FOOD + SCIENCE THE CULTIVATION OF CURIOUS CONSUMPTION
push each other to new, exciting places.57 Chefs all over the world are embracing science to elevate their culinary prowess. Noma, named “Best Restaurant in the World” for two years running by the S. Pellegrino Awards, places the utmost importance on exploration and experimentation in the name of food and science. The esteemed head chef René Redzepi set up a whole houseboat with an experimental kitchen dedicated to this endeavor - Noma’s food lab.58 We’re also a little obsessed with experimenting to manipulate and reimagine familiar food from extinction60) and treating obesity with neuroscience61 to fermented black garlic (deliciously bizarre62) we’re digging deeper, adventuring more, and collecting experiences that have implications beyond what happens in the lab or kitchen.
Brand Implication Anthony Bourdain, reformed chef and world explorer, captures the sentiment of curious consumption best in a piece of advice about life: better, I urge you to travel - as far and as widely how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them - wherever you go.” For brands, that means embracing the modern left-and-right-brain approach to creation and consumption. Be relentlessly surprising. Create experiences worth exploring. Break conventions. Make new ones. Surprise to delight. Connecting with today’s consumer requires a new recipe. The way to his heart might be through his stomach, but the way into his conversation is through his brain– by fostering his intrinsic sense of curiosity. When done properly, and with purpose, he’ll keep coming back for more.
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