Food has been a long standing muse for the creative world. Irving Penn photographed succulent still lifes in the 1940s, with berries glazed and cheese oozing out of the pixels, while Paul Cézanne painted abstracted fruits as far back as the 1870s. More recently, Marina Abramović performed her Feast of the Gods, where elaborate tablespaces filled with food became an essential part of the art; David Edwards created bite-sized foods encased in edible packaging; Bompas & Parr built entire landscapes out of jelly; and Sam Boxer used ham and cheese to create Gut magazine’s food issue title fonts. Increasingly, brands and creators are turning to the pleasure of eating as their hook in order to create multi-sensory experiences that go beyond mere text on a screen. The same can be said for the restaurant.
Not only must the food taste good, but the design of the environment in which it’s savoured must be equally as appetising. Chair placement, table size, ambient lighting, the right acoustics and colour palettes; when you step into a restaurant, the first thing that might catch your attention – besides the waft of sizzling onions – is the way it looks and feels. Perhaps it’s the tastefully decorated interiors, friendly brand mascot, or punchy pink wall that you’ll snap a selfie in front of later. Or maybe it’s the handwritten specials up on the board, or neatly compartmentalised menu with illustrations symbolising the spice levels of the dish. The physical act of dining is a tangible and beautiful encounter, and for Erchen Chang, the co-founder of BAO – a cluster of eateries across Soho, Kings Cross, Borough, Shoreditch and Battersea – there’s a secret sauce that goes with designing a successful and delicious restaurant: “think food, serve design”.
BAO was born out of a love affair between design, art and Taiwanese cooking. After graduating from Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL) in 2012 – in which she focused on sculpture and performance – Chang, her partner Shing Tat Chung and sister Wai Ting excitedly set out on a road trip back to Taiwan, where Chang is from. “We love cooking and making things with our hands,” she recalls, “and when we were travelling, we talked about ideas to perfect the BAO and search for the perfect balance of this classic.” After returning to London, they decided to launch a project that put their skills to good use, be it pattern cutting the uniforms on their backs, building flat-pack stalls, designing the branding, website coding and mastering the BAO recipe. “It was never our intention to open a restaurant,” she admits. “Rather, it was a route to bring together our creative backgrounds through the commonality of food.”
From there, the team built their first six-person shack in Netil Market, after which they met their investor and business partners and soon launched their first bricks and mortar in Soho. With an aim to bring Taiwanese culture to London – from street food to Xiao Chi and beef noodle houses to late-night grill joins – and it didn’t take long before the fluffy buns caught the taste buds of diners across the city. The once-small shack grew into a multi-dimensional brand which includes multiple eateries, pop-ups in Taipei (where the Gua bao originated), a digital zine, collaborations with brands such as Frieze, Dover Street Market and Hato, plus three new karaoke rooms in the restaurants. “As soon as we pushed the button, it evolved much faster and quicker than we expected and had to learn almost everything on the job,” Chang explains.
Its rapid success can be pinned to many things, the collaborative nature of the team being one of them. Each has their own part to play in the process; Shing runs the strategy and direction of the company, Wai Ting is “Mother of BAO” – as Chang calls her – who nurtures people and company culture, and Chang is the creative director overseeing the food and brand direction. For Chang, a large portion of her role is the ideation, which she refers to as the “banking” of ideas. Moments from her travels, Japanese cartoons and films are stored away in her brain, similar to the way you’d store jars in a spice rack, using them only when they pair perfectly with a meal. Depending on site specifics, such as the size and space of a restaurant, these ideas can be left to ferment for a couple of years at a time until they’re ready. “One of the things I love about travelling in Asia is that there are so many specific eateries that meet different functions of eating,” she says. “We are constantly mesmerised by these memories of ours and recreate them through our own lens. We like to use these concepts as a starting point and point of reference for our restaurants. And whilst our aim is to create that experience that transports you, it’s not to create a direct copy of the references we take.”
Take for instance the minimalist aesthetic of the BAO noodle shop in Shoreditch, which is directly inspired by Taiwanese noodle houses. White tiles on the walls and the contrasting metal surfaces are traditionally used in Taiwan, as they’re easy to maintain at high temperatures in humid weather. However, BAO opted for larger tiles to radiate a more futuristic appeal that makes visitors feel like they’re in some kind of clinically sublime space room. The flat low stools appear almost over-the-top in their shape and proportion, giving off a fun and playful cartoonish feel. “Cute, round, subtle proportions are everything,” says Chang. “We have stripped back other elements of a typical noodle shop to allow these key features to be the star of the space.” The team also built a curved metal bar which overlooks the kitchen – the open-planned design is inspired by the theatrics of a noodle bar, where guests can revel in the “therapeutic” and “entertaining” feeling of watching the chefs cook up your dish. “I also love the idea of single diners coming in and sitting at the metal bar, slurping away at noodles and chatting to our chefs for recommendations.”
