SOUPER FIN AIM TO AROUSE MORE THAN JUST YOUR TASTE BUDS
Honey and wine trickled over Kim Basinger’s ravishingly naked body. Tiny morsels directed past her clenched-shut eyes and into her pouting mouth by a youthfully hunky Mickey Rourke. For anyone of a certain age, the conjunction of sex and food will always instantly bring to mind such scenes from the now über-naff 1985 movie 91/2 Weeks. Back in the day though, the film inspired us all to a bout of comestible experimentation in our lovemaking. Never can so many bed sheets have been stained beyond redemption, so many mattresses saturated to the point their very springs rusted away, as all the while the berries splattered, the chocolate dripped, and the cream oozed. All very befitting for such a decadent decade. Since then, the event of HIV/AIDS had seemed to make such indulgent sexual practices, or at least their artistic celebration, less acceptable. Now though, Philippe Di Méo’s erotic tableware collection, Souper Fin, confirms that sex and food are firmly back on the menu.
FRENCH LUXURY HOUSES TUCK IN TOO
A pantheon of legendary French luxury houses, from Baccarat and Goyard to Cristofle and Orfèvrerie d’Anjou, collaborated with Di Méo to help realise his vision. Included in this sensual assemblage are body-gilding brushes, ‘Forbidden Fruit’ dishes, phallic bottle stoppers and vodka cups, femme-formed chalices, herb-filled necklaces and more. For each utensil or receptacle, the designer also connived with a renowned food creative to devise a complementing dish. Ingredients for these aphrodisiacs are exquisite: the ‘Immaculate Crème Glacé’ comprises, among others, Belvedere vodka, asparagus, crème fraiche and caviar. Di Méo’s collection, the chefs and their conceptions came together for an exhibition at the L’Eclaireur, Paris, in July. Short instructional films by avant garde photographer Sabine Pigalle completed the arousing effect. Needless to say, Basinger and Rourke, now perhaps past their delectable best, were not invited to demonstrate.