L'Idiot Restaurant

Taipei, Taiwan

Haute French Cuisine is not heralded at L’Idiot Restaurant. Like a humble peasant of hearty constitution, L’Idiot is in touch with the origins of food its food. L’Idiot offers patrons the enjoyment of a simple and memorable meal, be it hunted, farmed, or fished. “A carrot is a carrot,” says client/restaurateur Fudy Chen. “I asked BAM to design a restaurant which compliments this philosophy.”

The design for the L’Idiot Restaurant Interior consists of two large sculptural objects. These objects, clearly the product of a digital design process, take a new and unique position among today’s architectural installations inspired by the concept for the cuisine. High French Cuisine has become a fashion for food just as smooth digitally driven forms have for architecture. Although entrancing and beautiful, these smooth forms almost remove themselves from the low realms of simple human emotion and basic mental connection. They are elevated to a realm which only few masters can execute on an enjoyable level. Their range of expression is vast, but also esoteric.

The design of L’Idiot Restaurant is an attempt to create the architectural equivalent of desireable peasant-food The directness with which the sculptural objects seem to represent and evoke parts of food runs the risk of actually becoming ugly. However, there is a lack of pretension; nothing is covered up. These objects, like the food, are laid bare to be enjoyed for exactly what they are.
The 3 meter tall objects define soft and amorphous spaces inside the restaurant. The first, a polychrome, fish-like object swims through the front window, displaying the menu and welcoming diners into the restaurant. Upon entering, fluid marble steps cascade into the dining space, trailing into liquid curves to embrace the second object. There the bar, hand-tiled in aqueous mosaics, sits in the dreamlike state of a frozen wave. Onwards a gigantic horn emerges, sheltering a cave seating area bathed in firelight, reminiscent of the origins of cooking. In the flicker of the fire a cave banquette draped in rabbit fur beckons napping. Finally one finds the fireplace, an exquisitely shaped two-sided affair, showcasing a ruby and gold mouth shellacked like a hard candy confection.

Like a spatial Rorschach, the materiality and form of the objects create unexpected and personal associations in people’s minds. People “see things” in the forms. This sense of connection and intrigue allows them to understand the space in their own way. Thus, every experience is a new and individual one, and when interpretations and feelings are shared a democracy of ideas is created.

During construction one of the construction workers on the project was convinced that the fireplace-bar object was a whale. He was furious at the design for having a wood floor, and insisted that a grave error had been made because we had not provided the whale with an ocean in which to swim. While interpretations range from “something out of a dream”, to pre-historic creatures, to sexual intercourse, the fact that people are engaged and interacting in a mentally prolific manor demonstrates the power of using digital design to make strong and direct associations.

Excellent peasant food is served seven days a week in Taipei’s financial district at L’Idiot Restaurant.

Project Facts Client: Fudy Chen