What does love taste like? What about fear? Or relief? You order your meal from a menu of carefully curated feelings. You start eating, and you start listening. You hear a stranger’s voice. They tell you about the food you are eating, what it means to them, and how the memory of it makes them feel. By the end of it, are they still a stranger
‘Comfort Food’ brings people’s emotional food memories to life. It builds on the old age wisdom that food brings people together. If food is a powerful social connector, can it also be used to trigger empathy between two individuals with radically different life experiences? ‘Comfort Food’ aims to remind us that, in what is often described as the age of loneliness, eating can be a powerful act of social intimacy.
The method
We spend a few hours with each person to record their story. By exploring certain emotions and themes, a story will be sparked around a certain dish that feels important to share. Together we will cook the dish, capturing the little details that makes this dish so special to them.
We deliver 3 to 5 stories per event. Each event is around a different theme, and each story represents a different course. While people listen to the story, they taste the dish. After each story there is an opportunity to share what the story means to you, and what memory it might trigger for you. Each story comes with a recipe, so that you can cook the dish at home.
Past events
Comfort Food at the Migration Museum UK
From a travelling cake to 750,000 fried eggs; stories of migration and resilience, bought to life on an animated dining table. Commissioned by the Migration Museum for their immersive exhibition Room To Breathe. The audio stories were animated by the talented Kate Anderson.
Festival selections:
BIAF 2019 Korea
Bay Area International Children's Film Festival 2020 US,
DocFeed 2020 Netherlands
Revolutions Per Minute 2020 US
Supper clubs for the National Trust London
For the National Trust London's latest exhibition 'Home away from home: the India Club', we ran a series of supper clubs. Around 100 guests joined us for an immersive evening to learn about the rich social history of one of the city’s most fascinating community spaces: The India Club. They experienced the personal stories of people who have called this place 'home' throughout the years with all their senses, while sharing memories and stories with their fellow table companions.
