Recipe for the Future – A toolkit to envision a better future and initiate change

Recipe for the Future is a toolkit for change-making through speculative design and food. It is a guide for a workshop to help participants imagine what the future of food could look like. It introduces the method of speculative cooking, where speculative objects and food-related future scans allow the imagination of a different world, a different future. This tool is used to allow minds to let go of the constraints of the present reality and see how else things could be. Question the social imaginaries, and understand that it is not the only way we can live. As a future scenario is created, the engagement with the complexities of sustainability and climate change is unavoidable.

Speculative cooking is used to help us imagine what the future of food could look like. They help detach from our food-related norms and make it easier to imagine a different world. Much of what we consider food today are material objects, whether that be packaging, tools, or dishes, so it is understandable that new objects con open up new possibilities for our imaginations. When we do not know what something is, our brains try to fill in the knowledge gap with creative solutions.