Hosted at Serendipity Arts Festival 2024
PROJECT by The Center for Genomic Gastronomy
Facilitated by Tansha Vohra, Sai Motupali Nair

What might the future of food look like when high-tech, hyper-efficient ingredients meet the foraged, regenerative harvests of diverse agroecosystems? MOCK WILD Picnic, presented by The Center for Genomic Gastronomy, explored this provocative question through an experimental picnic series that combined food forest ingredients with non-animal, protein- and fat-rich products.

For this edition in Goa, participants tasted recipes crafted with the help of an AI-assisted thinking and tinkering tool — one designed to minimise the use of animal-derived products while maximising ingredients from regenerative food systems. The picnic invited people to imagine and taste hybrid culinary landscapes, where ecological responsibility meets inventive, future-facing kitchen practices.

Key highlights included:

• A tasting of dishes combining food forest ingredients with plant-based, high-protein, and high-fat foods, designed for nutrition and ecological minimalism.

• Conversations around the possibilities and limitations of food forests in creating nutritionally complete, sustainable diets.

• Demonstration of an AI tool for prototyping climate- and ecology-conscious recipes, offering new ways to reimagine what a sustainable menu might taste like.

• Reflections on how technology and ancestral food systems might collaboratively shape future cuisines, offering meals that are both low-impact and high-flavour.

The session posed timely questions: What does it taste like to reduce ecological harm while enhancing the habitat for wild species? Can lab-made fats and proteins pair meaningfully with hyper-local, regenerative ingredients in the kitchen?

About The Center for Genomic Gastronomy:
An artist-led think tank that examines the biotechnologies and biodiversity of human food systems, The Center for Genomic Gastronomy creates public events, research projects, and culinary experiments exploring how we might eat in the future.

More about the project: genomicgastronomy.com/work/2024-2/mock-wild-goa