In this conversation, Green Grammar explores the sensory and conceptual world behind Food Fetish — a practice that moves fluidly between food, fashion, nightlife, and spatial experience. Tracing the connections between memory, identity, and collective immersion, the interview reflects on how food can function not simply as nourishment, but as a language capable of carrying emotion, culture, and human connection.
Moving between intimate personal memories and broader reflections on systems of consumption, the conversation touches on the artist’s background in fashion art direction, their relationship with rave culture, and the evolving role of food within contemporary creative practice. Through discussions of scent, material transformation, narrative, and participation, this interview offers a glimpse into an approach that treats food as both medium and environment — one that invites audiences not only to observe, but to enter, sense, and become part of the work itself.
Moving between intimate personal memories and broader reflections on systems of consumption, the conversation touches on the artist’s background in fashion art direction, their relationship with rave culture, and the evolving role of food within contemporary creative practice. Through discussions of scent, material transformation, narrative, and participation, this interview offers a glimpse into an approach that treats food as both medium and environment — one that invites audiences not only to observe, but to enter, sense, and become part of the work itself.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lancy Liu is a Taiwanese sensory designer and the founder of Food Fetish, an immersive creative practice operating between food, installation, and experiential design. Based in London, her work explores the relationship between sensory perception, emotional response, and human interaction through edible installations, performative dining experiences, and multi-sensory environments.
Through sculptural presentation, spatial storytelling, scent, sound, and texture, Liu creates immersive experiences that blur the boundaries between ritual, vulnerability, and sensory awareness. Using food as both material and narrative medium, her practice investigates themes of desire, collective participation, and sensory memory, while challenging conventional perspectives on food and human connection.
Lancy Liu is a Taiwanese sensory designer and the founder of Food Fetish, an immersive creative practice operating between food, installation, and experiential design. Based in London, her work explores the relationship between sensory perception, emotional response, and human interaction through edible installations, performative dining experiences, and multi-sensory environments.
Through sculptural presentation, spatial storytelling, scent, sound, and texture, Liu creates immersive experiences that blur the boundaries between ritual, vulnerability, and sensory awareness. Using food as both material and narrative medium, her practice investigates themes of desire, collective participation, and sensory memory, while challenging conventional perspectives on food and human connection.
How did you first develop an interest in food as a creative medium?
I studied in Fashion Art Direction in university and lived in London for four years. After leaving home, I gradually discovered that food meant more to me than just daily sustenance — it carries a strong sense of identity and emotional connection.
Sometimes a very simple flavor can transport you back to a memory, a place, or even a culture that belongs to you.
So I began to realize that food is actually a very powerful creative medium.
How does your fashion background influence your current work? Do traces of "fashion thinking" still remain in what you create?
Fashion's influence on me has never really left ,it just exists in a different form now.
When I create, I still think in a very "styling" or "art direction" oriented way: the relationships between elements, contrasts in texture, the layering of depth — all of this feels very much like composing a look or building an image. Even when I'm working with food, I treat it as a "material" within a visual and spatial system, rather than simply as an ingredient.
Another important carry-over is "narrative." In fashion, we're used to starting from a concept and building an entire world around it. I work the same way now — except that world is no longer purely visual. It also includes taste, scent, sound, and space.
So for me, although the medium has changed, the way of thinking has continued — it's just become more three-dimensional and more sensory.
I studied in Fashion Art Direction in university and lived in London for four years. After leaving home, I gradually discovered that food meant more to me than just daily sustenance — it carries a strong sense of identity and emotional connection.
Sometimes a very simple flavor can transport you back to a memory, a place, or even a culture that belongs to you.
So I began to realize that food is actually a very powerful creative medium.
How does your fashion background influence your current work? Do traces of "fashion thinking" still remain in what you create?
Fashion's influence on me has never really left ,it just exists in a different form now.
When I create, I still think in a very "styling" or "art direction" oriented way: the relationships between elements, contrasts in texture, the layering of depth — all of this feels very much like composing a look or building an image. Even when I'm working with food, I treat it as a "material" within a visual and spatial system, rather than simply as an ingredient.
Another important carry-over is "narrative." In fashion, we're used to starting from a concept and building an entire world around it. I work the same way now — except that world is no longer purely visual. It also includes taste, scent, sound, and space.
