Is food the new art?

Farmer’s markets, food festivals and underground dining are cropping up across London - and being used to build communities. Is food the new art?

If the UK has undergone any revolution in the past twenty years, it’s around food. I only tasted pesto at 17 and hummus was a discovery of my postgraduate years. Until the 1990s, food was drab, flavourless and often boiled.

But the UK’s moved on from that. It has 140 restaurants with Michelin stars, the Fat Duck at Bray is regularly considered the World’s best restaurant, and even English chefs have become international names. Standards are up and on the rise.

And this year, a new wave of farmer’s markets and festivals show that food is becoming even more important.

 

London's food festivals

The Big Feastival, a summer festival combining pop-up kitchens with live music, took place earlier in the year on a huge site in a South London park. Taste of London in Regent’s Park, in the centre of London, had 50,000 visitors. Masterchef Live will fill Olympia, a huge exhibition centre, with foodies.

 

Borough Market now attracts 4 million visitors a year, just short of its neighbour Tate Modern.

But more importantly, food is starting to revive communities. Sharon Zukin, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College says “Food is the new art in the urban cultural experience. You used to have artists moving in and opening galleries, now there are foodies moving in and opening up cafes… Eateries are beginning to mark the borders of certain kinds of cultural divisions.”

Whereas gentrification used to take place in areas colonised by trendy artists, it’s now taking place in places colonised by trendy new artisan bakeries, farmers markets, and pop-up kitchens.

 

West Norwood Feast. Credit: Twenty Questions

New communities built on food

For a good example, look to Brixton Village in South London, where new restaurants and bars have revived a flagging part of town.

Nearby, the West Norwood Feast is a monthly event aimed at catalysing a community around food.

And these projects have been paid for - in part - by economic regeneration budgets that used to be spent on artists studios and public art, raising the possibility that food could take over from culture as the favoured approach for economic regeneration.

They certainly share some characteristics - they’re both stimulating, attract passion, and can help people share their own identities.

Everyone likes a latte, but the cultural community are murmuring concerns about this threat to their funding. Let’s hope policymakers don’t throw food into the same pot as culture.