Nico餐具带给孩子们新奇的食物体验
Nico Eats toolkit encourages children to be more adventurous with food

由专筑网朱王倩，李韧编译

皇家艺术学院毕业生Florencia Sepúlveda设计了一套餐具和食谱，帮助孩子们尝试不同食物和口味。

他们围绕着一个虚构的食品发明家Nico，他出现在一系列的食材和故事中。

Royal College of Art graduate Florencia Sepúlveda has created a set of utensils and recipe books to help children experiment with food and flavours.
They revolve around fictional food inventor Nico, who appears in a series of stories that guide children through preparing ingredients and making meals.

Sepúlveda告诉Dezeen记者：“通过与我们所吃的食物建立更深层次的联系，从而培养更健康的饮食习惯，我对这些内容很感兴趣。我决定将儿童作为研究对象，因为研究表明，我们早期所饮食的食物都反映在我们日常生活的兴趣与行为之中。”

设计师鼓励孩子阅读书籍，并随书附赠Nico 餐具组合，该系列餐具的色彩柔和，形状醒目，很容易被年轻用户所接纳。 Sepúlveda的研究表明，许多孩子对新食物的恐惧感使他们怯于尝试陌生食物。

"I was interested in exploring how we might develop healthier eating habits by creating a deeper connection with the food we eat," Sepúlveda told Dezeen. "I decided to focus on children because, as research suggests, our early experiences with food are the foundations for our preferences and behaviours throughout our lives."
Kids are encouraged to read the books and make use of an accompanying collection of Nico Cooks tools – designed with striking shapes in pastel colours to be more accessible and appealing for younger users. Sepúlveda's research revealed that many children's fear of new foods discouraged them from trying unfamiliar ingredients.

Nico 餐具在促使孩子们尝试更多新口味食物的同时，还鼓励孩子们积极参与操作，做出属于自己的食物。

这位在皇家艺术学院主修全球创新设计硕士课程的设计师补充说：“这个系列的餐具鼓励孩子们对食物报以有趣、好奇的态度，这样他们会更愿意坐在餐桌上。”

“当你为孩子们创造出这种氛围时，孩子们会逐渐乐意触摸、靠近甚至品尝食物。”

Rather than pressuring children into trying new flavours, the Nico Cooks utensils offer a more playful alternative, letting them be more hands-on and make their own food.
"This encourages them to approach food with a playful, curious and inquisitive attitude, that they can bring to the dinner table," added the designer, who studied in the Royal College of Art's Global Innovation Design masters programme.
"When you generate these types of environments, kids willingly start touching, smelling and tasting food."

该系列餐具合集其中包括一个烧瓶式混合器，让各种食材成分可以自由混合，还有一个柔软食物的捣碎器，以及一个可以帮助孩子们切碎叶子、香料或大蒜的转动器。

除了炊具之外，Sepúlveda还设计了Nico品尝工具包，这是一个独立的实验设备，让孩子们可以通过不同的感官来评估食物的优劣。

这套工具包括一个漏斗容器，孩子们可以根据食物的气味来猜测这是哪种食物，还有一套具有夸张形式的小型工具，这意味着孩子们可以品尝到少量的食材原料。

The tools include a flask-style shaker that lets ingredients be mixed freely, a masher for soft food, and a twister that lets kids shred leaves, herbs or garlic.
In addition to the cooking utensils, Sepúlveda also created the Nico Tastes toolkit – a separate lab-style set of devices that let children assess food using different senses.
This includes a container with a funnel that can be used to hide and guess food by its scent, and a set of smaller tools with exaggerated forms that mean children can taste ingredients in tiny quantities.

设计师说：“不同的形状为孩子们带来新奇的体验乐趣，同时让他们学会根据不同的需求来选取最适合的工具。”其他工具还有食物万花筒、用于听嚼和消化声音的听诊器，以及一套可以将食物按压出几何形状的切割器，这些工具可以互相配合使用，从而将食物雕刻成这种形状。

Sepeplveda补充说：“这些工具很有趣，但它们的功能也非常重要，它们能够让孩子们在厨房里熟练地操作。”

“我认为这是一种可以适应全球当前状况的产品，人们从全球各地不同美食和民宿文化中受到启发，从而开发出新工具、食谱。”

"The different shapes bring novelty to the experience, while making them think about the most appropriate tool for each thing they try," said the designer.
Other tools include a food kaleidoscope, a stethoscope for listening to the sounds of chewing and digestion, and a set of cutters that punch geometric shapes out of ingredients – which can then be joined together to create sculptures.
"It's critical that these tools are fun, but that they are also functional in order to enable children to be proficient in the kitchen," added Sepúlveda.
"I see this as a product that can be adapted to local contexts worldwide, developing tools, recipes and stories that are inspired by the different local cuisines and folklore around the globe."

Sepúlveda目前正在开发更多Nico食谱，与此同时，她还在努力探索可适用于学校或托儿所的工具。

她不是唯一一个尝试运用工具来改变人们对食物看法的设计师。其他设计师创造了许许多多奇怪形状的餐具，从而解决“无意识的食物消费”问题，其中有可以弹跳和颤抖来响应食物的果冻盘子。

建筑摄影为Ryan Mario Yasin。

Sepúlveda is currently developing more recipes and stories featuring Nico, and exploring the ways the tools could be used by schools or nurseries.
She isn't the only designer to experiment with the ways tools can change our perception of food. Others have created everything from strangely shaped tableware to tackle "mindless food consumption" to jelly-like plates that bounce and tremble in response to meals.
Photography by Ryan Mario Yasin.

出处：本文译自www.dezeen.com/，转载请注明出处。