Food Design: An Interview with Faculty Emilie Baltz

Food Design: An Interview with Faculty Emilie Baltz

Emilie Baltz, designer and faculty, has recently been interviewed on SVA’s Close Up blog, where she discusses the Food Design in France workshop, as well as the role of food and food experiences in culture. It’s a thoughtful and personal piece, and here’s a, well, taste:

I grew up between France and America and have always been interested in the relationship between behavior, culture and identity. When I was growing up, going back and forth between countries always put my personal and cultural identity in question. As I asked myself who I was, I naturally questioned what culture was, and how it was built, shared and sustained. The biggest difference I found was in eating habits. Be it prepared in a home kitchen or a purchased packaged product, in front of a TV or around a table, disposable cutlery or cast silver, food behaviors seemed to lay the foundation for all other consumption behaviors: how people ate was how they acted.

With this lens, my own practice in Food Design is often very personal. It is an investigation that facilitates an understanding and creation of identity. Given this interest, I designed the program with a focus towards developing the individual “tastes” of each participant within the assignment of designing “Travel Cakes.” We were lucky to have an international group, which facilitated a palette of diverse and personal products.

Read the whole thing here.