Regard 9

Detail shot of fruit juice jelly bowls

Curated by the SAT (Société des arts technologiques) and presented during the 2010 Montreal Design Week, Regard 9 presented Montreal’s most innovative designers. During this event, Diane Leclair Bisson, with Chef Daniel Girard and food scientist Véronique Perreault from ITHQ, served samples of edible cylindrical containers made of gelified summer salad vinaigrettes and Agar Agar. Edible cylinders were produced on-site to show how easily they can be moulded. The event also served to collect data on people’s perception of the concept of edible containers and on their taste reaction to the firm jelly texture. The use of Agar Agar powder is widespread in Asian cuisine, but has only recently been adopted by western cuisine, mostly in gastronomy, remaining less known among the larger public. Its many applications in cooking makes it an efficient, versatile and economical ingredient for moulding edible containers as well as edible films.

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Alcuin Society Book Design Award

Edible : Food as material has won a bronze in the 2010 Alcuin excellence in book design awards, in the "Prose, Non-fiction, illustrated" category. The Alcuin Society, which began in 1981, is the only national book design competition in Canada. Winning books are contributed to permanent collections in Canada, the UK, Germany and Japan. This year's competition was judged by Marian Bantjes, Linda Gustafson and Peter Koch, some of the industries' top talents.

The Alcuin Award winning books will be exhibited internationally: in Germany, at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs; in England, at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library and the Norwich University College of the Arts; and in Japan, at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, in conjunction with the Tokyo International Book Fair. The books will also be exhibited in 19 venues across Canada.

We're very honored to receive this award!

Commissaires Edible : Food as material

Launch of Edible Food as material book at Commissaires in 2009

An official book launch for Edible, Food as material was recently held at Commissaires, in Montreal. Samples resulting from Diane Leclair Bisson work in food exploration research where available for the public to taste. Several images of the book where displayed showing some of the developed materials and objects.  

See the previous for more information on the book itself of visit the Food Material Sample Series project page link below.

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Book launch - Edible: Food as material

Close up of Edible food as material book cover

Edible: food as material explores the concept of the edible plate or container as a viable cultural and material model for reducing waste. The book gives account of the experimental work in gastronomy and food science conducted during the outset of the Taste No Waste® Project, which served to validate a wide range of recipes and techniques for transforming edible matter. Edible introduces food into the array of production materials. The food explorations, presented in the book as material samples, illustrate the production processes and the possible scope and forms for a multitude of future edible containers and plates. They also illustrate the potential of vegetables, fruits and innovative new flours in producing nutritional and colourful products.

The book also offers a chart of food transformation processes explored through the project, as well as a chart of food listed by colors.

The book is aimed at artisans from the culinary field, diverse professionals from the food-processing milieu, culinary creators, and designers interested in the creative possibilities and production processes in food design.

By combining anthropology and design, Diane Leclair Bisson offers a reflection on our rapport with food and our dining rituals. Edible is compelling both for its artistic approach, accentuated by Pol Baril's photographs which highlight the vibrant colours and varied textures of the food, and for the questions raised by the author on the concepts of design, gastronomy and sustainable development.

The book has received enormous recognition in the food community worldwide and has been presented in many forums, academic conferences and book fairs internationally. It has won numerous design awards, and is an important reference in this emerging field of food-design. The book has received the Gourmand International’s World Cookbook Awards, as well as the prestigious Canadian Alcuin Book Design Award.

Edible, Food as material / Comestible, l'aliment comme matériau. 128 pages, colour, full texts in French and English, soft cover, $24.95. Published by les éditions du passage

Available from Amazon.ca here.

Available from Renaud Bray (Québec) here.

Available from Archambault (Québec)

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Universal Exposition 2005 : Aichi, Japan

Photo by Gnsin

Photo by Gnsin

Edible conceptual containers were presented at Aichi in 2005

The work of Diane Bisson has recently been featured at the Aichi Universal Exhibition in Japan where her prototypes for new edible containers were presented.

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RE:Design Daily products for the 21st century

RE:Design exhibition book cover

In 2003, the Toronto Design Exchange invited five designers and architects to contribute work to the Japanese exhibition it hosted: RE DESIGN: Daily products for the 21st century. Commissioned by graphic designer Kenya Hara, the exhibition stirs some reflection on the functionality and aesthetics of everyday objects. Diane Bisson introduces a series of 5 prototypes of edible containers that challenge our everyday habits and gestures surrounding food. The exhibition commemorates the 100th anniversary of the paper company Takeo CO., Ltd in 2000 and the project work is published in the exhibition catalog.

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