Looking at the Glam Diners card, we were intrigued by the notion of glamour and how it might both intersect and be in tension with issues of justice and sustainability. In the words of one of us: “What does glamorous eating that’s [also] an efficient eating look like?”
Our prototyped Food Waste Glam recipe was prompted by the following question: “I was wondering if there was a way of doing something that has a sense of abundance but actually used things that are easily available”.
“to make [something] desirable, it has to have some degree of exclusivity to it […] the notion of just and the notion of status are in contrast to each other […] justice’s always got that problem on its hands.”
To respond to that provocation, we decided to ideate a dish that was at once exclusive and accessible; glamorous and sustainable; extravagant and healthy. To provide the dish with a sense of glamour and exclusivity extravaganza, we framed it as a complex elaboration: an intricate onigiri layered with flavours and textures.
“we wanna make a meal that’s accessible to everyone yet exclusive; that is extravagant and has a lot and yet is efficient. We have a lot of tensions and contradictions in our meal that we want to bring in.”
[they all laugh under breath]
— Discussion among participants
We carefully selected ingredients that might be considered exclusive (spirulina), sustainable (seaweed), accessible (rice), extravagant (pomegranate), glamorous (ice cream) and healthy (seaweed and rice).
The resulting Frozen Onigiri Ricecream with Pomegranate and a Dash of Spirulina is an attempt at exploring how experience and sustainability might not necessarily be an “either or” binomial, but can embody qualities of both.
In doing so, our onigiri presents a way of thinking about the complex interrelationships between those often opposing concepts, by eating them together.
