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A Year of Culinary Rooted Creativity

With the one year anniversary of lockdown behind us, we wanted to highlight two projects with culinary rooted creativity that emerged during incubation. One is a look back at how we ate in 2020, and the other a look into the future of how we can eat again together in the future.

SOURDOUGH \\\ CORONA FOOD HABITS \\\ Photo: Angela Lamprecht

First, is the observational photo series conceived by hej studios’ Creative Director, Brini Fetz and brand strategist Lisa Langmantel, captured by Austrian-based photographer Angela Lamprecht. The group took a closer look at last year’s meal plan, and how our collective eating habits evolved from a social and cultural perspective. Their concept of reflecting on the culinary monotony and receptive routines of lockdown was visualized in 8 monochromatic images.

ZOOM DRINKING \\\ CORONA FOOD HABITS \\\ Photo: Angela Lamprecht

BUY LOCAL \\\ CORONA FOOD HABITS \\\ Photo: Angela Lamprecht

TAKE OUT \\\ CORONA FOOD HABITS \\\ Photo: Angela Lamprecht

HEALTHY FOOD HABITS \\\ CORONA FOOD HABITS \\\ Photo: Angela Lamprecht

HOMECOOKING \\\ CORONA FOOD HABITS \\\ Photo: Angela Lamprecht

GO-TO-DISH: PASTA \\\ CORONA FOOD HABITS \\\ Photo: Angela Lamprecht

SNACKING \\\ CORONA FOOD HABITS \\\ Photo: Angela Lamprecht

David Hockney, A Bigger Splash, 1967

The second project we wanted to showcase is actually Pinch’s Pool Party. Inspired by David Hockney’s iconic pool paintings, our latest food furniture design was developed to make future party-goers feel safe by offering individualized portions, but presented with a splash of POP. Thus, the pool is adorned with 80s square white tiles and fun vibrant accents of yellow and blue. At Pinch, we love solving party problems, and so re-imagining how grab-and-go “buffets” could remain COVID-friendly while offering an interactive component for the guest was very important to us. In this instance, food is warmed via a sous-vide wand hidden in the diving board, keeping the floating glass jars of goodness at the perfect temperature. Two of our favorite jar menus for this interaction are a faux risotto with Arborio rice, maitake mushrooms, mushroom demi-glace, egg yolk and parmesan butter. The other a zucchini bolognese, with roasted tomato, cavatelli and mirepoix. Guests select their jar, shake to emulsify + enjoy, without ever coming in contact with another party-goer’s plate.

TJ Girard is a sought-after food designer and creative consultant, celebrated for staging theatrical, interactive food + beverage experiences. She now resides in California where her creativity is solar powered! TJ writes the Design Milk column called Taste.