Ecosystematic Lunch (2017). Food art and installation
Ecosystematic Lunch is an edible journey through the ecosystem. In four courses, participants are travelling through the food chain, from plants to herbivores, omnivores and detrivores. Each course is presented on a specially decorated table, with participants moving to new tables between courses.
Menu
COURSE 1: PRODUCERS
Herbal salad with chives, parsley, mint spinach, beetroot, cucumber, carrots, seeds, with sweet and sour dressing
COURSE 2: HERBIVORES
Grilled pumpkin, buffalo mozzarella, tomato, rucola and grasshopper with yoghurt dip
COURSE 3: OMNIVORES
Celery mesh with pulled pork, apple, syrup dressing, eaten from the hand
COURSE 4: DETRIVORES
Bruscetta with tapenade, blue cheese and mushrooms
Course 1: Producers 
Course 2: Herbivores 
Course 3: Omnivores 
Course 4: Detrivores
In the middle of the room, the installation “It’s Not a Thing, It’s a Process” is a piece symbolising energy flows within a food web. Visualizing dynamics between the grass, the micro-organisms in the soil, the cows, and the worms that digest and break down waste streams, to be taken again by other organisms.
During the first Ecosystematic Lunch, 26 november 2017 in Metaal Kathedraal, two invited speakers reflected on food webs in between the courses:
Jippe Kreuning, archeologist, miller and biologist specialised in Medieval-Islamic theories on nature, took us back in time to the earliest known description of a food chain by Arab 8th century writer al-Jāḥiẓ.
Jaco Appelman’s (Utrecht University) wide ranging interest spans from information systems to biomimicry. He made a conceptual link between food webs to a sustainable circular future, and let participants experience positive and negative feedback loops through playful movement and interaction.
Jippe Kreuning 
Jaco Appelman
Voedselpodium residency at Metaal Kathedraal, Utrecht
Food: Lotte Kleinssen
Production: Linda Eversteijn
Moderator: Maureen Baas
Invited speakers: Jippe Kreuning, Jaco Appelman