19:00
RE-THINKING FOOD
Our ideas about the food of the future are limited. It's been years since we considered anything but organic or local production as the main prospects for tomorrow's nutrition.
Nevertheless, technological progress is opening up new options for us to push our thinking about what's on the menu. And it's not just creating new culinary experiences and formats, but maybe even long-term ways to satisfy the hunger of the growing world population. In the last programme, the Gasthaus zum Übermorgen put three extreme culinary visions up for discussion: nutrition without eating, enough food for all and no more home cooking – with help from 3D printers and cooking robots.
Guests were invited to push back the boundaries of gastronomy and food culture and to think about how much change is desirable, and to what extent radical innovation in our diets makes sense.
17:01
RE-THINKING FOOD
Unsere Vorstellungen vom Essen der Zukunft sind beschränkt. Bio oder lokale Produktion gelten seit Jahren als Fluchtpunkte der Ernährung von morgen.
Dabei eröffnet der technologische Fortschritt neue Möglichkeiten um unseren Speiseplan weiterzudenken. Und schafft dabei nicht nur neue kulinarische Erlebnisse und Gestaltungsformen, sondern vielleicht gar Ansätze um den Hunger der wachsenden Weltbevölkerung langfristig zu stillen. Dazu stellte das Gasthaus zum Übermorgen im letzten Programm drei extreme kulinarische Visionen zur Diskussion: Ernährung ohne zu Essen, genug Nahrung für alle und nie mehr selber kochen – mit Hilfe von 3D Druckern und Kochrobotern.
Die Gäste wurden eingeladen, die Grenzen der Gastronomie und Esskultur zu sprengen und darüber nach zudenken, wieviel Neues wünschbar, und inwiefern radikale Innovation auf dem Speiseplan sinnvoll ist.
19:00
PERFORMANCE FOOD
The now well-known Gasthaus zum Übermorgen went into its 4th round after the summer break, this time on the subject of "performance food":
Expectations on food are growing. The days when the issue was just to provide our bodies with energy are long gone. It used to be enough for food to fill our stomachs after a hard day of physical work, but the knowledge worker of our time needs far fewer calories to tackle the day. With growing knowledge about food, our awareness of our bodies has also increased. We consider all the functions that our food fulfils in our way of life – and it becomes performance food.
Depending on our lifestyle and ambitions, we now eat to become cleverer, better-looking, happier and of course healthier. The positive consequences of this development are evident: we live longer, tend to be healthier and thereby take pressure off the whole system. At the same time, however, we have to ask ourselves: are we sacrificing culinary pleasure and the role of the meal as social glue? With the increasing pressure to perform when eating, aren't we just generating more unhealthy stress? And can food actually make us better-looking, more competent and more intelligent?
These and even more questions about the implications of this development for society and business were addressed in the company of Dr Liv Krämer and Dr Thilo Beck at the launch of a new series in the Gasthaus zum Übermorgen.
19:00
FOOD WASTE – CULINARY CYCLES
Evening event: 28 May 2014
Lunchtime: 6, 13, 20 June and 4 July 2014
Gasthaus zum Übermorgen, Bärengasse 22
The third thematic cycle at the “Gasthaus zum Übermorgen” was all about dealing sustainably with food.
The facts are well known: at present, one third of our food lands in the bin. A large part of that comes from restaurants and private households that have shopped too much, cooked too much and not planned carefully enough. Huge quantities of groceries go bad in the refrigerator and are never eaten. In actual fact, the reasons for the waste are also obvious: because food is available in abundance and prices are low its value is not appreciated in the affluent society.
Guests at the “Gasthaus zum Übermorgen” joined environmental scientist Claudio Beretta and farmer Renzo Blumenthal to look for ideas on how to change the way we eat and how a cycle-based food system for the future could be developed.
19:00
FOOD PORN – GLAMOUR ON A PLATE
From 16 April to 23 May 2014, the “Gasthaus zum Übermorgen” devoted its culinary attentions to the theme of FOOD PORN. As before, a three-course menu surprise was served in cooperation with the SV Group and culinary expert Patrick Zbinden. Sociologist Sami Coll of the University of Geneva introduced the evening. He explained what was behind this form of self-portrayal: spectacular dishes are presented sensuously and with deliberate sensuality and celebrated online under the label of “Food Porn”.
In addition to culinary enjoyment, the focus was primarily on discussing the consequences of this trend towards staging and sexualising food. Guests had the chance to discuss the phenomenon with their neighbours at table and to state their opinions on further questions by attaching stickers, for example as to whether “food porn” raises our awareness of quality and origins of food or is more likely to lead to glamorous but inferior meals. The highlight of the event was a photo competition: people were asked to stage and photograph their desserts. The prize awarded to the person who submitted the boldest or most creative photo was an opportunity to shadow food photographer Pia Grimbühler at a shoot and learn some secret tricks of the trade.
19:00
SPACE FOOD
The "Gasthaus zum Übermorgen” was launched between 19 March and 11 April 2014 with the topic of SPACE FOOD. Swiss space travel expert and TV presenter Bruno Stanek explained in a futuristic setting how we might soon be getting our nourishment in the age of the planned colonisation of Mars. Insight into the methods of the space kitchen followed, presented by culinary expert Patrick Zbinden, before the last highlight was served in cooperation with the SV Group: the galactic menu. The exchange of views among the guests also played a key role: which foods should be the subject of NASA research, and what “space food” could and should be served in our restaurants? Dessert was an ice cream made with dry ice – a special sensory experience for the guests that ended the culinary journey and the evening.