The BIONEES project started by researching the disappearance of Chinese- Indonesian restaurants from the Netherlands and the additional (hidden) Chinese culture in the Netherlands and those restaurants. Then I started researching what the core of the success of restaurants in the Netherlands is. This leads to important values such as biological, sustainable material, no animal suffering, no food waste and modernity. These two studies led to the development of a fictitious restaurant for a biological Chinese: the BIONEES.
Business card restaurant BIONEES
Mock up plates and cutlery restaurant BIONEES
A traditional Chinese menu
In collaboration with a owner of a Chinese restaurant I remade the menu for my speculative design BIONEES. She mentioned her menu nowadays is changed because most Dutch people don't like traditional Chinese food. "When we eat out ourselves, we eat dishes like on this menu. Fish should always be an option and a sweet broth soup is often used as a dessert.
Front menu
Menu: choose your dish
Back menu
Moodboard
Final infographic (left)
The infographic shows how the new version of a Chinese restaurant would work in the Netherlands. Biological cultivation, no animal harm, co2 reduction and a sustainable interior are the core values.
Poster for Herenboeren Goedentijd (right)
"Herenboerderij Goedentijd is a small-scale cooperative farm in Alphen (near Tilburg), owned by approximately 250 households (Herenboeren) from the area. Together we decide what we want to eat. Our Herenboeren farmers, who are employed by the cooperative, grow about 40 types of vegetables, 30 types of fruit and potatoes for us. They also care for the pigs, cattle and chickens that supply meat and eggs" (Herenboeren Goedentijd, n.d.)
The poster explains that vegetables with 'weird' forms are as healthy, tasty and pricey as normal ones.
© VPRO
Inspiration
The podcast from VPRO 'My father is a 'Chinese take-away' talks about the Chinese-Indonesian restaurants that are closing their doors in the Netherlands. The famous dish Babi pangang is threatened with extinction. The podcast questions if the Chinese takeaway can still be saved.
This was my inspiration to find out why these restaurants are closing, especially in a time where we try new cuisines and how it will become possible to rebrand these Chinese restaurants.