The Future Food Salon explores AND CELEBRATEs what we will be eating in the future.

Won’t you join us?
aruna@futurefoodsalon.com

Multimedia artist Dr. Aruna Antonella Handa is the founding Salonnière of the Future Food Salon. She draws her inspiration from salonnières of the past, especially those who started the ‘movement’ in Italy, in their boudoirs, inviting philosophers, poets and musicians to come enlighten audiences of women, who were barred entry to hallowed halls of learning.
A modern day salonnière, Aruna invites artists, chefs, farmers, inventors, poets, musicians and anyone whose currency is imagination to join her explorations of the future of food, the tasty and the taboo. Her performance art and multimedia experiences in the future of food are research-based, drawing on her education (she holds a doctorate in philosophy of language from University of London), her experiences as theatre director, her work as a composer, musician and curator, her extensive travel as food explorer, and her creations as artist, musician and cook. A sensualist, she refuses to sacrifice taste on the altar of sustainability, understanding that both play critical roles in the survival of the species.
Aruna is a subject-area expert in the future of food and in entomophagy and regularly appears in print and broadcast media. She is a columnist on food and sustainability for CBC Radio Syndication. Currently, in addition to preparing the Voyage to Anthropocene Future Food Salon 3, she is completing work on her album, Of Bones & Addicts, (Aruna & the Sirens, producer, David Seitz) and preparing to release two singles including Hey, Have You Seen My Sister? recorded during the pandemic in response to the global surge in gender-based violence, what the UN has called the “shadow pandemic”.

Here is a selection of our press coverage, including commentary, reviews of our work and mentions.
Our Town, NY Press (Dec 3/15)
Time Out New York (Nov 9/15)
我們將來吃什麼？蟋蟀 蚱蜢 麵粉蟲 (What do we eat in the future? Mealworms) (May 26/15)
McGill Daily (Sept 22/14)
La Presse (Aug 27/14)
CTV TV News MTL (Aug 27/14)
Breakfast TV MTL (Aug 27/14)
Hindustan Times (Aug 18/14)
L'actualité (Aug 12/14)
The National Post (Aug 8/14)
CBC Radio Ottawa Morning (May 29/14)
Austin Chronicle (Feb 14/14)
Food Navigator US (Oct 31/13)
Toronto Star (Oct 29/13)
Métro (Oct 16/13)
Radio Canada Intl (Oct 16/13)
The New Pay Chen Show, CJAD Talk Radio (Oct 7/13)
Globe and Mail Business (Sept 23/13)
Business Standard (India) (Sept2/13)
New York Daily News (Sept 1/13)
National Public Radio Marketplace (Aug 26/13)
Treehugger (Aug 19/13)
Daily Mail (UK) (Aug 16/13)
Gothamist (Aug15/13)
New Yorker (Aug 21/13)
Radio Canada Intl
Journal de Rosemont
Inhabitat video
Eating in Translation
Food World News

Popular Science (Aug 15/13)
Al Jazeera (July 1/13)
CTV News (May 13/13)

Torontoist (April 19/13)

photo: yellow oyster mushroom, Jean Beaufort. 

The Future Food SalonS explore AND CELEBRATE what we will be eating in the future.

FUTURE FOOD BANQUETS + RELATED EVENTS
Toronto: Victory Café Bugs & Beer, CSI Annex: Taste Lab: crickets (2013)
Montreal: Insectarium / Botanical Gardens Big Bang Bug Banquet (2014)
New York: The Explorers Club Banquet of Bugs (2015)

The 2013-15 Cricket Series
The 2013-15 series was all about eating crickets. Crickets are more efficient to raise than traditional livestock as their cultivation requires less water, less land and less feed than traditional livestock, and their cultivation also produces less waste. They arenutritious with comparable protein to beef and chicken, with heart-healthy fats, and low cholesterol. We have found them to be an exceedingly versatile food ingredient. Some of our sponsors in this series are making a business case for eating crickets right now in the present.

The Salonnières
The Future Food Salon 2 series was co-hosted by Dr. Elke Grenzer, Director of the Culture of Cities Centre and by Dr. Aruna Antonella Handa, the founder of the series.

Eating Innovation: the art, culture, science and business of entomophagy
This three day conference took place at Montreal's Insectarium in the Space for Life complex, August 26-28. The conference was organized by Alimentary Initiatives and the members of the Future Food Salon in collaboration with the Montreal Insectarium. There were just over 100 delegates who participated in plenary sessions and panels by day, and feasted on insects by night. The Montreal Future Food Salon and the Discovery Gallery were open to the general public, and the Big Bang Bug Banquet closed the conference with a nine course edible bug banquet, with each course inspired by one of the nine planets of our solar system. Dr. Aruna Antonella Handa and Dr. Elke Grenzer were the conference conveners. The conference program is available online here.

