An Artist Reimagines How We Store Our Food

We tend to forget that the food we buy is still alive and interacting with whatever environment we choose to place it in. Cheese is still ripening and meat is aging (for better or worse). Eggs are a good example — they're porous and easily absorb aromas. This can also be an excellent way of flavoring them: try storing an egg in an airtight container with a vanilla pod or slice of truffle for a few days, then make custard.

What we also forget is the food itself that is lurking in the back of the fridge or cupboard, forgotten and often times terrifying. Haven't we all fished out a tub of sour cream from the depths of the refrigerator exhibiting mini ecosystems that a biochemist would find intriguing? (Related: Where Food Goes In The Fridge.)

Jihyun Ryou, a Korean artist who lives and works in Amsterdam, addressed her own food storage quandaries by developing a system based on traditional farmer's knowledge and with the added goal of bringing the food you purchase out of the recesses of the fridge and in front of your eyes. She addresses the fridge as a "dead space," and uses her background in design to create a Spartan but utilitarian storage unit for vegetables, fruit and eggs. It's minimalist to an extreme, but perhaps a makeover is just what the overflowing fridges of today need: a new way of establishing a relationship with the food that we buy, and an acknowledgment that all the food we eat is, or once was, alive.

Ryou also started a Tumblr called Share Your Food Knowledge, where anyone can contribute his or her ideas for better ways of storing food. Check it out and share the wealth!

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