This Soup Is Alive with the Sound of Music

Within the culinary arts, there is now an extreme subculture of food that moves based on sound. No, we’re not talking about something like that famous dinner scene in Beetlejuice. This moveable feast, which is called “Speaker Soup,” is technological.

Future Food Studio’s Kristina Ruddick tells The Creators Project that Sensorium by Stella Artois originated as a way of creating a “multi-sensory experiential dinner involving all five senses,” using the Stella Chalice as its muse. But it also grew out of a course at Future Food Studio which reimagined the way cocktails could be mixed. These experiments evolved into Speaker Soup, which Ruddick says is a Sensorium show piece used as an introduction to the dining experience’s next course.

To pull it off, four sensorial experts were brought in to collaborate. Michelin-starred Chef Richie Farina took on taste, while Future Food Studio’s Dr. Irwin Adam Eydelnant handled scent. When it came to the other senses, Nyles Miszczyk handled sound via drums, while Jamie Webster, Common Good, and Stella tackled sight.

Future Food Studio designed the custom 80' tables that were used for Sensorium. Each place setting at the table has a built-in tactile transducer. There is a midi controller attached to the bass drum so when the drummer hits the bass, it relays a signal to the console, which then sends it to the transducers in the table that sit directly below the bowls of broth. Ripples and patterns in the soup change shape and movement based upon where the drummer hits and at what speed.

Ruddick explains that Speaker Soup is a way for people to engage with and view their food differently.

“When a bowl of soup in front of you comes alive with sound waves caused by the live drummer in the dining dome that feed into individual speakers that lie under each bowl on the 80-foot tables, it was quite unforgettable,” she says.

Click here for more Future Food Studio experiments.

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