Partners and Sponsors
Chapul makes a high protein cricket-based bar and participated in the New York and Austin Salons and Big Cricket Farms, based in Ohio, is the first American farm exclusively dedicated to cultivating food grade crickets for wholesale and retail markets. Big Cricket Farms supplied the Montreal Salon and debuted their product at the Eating Innovation conference, hosted by the Future Food Salon Group in collaboration with the Space for Life Montreal Insectarium. Jakub Dzamba and his Third Millennium Farming conducts research into making cricket farming more efficient in the urban setting.  Gourmex Inc and uKa protein are Montreal based edible insect companies, who showcased their products at the Salon and Discovery Gallery.

Entomophagy expert Dave Gracer of Small Stock Foods (Rhode Island), and entomologists Marianne Shockley (Georgia) and Lou Sorkin participated in an Entomophagy Panel at our New York Salon, and all three also spoke at the Eating Innovation conference, Aug 26-28/2014 in Montreal. Both Dave Gracer and Lou Sorkin are members of the Future Food Salon Group.

Tiny Farms from Silicon Valley, California hosted one of the plenary sessions at the Eating Innovation conference. They are also conducting research into efficient methods of farming edible insects.

Discovery Gallery - edible insect art & commerce
The Discovery Gallery was hosted in the Reception Hall of the Botanical Gardens, at Space for Life,  in Montreal during the Eating Innovation Conference August 26-28, 2014. Curated by Future Food Salon Group member, artist Han Zhang, the Discovery Gallery featured art and commerce related to edible insects. Entrance was free.

Artists, Photographers & Videographers
Future Food Salon Group member, Han Zhang,  partnered with artists Dominique Ferraton and Marjan Verstappen, in the Discovery Gallery as well as at the Montreal Salon.

Like Manna from Heaven, a piece created by Han Zhang and Helen Yung, for the series, is composed of Chinese poems about food, written in Chinese characters on rice paper from which baskets were cut and hung. Talented and dedicated photographers and videographers, Han Zhang, Michal Labik and Michael Cumming of Ambitious City have also contributed to the series. In Austin, Hayley Gillespie of Art.Science.Gallery curated a collection of insect-inspired art for the Austin salon.

Chefs & Cooks
Without chefs, the Future Food Salons are nothing. We work with intrepid and talented chefs, bakers, chocolatiers and cooks. Future Food Salon Group member and Future Food Salon veteran Cookie Martinez has cooked and baked for the Toronto, New York, and Montreal Salons in this series, as well as for the Big Bang Bug Banquet and the Beer & Bugs event. In Montreal, she was joined by Montreal-based chefs from Cook Caravan, David Ali Garcia, and Gourmex inc. with contributions from France-based Jimini's and Micronutris, and Ohio based Big Cricket Farms.

In Austin, chefs Sonya Cote of Eden East, Imani Dabney and Michael Guidry and the chefs from Texas-based How Do You Roll created bug canapés for the Austin Salon.  Chef Daniel Holloway of Urban Acorn Catering made the cricket canapés for our Toronto Salon. In addition to Cookie Martinez who made savoury canapés, Baker Emily Breedlove of Texas made chocolate chirp cookies, and chocolatier Fat Turkey Chocolate Company made cricket based chocolates for the Manhattan Salon.

Vino
Texas Mead Works meads were sampled in New York, courtesy of Little Herds, and Rosewood Estates Winery provided mead for the Toronto Salon. Treaty Oak Distilling and Lagunitas Brewing Company  and Brazos Hall provided libations in Austin.

Volunteers & Staff
The Salons have benefited from the hard work of a number of graduate students, friends, and colleagues who have donated some volunteer time to the Salons. We are grateful to André Luis Marin, Meredith Marin, Bethany Nelson, Marjan Verstappen , Kai Fai Ho, Melina Giannelia, and Stefka Lubenova. We are grateful to the volunteers and staff at the Centre for Social Innovation-Starrett Lehigh, in Manhattan and Gallery 345 in Toronto and to the Little Herd volunteers in Austin. Translators and editors for the conference program included Veronica Sanz, Chanel Boucher, and Eric Bescak.

Sound & Visual
Atomic Picnic provided stellar sound and visual support for the Austin Salon.