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Society
Photo: Maurice Etoile

Global challenge to make canteen food art

Published: 11 Apr 12 14:57 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120411-41875.html

A German student who found the food at his university canteen so inspiring he created art on his plate, has launched what he hopes will become a global challenge to make boring lunches more exciting.

The 29-year-old student at Saarbrücken University who uses the artistic name Maurice Etoile, has created a Facebook group "Mensa Battle" for people to submit their attempts at lunch art.

He said the idea was sparked by a friend of his studying in Berlin who had been boasting about how good the food was at his college canteen - or Mensa as they are called in Germany.

“But the canteen in Saarbrücken is better and I wanted to prove it to him with these figures,” he told weekly magazine Der Spiegel’s website.

Click here for Mensa Battle photos

“I laid two lemon slices on a schnitzel and it looked like a face. I sent him a picture. He replied with photos from his canteen. At one point he must have realised that his canteen could not compete with ours and gave up.”

But the idea spread like watery gravy and soon students from across the country were sending in their creations, from Sponge Bob made of rice to a chicken-leg dinosaur.

The Local/hc

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

15:49 April 13, 2012 by Sayer
To heck with art. Let's get some T A S T E going! Another reason to always pack a bottle of extra strength "Rain of Death" sauce before heading to the bland cafeteria for lunch. How much spaetzle can one nation eat?
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