HotKarot & OpenSauce: Edible Storytelling & Design Speculations

This project explores the possibilities of speculative food design to encourage social inclusion and interaction among citizens of different socioeconomic backgrounds. The project employs the associative power of taste embodied in edible storytelling prototypes that consist of a carrot hotdog served with 'narrative' sauces created in the online OpenSauce cookbook. The cookbook enables users to input text narratives and, using the network text analysis technique, convert them into personalized sauce recipes served in a mobile street food bistro. In collaboration with the Homelike NGO providing social support to homeless women, we designed "StreetSauces" made of the life stories of Homelike clients. We report on design probes conducted at the StreetSauce bistro, aiming to identify challenges and opportunities of edible speculations used in the research.