“the salt bitter sweet sea"

This banquet was an artwork that explored ideas and images of seafaring and food in the era of the tall ships. Combining food and various artworks, the meal sought to change perceptions of the age of sail and its impact on such things as sugar, Irish slavers and the taste for spices.

The work took the form of a five course banquet, each course addressing a 50 year increment of the age of sail, and featured a vast and surprising assortment of ingredients associated with the sea-trade in and out of Dublin.

The age of the tall ships is the period of history when international trade was dominated by sailing ships with their characteristic high masts and elaborately rigged sails. This period lasted from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century, when these ships became far less important both economically and militarily following the arrival of steam ships. Yet over a period of three and half centuries, the tall ships carried settlers, traders, slaves, scientists and fortune-seekers to many parts of the world in a time of global empire building and networking. 

The Food Thing explained:  “The age of the tall ships marks the onset of the modern world and of the integrated global economy that now shapes our lives. In creating a banquet exploring the age of tall ships, we want to tell the familiar and the less familiar stories; we want to look at the spectacular and at the more sinister images of the age of sail.

Talking through these ideas with chefs and sailors, artists and historians, we arrived at the idea of telling five stories of “the salt bitter sweet sea" through five different courses. Each course is linked in some way to each half-century of the age of sail.” 

Members of the public were invited to win a place at the banquet by entering a public lottery, which was advertised through the national press, by emailing GradCAM with the reason they would like to attend. 

http://www.gradcam.ie

Over 100 people attended the banquet, which was free of charge and was staffed by over 50 volunteers. The event was filmed and broadcast by RTE's Nationwide.