Music

Dining And Design Converge At 'Taste Festival Berlin'

By Layne Mosler

Published May 31, 2012 at 1:00 PM EDT

At Taste Festival Berlin, Japanese culinary artist Ayako Suwa will feature "food creation" dinners, in which each dish is used to create a story and evoke an emotional response.

From Bauhaus to street art, Berlin's history of design is rich and well-known, although few would cast the city among the gastronomic avant-garde.

The first annual Taste Festival Berlin offers proof that the city's imaginative spirit has expanded to eating. Connecting the sensual world of food with visionary ideas of design, the festival brings together over 50 artists, chefs, food stylists, architects, and designers from around the world for 10 days of food and creativity, beginning tomorrow, June 1st.

Held at in Mitte, the Taste Festival combines exhibitions (including "illusions of a small world," an insect city in Plexiglas where a cook will prepare grasshopper sushi for visitors), coffee and sake tastings, "eat art" performances exploring love affairs inspired by the shapes of fruit and vegetables, and reservations-only guerilla dinners by Japanese food artist, Ayako Suwa.

"We are linking design and food for the first time like this," festival co-organizer, Pascal Johanssen, says. "It is new in terms of curating a mixture of exhibition and happening."

Aimed to challenge participant's ideas about taste and inspire people to think about how they construct their meals, the festival also offers workshops, lectures, a daily "mini-market" featuring rare products and futuristic street food dishes, a packaging exhibition showcasing outstanding product designs, and screenings of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world's greatest sushi chef.