If you like to mix up your food and your art, eat the unusual, or simply eat unusually; then the Experimental Food Society may be the thing for you. We’d be tempted to say it’s like the Stonemasons but with a better canteen, but it wouldn’t be entirely accurate. Actually, said Society is a meeting place for those who dare to differ and take food to another frontier. Forget the "experi”, the “mental” part of the name is certainly apt.
At the forefront of the movement are two of London’s best known jelly heads, the inimitable Bompas & Parr. Having created a gingerbread Gherkin, the world’s biggest punchbowl, and a sauna filled with gin at their Parliamentary Waffle House, Bompas & Parr took a night off last week to tell us all about it at the inaugural Experimental Food Society talk.
Gathered in the Cookbook Cafe at the Intercontinental on Park Lane, we heard how their career started as a dilemma between jelly or baked beans, how they made a map of America out of Jell-O for a tidy sum, and that one of the UK’s last remaining jelly mould servicing shops is on Shaftesbury Avenue (anyone know where?). There was jelly (including absinthe flavour), wine and a buffet all for a bargain price of £5. Inspiration comes free, but if you’re going to start setting Jelly alight, the insurance may cost a bit.
Intrigued? Check out the Experimental Food Society website for details of more upcoming events.
