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Tokyo ventures into designer-food business

Tulip-shaped champagne glasses are placed in front of a field of art designed by French food designer Philippe Di Meo during the ``Fresh Touch'' food-design exhibition in Tokyo. The food-design concept that was launched in France four years ago made its first foray into Japan with a five-day exhibition at an interior showroom in the capital's Omotesando district that drew thousands of people. PHOTO: AFP

With your first course, eat the plates. For your drink, sip out of a tulip. And if there's too much sun coming in, close the salami.

Welcome to the world of "food design" where, even if you are not what you eat, you eat where you are.

In Tokyo, home to thousands of restaurants serving cuisine from almost every nation, the food business hopes to tap a new upscale market by uniting the city's passions for eating and design.

The concept launched in France four years ago has made its first foray into Tokyo with a five-day exhibition at an interior showroom in Omotesando district that drew thousands of people in for a peek.

Upon entering the "restaurant," guests are served their appetizers on what appear to be grape leaves instead of plates and which carry writing that says "Eat me". Despite the texture of cardboard, they are made of flour and edible.

On to the interior, where what appear to be mere curtains turn out to be made of silky ham and salami, which guests are invited to eat.

And the drinks are served in glasses that resemble red tulips, though these are inedible.

"It's a new way of eating, but it is not just about eating. It's also discovering all your senses," says Olivier Voisin, who supervised the food for the Tokyo event.

As seen in Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup can, food and art have always had an intimate relationship, he says.

"What we are trying to do is to get a chef and a designer work together to create a new way of eating," Voisin says.

The Japanese love their fish, but food design offers a rare experience for Tokyo. They can drop their fish into a large container and watch it "swim" in the sauce, as it sinks and then floats.

And for dessert, the guest can pull down a balloon -- and eat the macaroon hanging down from the string.

"I do `food design' on a plate every day but this type of event is a first for me," says Dominique Corby, a French chef who runs a restaurant in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza area who collaborated with a designer on the event's meat courses.

Even though "food design" originated in France, it exists primarily in galleries with little presence in restaurants.

The food industry hopes to develop it in Japan, a country that takes both eating and style seriously.

"A new challenge like this, with a fusion of food and high-level design, will stimulate the market," says Tomoyoshi Yokota, an executive chef at ANA Hotel Tokyo, one of Japan's leading hotels.

Although customers come first and foremost to a restaurant to eat, they can also prioritize things such as service and atmosphere, he says.

"It is difficult for a chef to seize all the elements. But the chef can create a concept for his restaurant and show the way for food design. And he can collaborate with someone professional in food design to add value," Yokota says.

Many countries can only dream of lavishing as much attention to how their food looks. And even in a wealthy country ready to splurge, some customers are bound to be turned off by the concept.

"If designers don't have enough understanding, or at least interest, in a type of food, the collaboration might turn out to be simply a design event," Yokota says.

Voisin says that the food design could spread in Japan by gradually introducing elements in restaurants, hotels and weddings -- not offering a full-set food-design meal.

"We want to provide something good but a little more fun," Voisin says.

Maia Maniglier, a kimono designer who was a media consultant for the Tokyo event, predicts food design will gradually develop in Japanese restaurants.

"It's not one pattern. It can evolve in many ways," she says.
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