A burst of flavours - Anne Thach Nguyen
	Sweets coated with a toffee mesh and a mixture of sweet flavours such as mixed candied fruit or nougat covered in a fine layer of chocolate, sprinkled with pistachios. The idea is to lock up a whole array of flavours by using dried fruit, marzipan, peanuts, hazelnuts and other fruits and nuts. The fine toffee mesh melts in the mouth, leaving a trail of flavours in its wake.

Exquisite corpses - Juliette Clément An incongruous compilation of preserves used as a basis for several combinations of recipes with surreal and gourmet tones.

Collect the SIAL 2010 culinary designs: Order the SIAL 2008 Trends & Innovations book

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Expert advice from Marc Bretillot, Culinary designer and SIAL 2008 partner

One, two, three. It's the third time that SIAL has invited the Reims culinary design workshop to present its research.

SIAL is always on the lookout for innovative trends and is proud to support "Design Q" - as our workshop is known in close circles - very early in the day because the exhibition organizers were conscious that this discipline was not just a passing fad but had a genuine role to fulfil in food research and development.

By creating this workshop in the year 2000, L'ESAD de Reims was a forerunner in the field, thereby showing that the school was intent on playing an active and effective role in this type of research. All the teaching staff are active professionals whose reputation has spread way beyond the Champagne region. They take infinite care in sharing their experience and enthusiam for all the disciplines connected with art and creation in this field.

Taking part in the SIAL Design Q workshop and being close to the exhibition areas once again gave the design students the opportunity to meet the major food actors, foreign visitors (to practise their English), journalists (always on the lookout for news and innovation), and people from all walks of business. It is the perfect occasion to exchange views and obtain objective feedback from sources other than their over-kindly teaching staff (namely myself!), to see if their projects stir up a reaction, affect, move or disturb their audiences but, above all, do not leave visitors stony-faced and dairymen and grocers frozen! This is a place for students not only to express their ambitions and their personalities but to take a stand on issues relating to eating and the food chain.

No holds were barred to the students. They were merely asked to devise relevant projects that involved sufficient upstream research and analysis, not just an idea off the cuff that may unsettle the designers as soon as they are asked about them. They were also requested to pay particular attention to the act of eating generally and examine all the underlying aspects in depth, as if during questioning: where, how, when, why, with whom and in what way did you enjoy it?

Like ESAD, which supports artists' original designs, students are asked to explore developments in fields beyond their own areas of expertise, to show as much sensitivity as possible and to break free from convention and rules such as "the colour has to be a certain shade, the typography has to be slightly to the left, and the taste is too bitter..."

In 2008, projects followed two predetermined themes: dairy products and fine foods.

This work was presented in two distinct areas, situated right in the middle of the different industries. The first, Dairy products conjure up genesis, purity, virginity, feel, tradition over the ages, transformed combinations, stories to put in one's pocket, to place in the freezer, in any hands... from the little baby's to the old man's, which is not the case of the following subject, sometimes interpreted with spicy eroticism. The second industry, Fine foods is a fascinating subject for the designer whose role is to add or create value. How do foods - such as the vanilla pod, crushed between my thick fingers - become "fine"? The care that they are given, the way they are selected through our senses, protected and cocooned like a new-born baby, placed in our mouths - all these actions are linked not only to their origins and realities but also to the cultural and immaterial aspects of life.

A beautiful, tasty product that has been well designed, and is fairtrade and respectful . . . in other words a designer product !