About

In the realm of culinary creativity, many chefs or dedicated home cooks cultivate an intense passion for taste, holding a vast gustatory memory through years of practice and experimentation. Out of necessity, all these food practitioners often forge their own gustatory vocabulary to articulate the nuances of distinct flavours, textures, and mouthfeel—each a means to convey our sensory human experiences of food. Yet, amidst our contemporary fascination with all things visual, these invisible flavourscapes often languish in silence. Taste frequently finds itself overshadowed, invisible, in serious discussions surrounding food, whether in political and social discourse or cultural narratives.

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The Outsiders Studio is dedicated to unearthing the intrinsic language of flavour exploring not only the sensory experiences tied to food but also the emotional and cultural connections that shape our relationship with it. Flavour, much like colour, shape, or sound, embodies the essence of nature, place, and culture. It encapsulates moments of exchange and the rhythms of life. Further, we hope to reimagine flavour as a language unto itself—an ancient, ever-evolving form of multispecies communication. In this, we understand flavour as a multisensory signal, connecting water to soil, mineral to light, plant to person or animal. In essence, every edible form transmits information from one living entity to another, imparting the knowledge of life that sustains our existence.

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In collaboration with ethnobotanists, anthropologists, artists, scientists, growers, writers, local food activists, and community youth organisations, we delve into both ancient and contemporary perceptions of flavour. By immersing ourselves in the sensory world, we explore colour, sound, smell, texture, shape, time and memory—each element interlinked with the micro- and macrocosm of taste. Ultimately, we aim to ask questions across the intersection of ecology and culinary arts, all the while transcending the human gaze. Through this exploration, we aspire to honour and uphold of what is left of our ever so fleeting biodiversity of flavour that connects us all.