Meet the creatives serving up treats for the eyes

Manger Manger

A self-described storyteller whose narrative devices are food and design, Marie Yuki Méon’s concoctions are visual delights that tell a tale and please the palate

For French Japanese creative Marie Yuki Méon, it wasn’t a question of if she would end up feeding people for a living, but when. ‘Since I was a kid, I always knew that one day I would work in food,’ she says. ‘I was raised in Japan, a country where you think about food morning, midday, evening and night. It’s something like a religion.’

She took a less conventional route to get there, though, moving to Paris at 18 to study interior design and then enjoying a successful, decade-long career in retail design and architecture, chiefly working on layouts for luxury stores. A pivot to culinary school was followed by internships at restaurants and, eventually, the two pillars of her identity converged when she set up her own multidisciplinary studio, Manger Manger, eight years ago.

‘When I was starting out in food, you either became a chef or a caterer, which is really old-fashioned. There was no in between,’ the 45-year-old says. Audiences found her multi- sensory vision, using food as an artistic medium, hard to digest. ‘When I started Manger Manger, I struggled to explain how I wanted to express myself through food, but not be a chef, not work in restaurants or just do catering,’ she explains.

The landscape Méon is operating in today is far removed from the rigid, constricting space it was 10 years ago, thanks to the advent of social media (remember #foodporn, anyone?) and the growing visibility of food artists such as Laila Gohar. Consequently, demand for Méon’s artistic offerings has skyrocketed.

‘I guess this is what makes my work different to other cooks. For me, it’s important to have this view of “How am I going to present the food? What is the location? Is it on a surface? Is it vertical or horizontal?” Whereas, someone who comes from a restaurant background might think more about what is in season, or what they are going to say with the recipe,’ she says.

The appetite for her artfully presented edible totems, tablescapes of raw fruits and jellied delights has led her to work with some of the biggest names in fashion, including Prada and Hermès. The design world loves her, too. Last month, at Maison Rocher, guests at the Copenhagen homeware brand Frama and Moroccan-rug specialist Beni’s collaboration launch dinner tucked into her vegetarian fare: boats of stuffed green tomatoes and plates of bamboo leaves folded like origami.

What, to Méon, makes the perfect plate? ‘Something that can disturb you,’ she quips. ‘There is nothing more sad than sitting in front of a table and eating in a passive way, without asking yourself questions – just eating to eat. I always try to think about how the guests can participate and be anchored in the present moment while eating my food,’ she explains. ‘I create interactions between guests. That’s how I elevate the plate.’ manger-manger.com

We Are Ona

Tickets to this nomadic culinary studio’s experiences sell out like hotcakes. Here, founder Luca Pronzato shares how the collective is redefining our relationship with food

Despite the fact that, as a society, we enjoy eating out more than ever before, we bet there are probably only a few recent meals you can remember in detail. A big birthday brunch, perhaps? Or a work Christmas dinner? We Are Ona, a pop-up gastronomic collective and creative agency founded by ex-Noma sommelier Luca Pronzato, aims to change that. ‘We want to design a fine-dining experience for our guests that creates a souvenir,’ Pronzato explains.

Since launching in 2019, We Are Ona has catered for diners at Venice Biennale, Salone del Mobile, Art Basel and other high-profile cultural events. It counts Kelly Wearstler and Sabine Marcelis as fans. Alongside brand partnerships, the group holds pop-up restaurant experiences, where anyone who is lucky (and quick) enough to see the Instagram post can sign up to secure tickets.

We Are Ona’s popularity is fuelled by a new generation that prioritises spending money on luxury experiences delivered with panache. As one fan gushes on Instagram, We Are Ona is, ‘quite literally, a revitalising dining experience’. Design brands understand that experience is the new currency, too, which is why the studio is catnip for high-end businesses, including Flos and Uchronia.

‘We believe that a culinary moment helps to create a huge link between a brand and its audience,’ Pronzato explains. ‘It goes beyond organising an event; it helps to create the identity of a brand and convey a message through the medium of food,’ he continues. ‘Of course, this message is also communicated through the look of the dining space as a whole, which is why our creativity is expressed in two parts: our set-design skills and our culinary-direction skills.’

Every event the studio orchestrates is a collaborative effort, with Pronzato calling on an army of international creatives like a conductor. ‘The idea is that I curate those talents so that every culinary experience is different,’ he says. ‘We love to work with top chefs and beverage experts, as well as designers, artists, photographers – people who can express themselves through the art de la table.’

So far, collaborations have ranged from Harry Nuriev’s Crosby Studios to interior designer to the stars Willo Perron, with menus devised by fresh French talent such as Thomas Coupeau, as well as the more seasoned Michelin Green-star winning Sayaka Sawaguchi. ‘We create the concept and then find the location (generally not a restaurant) and, from then, the scenography is devised,’ says Pronzato.

Temporary locations have included an unused palazzo in Venice and a former stables in Arles. No night the collective organises is the same, but each one is guaranteed to stick in the mind, long after the food is devoured. weareona.co

Hands London

Founded by foodie friends Sofie Thompson and Charlotte Forsyth, this multidisciplinary studio is turning tables across the capital into vintage-style smörgåsbords

Cheese piled high to form sculptures Frank Gehry would be proud of, overlooking pastry of-the-moment maritozzi buns and teetering croquembouche towers. It’s not the kind of indulgence-fest you’d expect to see at a haute-couture event, but it’s exactly what Hands London founders (pictured, from left) Sofie Thompson and Charlotte Forsyth do. A tablescaping, food-styling, events and consultancy business rolled into one, their studio is transforming the fashion catering industry, one meal at a time.

‘Charlotte and I come from fashion backgrounds, and we would go to events where the food offering was meagre – very much an afterthought. We’d both come away and be like, “Oh my god, we’re starving,”’ Thompson recalls. ‘We saw a gap, especially in London at that time, and we felt, “We could make better food than this, and it would be more delicious and more beautiful!” What we were cooking at home was far more nourishing and indulgent.’

The pair met on Instagram while living in Liverpool, and connected over their mutual loves of fine dining (long lunches at Michelin-starred restaurant St John are now a regular occurrence) and natural wine. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that they decided to blend the two interests and start a supper club, which quickly took off on social media.

‘We started posting content, and it naturally evolved in this wonderful way, with brands reaching out, asking, “Could you put on an event for us?”’ says Forsyth. ‘From then, it became a collective, with us creating art through food.’

With a signature style that leans into kitsch (think crisp white tablecloths, vintage catering trolleys, cotton doilies and silver platters topped with a show-stopping candelabra from a flea market), Hands London has orchestrated events for Ferragamo, Mejuri and Completedworks.

At the heart of the brand, though, is food you can share, and not in a ‘small-plates’ fashion. ‘We always work with a spread, because we want it to feel like an installation, almost like a piece of work in itself, rather than us just serving people food. It’s always the type of thing that we like to eat: carby dishes, and big meals, like pies,’ Thompson explains.

‘Our favourite thing to do is to go through cookbooks from the 1950s, 70s and 80s – that’s the style of food we love.’ Forsyth agrees, adding: ‘The spaces that we do events in can sometimes feel quite intimidating, but then, when people come in and see a big spread of food, it encourages them to be more playful. You can grab a bit of bread and share a giggle with somebody. I think that it makes those spaces feel more safe, more comfortable. People’s guards drop, and they relax.’ This communal way of dining ticks all the boxes – it’s the fashionable way to eat now. @hands.london