Food design at London Design Festival 2012

London Design Festival should be all about design, but this year, food seems to be on a lot of minds too. From chocolate fancies to hotel scraps and entire meals made from food found within the M25, few ingredients have escaped a designer's touch. We couldn't resist this union of two passions very dear to our hearts and have rounded up the best edible design that this week has to offer.

Designs on Chocolate
Is there a better excuse than the London Design Festival's 10th birthday to pair up four of the city's most promising designers with local chocolatiers on a collection of one-off food pieces? It's doubtful. On show at the Be Open Space at The Dock, these gourmand collaborations are definite gobstoppers. Pictured is 'Force of Nature' by Faye Toogood and Cocomaya. The designer's version of the mythical London Stone that formed part of an altar built by Brutus the Trojan is almost too good to eat. Cocomaya has lived up to the legend by creating a realistic, spherical stone that has been split to reveal layers of marbled chocolate and a crystallised, semi-precious core

Designs on Chocolate
Working with Hotel Chocolat's existing range of chocolate bon bons, Paul Cocksedge has constructed a massive mosaic, titled 'Gift', which doubles as an edible QR code and reveals a gift when scanned. The code will lead the curious to a voucher via Hotel Chocolat's website, which can then be exchanged for a free limited edition box of chocolates, produced exclusively for London Design Festival

Designs on Chocolate
For 'Chocolate Metropolis', created in collaboration with Rococo, Tom Dixon chose to capture the complex urbanity of London. Crumbling tower blocks stand shoulder to shoulder with soaring modern buildings, cranes and scaffolding

Designs on Chocolate
From afar, chocolatier William Curley's chocolate replica of Lee Broom's Tile Lamp might seem just that. Look closer however and the lamp, which has been built entirely from solid chocolate, is fully functional with a real lampshade and a working bulb

Scrap Lab by Linda Monique at Andaz Liverpool Street
Championing sustainable eating out east, Andaz Liverpool Street has let Aussie food designer Linda Monique loose in its kitchens to create a unique dinner series that incorporates leftover or typically discarded ingredients. Executed with the culinary expertise of its chefs, it's hard to believe that the sophisticated plates of sea bass cheeks, served with cucumber mousse and fennel crumb (pictured), and entrees of thinly sliced marinated beef tongue and juicy Jacob's ladder beef belly are all considered kitchen scraps

The four course Scrap Lab dinner is £49/person and is held on 19th and 20th September. Email London.restres@andaz.com for availability

Scrap Lab by Linda Monique at Andaz Liverpool Street
The novel experience, which includes service in the Catch restaurant kitchen and the hotel's incomparable Masonic Temple, is capped off with a (non-scrap) dessert club sandwich, featuring doughnut fries, a lemon meringue fried egg and raspberry coulis ketchup and white chocolate mayo

Scrap Lab by Linda Monique at Andaz Liverpool Street
And if anyone gets hungry on the way home, they can take away scrap-lab goodies like seaweed and pumpkin skin ginger chilli crisps, Darjeeling tea-infused marmalade and Pimms and breakfast orange syrup - perfect for dropping into glasses of champagne

Vera Chapter Two and Cocomaya
You've already heard all about Vera, the fictitious muse to a glittering panel of design's brightest talents. Her creators, Kirsty Minns and Erika Muller, have also teamed up with the artistic chocolaterie Cocomaya on a delectable feast of treats inspired by the imaginary character as well

Vera Chapter Two and Cocomaya
Colourful chocolates in the shape of ladybirds gently evoke the whimsical prints on children's dresses

Vera Chapter Two and Cocomaya
The fairground feel continues with an assortment of chocolate or toffee covered apples. Complete with sprinkles.
 

Vera Chapter Two and Cocomaya
Vera Chapter Two's special tea menu is available all week, 17th to 23rd September, from 3-5pm. Booking is essential.

Cocomaya, 235 Brompton Road, London SW3 2EP, T: 44.20 3056 7558
 

The M25 Luncheon by Arabeschi di Latte and Studio Toogood
When it comes to food design, Italian collective Arabseschi di Latte continues to lead the pack. Teaming up again with Studio Toogood, the food designers have conceived The M25 Luncheon, a moreish homage to the traditional Ploughman's lunch using ingredients ingeniously sourced from within the M25.

Reflecting the post-industrial ethos of Studio Toogood's latest collection, the lunch appropriately shines a light on local producers and the labour behind each ingredient. Each meal is presented in a robust, hearty fashion and served on clay slabs. This smoked salmon, served with rye, Childwickbury cheese, pickled beetroot and plum chutney, actually has its roots in nearby Stoke Newington.

The M25 Luncheon by Arabeschi di Latte and Studio Toogood
There are four dishes for diners to choose from: the smoked salmon, a terrine accompanied by pickled onions and chutney, pickled eggs with Bermondsey cheese and tomato chutney on multigrain, and ham served with cheddar and honeycomb that's been made on a London city rooftop. The meals have been minimally dressed to allow the quality of the ingredients to shine through

The M25 Luncheon by Arabeschi di Latte and Studio Toogood
Staged in the modest backroom of Faye Toogood's North London studio, diners are welcomed with homemade granola bars and glasses of 'burnt water'. Made from steeping slices of burnt bread in water with a little sugar, the surprising beverage possesses a delicate caramelised taste
 

The M25 Luncheon by Arabeschi di Latte and Studio Toogood
Let's get a closer look at that burnt water, shall we...?