For this semester’s Master’s Seminar course, we were asked to find a master’s thesis from our own research area submitted to a foreign or Austrian university/university of applied sciences. I chose to evaluate “Curious Cuisine: Bringing culinary creativity home” by Júlia Nacsa at Umeå University’s Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Design.
Nacsa’s work takes a close look at the cooking and eating habits in the home – how these rituals could be modified to enrich the joy and explorative tendencies of the hobby home cook. Following in-depth research on past, current, and potential future practices, Nacsa proposes a highly tactile intervention.
In my own thesis journey, I am currently at a crossroads. I am sharply deviating from what I researched last semester (AI in UX Design), and diving into social design, potentially focusing on continued education, or another topic that combines my personal interests with a sociological approach to research and innovation. “Curious Cuisine: Bringing culinary creativity home” has the feeling of a highly emotional, intimate work. Food and eating culture is something we all share, making it at once communal and deeply personal. I found myself touched by that complexity, and intrigued at the methods used to dive into these spaces that are typically difficult to access.
Nacsa’s research questions are as follows:
New Rituals: How might new food technologies fit in with our old traditions? What are the new cultural practices that might emerge?
New Aesthetics: How might our multi-sensory experiences and food acceptance change? How might we make everyday meals more exciting, and nutritious choices more enticing?
New Skills: How might we adapt our skills to new culinary techniques? What forms of embodied knowledge do we need to integrate into the ‘cooking’ process?
Level of design
This thesis is presented in clean, careful order. Nacsa uses beautiful imagery to support her points, while keeping the focus on the text.
Degree of innovation
This thesis is, in my opinion, highly original. The author digs into a subject that most people would consider too ingrained to accept innovation.
Independence
Nacsa credits a team of advisors and examiners at the start of the thesis for their guidance and support. It is clear, however, that Nacsa completed this work with a high degree of motivation and drive. I was particularly inspired by her field work – In the research portion of the thesis, Nacsa conducted 10 interviews, and details trips she made to visit, experience, and speak with experts in the food industry.
Outline and structure
Nacsa’s chapter titles are as follows:
Introduction; Foundational Research; Primary Research; Ideation; Concept Development; Final Result; Discussion; Reflection; Acknowledgements; References; Appendix
Degree of communication
This thesis was beautifully communicated. Nacsa’s writing is clear and concise, the thesis has excellent and logical structure, and I also found myself caring deeply about the work, feeling invested and touched by the results, particularly the discussions around the social value of food and eating together.
Scope of the work
This thesis explores the topic of food culture through personal reflection, research, interviews, field work, workshops, and prototyping.
Orthography and accuracy
As previously mentioned, this thesis is very well-written and clearly communicated. The research and end results are rather more subjective than objective, and thus a statement on accuracy wouldn’t be the most helpful metric. However, the author utilizes quotes and data to back up her research questions and claims.
Literature
At the conclusion of the work, Nacsa lists works cited. These include a great many texts on culinary innovation, which makes sense as this thesis dives into speculative design in the field of food culture.
Nacsa, Júlia. “Curious Cuisine: Bringing Culinary Creativity Home,” 2016.
