Cannot tell the different Prefer image 3 with strawberry

Recognise it is a pasta Don’t have particular preference

Recognise it is a pasta Don’t give opinion Reveal both images Give information about concept idea “interesting” But prefer image2

Don’t give opinion

Don’t recognise image1 are éclair Reveal both images Show preference to try image1 “this (image 2) looks like poo”

Recognise it is a pasta Reveal image2 Show agreement with company reason

Show agreement with the word “sweet”

Appendices | 68

Spanish couple Recognise it is a pasta Reveal both images Show preference in image 2 Mention “I like penne” Ask more over if she is not aware that penne might make her more fat than a new shape Do not agree as she think penne will not make her get fat anyway Prefer to the things already known The way designer use the value information is not suitable

Don’t have particular preference

Prefer not to have it as she concern to healthy eat Reveal both images Recognise image 2 as chocolate flavour Give opinion “I can have a bit of this one (image2)” Value to health Value can break by right attractiveness

Don’t give opinion - as he don’t eat sweets

Whole Food Market

Two British (male)

Recognise it is a pasta Reveal image2 Show preference in new shape “it’s good, looks like it will hold more sauce”

Mentioned “sweet” “cookies” “some kind of doughnuts?”

Reveal both images “Wow, I like chocolate. Do you have them in there?” (point at my bag)

Give opinion that the example is acceptable for him to try, and he

Mention “may be too sweet for me” Interpret the visual to taste

Recognise it as food Show eager to try

Don’t give opinion

Give information about concept idea “don’t expected fruits in black skin, but it’s ok”

Ask to make sure if it is food Give information about concept idea Give opinion that it is acceptable Mentioned “less sugar” (positive) “doesn’t sacred me” “depends on flavour”

Give opinion that both are attract him as the food, but in different

Don’t give opinion – as she being vegetarian

Mentioned “interesting idea! hambook, ham and book?”

Reveal image2 Prefer to try image1

Show interesting

Don’t recognise it is ham & melon Reveal image2 Show same preference

Don’t recognise it is ham & melon Show confusion Reveal image2 Recognise that both images are ham & melon Show preference on “fresh” (image2)

Don’t give opinion - as he don’t eat sweets

Don’t recognise a name Recognise that it is a kind of pastry Show interest in image 4 Mention “more beautiful than others” Gives opinion on image 3 “but I like strawberry too” Give information about concept idea Disagree that the design solution will help Give uncertain comment that custard filling might flow down to the bottom

Don’t recognise a name Don’t show particular preference Give information about concept idea Disagree that the design solution will help, as he can’t tell how the example could be eaten in this way

Don’t give opinion

Don’t recognise a name Recognise that it is a kind of pastry Show preference on image 3 Mentioned “with strawberries”

Don’t give opinion

Appendices | 69

An Italian (female) and a British (male)

Two Korean (female)

A British and an Australian (both female)

Recognise it is a pasta Reveal both images Show preference in image 2 Mention “penne” Give information about concept idea Give opinion “I would never over cook pasta”

Show decent interest in image 1 but hesitate to make a choice while his company choosing image 1 and give her opinion Finally choosing image 2

Don’t give opinion

Don’t recognise it is a pasta until given the hint Show preference in image 1 Give opinion that she recognise the symbol of ying-yang which designer use in the center of pasta shape

Don’t know éclair Show preference on image 1 Give opinion to image 1 “colourful”

Mention “beautiful” Don’t wish to taste Reveal both images Show preference on image 2 Mention “Chocolate”

Recognise it is a pasta Give opinion “whatever” Don’t have particular preference

Recognise it is a pasta Give information about concept idea Show preference in image 2

Don’t recognise both images are éclair unless given the hint Show preference to try image1

Don’t know éclair Show preference on image 2 Give opinion to image 2 “I like chocolate flavour” Give opinion to image 1 “too vivid”

Recognise it is a pasta Reveal both images Don’t have particular preference

Don’t recognise both images are éclair unless given the hint Show preference to try image 2

Show a bit bad impression and agree to his company opi nion

Mention “very interesting” Ask more over if she is interest it as a food Give opinion “no, I’m very curious, but not enough to try”

Very curious Give information about concept idea No wish to try the example

Show bad impression Mentioned “scary”

Show bad impression

Give opinion “I have to know first, what it is” Give information about concept idea Prefer not to try

likes to try new things

Show preference on image 2 as it is easier to eat

Give opinion “why bothering”

Response in similar way to her company

Show confusion Reveal image2 Give opinion to image 1 that the only problem is she don’t know how to eat the example

Show agreement to company opinion and preference on image 2

Laughing recognise it is ham & melon Give opinion that the example looks cheap (in negative way)

way People can tell the different of example

Attracted by image 3 Don’t give opinion

Don’t recognise a name Attracted by image 4 Mention “vertical” “Chocolate plate” “presentation”

Recognise it is a kind of pastry Don’t recognise they are the same kind Cannot tell the different Mention “dry” (in negative way) Give opinion that she concern about the texture of pastry

