The Creation of a Holistic Interactive Dining Experience with Shape-Changing Food Materials at Restaurant Alchemist

Various studies demonstrated how to enrich edible materials with interactivity and shape-change using digital technologies such as 3D printing. We illustrate a collaborative and iterative process of developing a dish for two-Michelin starred restaurant ALCHEMIST in Copenhagen involving designers, material scientists, and chefs. They combined expertise in creative technologies, material behavior, and culinary arts to create novel dining experiences. Through a playful experience workshop, participants generated ideas to incorporate shape-changing food materials into their dishes. Digital prototyping technologies combined with material experiments resulted in an edible flower that through transforming petals becomes a tartelette when in contact with low or high pH solutions. We contribute a vision on how interactive dining experiences can be enriched with material-driven explorations, digital technologies, and experience design methods to create novel opportunities for human-food interaction. We reflect on the role of interaction designers when collaborating with chefs, and material scientists towards achieving this vision.