So for me, although the medium has changed, the way of thinking has continued — it's just become more three-dimensional and more sensory.
Lancy Liu ’s home prepartion for food event
We know you love raves and parties, and you're often spotted at various events in London. You now collaborate with these spaces regularly. Why are you drawn to that scene and culture, and how has it become part of your creative practice?
I think a big part of why I'm drawn to parties and raves is that sense of "collective immersion." I love going to different raves. On the dance floor, the lights are dim, the music is powerful, and everyone is sunk into their own rhythm — yet at the same time, connected to the energy of the entire space. That feeling is hard to put into words. There's no clear boundary; everyone is an individual, yet simultaneously part of a whole.
In that kind of environment, everything is in flux — bodies, sound, emotion, even the connections between people. I later realized that this state is actually very close to what I want to create: not something people stand outside and observe, but something they enter, participate in, and even become part of the experience itself.
And for me, nightlife culture and food actually share a lot in common — the formation of community, a kind of shared ideology, and identity. These ideas have gradually found their way into my creative work.
Lancy’s food performance for club/rave
Your two exhibitions with Green Grammar both featured very compelling concepts. Can you tell us the stories behind them?
The two exhibitions with Green Grammar actually started from very different places.
For the Green Grammar exhibition, I began from a more intuitive and emotional idea. I've always been fascinated by things that haven't yet been named — scents, flavors, vague sensations. So I started wondering: if plants had their own language, what would it look like?
In that show, I was more like a "poet." I used food art to create a kind of script belonging to plants — the arrangements of food resembled a musical score, with different elements flowing, pausing, and repeating through the space. I made two bodies of work: one building the "structure of a language," and the other exploring the state before language has yet formed. For me, this exhibition was like writing poetry through food — inviting the audience to feel it through their bodies rather than understand it through reason.
Meal Deal, on the other hand, was a completely different direction of thinking.
I noticed that during my time in London, I frequently encountered this kind of eating that appeared to offer many choices but was actually highly standardized. The "meal deal" format seems to provide endless combinations, but at its core, it's a pre-designed structure.
So I chose corn as the central element, because it's such a defining fixture within industrial agriculture. It can appear in countless forms, yet it all originates from the same system.
This work is more about discussing the "illusion of choice." We believe we're making choices, but in reality we're operating within a highly regulated structure. For me, this piece was less about expressing an emotion and more about posing a question to the audience: within a system like this, how much genuine freedom do we actually have? In a sense, we think we're choosing — but the real choices available to us may be far fewer than we imagine.
The two exhibitions with Green Grammar actually started from very different places.
For the Green Grammar exhibition, I began from a more intuitive and emotional idea. I've always been fascinated by things that haven't yet been named — scents, flavors, vague sensations. So I started wondering: if plants had their own language, what would it look like?
In that show, I was more like a "poet." I used food art to create a kind of script belonging to plants — the arrangements of food resembled a musical score, with different elements flowing, pausing, and repeating through the space. I made two bodies of work: one building the "structure of a language," and the other exploring the state before language has yet formed. For me, this exhibition was like writing poetry through food — inviting the audience to feel it through their bodies rather than understand it through reason.
Meal Deal, on the other hand, was a completely different direction of thinking.
I noticed that during my time in London, I frequently encountered this kind of eating that appeared to offer many choices but was actually highly standardized. The "meal deal" format seems to provide endless combinations, but at its core, it's a pre-designed structure.
So I chose corn as the central element, because it's such a defining fixture within industrial agriculture. It can appear in countless forms, yet it all originates from the same system.
This work is more about discussing the "illusion of choice." We believe we're making choices, but in reality we're operating within a highly regulated structure. For me, this piece was less about expressing an emotion and more about posing a question to the audience: within a system like this, how much genuine freedom do we actually have? In a sense, we think we're choosing — but the real choices available to us may be far fewer than we imagine.
The Green Grammar Exhibition Food Design by Lancy Liu
The Green Grammar Exhibition , 2025
Food Design by Lancy
The Green Grammar Exhibition , 2025
Food Design by Lancy
What is your favorite food?
