From some creatives, hunger (often synonymous with hanger) is a precursor to mental blocks. For others, like Paris-based art directors Thomas Weil and Quentin Weisbuch, an empty stomach is fuel for fantastical thought. It was, in fact, the duo's desire for an edible excitement that sparked their weekly lunchtime game: conceptualise, cook, style and shoot a burger in an hour-and-a-half.
From those early lo-fi lunch shots (more foodie than funny), the project known as Fat & Furious Burger gained slickness and quirkiness in equal measures. Tapping into the absurdist art space with nonsensical imagery (why is that burger melting!?) and consistently crazy captions (the D’amour burger, pictured above, was posted with the poetic offering: “Gently coated tender words land on my body but never on my burger”), the blog swiftly became a recipe for success and now touts t-shirts, totes and prints. There's even a Fat & Furious Burger cookbook, available in French here.
With summer approaching (and our burger craving increasing), we chat to Thomas and Quentin about making edible art, flirting with food porn and (controversy alert) whether pineapple belongs on a burger.
You’ve said your blog was born from the dullness of lunchtime offerings. What made you experiment with burgers, rather than sandwiches or salads? It was the beginning of winter and we were starving! We wanted to cook a meal that would stick to our stomach, and the burger stood out as the perfect solution.
Ocean Burger. Au saumon, mon préféré! #Philly #Publicis #DrugstoreBurgerHouse Source: Fat & Furious Burger
At the beginning we just wanted to shoot big fat greasy burgers. What started as a classic food porn project gradually turned into something else when we decided to surround the burger with crazy and surrealistic setups. Now we want our images to look mouth-watering but in a crazy way, definitely not the kind of images you usually see on food commercials.
Your images and captions are laced with tongue in cheek (or in the case of the Sunburnger, pictured below, literal cheek) humour. Are you drawn to absurdity in art? Absolutely! Absurdity is part of this project since the very beginning. We want our burger pictures to be more and more surprising each week. We like to play with words too. The captions have to be as funny as the pictures – that’s why we often pick our ingredients based on puns.
Do you ever argue over artistic decisions? That's part of our duo dynamics; we have so many discussions about every artistic decisions. It's a game of compromise between us. When, by chance, we agree from the beginning on a direction, we celebrate with champagne!
Sunburnger. Raie dorée enduite de crème solerdammer. Peaumate cerise. Monaïl. Papricul. Transpiment. Ciboule. #vacancesjoublietout #prepushine #fatandfurioussummer Source: Fat & Furious Burger
In the early days of Fat & Furious, you cooked, styled and photographed each burger in a very short lunch break. Looking at the attention to detail and production value of more recent shots, surely that is no longer the case?! We must admit this is no longer the case. We usually spend a couple of hours conceptualising and collecting all the accessories. Then it’s about half a day to cook, shoot and start Photoshopping.
You released a cookbook last year featuring 60 burger recipes. Given your backgrounds are in art direction and design, rather than cooking, I’ve can’t help but ask: do they taste as good as they look? (Laughs) It depends. Some taste great and some are more… unusual! That’s why we made a burger classification at the end of the book to inform the reader of the risks involved with each recipe. It starts from “Recipes for sensitive palates” to “Recipes for kamikaze livers”.
It Girl Burger. Homargiela cuit au Kenzorigan et au Jean-Paul Laurier. Givenshiso. Hermèsclun. Pecorina Ricci. Aïlaïa. Issey Shitake. Sauce Armanicaine: Lanvin blanc, Loubouthym, Gallioignon, Yamamotomate, Oursaint-Laurent, Cannel N°5. Wintour de poivre. #fashionweek Source: Fat & Furious Burger
I couldn’t see an Aussie burger in your catalogue… How would you represent the land Down Under? Probably a wallaby burger jumping around.
This might feel like choosing a favourite child, but is there a burger you’re particularly proud of? We really like the image we made for the Fat & Furious Burger cookbook cover: the cheesy “heat wave” canicule burger (pictured below) melting like an ice-cream under the sun, was really fun to create. We even asked Quentin’s nephew to be the hand model so the burger looks bigger!
In one sentence, what makes the ultimate burger? (Laughs) The name.
Canicule burger. Steak de bœuf. Cornichons. Salade verte. Classic yellow mustard. Ketchup. Sésame. Oignons frits. Pappy cheddar abandonné tout l'été. Source: Fat & Furious Burger
What food-related projects do you have in the pipeline? We’re currently working on pictures for an Asian fusion food restaurant in Paris. We’re also collaborating with T-shirt brand Paria Studio to create a photography project where we transform the tee in the same way we transformed the burger.
There’s one ingredient that divides Australian diners, and I wanted to get your opinion: does beetroot belong on a burger? We believe everything belongs on a burger as long as it can fit into its bun!
Fringe Foodies Editor Siobhan Hegarty
Source: Fat & Furious Burger
In our monthly blog, Fringe Foodies, we interview creatives, artists, designers, writers and poets about their affinity with all things edible. From the printed page to sculptures and soundwaves, we discover the myriad ways food can be created, celebrated and consumed.
