Designing the Future of Food

The French Cultural Center is thrilled to co-present Designing the Future of Food with the newly opened Le Laboratoire Cambridge, a unique art and design center located in Kendall Square. This innovative event, in participation with the second annual Boston Design Week, consists of a panel discussion and cocktail reception.

Panel Discussion (6:30 PM - 7:45 PM)

Why is design so essential to the future of food?

Renowned French designers Marc Bretillot and Laurent Milon, and David Edwards, an American scientist and founder of Le Laboratoire, have started to rethink food. Exciting the senses with completely natural foods in new experimental forms, these three connoisseurs have moved their food designs from “lab” experiments to some of the best restaurants and food stores in the world.

This panel will be moderated by Sheryl Julian, Food Editor of The Boston Globe, and will take place in Le Laboratoire’s Gallery.

VIP Cocktail Reception (7:45 PM - 9:00 PM)

Following the panel discussion, guests will have the exclusive opportunity to connect with the dynamic panelists and mingle with fellow arts and science enthusiasts at an exceptional champagne reception, which will take place in The Honeycomb, a private, exquisite space located in Le Laboratoire’s Café ArtScience. This occasion to discover and savor Le Laboratoire’s innovative, cutting-edge canapés is not to be missed.

Admission Cost

Panel Discussion: $50

Panel Discussion + VIP Cocktail Reception: $175*

*Please note that $75 of each VIP ticket purchase is tax-deductible. Contributions to the French Cultural Center and Le Laboratoire Cambridge are tax-deductible as provided by law.

Reserve your tickets online or call 617.912.0400.

About the Panelists

David Edwards
David Edwards is a biomedical engineer and writer actively involved in the translation of ideas from the university through novel medical technology, and the writing, performing and visual arts. David’s artistic work includes his founding and direction of Le Laboratoire, a new innovation space in downtown Paris and in Cambridge, Massachusetts where artists and scientists perform collaborative experiments. The outcomes of these experiments are exhibited to the public in the form of contemporary art and design installations. The principal of Le Laboratoire as an artscience catalyst for innovation is described in David’s recent book,Artscience: Creativity in the post-Google Generation (Harvard 2008), which draws on the experience of many contemporary innovators in Boston and internationally. His French novel, Niche (Ecole de Beaux Arts de Paris), co-written with novelist Jay Cantor, is the first of a series based on creation at Le Laboratoire. For his work in the arts in France, David was recently made a Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Marc Bretillot
Culinary designer and contemporary performance artist Marc Bretillot brings fantasy to food, while exploring the rituals and symbolism associated with mealtimes. After studying decorative arts at the craft-oriented École Boulle in Paris, and a period of glass-making, he turned to furniture and lighting, working with wood, resin, metal and recycled items, while also making prototypes for other designers. What has brought Bretillot most attention, however, is his pioneering workshop in culinary design at the École Superieure d’Art et de Design in Reims. For the upmarket food hall of Le Bon Marché department store, he collaborated with pastry chefs Philippe Muze and Olivier Cheron to design a new, ‘more ergonomic’ version of the classic French millefeuille - vertical rather than horizontal, and held together in a binding of nougatine and chocolate, it is easier to cut. Recently, he was brought in by the Chambre des Métiers of the Limousin region to help local charcutiers update the image of the traditional pâte en croûte (pork pie) - his solution, a form of stencil, using greaseproof paper during the baking, to create a distinctive pattern on the crust.

Laurent Milon

Laurent Milon is a French designer who studied economics and architecture before gaining acceptance to Paris’s prestigious industrial design school. After high-profile internships with Galerie Kreo and the Japanese design firm Draft, he was picked this summer by French designer François Azambourg to be part of a team that conceived and built the exhibition “Cellular Design,” on view now at Le Laboratoire Paris. Milon has snagged an ongoing part-time gig there, where he’ s encouraged to use science to generate art and design. At the same time he’ s setting up his own studio, WonderWild, which will focus on further developing the themes he explored in his thesis.

This event is made possible thanks in part to the Mosaïque Cultural Fund.