The Beauty Dinner

The Beauty Dinner explores the relationship between skin and gastronomy in 8 courses. The face masks of artists Margherita Soldati, Krisztina Czika and Alice Héron were created to be applied to the skin as well as get eaten and will be served with delicious plant-based dishes How can we protect and nourish the new cells? Cosmetic products are widely used for this reason. Even though the cosmetic manufacturers are making it more and more difficult to understand what is in their products and how healthy they actually are for our skin, not to mention the negative impact they have on the environment. Guests were asked to participate in couples to enhance the connection between skincare, food and senses. This experience reflects on how we interact with our beauty products, food and the partner we are sharing it with.

Skin is the membrane that lines our bodies and is constantly in contact with the world. Allowing us to interact with our surroundings while assisting in protecting our organs and tissues. However, the skin is not only a protective covering. Similar to other organs, it helps the body process and excretes waste products produced by the skin. The cells of the outermost layer of the skin are constantly regenerating itself.

Hosted by Mediamatic, “The Beauty Dinner” was part of the neo-futurist dinners where 60 guests every night for four nights. The dinner was composed of 8 dishes, each paired with one edible face mask, and a beverage. Constructed as a beauty treatment the dishes went from steaming, scrubbing, exfoliating, hydrating… We designed eating rituals for each step to guide the guest and tools to enhance the experience (like vessels, mirrors, napkins…). Each mask was complementing the dish taste wise, and had a specific relation with the ingredients used. I developed for example an edible fruit leather from beetroot, placed over the lips would enhance the color of the skin, as well as sweeten the radicchio and walnut dish paired with it. The idea behind the concept was that we don’t necessarily have to rely on big companies when it comes to beauty products, but that knowledge about some ingredients you have in your kitchen in combination with healthy eating can hack this system. At the end of the event we sent recipes to the participants to encourage this behaviour at home.

For more information and pictures visit here.
To try all the receipts from the Beauty Dinner at home visit here.

Special thanks to artist Zsofia Kollar, the designer of the mirrors used throughout the entire dining experience. Special thanks to Rens Pörtzgen, the consulting chef for The Beauty Dinner. Extra special thanks to the Mediamatic team, Yanqi Huang and Sofia Donaque.

Pictures credit: Anisa Xhomaqi and Ruben Manusama

Exhibited and performed:

November 2019: Collaboration between Margherita Soldati, Alice Heron and Krisztina Czika at Mediamatic, Amsterdam
July 2019: Collaboration between Margherita Soldati and Krisztina Czika, commissioned by Buro Imaginaire for ‘Feeling MySelf’ at Bankito, Hungary