Cultura e Scienza del Colore - Color Culture and Science


80 

Cultura e Scienza del Colore - Color Culture and Science | 06 | 2016 |    

Pompas  R.      

ISSN 2384-9568

Food, colour and art
While the presence of the five colours (red, green, yellow, white, black) and of the 
five tastes (bitter, sweet, salty, sour, spicy) in a meal is a sign of a balanced and 
healthy diet in Eastern cuisine, there is no equivalent tradition in the Western world. 
However, the general public and many artists too have recently focused more and 
more on the colours of food.
In 1997, French artist Sophie Calle was inspired by a text by writer Paul Auster for 
her work known as “Le régime chromatique” (“The Chromatic Diet”), consisting of 
six photographs of monochromatic meals she ate for six days. Each photo portrayed 
a monochromatic table setting with food of the same colour, along with the relevant 
menu caption: Monday orange, Tuesday red, Wednesday White, Thursday green, 
Friday yellow, and Saturday pink. The seventh photograph depicted all these 
colourful meals on a black background.

Two recent books categorise food by colour.

Renata Pompas 

La cucina dei colori (“The kitchen of 
colors”. Tecniche Nuove, Milano, 2011. 
“The kitchen of colors”) 

results from the cooperation of four 
authors: Daliah Giacoma Sottile for the 
texts, Nicola Michieletto for the recipes, 
Federica Bottoli for the photographs, 
and Arianna Marchetti for food styling. 
It includes accurate and sophisticate 
images that form a sort of visual 
hypertext. 
The idea to design a chromatic diet came 
when Daliah Giacoma Sottile studied the 
texts of French doctor Jean Valnet, who 
is considered the father of contemporary 
phythotherapy and aromatherapy, and 
the studies on colours by Wolfgang 
Goethe and Rudolf Steiner.
As she was interested in chromotherapy, 
Daliah Giacoma Sottile came to believe 
that food too should follow chromatic 
rules and designed eighty recipes with 
chef Nicola Michieletto in order to 
explore a variety of vegetable ingredients 
classified into five colours: black, white, 
yellow, green, and red. These are further 
divided into bright tones to be used from 
morning to lunchtime, versus dull tones 
to be used in the second half of the day. 
For instance, watermelons, strawberries, 
tomatoes and peppers are ‘bight red’, 
whereas beetroots, pomegranates, and 
beans are ‘dull red’.

REVIEW



 81

Cultura e Scienza del Colore - Color Culture and Science | 06 | 2016 |

Review. Food, colour and art 

ISSN 2384-9568

Coloribo. Colori da mangiare e Cibo 
Multisensoriale (“Coloribo. Colors to 
eat and Multisensory food”. Mario Adda 
Editore, Bari, 2012) 

is the work of artist Bice Perrini, who 
transformed the natural ingredients of 
Apulia, her homeland, into colourful 
sauces to be used to “paint” food with 
a brush in “multi-sensory food-painting” 
workshops. ‘Coloribo’ is a combination 
of the Italian words ‘colore’ (colour) and 
‘cibo’ (food). Originally it was the name 
of a performance by Bice Perrini at the 
Galleria Bluorg in Bari, it has now become 
a brand known for its tagline ‘Eating with 
eyes’, dealing with food production and 
sale, catering, food tasting, workshops, 
and art events. Bice Perrini wrote: ‘The 
inputs of colours, smells, tastes, and 
sounds are the gateways that allow the 
universe to come into us and to make 
us feel precious emotions’ and she 
invited us to ‘experience food as a work 
of art’. ‘Coloribo sauces’ are served 
with bushes and come in seven colours: 
yellow, green, red, orange, violet, white, 
and black. The book also suggests some 
flavours to be used on a specific day of 
the week: white and blue on Monday to start off, yellow on Tuesday to step up, 
orange on Wednesday to keep up, violet on Thursday to reflect and go on, green on 
Friday to be more confident and hopeful, red on Saturday to get ready for action, and 
pink on Sunday to relax.

This blend of food, colours and art shows Eastern and Western cultural influences.