Cucina Futurista 2.0

Radical dining project inspired by Tommaso Marinettis manifesto of the futuristic kitchen.

In 1930 Filipo Tommaso Marinetti published his manifesto of the futuristic kitchen. Alongside recipes developed by the then popular chef Bulgheroni as well as fellow futurists, the manifesto contains a theory of futuristic diet and tirades of hate against pasta. Marinetti’s radical approach in the presentation of food and the scenography of dinner are impressive. One evening, for example, Marinetti had all guests entering the restaurant change into clothes designed by him. Each costume was made out of a different textile with a different haptic experience. Marinetti strived to accentuate the stimulation of different senses during the evening.

In this tradition the Cucina Futurista 2.0 propagates a new radical design for the haute cuisine. We want to encourage chefs to seek new approaches by working closely with designers. Rather than pushing the design of the crockery itself to the fore, we believe that by setting limitations to the boundless possibilities of the white plate new creative solutions will arise. These restrictions do not only concern the presentation of the dish, but also the kitchen equipment. Apart from the creative aspect, this shall guarantee a broad reproducibility of the dishes.

We were seeking concepts, sketches and recipes that would form the core of the Cucina Futurista 2.0. The project got presented on the 29th and 30th of September in the MAK, the museum of applied and contemporary arts in Vienna. Each dinner consisted of a 4-dish menu for 12 people. During the Vienna Design Week a documentation of the dinner was shown in the museum together with the kitchen, chairs, tables, crockery, cutlery and glassware.

We were immediately taken when we discovered the Cucina Futurista. Many revolutionary culinary movements of the 1960s and 1970s or even more recent were already sketched by the futurist movement. Since we started our ongoing project “mobile hospitality” in 2010 we mainly engaged in culinary matters. Our cooking happenings in many different countries have served as a platform for vivid exchange between chefs, critics and us.

Cucina Futurista 2.0 kitchen module is equiped in sink and 100cm induction cooking plate. It is designed in modernistic manner with the use of bended steel tubes and pine wood.

Year: 2015
First public presentation: September 2015, MAK Vienna, Cooperation: Haralde Irka, Mario Bernatovic
Cucina Futurista 2.0 could not be realized without the support of the Nespresso Design Scholarship. We’d like also to greatly thank BOSCH, that equipped our kitchen with a professional induction stove and an oven. Riess supported the projects with enamel pots and Zalto was so great to produce a small collection of glasses and a decanter for our project.