Recognise it is a kind of pastry Don’t recognise they are the same kind Cannot tell the different Don’t show particular preference

Give information about concept idea Disagree that the design solution will work

Don’t show particular preference Give information about concept idea Disagree that the design solution will work

Don’t recognise image1 are éclair Reveal image2 Recognise both image are éclair Show preference on image 2 Give opinion to image 1 that the colour looks artificial and she think now people concern about natural food products, nonadditive and health

A British (female)

Appendices | 70

Mention “very colourful” “looks sweet” “doughnut” Reveal image2 “Probably this is more attractive (image2)”

An Australian (male)

Recognise it is a pasta Reveal both images Give information about concept idea Give opinion “if I’m looking for the new thing to try I will have this (image 1) and if it is really good I will continue buy it”

Don’t recognise it is a pasta Mention “seafood” Give the hint that it is a new shape of pasta Give opinion “it’s ok” Don’t really concern about shape Reveal both images Show preference in image 2 Give opinion “I know what it is” Give information about concept idea Showing more interest and change the preference to image 1

Recognise it is a pasta Reveal both images Very keen to show preference in image 1 Give opinion that it looks more interesting

Recognise it is a pasta Reveal both images Show preference in image 2 Give information about concept idea More attracted by image 1

Show preference on image 2 Give opinion that it is more attractive

Show preference on image 1 Give opinion that the colour is more attractive

Recognise it is a pasta Reveal both images Show preference in image 1

Mention “doughnut” “cookies” Show preference on image 1 Give opinion that he like the colour of example

Harrods Food Hall

A Kiwi (male)

British couple

Mention “candy” Give information about concept idea Give similar opinion about current trend which people concern about natural food products, through the project is interesting but she think it would not be a success idea to the market

Mention “looks like it is rotten” Give information about concept idea “Nah, that is not good, not attractive, no” “Not very nice colour, its green, and any green area in food it means mold”

Show interesting Don’t keen to taste

Agree to her company opinion

Give opinion that the example is “not appealing at all”

Don’t recognise it is ham & melon Reveal image2 Recognise that both images are ham & melon Give opinion about current trend of packaging reduction and consider that to present melon as liquid sauce to dip in the Parma ham makes she feel it will be slimy, disgusting

Don’t recognise it is ham & melon Show confusion Reveal image2 Recognise that both images are ham & melon Give opinion to image 1 ”if no one tell me it is ham and melon I wouldn’t know” Hesitate to show preference on image 1

Show interesting very much Eager to try the example (image 1)

Reveal image2 Give opinion “this one is a lot better (image 2)” “If I don’t have to pay for it I will taste (image 1)”

Show interesting Give opinion that the example (image 1) looks like low quality food

Recognise it is a kind of French pastry Recognise they are the same kind Attracted by image 4 Give opinion “this one looks novel” “the way it present”

Don’t recognise a name Recognise that it is a kind of pastry Show preference on image 3 Give opinion “I love strawberry”

Don’t recognise a name Recognise they are the same kind Give opinion that all are not appealing as they looks too dry Attracted by image 4

Show preference on image 1 Give opinion that it is the most appealing, the other images looks too dry

Don’t recognise a name Don’t give opinion

Appendices | 71

Don’t give opinion Show a little bit agreement with company opinion

Don’t give opinion Reveal the description Give opinion “I would prefer chocolate ice cream”

Don’t give opinion

Don’t give opinion

Three British (male)

Trying to find out what it is Mentioned “beautiful” “expensive” Give opinion “wouldn’t eat this because it must be expensive” Reveal the description “oh, definitely not!”

Have problem with a conflict if the dish is savory or dessert

Don’t recognise anything at all

A Canadian (male) and a British (female)

The whole group show interesting Trying hard and discuss with each other to classify the type of the dish Note really tempted to taste Reveal the description “Yuck!”

Recognise Heston as a Chef Recognise The Fat Duck Give impression “expensive” “not affordable”

One in the group recognise Heston as a Chef Give impression ”I don’t like him!” “freak”

Try to find out what is the ingredients Mentioned “cream” “fish” Reveal the description Give opinion “if someone else ordered this and offer me to try a bite, I will”

Don’t recognise anything at all

An American (female) and a British (scientist) (male)

A British (female)

Give opinion “if there is no meat” Reveal the description Let her company answer

Don’t recognise anything at all [Group ask to leave]

Card G

Three British (two female and a male)

Borough Market

Card F

Section 2: Card F –Card G

Show uncertain expression Reveal the description Show unimpressed

Don’t give opinion

Show keenness to guess what it is Reveal the description “it’s ok” “I might eat this” “better that the last one”

Try to guess the ingredients Reveal the description Show disgusting expression The person who know the Chef ask to make sure as she think these are his dishes

Try to find out what is the ingredients but don’t mention anything in particular Reveal the description Express a little bit surprise Give opinion that the dish is acceptable “as foreign food”

Give same opinion to previous image

Card H

Show agreement with company

Recognise the dish as The Fat Duck recipe Willing to have the dish

Don’t recognize Ferran image Recognise elBuilli restaurant Have ever been dining in elBuilli Show impression on elBuilli Give opinion “weird but nice” Ask more over to compare Ferran and Heston cooking approach “elBuill is dull” “just only change the dish”

Don’t recognize both the Chef and elBuill restaurant name Recignise Heston as a Chef Show strong impression on Heston cooking approach Never been to The Fat Duck Really wish to try The Fat Duck Give opinion “he think a lot” “go to ordinary restaurant, but with special cuisine”

Curious Mentioned “egg?” “sponge (cake)?”

