Ziggurat of Flavour Big Chill Festival, August 2010
The Ziggurat of Flavour was a pyramidal art installation containing a cloud of breathable fruit where visitors contributed to their five-a-day by breathing. After negotiating a vertical labyrinth of vaporized Fairtrade fruit, visitors emerged onto a grand slide at the top of the structure. The Ziggurat of Flavour drew inspiration from 18th Century Cuccagna monuments. These formed the centerpieces for the most spectacular public celebrations in history.
They were vast architectural structures made of food based on the peasant tale of the Land of Cockaigne; a mythical place with mountains of cheese, rainstorms of cake and where all wildlife was pre-cooked and waiting to be eaten.
Photographs: 1: Jules Stobart, 7: Mark Sethi
6: Matt Farrow, 2-5, 8-13: Ann Charlott Ommedal
The Complete History of Food 35 Belgrave Square, July 2010
An edible epic so grand, so magnificent, and so vast, it spans 730 years
A walk-through dining experience and multi-course meal charting key periods in food history. Visitors traveled through time eating and drinking food from London's top restaurants. Food eras covered include Medieval, Renaissance, Victorian and the contemporary scene. The installation included a flooded dining-room with live eels in the water, a recreation of the 1853 Iguanodon Dinner, meat Ferrero Rocher and the world's first bio-responsive food.
Photographs: 2-3, 5, 11: Beth Evans. 6, 8-9: Dan Price. 1, 6-7, 10, 12-15 : Ann Charlott Ommedal
300 Dish Elizabethan Dessert Banquet Kenilworth Castle, June 2010
Inspired by the majestic dessert banquet served to Queen Elizabeth I at Kenilworth in 1575 we created an elaborate 300 dish dessert banquet in the restored Elizabethan gardens. Sugar sculptures of the garden's aviary; bear and staff motif; and central fountain were created using an array of specially produced moulds.
Photographs: Ann Charlott Ommedal
Occult Jam & Launch Barbican Gallery, June 2010
Since the dawn of time man has struggled to unlock the secrets of eternal life. Occult Jam is a small triumph over mortality. Base ingredients are preserved through their transformation into jam and enhanced with powerful artifacts. These included a tiny spec of Princess Diana's hair, sand from the Great Pyramid of Egypt and wood from Nelson's ship The Victory. Occult Jam launched as part of The Surreal House exhibition at Barbican Art Gallery.
Surreal House Dinner June 2010
To launch the Barbican's Surreal House exhibiton Bompas & Parr created a special banquet for 120 guests at Hoxton Hall. A walk-in-cocktail followed by an egg based performance started the evening. Guests were then ushered into the theatre to receive a three course meal of scartch 'n' sniff, quails cooked in tobacco and an underwater lobster and monster jelly course.
Parliamentary Waffle House 65-67 Broadwick Street London, March 2010
An election based bar and eatery opened by Ken Livingstone. Waffles in the form of the parliamentary portcullis corresponded to the three main political parties. As people ate, they powered a live action swingometer gauging the nations sentiment.
Photographs: 2: Andrew Stellitano, 3-4: Dan Price
Architectural Punchbowl December 2009
For the Architectural Punchbowl we worked with Courvoisier to explode cocktails to the scale of buildings. After a six month research project with UCL we flooded 33 Portland Place with over four tonnes of punch - enough for 25,000 people. The Punchbowl was so large that engineers Arup had to make sure the building wouldn't collapse under the weight of alcohol. Visitors rafted across the punch before having a drink and toying with the remote control garnishes.
Photographs: Barney Steel
Black Banquet September 2009
A monochromatic feast of black food for the London Design Festival by a razor, a shiny knife, Fiona Leahy Design and Bompas & Parr. Eight courses of black food explored the boundaries of creativity through spectacular and unusual dining and were complimented by black jelly ziggurats. Black Banquets have a glorious history. Perhaps the mort remarkable was hosted by Grimod de la Reynière in 1783 where the table was a catafalque and each diner's place was marked with their own coffin behind their chair.
Hendrick's Carriage of Curiousities Summer 2009
A magical onboard train carriage dining experience curated, cooked and served by Bompas & Parr.
Futurist Aerobanquet July 2009
Bompas & Parr and Time for Tea, worked with The Olde Bells' Head Chef, Tony Abarno to create a dining experience to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Futurist movement. Over the course of the meal guests were treated to inflight entertainment, a plane crash with explosions, and dessert served out of the back of an ambulance.
Alcoholic Architecture April 2009
The UK's first walk-in cocktail
Alcoholic Architecture saw Bompas & Parr create a walk-in cloud of breathable cocktail. Visitors donned protective suits before entering into a mist of vaporised gin and tonic which they imbibed through inhaling.
Photographs: 1-2: Greta Ilieva, 3-6: Dan Price
Scratch n Sniff Cinema February 2009
The UKs first Scratch n Sniff Cinema showing Peter Greenaways' classic, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, opened for Valentines Day this year. Bompas & Parr created aromas including rotting meat and dusty books that captured the scent of key moments of Greenaways' film. These aromas were micro-encapsulated and printed onto special scratch n sniff cards for everyone in the audience.
Flavour Tripping October 2008
Bompas & Parr held the UKs first public flavour tripping party as part of the Frieze art fair. Participants investigated the curious effects of miracle fruit (Synsepalum Dulcificum) which makes lemons taste like toffee and vinegar like sherry. Miracle berries contain active ingredient miraculin which when eaten binds to the tongues taste buds and makes bitter and sour foods taste sweet. The berry, which is native to West Africa has an effect that lasts between twenty minutes and two hours.
At the event, participants consumed freeze dried berries before being invited to pillage a table set for a feast.
Mannow Valley Drive-Thru September 2008
Bompas & Parr created a pop-up drive-thru restaurant and movie theatre as part of the Abergavenny Food Festival Fringe. Visitors were treated to Luther Burgers, bespoke happy meal boxes designed by CZWG Architects and a performance by the 'flock of burgers'.
Architectural Jelly Banquet July 2008
Bompas & Parr's extraordinary Architectural Jelly Banquet, for the London Festival of Architecture, took place in UCL's Main Quad, London on 4 July.
Illustration: Emma Rios
Warwick Castle Victorian Breakfast December 2007
A choreographed 12 course Victorian Breakfast.