I've come to realize that I don't really have a "favorite food." For me, food is more like a feeling in the moment rather than a fixed preference. I find myself drawn to things based on my mood, environment, even a particular scent.
It's probably because the work I do revolves around sensory experience and sensation — so I rarely define food in terms of "favorite." What stays with me instead is the taste of a particular instant, a particular state of being. But if I really had to say something, I'd still be drawn to simple, familiar flavors like home-cooked food, or tastes that carry an emotional connection for me.
Are there any ingredients or tools that hold special meaning for you?
I actually really love shallots. For me, their flavor has so many layers — from the sharp pungency of raw shallots to the warm, fragrant aroma that develops slowly when they're fried in oil. I've always been fascinated by that process of transformation.
They also carry a strong emotional connection for me, because shallots are incredibly common in Taiwanese cuisine. Sometimes when that aroma emerges, it's not just the smell itself — it brings out a very specific memory, even a feeling of home or of culture.
I've come to realize that I don't really have a "favorite food." For me, food is more like a feeling in the moment rather than a fixed preference. I find myself drawn to things based on my mood, environment, even a particular scent.
It's probably because the work I do revolves around sensory experience and sensation — so I rarely define food in terms of "favorite." What stays with me instead is the taste of a particular instant, a particular state of being. But if I really had to say something, I'd still be drawn to simple, familiar flavors like home-cooked food, or tastes that carry an emotional connection for me.
Are there any ingredients or tools that hold special meaning for you?
I actually really love shallots. For me, their flavor has so many layers — from the sharp pungency of raw shallots to the warm, fragrant aroma that develops slowly when they're fried in oil. I've always been fascinated by that process of transformation.
They also carry a strong emotional connection for me, because shallots are incredibly common in Taiwanese cuisine. Sometimes when that aroma emerges, it's not just the smell itself — it brings out a very specific memory, even a feeling of home or of culture.
Lancy Li ’s Kitchen
Recommend your favorite restaurant in London and Taiwan.
London — Rouges. I've loved it for years. The food and atmosphere are both wonderful.
Taiwan — 梅子餐廳 (Plum Restaurant). Truly authentic Taiwanese cuisine.
London — Rouges. I've loved it for years. The food and atmosphere are both wonderful.
Taiwan — 梅子餐廳 (Plum Restaurant). Truly authentic Taiwanese cuisine.
Lancy Liu sites up her food design for concept store
Can you introduce your label/project and its core concept? What kind of experience or feeling do you hope to convey through it?
Food Fetish is a sensory design studio centered on food, dedicated to building narrative, emotion, and human connection through food as a medium. It's not just about taste itself — food is used as a vehicle to link space, scent, sound, and bodily experience, creating a holistic sensory environment.
Aesthetically, Food Fetish leans toward experimental and avant-garde expression. We're particularly interested in unusual combinations, the transformation between materials, and the tension between the familiar and the strange — using these to challenge people's existing assumptions about food.
Food Fetish also emphasizes cross-disciplinary collaboration, continuously working alongside creators from fashion, art, music, and other backgrounds, allowing different media to enter into dialogue and collectively build a complete narrative system.
For us, each project is more like an ever-evolving experiential system — establishing relationships between form, flavor, and emotion — rather than a single finished work. Through this approach, we hope to transform "eating" from an everyday act into an experience that is participatory, perceptual, and emotionally resonant.
Are you currently preparing any new projects? How will they differ from your previous work, or what direction are you heading in?
Going forward, I'll be moving toward more comprehensive sensory curation. Not just food itself, but integrating sound, scent, space, and even installation and interactivity together, so that the entire experience becomes more complete. I'll be paying closer attention to how the audience enters the experience — their movement through the space, their choices, even the ways they participate — all of this will become part of the work.
At the same time, I'll continue developing my own platform, treating it as a space for ongoing experimentation and conversation, where creators from different fields can come together and take part.
At the same time, I'll continue developing my own platform, treating it as a space for ongoing experimentation and conversation, where creators from different fields can come together and take part.
I’m looking to make more of what I’ve been making. More sculptures based on paintings and more paintings in relation to sculptures.
Lancy Liu‘s food design brand “ Food Fetish”
We look forward to connecting with artists, writers, organisations and to shaping Green Grammar together.
General request: thegreengrammar@gmail.com