Where good design and good food meet
29/02/2012It’s no secret that we make a big deal about eating well at Vostok. If there’s one thing Javier, Ricardo and I have in common is just that. Sure we try to eat healthy but, what really rocks our boat is good, hearty, unpretentious food.
The correlation is quite obvious once you get your mind around it because the same reasoning that guides our design principles, guides our eating habits. Or at least, what we –with more or less luck– aspire for them to be. In other words:
In this comparison we’re not taking into account food à la Ferran Adrià. Not because we don’t consider it food or we don’t like it, but basically because it can’t be separated from Art*. In Adrià’s own words: food at El Bulli isn’t meant to nourish you (though it does), it’s meant to be an emotional experience, an event. And we don’t consider Design to be that. For Vostok, Design (with a capital letter D) is, to quote Mr. Eames, a method of action: a tool to solve problems. And therefore something that can only be compared to basic, hearty food. Food that is useful, that has a purpose. That has no artistic aspirations.
At a first glance this appreciation might be quite banal but if you take a closer look, you’ll realize it all makes sense. Because these principles aren’t just our design principles, or our food principles, they’re the principles that guide who we are and what we do.
What about pleasure, you might ask? Eating good food for the mere pleasure of it? Well, to quote Charles Eames again, who would say that pleasure is not useful?
*There’s a wonderful exception to this: La Comida de la Familia, a recipe book that has been recently edited and that includes most of the dishes the team at El Bulli had for lunch before the action started. These are all good, traditional, hearty and timeless recipes. A little gem.
