Styles
15 January 2021
By Marion Chatel-Chaix, founder of the studio Exquisite & the podcast Chefs d’œuvre !
If design is inspired by Food, the reverse is also true! Popularised by Marc Brétillot, this Food Designer questions the act of feeding oneself by infusing food with the reflections and codes of design. Also known as culinary design, this new discipline shakes retinas and taste buds, challenges preconceived ideas about food and triggers new impressions, emotions and flavours. While sight directly influences the perception of taste, it is understandable that design continually inspires renowned chefs and the food trends that result from them.
Marion Chatel-Chaix, founder of the Exquisite studio, culinary style office, sheds light on these cross influences with this moodboard that gets to the heart of this tasty topic!
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Gourmet
Crunchy
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Sweet
Salty
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Chef
Designer
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Gelatin
Resin
Neo-vintage rolls
The design is a real eye-catcher that embraces the geometric shapes and attractive colours of the world of food. The pastry sector is at the forefront, lending its cylindrical shapes to the most creative designers such as Michael Malmborg and its meridian, which gives a soft and greedy aesthetic.
Resin or gelatin?
Marshmallow pink, pistachio green, frosted mint blue, the sherbet shades of mochi ice cream and gelatinous textures breathe a candid and delicate air into the design universe. This is the case with the creations of Matthias Borowski and Sabine Marcelis, who brilliantly translate the attributes of these sweets with gourmet gelatinous cubes.
Lamps also join the culinary art and adopt unctuous shapes that evoke English jelly and custard. Whilst the lampshade of Gae Aulenti’s table lamp seems to spread out on a tray in the image of a royal gelatine, India Mahdavi’s Don Giovanni lamp seems to take on the shape of a pastry bag.
Strawberry Charlotte Cake
Rounded shapes, pastel tones, delicate materials… All the ingredients of the Strawberry Charlotte Cake can be found in the creators’ designs.
Terrazzo optical illusion
Chefs draw from the designers’ material library to give their creations a singular appearance: marbled or speckled. The mottled side of the terrazzo and the glazed effect of the marble are used in optical illusions by Chocolatelab or Brad Kilgore on his duck lasagna.
Bitumen and praline paving
Architecture interferes in the kitchen to create unique dishes! Paying homage to the Parisian cobblestones, symbols of May 68, and to the structure of Notre Dame de Paris, the chocolate chef Patrick Roger adds his stone to the edifice of the food-archi panorama by re-editing his praline cobblestones. A gustatory ode to raw materials, architecture and French history that is particularly relevant today.
Concrete, limestone and moon rock inspire chefs. Radical, even primitive aesthetics that call for rough and abrupt materials. A raw aspect that has been rocking the design trends for some time now and is infiltrating the food industry, almost like a return to the essential.
Vaporous onirism
With your head in the clouds but your hand on the dough? Possible, because a wind of dreaminess is blowing in the kitchens and also in the design studios. In both areas, the airy and puffy creations are adorned in white meringue. A surrealist aesthetic between Magritte and Yayoi Kusama which is still making a name for itself!
Under the océan
From Ruth Harrison’s iodised ceramics to meringue and flake pies, we are only a step away! In design as in food, maritime aesthetics take chefs and designers under the ocean into a rocky and mysterious world. The latest example is the restaurant Oursin imagined by Simon Porte Jacquemus, where the trompe-l’oeil plates incorporate 3D shellfish and crustaceans before welcoming real (and fresh!) seafood.
