Tasting Personalities: A Participatory Installation
Tasting Personalities invited guests to explore aspects of their own identity through edible expression. Using texture, colour, and taste as metaphors for traits, the installation guided participants to build their own salads—each bowl becoming a mirror of the self. The activity began with a list of personality traits shared through a welcome card. Without revealing what was to come, participants were asked to choose the traits that best reflected who they were.
Each ingredient in the installation corresponded to a trait—like papaya representing femininity. Once guests identified their traits, they were invited to compose their salads using ingredients associated with the words they had selected. This allowed participants to quite literally “taste themselves,” resulting in a highly personal and sensory self-portrait. Some used larger portions of an ingredient to represent stronger traits; others discussed how they saw themselves versus how others might. The act of plating and sharing became a playful yet introspective way to engage with personal identity, and with each other.
The Premise
The experience begins with a card with 16 personality traits. Guests are asked to choose personality traits that resonate with them, balanced, fiery, grounded, mysterious. What they don’t know: each trait is mapped to an ingredient. Cucumber stands in for balance. Papaya for femininity. Shelled Pistachio for mystery.
Without revealing the logic, participants are invited to build their own salads using ingredients tied to their chosen words. The proportions are intuitive: more of what feels central, less of what feels distant. What emerges is a personalised, edible portrait, a mix of flavours, textures, and metaphors that reflect a self in motion.
Eating Identity
As people plate, they begin to ask questions:
“Why so much lemon?”
“You really think you’re that fiery?”
“That’s such a soft salad, are you saying you’re quiet?
Each salad tells a story. Texture becomes tone, flavour becomes feeling. Each bowl becomes a site for dialogue, between self-perception and how others see us.
Participants wandered, mixed, tasted, and connected, not just with the food, but also with each other. By translating abstract traits into edible metaphors, Tasting Personality opens up a playful, low-pressure way to explore the self. It’s about using the everyday, lemon, pistachio, cucumber to say things that bios or conversations can’t.
The Ingredient Library
Adventurous
→ Burnt garlic, crispy bottle gourd rind, fried wood ear mushroom, dried ginger amla
Ambitious
→ Air-fried karela chips, pointed gourd, fennel, purple cabbage
Balanced
→ Diced cucumber, zucchini strips, bottle gourd zoodles
Consistent
→ Yogurt, sautéed paneer, fried paneer, paneer crumble, quinoa, diced/sliced tomatoes
Compassionate
→ Cherry tomatoes, fresh strawberry, salted peas, sliced apple
Caring
→ Boiled rajma, grilled pumpkin, cashew nuts, sautéed green banana
Energetic
→ Onion, diced orange, peppermint, candied amla
Honest
→ Grated beetroot, beetroot strips, diced carrots, carrot strips, radish greens, green beans
Lazy
→ Potato, mushroom, cauliflower
Mysterious
→ Pistachio, chapati mango, diced water chestnuts, Asian olives
Organised
→ Corn, pomegranate, grapes, baby corn
Sensitive
→ Crushed wasabi peas, jalapeños, lemon zest, sautéed brinjal, raw amla
Sharp
→ Chilli, celery, ginger, wasabi-coated peas
Spiritual
→ Shredded coconut, moong lentils, tulsi/basil, triphala
Whimsical
→ Cranberries, lettuce, cabbage, black rice
