While visiting the Design Fair at the London Design Festival, I met Creative Chef.  I was taken on a journey to London 2218 where there is no money and instead, individuals cultivate and trade in the food that they are able to grow themselves.  This future stems from the need to reduce dependency on processes foods and air miles in order to improve public health and our carbon impact. Only food that can easily be grown in the UK is available in the UK, this means no Rice, Tea, Coffee or Chocolate and will therefore inevitably involve a huge cultural shift.  I was told the story of how neighbours will work together and socialise to exchange goods in order to survive and thrive in this more sustainable future.  While this story was being told, a food performance piece was also taking place; cucumbers, beetroot and bee pollen were all added to the dish as each social interaction took place, eventually building up a nutritious and delicious meal.

Creative Chef not only show great design in the food that they create with their ideologies in mind but also create unusual and exciting crockery to hold the food which also becomes part of the culinary performance.  For example, in the London performance that I witnessed, the crockery reflected urban living. There were fluid shapes with walkways between which were reminiscent of futuristic Sci-Fi film backdrops. The surfaces for food provide another fun dimension to eating and poses the questions why are all plates much of the same?

In my opinion, Creative Chef shows great design because he makes the audience think. Through providing an enjoyable performance he captivates his audience with the combination of food art and creative ceramic designs into becoming invested in Creative Chef’s vision of a better future.  Maybe great design doesn’t have to solve the whole problem but instead encourage people to make small, more sustainable changes in their life.