“Taiwan has a diverse history from the aboriginal Taiwanese heritage to the influence of mainland China and the Japanese. This is what makes Taiwan a true melting pot. It’s the daily way of life that inspires us, not just Taiwanese cuisine, but the places people frequent, their habits and lifestyle.”Erchen Chang
Once the space has been determined, and Chang has decided on which cartoonish shape seat and table goes where, the team will decipher the narrative of the space and menu. To do so, they’ll refer back to their mantra – “think food, serve design”. This slogan doesn’t just refer to aesthetics, but rather a creative solution for how they place their narratives into their world. “It’s important to note that our creative foundation – ‘think food’ – is rooted in the Taiwanese way of life,” says Chang, citing this as their primary source of inspiration. “Taiwan has a diverse history from the aboriginal Taiwanese heritage to the influence of mainland China and the Japanese. This is what makes Taiwan a true melting pot. It’s the daily way of life that inspires us, not just Taiwanese cuisine, but the places people frequent, their habits and lifestyle.”
As for the food specifically, Chang explains how their dishes are based on three pillars: heritage, produce and innovation. She points to a 40-day aged rump cap with aged white soy as an example, which sees a merging of British produce – i.e. beef from Philip Warrens – paired with aged white soy sauce from Ping Tung. The flavour of which will immediately send the taster to Taiwan with one foot still firmly rooted in London. The flour used to make the noodles are imported in order to achieve an authentic taste, yet the BAO team are keen to keep the merging of the two locations. “We don’t want to transport people back to Taiwan, but to another world – an uncanny version of Taiwan.” If you’re the staff, though, then the BAO team offer a Taiwan Travel Club, where the team are able to experience life there; they also host the Taiwanese Grandma Cooking Club to relive the memories of their grandma’s cooking; and they host talks, workshops and field trips under the School of BAO Programme.
Interestingly, the act of cooking and designing restaurants is not too far apart. The process of creating BAO, Chang says, has been similar to the fast-paced and high-pressure environment of her time at Slade. The key difference now is that, instead of mixing paint and plaster, they’re combining food and design. “These days, food and art are very fashionable. Fashion houses consider food a part of their brand image, using it to enhance their events and showrooms as a way to engage their audience. With the increase in this trend, it nurtures new roles. Hence you see more and more food artists appearing on various platforms, using food as their medium for creating art.”
When it comes to the BAO image, it’s far more than just cooking. It’s a whole brand experience that spans community, food, design, heritage and now publishing. Last year, when the air con in their Shoreditch noodle shop decided to break during an early summer, the team found themselves cooling off in their Kings Cross location reminiscing about their summers in Asia, plus the foods and remedies that would help with the heat. They decided to share these stories through a “quirky collection of writings'' from people they admire in their new digital zine, Aircon is Broken: Memories and Remedies for Hot Summer Days, which explores what it’s like growing up or living in Asia during the hot months.
Rejino Pyo relives her memories of the Korean cold noodles she enjoyed in her younger years; food writer Angela Hui dives into the traditional Chinese medicine concept of eating hot food to battle high body temperatures; while Ny and Ahrash from Chin Chin Ice Cream Lab share their secret – that they’re lactose intolerant. Inspired by Chang’s long admiration for Commes des Garçons Sixth Magazine, the zine is unexpectedly dark for a publication about summer. Devoid of typical yellows and reds, the pages are encased in a monochrome identity, the high contrast photography and bold sans serif font appearing like it’s been run through an ancient xerox machine.
In the future, Chang reveals some exciting plans in the sing-along space, further cementing the idea that food experiences don’t need to stick to the table. “I grew up going to karaoke (known as KTV in Taiwan) with my friends, and some KTVs were even secretly famous for their food. This combined two of my favourite things: eating and going wild while singing. It’s fascinating to see how different people approach karaoke – from those who sing their hearts out to those who treat it like a profession, taking turns to perform their best. With our expansion, we are planning more karaoke rooms and exploring ways to make them the best karaoke experience imaginable.”