NEWS

Feeding Times Special: Vegan Ortolan

FEEDING TIMES

As the Center for Genomic Gastronomy, Zack Denfeld and I curated the current exhibition at the Science Gallery, EDIBLE. We were really excited about getting visitors to experience parts of the exhibition through taste - one of the senses that is often disregarded in exhibitions.

To bring this component to life we commissioned culinary extraordinaire Heather K. Julius (who also runs the Special Snowflake Studio) to develop recipes, challenging her to create dishes such as the Vegan Ortolan. It was an inspiring collaboration and you can find all of Heather's recipes for edible, as well as recipes from other foodies, chefs and scientists on the Science Gallery website.

The feeding times will run twice daily for the duration of the exhibition, serving a new recipe every three days. Today was the first day for Vegan Ortolan.

ABOUT VEGAN ORTOLAN

The traditional preparation of the ortolan bird in France demands that they are captured alive, force-fed, drowned in Armagnac and eaten whole. Although it is illegal to prepare and eat, the dish retains a forbidden attraction for some adventurous eaters. What better way to challenge the skills of a chef than to create a vegan recipe which simulates the experience of crunching through the skin, guts and bones of a small bird, without using any animal products? This dish is intended to be consumed in the traditional way — with a large napkin covering the head and the face — to keep the flavours in, and to hide one’s shame from God.

Tasting notes for traditionally prepared ortolan emphasize the rich foie gras like taste of the flesh, the crunch of the many tiny bones and the bitterness of the guts.


The feeding time specials change every three days for the duration of the exhibition. Here is Conor updating the times for today.


The nests are ready and the Eaters are taking their seats.


Enguerran, head chef for the exhibition is plating the vegan ortolan.


The dish is traditionally eaten with a cloth over your head - to keep the aromas in and to hide your shame from God.



The Fig symbolises the head and beak, while the body is represented by a tofu pocket.

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Center for Genomic Gastronomy: Curating upcoming exhibition EDIBLE.

EDIBLE: A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

Recently I've been working away quietly as the Center for Genomic Gastronomy, curating and designing EDIBLE - the upcoming exhibition at the Science Gallery in Dublin.

There will be a number of great exhibits and lots of things to taste. Early on in the process of developing EDIBLE, we decided to narrow the scope and focus on the experience of eating under the maxim: 'eaters are agents of selection'. We wanted to make a more explicit connection between the kitchen and the biosphere, and the way individual chefs and eaters serve as a bridge between these two domains. We are excited to see how the possibility of eating some of the exhibits, rather than just looking or touching, invites discussion and debate.

Edible opens to the public Feb. 10 and will run until April 6, 2012. Hope to see you there!

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DA4G Award

Yashas Shetty, Zack Denfeld and I won one of the Design and Art for Genomics Awards together with our partner Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging with our project Edible Time Machine. The consortium is studying how diets impact healthy aging. Dovetailing with their current research, the Getting Old Together study - Zack, Yashas and I have proposed to create a collection of recipes that imagine near and far future diets of aging Netherlanders from multiple perspectives: genomic, gastronomic and ecological. How will changes in climate, demography and energy change the genomes and food technologies that compose Dutch food cultures?

Our work on the Edible Time Machine will commence shortly, and will culminate with an Exhibition in June at the beautiful Naturalis Museum in Leiden.

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