The art, craft and science of what we eat and how we eat it has engaged civilisations across the ages. Rituals, routines, manners and methods have been developed to ensure that the way we eat and the tools we use to eat with perform a huge range of functions; from preventing us contaminating our food with unwashed hands, to marking us out as from a particular social class.
In recent years, part of our research at the Institute of Making has involved investigating what materials themselves taste like, and how the materials from which cutlery is and could be made, affect our perception of food. Out of this research came a set of tasting spoons that have influenced designers, chefs, material scientists and psychologists alike. We have celebrated the potential of the objects we use to eat with to be something that can bring joy, delight, functionality and tastiness to a meal. For us, the spoon is just the beginning.
In order to explore this potential, we teamed up with the Worshipful Company of Cutlers, to celebrate their 600th anniversary, and run a competition to design and make a new implement, tool or device for eating. An exhibition will showcase some of the extraordinary, thought-provoking and beautiful things that were submitted.
http://www.instituteofmaking.org.uk/blog/2016/09/competition-results-of-the-cutlery-design-challenge