by Kevin Young, AIA, Associate Director
Those who know me well, know that I have a limitless affection for food in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. Whether it is fried, baked, raw, or skewered, to me everything deserves to be experienced and tasted at least once. Many would suspect my whole purpose behind brainstorming the AIA Central Valley program Bite of Designtwo years ago was to selfishly get the opportunity to eat and try more food. Which is a very fair assumption – but that’s only a small part of it.
A while back I was at a Michelin Star restaurant (I said everything should be experienced once!) and I began to wonder what the origin of the Michelin Star was and how it relates to trends in food culture today. For those of you that do not know, the Michelin Star system was originally designed to guide automobile drivers in the 1900’s to food destinations that were worth driving to. So if you were looking for the most authentic Mexican taqueria with the remarkable guacamole and salsa, you would know where to go and if it was worth the trip. But food culture today is vastly different then the 1900’s. Today, the environment in which you eat your food is sometimes more important than the food itself. Just ask any Yelp reviewer that gave 1 star just because they were uncomfortable, not because the food wasn’t good. People cook at home more often than before, and have gotten really good at it – just think about every delicious potluck you’ve been to with friends and family.
This means that the environment and the experience has more emphasis in restaurant design than ever before. As architects, this should not be a new revelation to us. There have been multiple studies done on the impact of the environment on learning cognition of students, and one can only imagine what that means when it comes to experiencing our food with all the senses. As the late chef Anthony Bourdain once said, “The best meals occur in a context that frequently has very little to do with the food itself.” To me, Bite of Design is an opportunity to celebrate the union of our built environment with the heart and soul of any city – its food. Restaurants are a unique way to connect our community of architects and designers with the rest of Sacramento.
One of the best examples of this was when we held a sold-out event at the new Kru restaurant shortly after it opened. It was an unforgettable experience where the star of the show was both the design of the space and the food itself. The chef de cuisine (Tyler Bond) and the designers (Whitney Johnson and Daryl Chinn, AIA) were the main event, and it really gave everyone in attendance a looking glass into how a unified vision of food and design can come together to create one of the best places to eat sushi in Sacramento. There were also tales of how the design came to be — something that most casual diners never get to hear. With great buildings and with great dishes, the creative mind behind the experience is usually hidden. How many buildings do we go into without ever knowing the architect? How many dishes have we enjoyed without ever asking who the chef was?
This year, I hope to create more unforgettable experiences just like Bite of Design – but the only way that can happen is if you sign up and attend! I would love to feature every restaurant in Sacramento and give every chef, architect, and designer an opportunity to share the amount of love and care that goes into each great restaurant.
Bite of Design is just a small sliver of the kind of great programs the Chapter is planning. I encourage all of you to make time to attend the events you find interesting and want us to push for. By attending an event, you are putting in a vote of confidence in our programming and ideas. You want to learn about that new restaurant concept in Midtown? (Bite of Design), or do you want to to meet and hear a presentation from a cutting edge architect? (DesignNarrative) Perhaps you want to find a way to actively improve our community through design? (EP Design Competition), or maybe you are a student that wants to know what to expect? (So You Want To Be An Architect) All of it is only possible when all of you attend our events. Hope to see you soon!