Jacopo Sarzi brought his own aprons with him – ‘food design workshop’ worn by Polish designer Maria Jeglinska, who was a great support throughout the whole event
Where to begin? My friend Valentin Loellmann asked me begin of the year if I would like to initiate an event at his beautiful space in Maastricht. I wasn’t up for a product or furniture related exhibition, neither was he. It had to be an evening that our guests will enjoy with all their senses and won’t forget. We both agreed it had to be a dinner!
The person that I had in mind for this was London-based Jacopo Sarzi who I met during a performance of him during last year’s London Design Festival. He mainly works within the kitchen environment, this concerns edible products, kitchen tools, food performances and workshops.
Jacopo is a food designer. He came up with the overall theme of the night, related to Wassily Kandinsky’s book ‘Point and line to plane’. Kandinsky explores the role of the line, point, and other key elements of non-objective painting. It was a revolutionary publication to understanding the evolution of 20th century art.
Last time I was in London Jacopo and I did a series of experiments for the event that took place last Friday. Titled ‘Point and line to plate’ – perceiving food through shape, colour music and taste – a memorable dinner in Maastricht.
Photographer Jonas Loellmann joined us in London in order to record some tunes of the cooking process that he later linked to the menu of the dinner.
Jacopo made a mould for the risotto cubes.
Red crunchy orange – cold beetroot soup. It wasn’t intended, but I think that the menu was very much a mix of Italian and Polish cuisine at the end: a Jacopo & Matylda mix
Abstract of diagram 8 by Wassily Kaninsky – strange enough we couldn’t get blood oranges in Maastricht that’s why we replaced the ingredient with pear. The outcome was less colouful, but still related to shapes.
Polenta triangles
Jacopo also came up with a new wine bottle hanging system. This were the first prototypes he did at home.
Earlier this year, also for the event, still-life photographer Christoph Sagel and I ssembled a series of photographs visualising combinations of ingredients. The diverse settings introduce the subtle and abstract nature of food. We called it ‘Premature dishes’.
Starting point were 6 people who we would like to have dinner with. Amongst these people were design consultant Brent Dzekciorius (Vanilla ice cream with olive oil), Felix Burrichter from Pin-Up (Houmous and Gummibärchen). , and journalist Sophie Lovell (Prawn cocktail) Sorry for the bad choice of lens!
Sophie made it to the dinner with her daughter Orlando Lovell. She assisted Christoph and me during the 3 days we were working on it. Check her website for incredible baked goods!
The final menu for the 40 guests and the team of ten was:
APERETIVO
Noodle bum bum – Zubrowka, plum juice, udon noodle, apple
FIRST
Red crunchy orange – cold beetroot soup with carrot cubes
SECOND
Square, circle and triangle – risotto, polenta, sweet potato
DESSERT
Diagram 8 – feta, mozzarella cone with ice cream and caramelised onion
Snack ‘grissini flowers’
Rebekka Kiesewetter, journalist and my colleague at Depot Basel came from Zurich to join us
Valentin Loellmann‘s studio is a magic place full of plants and handmade furniture
Valentin himself with his girlfriend Jip Linckens
Lovely Julia Aumann did me a favour and took some pictures of the evening. She usually doesn’t take pictures of events.
Fabian von Spreckelsen, Chequita Nahar and Johan
Michael Frahm, Sonja Schödel, Julia Fischer and myself. While we were cooking, making, laughing, observing and serving I had barely time to take pictures.
Best is if you watch the video by Dennis Engel. Thank you Dennis!
POINT AND LINE TO PLATE – A MEMORABLE DINNER IN MAASTRICHT from DennisEngel on Vimeo.
