Alla Carta asks designer Yuri Suzuki for a favorite recipe

Yuri Suzuki is one of those people we would call a genius. He is not only a designer, but also a sound artist and electronic musician whose aim is to explore the boundaries of sound through the pieces he designs. We met him in his studio in London, where he cooked a delicious Chinese recipe: Milk Ginger Pudding.

AC: Is there something in particular that keeps design and food related?

YS: I think designing, cooking, and DJ-ing have the exactly same process. With each, there is a client, a customer, or an audience. The process is all about creating the best experience.

Designer: creating the best entrance for people into an installation so they'll have a specific experience or story.

Chef: starting with the appetizer, and right through to dessert, it's all about creating an experience order.

DJ: starting from slow music to hard dance music is basically creating easy entrance into dancing.

AC: What do you like about cooking?

YS: I think all about experimenting. To be honest, I used to be the farthest person for cooking and food (maybe still), but then I met Åbäke and Martino Gamper when I came to London and experienced their Trattoria al Cappello. It was absolutely magic. The process of serving food is very unique and also the food itself. One of my favorite recipes of Martino's is a ginger tomato pasta: simply fry grated ginger and boil with canned tomatoes. It is very simple but the taste is more than that. Since then I realized that the cooking process shouldn't be addition, it should be multiplication.

Also, Rémy from Ratatouille said the cooking process is like a chemical experiment. So that process quite fascinates me.

AC: Where do you buy your food in London?

YS: As I live in East London I always buy ingredients from local markets. I like Ridley Road Market where there are many different ethnic meats and vegetables that you can buy. Some of them, to be honest, look awful, but some of them taste incredibly great.

I often buy big naan bread from Ararat Bread. They serve freshly baked naan with a huge variety of flavors.

AC: Tell us your secret recipe

YS:  Ginger Pudding. This recipe comes from China, and the process is quite magic.

Ingredients:

Milk

Ginger Juice

Sugar

1. Take some ginger juice

2. Put the ginger juice into a cup. The ratio of milk and ginger juice should be 92 : 8

3. Boil some milk

4. Put sugar into milk

5. Cool the milk to 70 degrees

6. Pour milk into the cup

7. Leave 4-5 min

Then the milk becomes a pudding.

Enjoy

 ***

Interview by Fabiana Fierotti

Photography by Joe Woodhouse

• Produced by

  • 

    Alla Carta Magazine

    Alla Carta approaches food as an incentive to take a bite of diverse cultural phenomena. We are intrigued by the meal's convivial capacity, and have found food to be an essential element for sharing thoughts, opinions and creative ideas.