Foodcurators

From fertilizer warehouse to food design studio

For a long time, we’ve been searching for a location with more space and more possibilities that match our plans and ambitions. And we’ve finally found it! Since October 1st, we’ve been the proud owners of this warehouse (realistically: two walls with an asbestos roof) on the Silo site in Middelburg.

It’s still hard to imagine, but here we’re building something special. Starting next year, the following will be visible:
- a spacious studio for design work, prototyping, and production
- a kitchen for flavor experiments and the development of our pop-up restaurant
- a multifunctional space for projects and collaborations
- enough space to properly welcome our clients

Major renovations are needed, and we’re doing this as consciously as possible, using many secondhand and residual materials. What’s new must be reversible and reusable. The design is by , and we’re handling the construction ourselves.

We can’t wait until the final results are here and we can start new collaborations!

𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥
The whole world is on our plate, yet our food is becoming increasingly less diverse. Everywhere in the world the same species of cattle and same species of crops are bred. We are rapidly losing a wealth of local heritage, local flavors and local crafts. A universal food system might seem highly efficient but it is indeed very fragile.

Photo:

𝐙𝐔𝐌-𝐄𝐗 𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩
Fresh is a magic word in the supermarket. The ‘fresh’ warm apple pie that just came out of the oven was still frozen an hour ago. The tomatoes were picked weeks in the past. Fresh fish turns out to be thawed.
The orange juicer reassuringly squeezes juice right in front of us; this is truly fresh. Once the juice has been squeezed the oranges fall into a closed container, away from sight. In a few seconds a fresh orange is degraded to waste; trash.
ZUM-EX reconstructs squeezed oranges into new ‘fresh’ specimens.

As perfomed during Mostly Modern Festival, April 2024, Oostkerk Middelburg (NL).
Photo:

Stamtafel De Wolden for . A place for get-togethers situated around the theme of community spirit. The settings consists of a table hand-carved with anecdotes and statements, a tablecloth embroidered with headlines and news items about community spirit (locally referred to as ‘naoberschap’), special toasting classes with etchings of the rural environment and a hyperlink to an online meeting, and a drink with flavortones as sensorial translations of rural vs urban inequality in politics.
You can read all about this project on our website. The project is still om display until the end of this month.

Photo: Ester Hardon BloeiKracht

(𝐮𝐧)𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐥
When prosperity increases, meat consumption also increases; even surpassing what is healthy. Plus, the richer we get the more fast food we eat. It is the paradox of our increasing wealth: we eat (too) much but suffer from hidden hunger as we do not get all needed nutrients. The food production system is fully pumped up: inflated large volumes without real substance or taste.
(un)Happy Meal serves two vegetables which typically often contain a lot of water and little taste. In this dish they become very tasty, although they no longer look so radiant. What do we find more important: the picture or the true content of our food?

Sketch for , 2023

For @zuiderzeemuseum we developed a beer concept involving a flavor toolbox from which regional beer brewers can draw inspiration. This way the Zuiderzeebier is an evergrowing collection of beer interpretations of the Zuiderzee history. A new style has recently been added: Visserswit. A fresh beer with smoky undertones. The beer glass is designed to be complementary to each different beer from the collection: every glass is unique yet serially produced. Visserswit is a collab with @brouwerijhoornsnat

Eten in de kerkbanken van De Oostkerk: en het wordt écht iets heel bijzonders! Er zijn nog maar een paar plekjes vrij voor aanstaande zondag

𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐎𝐏
A local product which is exported all over the world, yet it remains largely invisible.
Zeeland (NL) grows a mass of potatoes. Many are ‘innovator’ species: a specific potato developed by the french fries industry. The mass cultivation of these potatoes is leading to homogenization, loss of local flavors techniques and crafts, and poses a risk for our food safety in terms of biodiversity. Retroactively, we reconnect this potato to the local landscape, even infusing it with new taste.
(potato, clay, mustard, fermented radish, samphire, onion, sea salt)

Check
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The whole world is on our plate, yet our food is becoming increasingly less diverse. Everywhere in the world the same species of cattle are bred. We are rapidly losing a wealth of local heritage, local flavors, local crafts. A universal food system might seem highly efficient but it is indeed very fragile.

𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐚’𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥
People all over the world eat bananas. They are all the same bananas: the Cavendish species. The Cavendish is threatened by an untreatable fungal disease. Because of the lack of biodiversity in bananas all banana plants in the world are at risk of getting infected. Therefor it is a real possibility we might not have any bananas in ten years.

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Bean Meal voor de

Ontwerpstudio Foodcurators belicht Zeeuws erfgoed met verhalende souvenirs en 'placemarkers' in het landschap - DesignDigger Foodcurators heeft met het project 'Zeeland Souvenirs' een achttal ruimtelijke installaties in Zeeland het lokale op erfgoed zichtbaar gemaakt. Ook worden met deze ‘placemakers’ een nieuw souvenir geïntroduceerd dat is geïnspireerd op deze historische Zeeuwse verhalen.