Here in Hong Kong, we have our choice of cuisine, decorated chefs, and any ingredient under the sun to feed the city's massive appetite--and the tens of thousands of hopeful foodfluencers. Alison, a lifelong feeder, was hungry for a different kind of dining.

Here in Hong Kong, we have our choice of cuisine, decorated chefs, and any ingredient under the sun to feed the city's massive appetite--and the tens of thousands of hopeful foodfluencers. Alison, a lifelong feeder, was hungry for a different kind of dining. While working at an agency and feeling increasingly lost in the industry, she saw a talk that changed the course of her career and introduced her to "food design"—a nebulous practice that applies design thinking to what and how we eat. What if a kitchen was a portable time machine? How can food bring us a sense of normality during a global pandemic? What do you serve for a dinner for a global, leading sex toy company? From early experiences conducted without network nor budget to establishing an underground dining space dedicated to a rotation of experimental concepts, Alison is continuously fascinated with the potential for dining to elicit vulnerability and bridge our individual stories to a universal understanding.

Alison Tan is a designer and experimental feeder creating dining experiences to tell stories and connect crowds. Her pop-ups include Synesthesia, a mini music festival with bites designed to match the performer's tunes. She is the co-creator of supper club Otium (instagram.com/otiumhk), which fuses food with rituals to present dining as our generation's secular temple. She also co-founded Savour Cinema to elevate lockdown routines of takeout and Netflix by delivering multicourse meals that capture iconic moments of our favorite films. Her recent collaboration with NGO Grassroots Futures brings refugee & asylum seeker stories and recipes to your home through fresh meal kits.

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*The talk is CCL accredited for HKBU students.  An evaluation form will be e-mailed to the participated students after the talk. Please note that the CCL unit will only be given to those students who have registered the event and submitted with a completed evaluation form by 26 Feb 2022 (Sat) and using the HKBU email address.