Tasting the Unseen
Medium
Editorial project
Role
AI Expert and Art Director with Carlotta Bacchini
Year
2024
Deliverables
Tasting The Unseen was born from the desire to redefine what a cookbook can be
Tasting the Unseen reimagines the cookbook as a space of exploration, blending recipes with Al-generated visuals to evoke emotion and memory. Embracing imperfection and unpredictability, it encourages intuitive cooking over fixed instructions, inviting readers to engage with food as a sensory, creative, and deeply personal journey rather than a formula.
Tasting The Unseen was born from the desire to redefine what a cookbook can be. Rather than a manual of precise instructions, it unfolds as an open invitation to explore. Through a dialogue between recipes and artificial intelligence, it becomes a journey across flavors, images, and emotions. At its core lies a simple but radical question: What if imperfection was the secret ingredient?
In these pages, dishes are not fixed results, but suggestions. Recipes are treated as moments, not formulas, glimpses into a process shaped by memory, curiosity, and invention. Culinary exploration becomes the driving force, where the act of cooking is less about following and more about feeling, sensing, and interpreting. The visuals, generated through artificial intelligence, do not aim to capture reality as it is. Instead, they evoke it. These are not conventional food photographs but imaginative reflections, balancing between the dreamlike and the tangible. Their intentional imperfection resists the polished language of food media, embracing distortion, ambiguity, and accident as creative tools. The result is a visual grammar that invites the viewer to let go of expectations and follow instinct instead.
Each recipe signifies a point along a fluid path, speaking the language of taste and texture. They evoke comfort, freshness, and tradition without adhering to a single truth. Instead, they create atmospheres and stir associations, akin to a modern madeleine that revives memories and opens new doors. The editorial structure mirrors this fluidity, providing a flexible framework where words, images, and impressions interact. Al serves not just a technical role but becomes a collaborator, revealing what often escapes human perception. Its unpredictability invites us to re-evaluate and embrace the unknown.
Ultimately, Tasting the Unseen is not just a cookbook but a space for suggestion and discovery, celebrating the beauty of imperfection and encouraging courageous culinary exploration.
The process behind the images is meticulous. Each exploration begins with a recipe, which is significant for both Carlotta and me. We analyze and label these recipes according to ingredients, emotions, and key concepts. Each recipe is then described with a prompt, providing the best possible description for both machines and humans, enabling creations that maintain logic while stimulating the imagination.
The creation of the images involves three steps: first, generating a basic image using Krea; second, applying a custom style in Midjourney; and finally, elaborating on the details with Photoshop. Each exploration results in an interpretation of a particular dish, transformed from its original form while encapsulating the essence that makes that dish important.
