As a food design studio, we’re in our element when we get to translate material narratives into edible experiences. For the Art Party hosted by House and Leisure, Viviers Studio and Soho House, Studio H, in collaboration with Juwan Beyers, designed a menu inspired by the natural fibres explored in Lamb of Hope – the exhibition by Viviers Studio and Philip Fimano that formed the backdrop to the evening.

Drawing from the tactility and integrity of raw fibre, we approached each ingredient in its simplest, most honest form and then treated it as material. Pulled. Braided. Woven. Stitched.

On the table:

Turkish delight, delicately structured and hand-finished.
Fruit leather, hand-sewn by Juwan Beyers Food Design.
Braided fior di latté.
Hand-woven cracker breads.
Forelle pears in their natural blush.
A savoury mosbolletjie cake layered with lamb jam.

Each element became a study in texture and craft, exploring tension, pliability, repetition and form through food. The menu echoed the exhibition’s meditation on fibre, transforming softness into structure and nourishment into narrative.

A sensory extension of the installation. Design you can taste.

THE CLIENT
Woolworths Farming for the Future

THE BRIEF
Design an interactive spatial experience for Decorex Johannesburg that gives physical and emotional form to the Woolworths Farming for the Future sustainability platform.

THE CONCEPT
A sensory-led installation designed to prompt pause, participation, and behavioural shift. Rooted in regenerative thinking, the experience invited visitors to exchange a ClemenGold for a written pledge, transforming a transactional gesture into an act of commitment. Citrus-scented air and a wall of hand-signed promises created a living archive of collective intention.

THE INTERVENTION
Positioned at the entrance to the 100% Design hall at Decorex Johannesburg, the ClemenGold swap station functioned as both activation and artefact. Visitors were invited to peel their fruit into transparent bins, creating a slow-build, ephemeral data touchpoint, a quiet accumulation that rendered impact visible. The fruit became a medium for interaction, reflection, and design-led storytelling.

THE NUMBERS
6,000+ pledges signed over four days.

THE TEAM
Concept, experience design: Studio H
Stand production: Klara van Wyngaarden
Activation team: Eviwe Qubelo, Jana Wasserman, Mduduzi Miya

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THE CLIENT

Weylandts

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THE JOB

Design a corn-themed food installation for the launch of the Weylandts x Thebe Magugu collab during Cape Town Furniture Week

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THE MENU

Grilled corn disks with spicy Nik Naks dust

Cheesy corn fritters

Amagwinya with corn and bacon filling

Corn Flakes brittle

Steamed cornbread

Caramel popcorn bracelets

Cornbread cake with xigugu custard and whipped crème fraîche, covered in popcorn

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Concept and menu design: Studio H

Chefs: Mia Everson, Faith Sotondoshe

Art direction for Weylandts: Sanri Pienaar

As a food design studio, we’re in our element when we get to design experiences with ingredient deep-dives that pay homage to South African food culture – food design with intention and purpose. In May, we did just that, in collaboration with Chef Mmabatho Molefe. We focused on three humble ingredients: pap, meat and rice, for our Family Meal-themed pop-up restaurant.

Here’s how we celebrated pap: One of four sensory room installations was dedicated entirely to it. With the help of the Studio H community, we built an archive of maize meal from as far as Eswatini, KZN and Matatiele. Videos of South Africans from all walks of life making pap played alongside the installation, with the floor covered in maize kernels for an added sensory layer.

Here’s how we celebrated rice: A pot of Mmabatho’s breyani simmered in the centre of an almost empty room, accompanied by ambient kitchen sounds playing in the background. Guests could unpin a packet of breyani spice blend from a tablecloth. The following morning, they received the breyani recipe and the evening’s playlist via email. The veg breyani was served tableside from a huge pot on a trolley. As part of the table setting guests could use a magnifying glass to discover their names on a grain of rice.

Here’s how we celebrated meat: In the bread and tallow room, guests lit their beef tallow candles to mop up the melted fat with mini corn bread mosbolletjies.

Mmabatho served:

ON ARRIVAL

Beef tallow candles with mini corn bread mosbolletjies

Pap waffles with ushatini three ways (chunky, ketchup and jelly) and hung amasi spread.

