Plate Talks Events 1 & 2

In response to my desire to nurture commensality (the act of sharing food) amongst strangers I founded Plate Talks, a project which uses the social role of communal dining as a tool for breaking boundaries and initiating new conversations. It seeks to use the sharing of food as a medium to facilitate an accessible discussion platform for interesting topics, binding various social circles together in a nurturing space, and generating conversations and thoughts that may not have been triggered otherwise. The first Plate Talks event invited Seetal Solanki, the founder of a materials research consultancy Ma-tt-er, to join a group of design students from Kingston University for dinner, and the second event was with photographer Spencer Wilton.

Seetal and Spencer introduced themselves and their practice, before sitting down to eat with the group around a communal table. Students were then able to ask questions and discuss what they had learnt with one another in a relaxed way while enjoying a shared meal. The table environment provided a level playing field, facilitating a new kind of conversation that is rarely found in the hierarchy between industry and students. It was a very engaging first edition of the project as it proved what food can do to bring people together from different audiences, and that there was a need for this space.