The Center for Genomic Gastronomy 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.

SMOG TASTING

DOOMER FOOD: BEANS, BULLETS & BULLION

DISASTER PHARMING

The Edible Time Machine project will seek out interesting ingredients and develop 5 recipes, providing five different ways to think through the future of food systems. Our research process runs concurrent with NCHA‘s Growing Older Together study, and will draw on the food preferences, memories and narratives of research participants as one source of inspiration.

One of the things we hope to contribute through this process to our collaborators and colleauges in the Life Sciences and Healthy Ageing research is a much more diverse, critical and nuanced way of imaging the future of food, and healthy ageing. Especially when employing the lens of Biotechnology and Genomics.

Most of the timelines and narratives we have run into that imagine the future of food and health through the lens of emerging technologies seem to return to the same top-down and techo-deterministic themes of:

• nutraceuticals
• genetic modification (transgenesis & cisgenesis)
• in-vitro meat
• vertical farms
• gene therapy
• personalized medicine
• entomophagy (eating insects) because it is “efficient”…etc.

Here are just two timelines of the future of technology (including food) that we have run into in the last this week:

Envisioning Emergent Technology popped up in our blog feed today and includes these predictions for the near future:

• In-vitro meat
• vertical farming
• Smart Drugs
• Personalized Medicine
• Anti Ageing Drugs

Here is the timeline of Biotechnology from Naturalis:

It includes the following predictions for the future:

• “The last farm is closing down. Our food is increasingly being produced from algae grown in huge tanks.” (((That didn’t work out so well in Windup Girl. However, we ARE intrigued by the idea of a currency based on calories, instead of gold or fiat.)))

• “We have solved all of the mysteries of DNA, but have still not managed to eradicate diseases and death.”

• “Cloning humans is by now medically safe, and the ethical objections are diminishing.”

• “Barren areas, such as deserts, are now used for agriculture. Genetically engineered crops have made these areas fertile.”

• “People live even longer; hence the age of retirement rises to eighty years.” (((Is Greece getting a jump start on this one?)))

There are many well written critiques of technologically-deterministic-futurism including the recently penned The Future Isn’t What it Used To Be from a futurist insider, and the more academic Meals to Come (“accuracy is only one of many reasons why people make predictions.”), so we won’t rehash those arguments in this short space.

The Naturalis Biotechnology timeline exhibit is only one floor down from where our piece will be installed. We are hoping that our artwork serves as a counterpoint by explicitly including ethical, social, cultural and flavor aspects that don’t seem to be factored into much forecasting that uses Science & Technology as its lens.

Here is just a rough list of possible topics that we hope to pursue in the coming months:

• Culinary Eugenics / Biodiversity of the Kitchen / Resistance to Fungible Ingredients
• 2012 Paranoia / End of Empire / Doomer Food / Stockpiling / Hoarding
• Junk Science/ Fad diets / Fast Food Forecasting driving consumer & eater behavior
• Individuals doing things with food technology that were not intended
• The Culinary Innovations of Peak Oil / Economic Contraction / Energy Shortages / Climate Change