Cara Wilson

My creative practice is rooted in food, but extends into writing, photography, storytelling and experience-making. I see food as one of the most universally accessible creative mediums (everyone’s got to eat!): one that is immediate and sensory, but also capable of carrying memory, history, culture and emotion. It is an ever-evolving and increasingly relevant medium, and I’m interested in the space it occupies between art, everyday life and human connection.

I work across food writing, recipe development, photography, digital content and creative food projects. I’m interested in why certain foods become nostalgic, how recipes travel and change, what food can tell us about a place or a person, and why some tastes can transport us instantly to another time. Food is, to me, a kind of melting pot of life: culture, memory, pleasure, history, creativity and the everyday all sitting on the same plate.

Alongside my digital work, I create food-led experiences, particularly supper clubs. These are an opportunity to turn a creative concept into something tangible and participatory. Rather than replicating the restaurant model of a permanent menu and familiar dining experience, I create one-off events that are interactive, immersive and shaped around an idea. Food might be accompanied by storytelling, sound, visual elements, unusual settings or collaborations with other creatives, so that the meal becomes part of a wider experience, one that my guests genuinely remember.

I see enormous potential in working with the island’s producers, landscape, history and creative community, and in creating one-off, site-responsive food experiences that could not happen in quite the same way anywhere else. I’m interested in creating work that responds to that sense of place rather than simply importing a concept into it. I am always looking for makers, businesses and creative collaborators to come up with new concepts.

Ultimately, I’m interested in taking something as familiar as food, finding the ideas and stories within it, and creating ways for people to experience them rather than simply consume them.