Designer Food Challenge: Another Form of Design

As one of the many creative exercises I forced upon my students at the Design Retreat this year, cooking the evening meal on Sunday night was the most fun. Students were paired up and assigned a part of the meal. They then had to shop in Taos at an organic food store, and then prepare the meal. It was a blast! We had access to the guest kitchenette, and various kitchen tools and equipment.

I shared a story with my students about a ‘tah dah’ moment I had several years back. I realized (from a chef), that their world is no different than ours. Their creation and design of food is exactly like clothing design. They have their own elements of design (food, color, texture, flavors), and they use the same guiding principles to pull their design together. I couldn’t believe how I could miss that all these years, and I have never looked at food preparation the same way.

So, on with the music (sixties and seventies), and the hubbub of ten women moving around the kitchen. It was like a scene out of The Big Chill. There was chopping, sautéing, baking, stirring, and so on. Of course, the kicker was that I asked each group to name their dish using garment/pattern design and/or Garment Designer terms as part of the name. S-t-r-e-t-c-h…. as always in design.

Below, enjoy the food we shared. What a creative and magic evening meal we had.

This cocktail (a variation on Sangria) is called the Give/Take Symmetry, after a function in Garment Designer. The Give/Take is between the red wine and the lemon/sprtiz base.

Our appetizer cooks decided that their creations would be related to darts. The size can change. So, we have below the C-cup dart, and the B-cup dart.


The cooks of our salad decided that salad is the basis of survival. One must prepare food that suits the body. So they entitled their pasta salad Custom Sloper.

The main dish was full of color (and vegetables). The chefs involved called it Colore Vegetable Symmetry.

Ahh.... dessert. The pastry chef, Lisa, decided to call her Peach Pie, Display>Pi. She felt it was a heavenly garment with a scalloped edge.


And so ended a perfectly delightful meal. Hungry?