Definitely.

If for nothing other than forcing me to think about why I, as a foodie, was so forgiving of the small servings…

So I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree and if the CSM folks hold another event, in which I’m sure they’ll step up their game, I’ll come back on here and take it upon myself to help sway that opinion.

I’d go as far as offering to pay for the ticket if you promise to arrive with a full belly

Cheers

Don’t worry about being confrontational – us bloggers thrive on it (see above)!

I think you’re probably right that we misunderstood the “point” of the evening from the get-go. What we were excited about (well, I speak for myself here but it’s probably true for most of the others) was the chance to try some of Nuno Mendes’ cooking for a great deal less than his full-whack Loft supper club (which is £100 a head) in the same venue. The guff from the Feed Your Imagination website was incomprehensible to me, but it did sound exciting, and I was hoping the secrets would be revealed on the night. Not so, unfortunately.

Your explanation is brilliant by the way – and exactly the sort of thing I could have done with reading in that booklet! Or being told by a representative on the night. Or reading on their website. Or in fact any way other than leaving baffled and having to be told what it was about by a friendly foodie a week after the fact. Based on your explanation, I can’t say that even know I know what they were trying to achieve can I say they really succeeded. But then I suppose that’s a matter of opinion. And having paid £30 I think I’m entitled to one

I don’t mean to be confrontational, but if the concept wasn’t what got you, why were you and your friends excited about the night?

I may have chosen my words poorly in my previous post, but it just seemed that ‘a nice dinner’ was where your (and the reviewers) excitement came from – which is not what I thought the night was about. I thought it was about food as a vehicle for evoking emotions.

As I understood it, the concept was simply another way of selecting food. Rather than based on ingredients, texture and taste alone – it was also based on the emotion the food would evoke.

So instead of ordering food based on ‘I feel like some fatty lamb for dinner’ it’s more ‘i feel like something energising’.

For me, this was a distillation of something I already do with food; if I want to hide from the world and be comforted, bring on the spag bol with a mountain of crusty garlic bread, whereas if I’m having a social dinner with people I don’t know, I need a grilled salmon with some greens so that my brain is not dedicated entirely to digestion. Perhaps this is an over simplification of their concept, but this is what I took it as being.

I assumed that that was why the ingredients were all veg based, raw food’esque dishes and the cocktail was lychee based – to go with the advertised ‘Vibrant’ vibe.

Don’t know if that helps or if I’m just beginning to sound like a fanboy.

Anyway, while I can see why you were dissapointed – hell I’d be pissed too if I paid £30 on old st for dinner and went home hungry – I just think the night itself was about more.

I just have a couple of points to make, and I’ll quote your comments:

“As I understand it, this was a project that created a concept and took it to delivery in a few weeks”

Can you please explain to me what the concept was? This was something I was trying to get my head around. I just didn’t understand it at all.

“Sounds like you and your friends went there expecting an all-you-can-eat buffet and spent the night huddled in a corner complaining to each other.”

I’d paid £30 and was expecting to be fed and watered sufficiently, nothing more. Fighting through a crowd for the occasional plate of cold veg and a weak cocktail just wasn’t fun. The baffling art-speak just added to the general malaise.

I can honestly say that all of the people in our group were genuinely excited at the start of the evening, and approached with open minds. We left hungry, thirsty, confused and £30 worse off. For us at least, it was a bit of a failure. But they all seemed like lovely people and I do wish them well in the future.

I think this is where the split between people who enjoyed the night (myself included) and those who didn’t is apparent.

While I have a few suggestions on how this could have been better (drinks ready at the start of the night with plenty to go around for one) I think a lot of your criticisms are simply stupid. These are arts students, not restaurateurs!

As I understand it, this was a project that created a concept and took it to delivery in a few weeks. I went there expecting lots of conversation around food and a “proof of concept” and I liked what I saw: potential. Sounds like you and your friends went there expecting an all-you-can-eat buffet and spent the night huddled in a corner complaining to each other.

The spelling mistakes, the wait for food etc, while disappointing, are far from unforgivable. They are creases to be ironed out and pale in comparison to the accomplishment of putting together the concept, the chef and the food researcher (who was wonderful to talk to) and delivering it. Good on them.

If there is a follow up event, I’d definitely be up for it and that’s what I was hoping to find on google – instead I found this. So to the ‘evocativefoods’ commenter above, I just want to say don’t be disheartened; if you hold another event (and promise to banish the carrot dish from the menu) you can count on me and my gf being there.

(We ate Vietnamese! That sambucca really messes with your mind…)