Who decides how our food should look?

Appetite for Design, an exhibition exploring the design elements involved in how food is processed, distributed and consumed, opens at the National Craft Gallery in Kilkenny on Friday evening, May 9th and runs until June 30th.

Running alongside the exhibition, which is curated by Dublin design studio Designgoat, are a series of talks, and what are described as “eating experiences”.

These will be along the lines of pop-ups and will be set within the gallery. The first one, on Saturday, May 9th, is being run by Barry FitzGerald, former head chef at Michelin-starred London restaurant The Harwood Arms, and consultant head chef at Etto, Dublin, who is now working on opening his own restaurant.

Others will follow on Saturdays, May 23rd (Domestic Godless); June 6th (Mark Moriarty and Ciaran Sweeney's Culinary Counter); June 20th (Cuán Greene and Harry Colley of Dublin Pop Up). The events will run from 6.30pm to 9.30pm and a BYOB policy applies. Tickets are being released on Eventbrite.com and cost from €40.

Appetite for Design is also taking part in the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food & Wine (May 15th-17th), with an exhibition of photographs on the theme of food and design in the Grain Store, and a discussion on the importance of design in food, with panellists including chefs Christian Puglisi of Copenhagen restaurant Relae and Kevin Thornton of Thornton's in Dublin.

For more details of Appetite for Design in Kilkenny, see nationalcraftgallery.ie.