Need to Know
14 : 04 : 22

Stockholm – After writing the Brutalist Kitchen Manifesto in 2018, visual artist Carsten Höller is opening a restaurant dedicated to the concept in Sweden. At Brutalisten, diners will be served dishes that adhere to the principles of one-ingredient cooking, where ingredients, not recipes, take centre stage.

Named after Brutalism, an architecture style famed for its severe minimalism and lack of ornamentation, the restaurant strives to adopt the same doctrine of simplicity. As such, the menu is divided into three sections, including Semi-Brutalist dishes, which refer to plates that can have a drizzle of olive oil and Orthodox-Brutalist dishes that can have no additional seasoning or ingredients. ‘The aim is to dig vertically into the taste of a given ingredient and clear it of the background noise,’ explains Carsten Höller, founder of Brutalisten.

Recently, similar extreme eating experiences have taken off in Saudi Arabia, where Bompas & Parr served food cooked on a molten stream of lava. The resurgence of such attractions points to a broader trend for hospitality spaces that bring adventurous eating to the fore.

Madrid – The museum is opening an exhibition that draws on olfactory cues to bring the works of 17th-century painter Jan Brueghel to life. For its latest show, the museum is working with curators, researchers – and the Puig perfume house – to recreate the fragrances of 10 items that appear in Brueghel’s The Sense of Smell painting.

To create the scents, researchers identified 80 different plant and flower species seen in the painting. Each of the 10 fragrances can be experienced by visitors through AirParfum technology, which diffuses scents via touchscreen monitors. Through this concept, the exhibition elevates conventional interactions with visual artworks. Gregorio Sola, senior perfumer at Puig, says: ‘Our olfactory memory is stronger than our visual or auditory memory: the memory of our mother’s perfume, of our first kiss, of our first car or of the first day at school with the smell of new pencils and paints.’

While we’ve previously explored the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to investigate scent’s influence on cultural heritage, Puig’s input here points to a future when fragrance brands will be able to mutually benefit from involvement with creative institutions.

While citizens across the UK are being hit by the cost of living crisis, a study by the Living Wage Foundation reveals that women are being disproportionately affected. According to its research, women are also taking more drastic measures to cope with this crisis – with 35% of low-paid women having skipped meals regularly for financial reasons.

The report also reveals that women are more likely to be in low-paid jobs in the first place, with almost 60% of all jobs paid below the Living Wage held by women. Katherine Chapman, director of Living Wage Foundation, says: ‘Our research demonstrates yet again the harsh impact of low pay on the millions of women that make up the bulk of many low-paid industries such as health and social care.’

With these findings in mind, there is an evident need for innovative food solutions that support people living under austerity.