At SAF 2025, the culinary arts curator Chef Thomas Zacharias and The Locavore, in collaboration with Immerse and Quasar Thakore Padamsee will present ‘What Does Loss Taste Like?’, an immersive speculative journey into the future of food and culture
Food is memory, culture and loss. Chef Thomas Zacharias will focus on this idea through an immersive multi-sensory experience at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2025, where participants can taste a future shaped by climate change and technology. His 30-minute journey, ‘What Does Loss Taste Like’, imagines India in 2100, a world where synthetic flavours replace traditional foods and the memory of real taste becomes a form of resistance.
The concept has been in development for over 10 months, inspired by Zacharias’s decade-long travels across India. “The strongest feeling I was left with was a sense of loss, loss of biodiversity, traditions, farmer livelihoods and culinary diversity. I wanted to create an experience that allows others to feel that sense of loss,” he says. The curation draws on extensive research into agricultural trends, climate patterns and ingredients at risk of extinction. Zacharias compiled projections of how food systems might evolve over the next 75 years. “These are assumptions but they are grounded in current data and patterns. An immersive format was the best way to bring this vision to life,” he explains.
A team of specialists across lighting, sound, projection mapping, set design dramaturgy, writing and production collaborated to bring the experience to reality. Visitors will also get to taste some of the “future foods” imagined for this world. To highlight India’s culinary diversity, the team created a fictional setting called 0100010 Commune. “Conversations about climate and the future are often Western-centric. We wanted to root this in India. While many elements are tied to Goa, we have also included tastes from across the country,” Zacharias adds. He emphasises the emotional impact of the experience. “The goal is not just to present facts. We want people to feel this and be inspired to act,” he says.
Zacharias promises surprises that will leave visitors impressed. “There are few publicly accessible immersive experiences like this. Abroad, such installations are year-long and in dedicated spaces. Here, we are providing an international-standard experience and SAF deserves credit for making that possible,” he concludes.
(‘What Does Loss Taste Like?’ will be held from December 14 to 21 on the first floor of the Directorate of Accounts, Panaji. Timings vary each day and entry is free but prior booking is required.)
