Food that will serve up a serious debate

A dinner party with a difference will be serving up quirky dishes like “deconstructed caldo verde” (all the ingredients of soup served dried on a plate) and “the Lusophere Flip” (sous vide fish with sauces from former Portuguese colonies Macau, Goa, Brazil and Angola – which were once poor but are now thriving). The idea is to provoke debate about architecture and cities. “These Planetary Supper Club dinner parties are about getting people talking about the events of our time,” says artist and cook Zack Denfeld of the Center For Genomic Gastronomy, who devised the menus for the event, as part of Lisbon's forthcoming Architecture Triennale. “The fish dish for example is about imagining a more horizontal world where ideas, food and people flow equitably around the Lusophere.” Denfeld will also dish up Cobalt 60 BBQ Sauce (above) created with plants bred from mutations – which questions how we use and abuse intensive agriculture and bioscience in the kitchen.

Diners, along with top art world personalities from Portugal, will discuss how food, culture and science can help us to improve the cities and buildings of the future. Can eating really teach us about architecture? “There's a focus on questioning the boundaries of what constitutes architecture at the Triennale,” says curator Mariana Pestana. “The idea is to bring back politics to the dining table.”

Planetary Supper Club, Palacio Pombal, Lisbon, as part of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (trienaldelisboa.com),‎ 12 Sept to 15 Dec