Save Food from the Refrigerator

design by Jihyun Ryou

Did you know that apples prevent potatoes from sprouting? Or that aubergine and zucchini are biologically fruits and therefore should be treated like fruits?

Young designer Jihyun Ryou from the Netherlands tries to bring that kind of knowledge back to everyday life, calling it “shaping traditional oral knowledge”. She suggests that we shouldn’t hand over the responsibility for our food to the refrigerator but instead re-establish traditional and more natural ways of preserving our food.

Observing the food and therefore changing the notion of food preservation, we could find the answer to current situations such as the overuse of energy and food wastage. My design is a tool to implement that knowledge in a tangible way and slowly it changes the bigger picture of society. I believe that once people are given a tool that triggers their minds and requires a mental effort to use it, new traditions and new rituals can be introduced into our culture.

Jihyun Ryou, 2009