Dining On All Five Senses

Fast-food culture got you down? Some recent graduates of the Cranbrook Academy of Art feel your pain. With their On the Pleasures of the Table projects, these kids are reinvigorating the dining experience.

Cranbrook, in collaboration with Nambe (a foundry and metallic gifts producer in Santa Fe, N.M.), created these prototypes to engage senses other than taste. They also provide an excuse to stay at the dinner table and savor the food a bit longer.

Angelica Sandovnl’s Shot Fountain, for example, makes the art of pouring a cocktail into something sculptural. Shu-Wei Hsu’s Salt & Pepper Tie is a napkin holder/tie with salt-and-pepper-shaker tassles. Says Hsu, who is Taiwanese, “in Eastern cultures, you don’t have flavorings on the table. We don’t pass shakers around.”

Peter Pless’s dining tabletop is actually parallel rows of dining trays made of du Pont Corian. Eat at the table or take your moveable feast anywhere in the house, with all of your guests following.