Can cooking techniques be transferred to tableware? This young designer is looking for the answer.
Cooking The Craft is based on the diploma thesis of young designer Ivo Jedlička at Prague's UMPRUM, who was inspired by cooking techniques. Experience in the kitchen helped him find his way to the final pieces, as did joining forces with Ambiente's creative chef František Skopec – culminating in the creation of six unique tableware designs.
"The purpose of studying at UMPRUM is to guide students through individual artistic fields, to introduce them not only to the basics and historical context of the craft, which they will further develop in their practice, but also to motivate them to find their own way and observe the world around them with the ability to listen and think critically, and to work together across disciplines. The diploma project of Ivo Jedlička is an example of such collaboration under the auspices of the creative laboratory UMlab. The planned pop-up and the entire follow-up project represent one of the possible paths that our graduates take after graduation – we value bilateral cooperation," adds Ida Chuchlíková, vice-chancellor of UMPRUM.
During the creative process, Ivo approached František Skopec, whose background is the UM innovation centre. On the basis of joint debates, the idea of Ivo joining the cooking team also arose. During the preparations for the Siren Test pop-up, Ivo had the opportunity to see more under the hood of the cooking processes. "Most of the ideas for the selection of transformed techniques came from Siren Test, where we cooked together," adds Ivo.
On 20th-22nd September, their pop-up will pay tribute to both crafts – six courses, six designs, ten people, three evenings, taking place on the premises of the UMPRUM Mikulandská Technology Centre. František Skopec will oversee the preparation of meals tailored to each individual design.
"We came up with a vegetarian menu because Ivo is a vegetarian. The dishes are supposed to reflect the production processes of the plates and their visual design – they symbiotically inspire each other," explains František. "For me, the connection with art isn’t as important as the connection with young people who are unafraid to create, and are dedicated to a craft. It’s important to watch how they think and come up with new and novel ideas," he concludes.
Inspired by the craft
When creating tableware, Ivo focused on breadcrumb coatings, laminated dough, tortillas, candy, crème brûlée, cast glass and also a table. Just as in cooking, where one works with a combination of ingredients, a combination of several materials is used to create a single dish. Plates inspired by laminated dough were created by sandwiching sheets of clay (dough) with semi-transparent glaze (butter).
In turn, glasses evoking twisted candies have gained authenticity thanks to soda powder, which creates bubbles in the glass. "In the process of the experiment, I tried everything, from cutting cookies out of clay, to whipping porcelain with egg white – that went mouldy and ended up in the trash. It often happened that the plates did not hold, fell or cracked in the oven, so I am glad that we managed to fine-tune the production process so that the experimental structures can be used and eaten from," describes Ivo.
