#AWESOME
Action Bronson Instagrammed All 24 Courses at Noma
To awesome to not be the first story of the week. A couple weeks ago, chef-turned-rapper Action Bronson Instagrammed an entire meal at Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant. The photos (minus dessert courses) arechronicled on First We Feast, including that beef-tartare-with-ants situation that’s getting a lot of attention lately.
Also of note: they all included the hashtag #fuckthatsdelicious, a reference to his web series on Vice and (probably) a general sentiment about Rene Redzepi’s food. Well-done, sir. (Can you get me a reservation?)
THE FUTURE
“Rethinking Eating” in the New York Times
Last week’s New York Times Sunday Review ran a great piece explaining what’s new in food-tech — not apps or new delivery services or new methods of paying — actual food technology. Products like Hampton Creek and Soylent coming from Silicon Valley aim to “reinvent” the way we eat. This, as the author calls it, is Food 2.0, and then she invokes the famous Steve Jobs quote, “people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
The space is hot right now. Plenty of VCs are pouring money into these new technologies, too. If you’re at all interested, the Times piece is worth a read. (Also included: dissenting thoughts from Marion Nestle, who provides the best quote of the article. I’ll let you find it.) It’s a great state-of-the-state writeup and a good starting point for thinking about what will be the food of the future.
CONTEST
Barilla’s 3D Printed Pasta Contest
3D-printed food is already a thing (and will likely continue to become more of a thing), and Barilla pasta is jumping on the train. Last winter, the company said it was exploring the option of creating 3D-printed pasta. Now, they’re officially looking for their next product, and have launched a competition for the design of a new pasta shape. The main restriction: the shape must be something that traditional manufacturing could not have achieved before the advent of the 3D printer. The pasta shape of the future, if you will.
This is, apparently, just the latest in pasta-shape innovation. In 1995, Muji art director Kenya Hara curated the Architects’ Macaroni Exhibition, which solicited new pasta designs from 20 different Japanese architects. (A few photos with that link.)
The contest is fun and a little bit quirky, but 3D-printed food could have some real implications. In this case, a pasta shape that cooks perfectly, or is crafted to the exact specifications of its sauce for maximum flavor.Way more exciting than the dinosaur-shaped Kraft mac’n’cheese of my youth.
PICTURES
When You Throw a GoPro in Boiling Water…
GoPros capture some pretty spectacular footage of things from otherwise un-viewable angles; video from the wing of a plane, a first-person view of an amazing ski jump; and now, what an egg looks like underwater as it’s poached. Apparently a chef dropped his GoPro into the water and captured some gorgeous video footage.Also, apparently the camera blacked out for a bit after exposure to the high heat, but soon regained full function. (This is not an endorsement of dropping expensive electronics into boiling hot water but how gorgeous is this footage?)
SHOUTOUT:
To Zero Foodprint, an initiative announced by Lucky Peach’s Chris Ying at this year’s MAD conference. It’s aim: to reduce a restaurant’s carbon footprint and affect climate change. They’re starting with a small group of restaurants (Copenhangen’s Noma and a forthcoming New York City restaurant from the Franks behind New York’s Frankies) and will offer a certification for offsetting their environmental impact. This is great.
Digestifs
- A guide to football-watching in New York City — The Infatuation
- ICYMI: 8 restaurant+tech questions from MAD4 — me, on Medium
- Roy Choi + Daniel Patterson’s plans for a new kind of fast food — Eater
