Future Food Today at SPACE10

Our Food, Design & Science correspondent Katinka Versendaal spoke to SPACE10’s editor and copywriter Polina Bachlokova about their new book 'Future Food Today', future-proof foods and how we can secure healthy and delicious food for 10 billion people.

For decades now, we eat more and more outside of the home, which opens up a world of flavor possibilities and cuisines. And even at home we have been increasingly eating processed foods, bought in our supermarkets, produced by big corporations all around the world, resulting in a significant carbon food print. These facts combined result in us cooking less at home, possibly losing valuable skills and knowledge about ingredients and cooking methods, while damaging our planet in the process. 

Now SPACE10, IKEA’s Research and Design Lab, recently published their cookbook. The book Future Food Today is a collection of delicious, sustainable and future-proof recipes that help us eat better, both for the planet and ourselves. And at the heart of each recipe in the book is a set of beliefs. A belief in eating what the seasons put on your plate, a belief that technology can reduce the impact of food production on our planet, a belief that thinking and acting in a holistic way can eliminate food waste, and a belief that all this is achievable starting with you, trickling back into the system of restaurant kitchens and the food industry. 

Some of the recipes call for ingredients you might not have seen before, like micro-algae, microgreens or insects, others are good old kitchen classics. Alongside the recipes, the book includes guides to producing locally and sustainably, and explains in their ‘Build and Grow’ sections how to use alternative ingredients and technology – such as aquaponic farming – to do so yourself. Who knew that you could grow your own algae, or you could make salad dressing out of them? And that this salad dressing doesn’t have to be liquid but instead can add a crunch to your leafy greens? That fermenting at home or growing your own mushrooms is as easy as baking a pie? Their recipes look familiar, something that could come straight from Instagram, but are finely tweaked to conform to their standard of future-proof foods.

I was able to talk to SSPACE10’s editor and copywriter Polina Bachlokova. She is the editor of Future Food Today and worked closely with the designers during the creation of this book, safeguarding the communication on the design philosophy of SPACE10.

What was the intention of SPACE10 when writing this book? 

Polina: “It started out as an answer to our audience’s requests. Within SPACE10 we have been exploring how we both can secure healthy and delicious food for 10 billion people, while rebalancing our relationship with the planet. That’s why in our test kitchen we have been working with novel ingredients, technological innovation and in-depth culinary research — which led people to request the recipes we were putting out, like the Dogless Hotdog. We decided to compile all our recipes and our vision around food in one place. Our first goal was to explore what the ideal menu for better eating could look like, both for ourselves and the planet. We also wanted people to become more familiar with the unfamiliar and feeling inspired to become more experimental in the kitchen, thereby taking action through their food choices. Finally, we wanted to rekindle the joy of making food. Depending on who you are and where you live you might or might not have a lot of confidence cooking food at home; you might, for example, live in a city with a big take out food culture. We would like people to feel happy and confident and want to explore cooking sustainably in the kitchen. As a final note, everything we do here at SPACE10 is aimed at getting our ideas out into the world, and to receive feedback which enables us to create a dialogue with our audience.”