Reveal the description Show surprise impression with laughter Eager to try the dish

Show certain the same agreement with company

Appendices | 72

Spanish couple

Ask “what it is?”

Encourage the target interviewee to gives opinion without giving more information Give opinion that she will not eat if she don’t know what it is first

Show interesting and nod Reveal the description Show uncertain expression, a bit surprise but also disappoint Don’t give opinion

Don’t recognise anything at all

Don’t recognise anything at all

Whole Food Market

Two British (male)

Curious, confused Mentioned “cream?” “this looks like mince meat” (refers to red substance under the ice cream) Reveal the description Show surprise impression Eager to try the dish

Recognise Heston image Reveal the description Recognise him as a Chef and his restaurant immediately Give impression “very hard to make reservation” Give opinion “wish to try his restaurant”

Give opinion “I like Asian food, this looks like Asian food so I would” Reveal the description Give opinion “no, thanks”

Make similar response to previous image

Give as same response to previous image

Give as same response to previous image

Give as same response to previous image

Keen to know what it is Reveal the description Eager to try the dish

Appendices | 73

British couple

An Italian (female) and a British (male)

Two Korean (female)

A British and an Australian (both female)

Mention “appealing” Reveal the description Shocked Give opinion that the combination sounds not getting along together very well Don’t recognise the example as The Fat Duck recipe Give information that it is The Fat Duck recipe Eager to try the dish

Don’t give opinion

Don’t recognise anything at all

Wish to taste Reveal the description Still wish to taste

Don’t recognise anything at all

Recognise The Fat Duck Wish to try the restaurant

Wish to taste Reveal the description Still wish to taste

Show a little bit interest Reveal the description Still show constantly expression Wish to try the dish

Don’t recognise anything at all (she is just a visitor from Korea)

Don’t recognise anything at all

Recognise it is food arrange on a plate Don’t show any expression Reveal the description Don’t show any expression Prefer not to have the dish Give opinion “don’t like cream”

Have the same response to her company

Don’t recognise anything at all

Familiar to Heston image Don’t recognise anything else

Give opinion “beautiful” Wish to eat the dish Reveal the description No longer wish to try Don’t recognise the example as The Fat Duck recipe

Recognise Heston as a Chef Recognise The Fat Duck Wish to try the restaurant Give impression “too expensive”

Mention ‘vegetables” Give opinion that she prefer meat

Give opinion that the dish looks fishy and he don’t like sushi and fish dish so he wouldn’t go for it Reveal the description Don’t give particular opinion Show expression that the dish is acceptable

Curious and try to find out what is the ingredients placed on the top

Give opinion “very beautiful green” (colour) Interact with her company to his question “may be it is onion” Reveal the description Don’t wish to taste

Show a little bit interest Reveal the description Still show constantly expression Give opinion that she don’t mind have it

Recognise it is food arrange on a plate Don’t show any expression Reveal the description Don’t show any expression Give opinion that she may have it as the dish don’t obviously show any presence of the snail

Have the similar response to her company

Give opinion “not attractive to me” “I don’t like onion” Reveal the description No wish to try Don’t recognise the example as The Fat Duck recipe

Don’t recognise anything at all

Don’t recognise anyone at all Give a hint that Heston are on television program Memorise that Heston was on documentary program but not sure if this is the same person Mention “scientific” “experiment”

A British (female)

Appendices | 74

Don’t recognise anything at all (he is just a visitor from Australia)

An Australian (male)

Harrods Food Hall

A Kiwi (male)

Give opinion “nice decoration” “expensive restaurant” Reveal the description Give opinion that it is not a conflict for her to have savory ingredients served as dessert but she would not prefer to order the dish

Give opinion “looks nice” “very expensive restaurant” Try to find out what is the ingredients Reveal the description Show a little bit surprise Give opinion “I would try, but if someone else order. I don’t think I’ll order this, just curious” “probably negative feeling”

Try to find out what is the ingredients Mentioned “egg” “cream” Reveal the description Show surprise impression and getting more interested Eager to try the dish

Give opinion that she will get rid of onion (white shredded strips on the top) before eat Reveal the description Mention “I just had Escargot last week”

Try to find out what is the ingredients Mention “beetroot” Reveal the description Show a little bit surprise Give opinion “yes, love to try” “it is better than another one (previous image) its colourful, more colourful” “more edible”

Try to find out what is the ingredients Reveal the description Show constantly surprise impression and interest Eager to try the dish