Wine Pairing: Spier Signature MCC

A BIKE RIDE FROM SOUTHFIELD
“This dish pays homage to Chef Ryan (Cole) and a few things he introduced me to as a young chef.”
Tuna crudo with maize rice, candied beef tongue (seasoned with white pepper), jalapeños, sliced red onions and crack sauce.
Wine Pairing: Spier Seaward Sauvignon Blanc 2024

PAP/VLEIS
“A universally South African dish. Enjoyed in many different ways, yet still speaking to one culture.”
Pap, braised lamb neck, Studio H’s pickled waterblommetjies.
Wine Pairing: Spier Seaward Shiraz 2023

EDEN FAMILY CHURCH
“Whenever I think of the ultimate family time, it’s me and my family at church. Whether it was a fundraiser or a large church gathering, there was always a pot of breyani waiting to be shared.”
Seared duck breast, pea purée, green vegetables, cottage cheese served with vegetable breyani.
Wine Pairing: Spier Seaward Shiraz 2023

RICE & MILK
“When you’re craving uphuthu namasi but you’re out of both. A simple snack I used to enjoy with some leftover rice.”
Vanilla rice pudding, toasted rice and white chocolate cremeux, raw honeymoon, puffed rice paper, and white chocolate shards.
Wine Pairing: Spier Signature MCC 2023

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Download the Family Meal playlist, courtesy of A11 Agency, here.

Thank you:

Wine: Spier Wine Farm
Venue: Lemkus Exchange
Sponsorhsip: Bernice Blundell
Styling: Klara van Wyngaarder
Styling assistant and florals: Phillip Obermeyer
Decor design: Sumien Brink
After party drinks: Kalahari Truffles, Angelique Smith
DJ's by A11: Athi Maq, Aaron W Peters

Studio H explored corn as a cultural connector during Milan Design Week 2025 with a mindful food installation. Commissioned by Novitá Communications for North America Night at Teatro Litta, the experience responded to the theme Not Lost in Translation – a reflection on design as a universal language – through a multilingual menu and storytelling rooted in culinary heritage across Mexico, Canada and the USA.

From a 3-metre cornbread cake sandwich to Faith Sotondoshe’s isinkwa sombila (steamed cornbread) and a tower of nachos topped with Jamón Ibérico and Claire Dinhut’s candied jalapeños, our menu celebrated corn in all its cultural forms. A piñata designed by Sanri Pienaar, paper fortune teller cutlery and handcrafted cornbread trays turned the evening into a multisensory moment – part meal, part message, part memory.

The evening was inspired by Italian composer and singer Adriano Celentano 70’s anglo-phonetics hit ‘Prisencolinensinainciusol’, a 1972 song with nonsensical, gibberish lyrics intended to sound like American English. Celentano used the song as a way to explore communication and language barriers, demonstrating how music can convey emotion even without real words

Produced by @novitapr‍

Art Direction by @rads.group‍

Culinary Design by @studio_h_

‍Studio H would like to thank:

Sanri Pienaar for the culinary art direction and styling

Mia Everson for making our cornbread tray vision come to life

Faith Sotondoshe for the isinkwa sombila

Strone Henry for the corn bread, syrups and salts

Claire Dinhut for the best candied jalapeño recipe

African Marmalade for the blue maize seeds

Inge Prins for the photos

THE CLIENT

Beanstalk for PUMA South Africa

THE BRIEF

Create a bold and immersive food experience for the relaunch of the iconic PUMA Mostro sneaker – a cult classic originally released in 1999 – hosted inside Cape Town’s Castle of Good Hope.

THE RESULT

A visceral menu and interactive food installations brought the surreal Mostro Lab to life – a space imagined as the inner workings of a living monster. The menu included molten synapse s’mores with black sesame shortbread, charcoal crackers dipped into neon pink hummus and golden split pea purée, glow-in-the-dark neurotropic caviar and charcoal bao filled with sticky soy lion’s mane and coffee-chilli beef. At the top of a winding staircase, a glow-in-the-dark jelly installation awaited in a hidden chamber.

THE TEAM

Concept, menu and experience design: Studio H

Chef: Strone Henry

Service staff: Hero Events

Photos: Jonx Pillemer

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