Experimental Food Spectacular: Food’s Past and Future

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And for something a little educational … but still involving food of course. Heh heh. The VA& in conjunction with The Experimental Food Society organised a lecture tonight on the The Past and Future of Food and Experimentation. The evening started, logically, with the past as presented by Professor Roland Rotherham, a known food historian, and Master Chef and Butter Sculptor Simon Smith. Professor Roland started the talk and then, after referencing a favourite dish of his, Simon would do a demonstration. This part of the talk was actually a little slow for me. Professor Roland was funny enough and sure he gave us some interesting facts but it just wasn’t that exciting I’ve never been a great history student! And the food demonstration was less than thrilling too as there was no electricity allowed in the lecture room so all Simon could make was salads.

The second half of the evening was much more interesting and really grabbed my attention. Food Futurologist Dr Morgaine Gaye took us through what we could expect in food over the next 18 months. Some of her predictions were way out there but in a very exciting way. She predicted such developments as:

  • Chocolate that would clean your teeth at the same time you ate it
  • A greater focus on those foods which are multi-functional
  • People actually being able to grow their own meat in the way we grow vegetables – apparently NASA started the investment into research into this and then PETA took it over. (Tip:Google “Cocoon grow meat” and you’ll find heaps of articles from 2009 regarding this concept cooker)
  • Chocolate covered bacon
  • We should see insects hitting our plates big time
  • Food coming from vending machines – in Japan I’ve already seen that you can have cans of hot coffee or chocolate from the vending machine, in Amsterdam you can get foods like burgers and chips, but Dr Morgaine was predicting that you could actually choose your ingredients and the machine could produce your meal for you
  • South America is going to be a big influence on our eating
  • Alfajor, kind of like jaffa cakes, are going to be the new Cupcake
  • Food science. Clearly the molecular dining of places such as El Bulli and Fat Duck have already been a hit in recent times. But there will be a move toward even more utilization of science through chocolate syringes, food tattoos and scratch and sniff food
  • Ice Cream Sandwiches – Dad you’re ahead of your time. Dad was making us ice cream sandwiches from when we were little tots
  • Geometry will feature in the way we present food. E.g. Pizza Cones. They looked pretty cool on the slideshow she had. Things coming in balls.
  • Olfactory themes – so people indulging in jus the smell of food. She predicts there will be USBs which can be used to emit smells

    • Absolutely fascinating! The talk was worth it just for that part of the night. Actually, I was rather surprised at the types of people in the audience. There were a heap of what seemed to be students – they were all fastidiously taking notes. I felt like a student again!

    If there was one disappointment of the evening it was in the catering/refreshments. I was expecting more than the free wine/juice and small cakes by the POP bakery. I thought there might have been more exciting items on offer – such as the chocolate covered bacon!